OP\ED: California High-Speed Rail

The California High-Speed Rail plan was voted in favor of on Thursday by the State Assembly, and voted in favor of by the State Senate...and the bill is now on it’s way to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown, which he is expected to sign.

I do think that there should be some sort of High Speed Rail, but the way that everything is going, the more I think we should not build it...at least, not now...not in the current state of the global economy.

In the various Central Valley counties that the HSR will go through, there are going to be some things affected other than street closures. The relocation or removal of the below could be detrimental to the valley communities that they are in.

Fresno County:
>In Fresno, the Van Ness Arch*, located on Van Ness near Los Angeles (which has been there since 1917) will be torn down, or relocated, and will lose it’s historical status either way.

>In Fresno, a three mile stretch of Highway 99 from Clinton to Ashlan will be re-routed one hundred feet to the west, and will affect nearby businesses (like Dakota Park Storage, and others) and owned land, including homes. Dakota Park has only been in business for five years. AND how will trucking be affected by this? Highway 99 is a major trucking route, and the truckers will detour all the way to I-5. If they do, they will add on the cost to the goods that they transport.

>In a May 2, 2012 Fresno Bee article (Page A3) [http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/05/01/2820794/local-tea-party-to-host-high-speed.html], there was a map depicting other businesses that will be taken out by High Speed Rail. These include EZ Trip Truck Stop (formally Klien’s), Riverside Nursery, Astro Motel, Hacienda*, UPS hub (at McKinley & 99), a state Parole office, OK Produce, Fresno Rescue Mission (a business that helps the homeless), Alert-O-Lite, Dakota Park Storage, and others. AND, revealed by KGPE CBS 47, the Forestierre Underground Gardens* (threats of cave-ins due to nearby jack-hammering). The owner of the truck stop states that if he moved to another site, it would cost $15 million, which will be passed on to customers. The business employs 120 people. The HSR will even run right through Fresno’s historic Chinatown (including the Central Fish Company), uprooting businesses that have been in the families for generations.

(*= Landmark...local or state)

Kern County:
>In Bakersfield, a century-old high school will have to be relocated. [http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/22/local/la-me-bullet-train-20111023][http://www.bakersfield.com/news/business/economy/x706716786/Students-ask-high-speed-rail-officials-to-avoid-BHS]
>In Bakersfield, Bakersfield College is reporting that they will have to be relocated.

Kings County:
>Local officials do not want High Speed Rail to come through their county...PERIOD!!! The county official are taking the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) approach.

Madera County:
>The community of Chowchilla will be literally split in two.
>May 14: The City of Chowchilla is suing the CHSRA for questions about the Environmental Impact Report.
>May 14: The Madera-Merced Farm Bureau is suing the CHSRA for not addressing the effects on farm lands.

Numerous homes, businesses, and farmland (some in families for multiple generations) statewide will be plowed through\over. Owners of the homes, businesses, and land will NOT be fairly compensated. They will be forcibly removed from their land with imminent domain.

Tickets to ride the HSR one-way from Los Angeles to San Francisco are projected to cost approximately $250-300...as much as a ticket for a major airline flight. Any employment promised is only temporary until the system is built...then you will be pink-slipped.

The word “TARP” was mentioned at a press conference in Fresno a few months ago... “T.A.R.P.” is a TAX through the “Troubled Assets and Relief Program.” HSR will cost $68 billion of YOUR tax dollars to build (with the San Francisco to Los Angeles section costing half of that alone). Most Californians, even though they voted for the HSR in 2008, now regret their vote after learning of the high costs, and now are against the project, because they feel that they as taxpayers have been...RAILROADED!

It is not just California paying for this...much of the money is coming from the federal government. Both are severely in debt. The Sacramento Bee reported on April 18, 2012 that California will be $16 Billion in the hole next fiscal year. Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, and a few others have declared bankruptcy...and there have been closures of various California State Parks due to budget cuts.

Like other local governments, the City of Fresno, a city of over 500, 000 people, the fifth largest city in the state, only has had cuts to the police and fire departments (at one point, there was the consideration to shutter two fire stations). Due to these cuts, service has been affected. At a major four-alarm fire recently, the Fresno Fire Department had to request assistance from the county, and had to resort to not answering medical-aid calls. Most community centers are now run by non-profits...and some parks no longer have a regular maintenance schedule. Some community swimming pools have been dry for more than three years, commercial waste pick-up has been contracted out, and residential pick-up may follow suit. The city is no longer filling pot-holes, and graffiti abatement is spotty at best. 18 months ago, the city busses raised the fares to $1.25, and rumors of another fare increase are looming.

The United States debt clock passed $15 Trillion ($15,692,368,067,305.23 in US debt...that means that every man, woman and child in the United States currently owes almost $52, 000 for their share of the U.S. debt), and a budget has not been passed...again...for the fourth straight year.

There are plenty of things in the communities that HSR will affect that the monies for HSR can improve...the most being fixing our road systems (fixing street lighting that has been hit by copper thieves...filling pot-holes, fixing roads and bridges, and adding monies into municipal transit systems...such as buses. Fresno wants to implement a Bus Rapid Transit line, but does not have the funds to do so. Some monies from HSR can go for this, along with some funds from Measure C.