The news today that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is resigning doesn't really help the cause too much since it appears L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is queued up to take his place. Villaraigosa is as big a high-cost rail advocate as LaHood--maybe more. While he is credited with overhauling L.A.'s transit system, those improvements are hard to discern.
On the local front, little ole B'game is being asked to contribute $5,000 to the Community Coalition on High Speed Rail lawsuit seeking to stop high-cost rail because it comply with the provisions of the original Prop. 1A that funds the California part of the immense cost. Here is a bit of CC-HSRs' request.
There is an excellent chance that the litigation filed by Kings County and the individual plaintiffs can stop this project. However, while this is a strong case on the merits, it is also a "David and Goliath" effort. Attorney Mike Brady is handling the case on a pro bono basis, but is facing the State of California and the Attorney General's office, with literally hundreds of attorneys and unlimited resources. Financial support is vitally needed for this case (especially since costs alone are estimated to be in the range of $50,000 or more). In addition, Mr. Brady wishes to retain attorney Stuart Flashman (well known to Burlingame, and who has won two cases against the High-Speed Rail Authority before the Judge who is hearing the Proposition 1A case).
The Council will consider it on Feb. 4th and I, for one, hope they approve the five grand. It's a small contribution to an important cause.
Slight correction: CC-HSR isn't a party to the lawsuit itself, they are just helping search out additional funding.
Posted by: Joe | January 31, 2013 at 09:26 AM
With the governor nipping at environmental protections under CEQA, a $5,000 investment in upholding the integrity of 1A, and the intent of voters that supported it, seems like a good idea to me. Unfortunately, most people in Burlingame think this issue is either dead, or a done deal--it is neither. So sad, as we sit on the brink of creating a beautiful and alluring downtown district that stands to suffer under any number of scenarios. For the next several years the project will be shrouded by Caltrain, making it potentially even more insidious for Burlingame and many other Peninsula cities.
Posted by: jennifer | January 31, 2013 at 02:05 PM
If the elders have any sense they will authorize $10,000 and really send a message.
Posted by: hillsider | February 01, 2013 at 12:40 AM
A SacBee article on forecasting the state's political future includes this little clip on high-cost rail:
however long it takes to complete California's high-speech rail – a.k.a. Brown's little engine that could. The problem isn't the need for "I think I can" optimism. It's what the rail project can't – give honest answers as to its cost, financing, ridership and land acquisition. It's a puzzle for a Brown biographer to piece together: why this governor, so firmly embedded in California political reality, is so enamored of a rail project with so many glaring flaws.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/01/5156984/forecasting-states-changing-political.html#storylink=cpy
Posted by: Joe | February 01, 2013 at 08:18 AM
If anyone is headed up north, it's worth checking out the raised tracks and wall configuration being built in the vicinity of San Mateo Avenue, in San Bruno--literally a wall splicing the city in two. Even the San Carlos type of iteration (splitting the difference, part up part down) still creates a fortification look - I think this would be a very undesirable outcome for Burlingame.
Posted by: jennifer | February 02, 2013 at 11:05 AM
I have just mailed my contribution to support this most important lawsuit and encourage you all to do the same. If every household opposed to HSR being built on the Caltrain right of way would send as little as $10, we could certainly match what is being asked from Council.
Remember, we are not joining a lawsuit to stop the HSR project, but are contributing costs to a lawsuit that seeks to uphold the provisions of Proposition 1A and the HSR that we voted for. The court is our last chance at seeking relief because the Legislature did not do its job when it voted to violate its own strictures last year.
Make your check to CCHSRA and write Prop 1A litigation on the memo line.
Send to:
CCHSRA
Box881
Hanford, Ca 93232
http://www.cchsra.org
Posted by: pat giorni | February 06, 2013 at 12:23 PM