From the SF Chronicle

Here is an informative article from the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday December 4, 2011 about the advertising money spent to push the CA HSR. This is the article:

They have yet to lay a single track, but the California High-Speed Rail Authority has spent some $12.5 million on public relations in the past two years - with a number of politically connected consultants getting in on the ride.

In one six-month window:

-- Mike Villines, the former Republican assemblyman, billed a Central Valley rail contractor for $108,631.

-- Denise LaPointe, a former chief of staff to ex-San Francisco state senator and former High-Speed Rail Authority board member Quentin Kopp, billed for $53,444. That was just part of the $350,288 paid to her firm since October 2009.

-- Nicole Franklin, a former Oakland city planning commissioner, got $45,138 - including a portion of LaPointe's work.

-- Mike Lynch, the former chief of staff to onetime Assemblyman Gary Condit, billed for $31,748.

-- Plus former Kern County Supervisor Gene Tackett ($70,652), and Sara Katz, a staffer to former Gov. Pete Wilson and onetime San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, whose monthly billings for the first half of the year totaled $43,505.

"Frankly I can't see one benefit of that $12.5 million in spending," said state Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo.

"To me this is indicative of the operations of the High-Speed Rail Authority to this point, which from what we've seen is pretty much a failure."

Statewide, some 20 PR outfits have worked on the project since 2007 as part of nine regional engineering contracts.

In 2009, however, rail authority directors - worried that they needed to sell the project statewide - awarded a five-year contract worth $9 million to Ogilvy Public Relations, a major national firm.

After paying Ogilvy about $3 million, the authority was not happy with its performance and the two sides agreed to a parting of the ways.

In the meantime, as shrinking federal dollars put the future of the train line in doubt, the authority has still budgeted $2.5 million for PR this fiscal year.

Rail authority officials say the spending on public outreach has been reasonable given the size and complexity of the project.

Addressing Sprawl and Blight

Our car culture makes a direct connection of style changes to the automobile and how fashions impact tract house designs.

Blight is a corollary of automobile centric growth. Because our car culture is based on the automobile; and fashion is a conscious marketing tool in the sales of automobile design, so follow decade period cycles to style trends of tract houses. Tract housing developments and strip malls are the direct correlation to urban sprawl expansion. Tract houses are directly affected by contemporary design criteria. As clothing fashion styles change from season to season, the tract house styles make major shifts every decade. Inasmuch as fashions quickly go out of date, each tract style becomes out of vogue after a decade and a new tract house area becomes popular.

What is blight and how it happens. Blight is the result of cyclic design changes within the car culture. Tract houses are designed by sprawl developers as fashion statements to maintain the status-quo of cyclic trends. The tendency of society’s car culture mentality follows patterns based on that era’s marketing popularity for sprawl development and abandons unfashionable areas. As the new areas are built-out over a decade, older areas are unable to compete with the newly created trend. These older areas hold a lower real estate value and are targeted as unwanted investment properties with lost pride of ownership and become poorly maintained rental properties. As they fall victim to several decades, the mass produced quality of these low value houses become target to first time home buyers and higher foreclosure rates. Once these forgotten areas gather low value rental status, many properties fall into foreclosure and become abandoned. When abandoned properties are boarded up and the chain linked fences become the norm, blight dominates the area.

Visual hostility is a term coined by Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Ph.D., Chair, UCLA Dept. of Urban Planning, relating to her studies on the effects of the metro system in LA.

Abandoned neighborhoods are filled with visual hostility. This hostility is seen as empty lots, weeds, dead landscaping, trash, boarded windows, busted and blocked sidewalks, chain link fences, barbed wire, coiled razor wire, busted windows and graffiti. Concrete walls appear as prisons to those burdened and confined to living in these areas. Blight has a devastating emotional and mental attitude effect to children forced to grow up in these areas, as well as the adults. The behavior patterns mirror one’s surrounding environment. The residents of these areas are consequently affected with a mental attitude that has a visual onslaught of prison, poverty and war.

The HSRA Business Plan

California's revised high speed rail authority's business plan has been out for a few days. One of the main objections from the opposition was that the project is going to cost more than California can afford in its budget. Money seems like an irrelevant issue to the HSRA. The HSRA boasts that these new figures are now accurate; so anyone against the project has no validation. How is it that by doubling their estimated costs it suddenly is suppose to solve the lack of funds to build it?

One of the best explanations of the new HSRA budget is described in a Sacramento Bee article from November 5th.

Bump in the track

The HSR has a flaw in its tracks. As detailed in the October 8th Fresno Bee article, one of Fresno's assistant staffers compiled a 37 page powerpoint to explain some problems with CA's HSR proposed line through Fresno to the City Council. Two of the Councilmen spilled their glasses of tasty HSRA Kool-Aid.

The fundamental questions are ignored even in this Bee article. The concept of illegitimacy to CA's HSR is due to its antiquated 100 year old technology. Society has grown in California over the past 100 years and a modern transportation system is the answer. Would it be reasonable to build one statewide telegraph line similar to what was provided in the late 1800s to bear all the needs of California's communication needs? Then why is that 1890's style electrified heavy rail steel wheel on rail train being suggested as a Statewide transportation system?

CA High Speed Rail EIR

Well, the California High Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) environmental impact report (EIR) has been released. According to the original intent of the 1970’s California Legislative law which requires an EIR for every public project, an EIR is suppose to be no longer than 300 pages; in a effort to allow such document to be easily understandable. The new HSRA EIR is 11,000 pages long.

Without having read the EIR, this author; an expert in the New Technology Transit industry, would jump to the presumption that the words: “common sense” is a phrase never seen in the 11,000 page document. Other missing words to describe the document will be words such as: “viable”, “economical” or “affordable”.

government waste

This is a statement to address the recent COG (Fresno County Council of Governments; which handles all of Fresno County’s transportation funding) effort in its RFP (Request for Proposal) to study a sustainable transportation plan. The qualifications to produce such a study excluded the best opportunity to provide COG with a viable plan by only accepting requests from previous or traditional sources.

There is already a 250 page business plan by Central Transit & Development Corp (CTDC) to provide Central California with a viable transportation alternative from the automobile. For the City of Fresno and COG to continue their conscious effort to ignore CTDC’s project displays an irresponsible disservice to the residents of Central California.

Legislators in the State of California have initiated environmental mandates to each MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization: COG is the regional MPO) that creates a sustainable communities strategy (SCS) within the MPO’s regional transportation plan (RTP).

The CTDC plan was established to adapt the existing automobile centric urban land-use design to an economically viable automobile alternative. The CTDC business plan utilizes a New Technology Transit system that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. For the City of Fresno and COG to continually ignore the CTDC plan that includes a viably sustainable transportation and urban growth plan that provides economic stability and social equity shows a level of governmental ineptness that is beyond comprehension. COG’s response to the CTDC plan is to solicit one of the established consultant groups and give them $250,000 to provide COG with a study that is supposed to give them an idea of how to achieve a SCS utilizing the same techniques that the consultants have used to get us to where we are.

CTDC has taken a position of responsible development with its approach to provide social equity, environmental justice, and economic stability. This combination has staggered the bureaucratic procedure into unprecedented shock. It is unheard of for a private entity to include social equity into a development that benefits the community. There is no procedure for a private entity to provide a contemporary environmental solution that includes building a sustainable transportation system. It is unprecedented for a development project to establish a viable local economic generator capable of stimulating the regional economy through the nature of its project. The CTDC project is such a startling concept to the bureaucratic process they are dumbfound into a reaction of disbelief because it is outside of their procedure.

an analysis of bureaucratic policy

Generally people don't like change. They might entertain the word change (as witnessed by the past presidential election) but, everything virtually remains the same. Generally, people don't like to change anything.

Traditionally, over the past 80 years, all transportation infrastructure has been government orchestrated. The result of government involvement is like an intrusion to implement bloated dysfunction. An example is represented by the horrible condition of California roads. The economy is a disaster due to government intrusion. In addition to high taxes are additional specialized fees that are forced on businesses strictly for the purpose of collecting fees to support a regulatory body whose only function is to collect a fee. Those government offices are filled with government employees who know nothing about the businesses they regulate. The same is true with urban planning but, some of these policies are implemented by politics. Much of transportation has little to do with mobility but, is generally dictated by political favor.

mismanaged

The recent reports which suggest the HSRA be put under the direction of Caltrans provides another chance to play follow the money. Who gains with the shift in transferring responsibility from one government agency to another? The answer: the engineering consultants and no one else. What group has been at the forefront in receiving all of the money allocated so far in the HSR project? The answer: the engineering consultant companies. One might draw the conclusion that the engaged engineering consultant companies are politically connected.

To analytically look at what is going on with CA's HSR, take a look at what is taking place. There are law suits in play and other looming lawsuits which threaten timing of the current EIR procedure. The project has to be shovel ready in 2012 to receive designated federal dollars. The constant shift of alleged track alignments has diverted the release of an EIR. Any law suits could possibly further delay EIR entitlements with the fear of the State loosing HSR federal dollars.

What would an agency transfer of the proposed HSR project mean? Most likely it would mean that the engineering consultants receive new contracts from a different agency and continue receiving their income to continue their studies. It means politics as usual and maintains the status-quo.

other editorials

All is not rosy for the CA HSR marketing push. The LA Times doesn't appear to like the direction of the CA HSRA. The May 16th LA Times editorial doesn't give California's HSR much praise; now for the LA Times Editorial board to embrace private sector funding to build New Technology Transit.

May 2011 Legislative Analyst’s Office report

The Wednesday (May 11,2011) Sacramento Bee article by Dan Walters points out, the Legislature’s budget analyst finds more flaws in the faltered CA HSRA plan on Tuesday. On Wednesday a “peer review” committee is due to announce similar criticisms to a special State committee overlooking the project.

Meanwhile, the $millions spent on PR/marketing to the Fresno government and politically connected has convinced them that the HSR is a valid project as they work feverishly to move it forward at a desperate pace. The marketers successfully lead the un-knowledgeable that $5billion will buy Central California a statewide train. The Fresno government officials were never told by the PR firm the fundamentals of math. $5billion divided by $70million per mile equals 71.4 miles. Yes, the newest feasibility contract awarded to URS will find an at-grade electrified heavy rail track costs less than half of the $150million per mile elevated track. How many millions of dollars was spent in the new URS contract to figure this out, another $10million?

The important thing for the HSRA is to make sure as much as possible is spent quickly before the federal dollars might disappear. They should award contracts to study new routes, elevated options, at grade route and even sub grade options. At least the upper lever execs can justify nice bonuses and the share holders of URS can make a tidy profit to help contribute to the next election cycle. The citizens of CA are able to at least then feel important to have made a contribution to the circle of status-quo.

another change

Having followed the CA HSR (high speed rail) over the past 18 years, one finds a distinct pattern of taking a long time to make a decision about a route or related issue only to eventually abandon that decision. The rate at which the HSRA is changing routes or whatever else is appropriate to warrant a new consultant and engineering study to cost $millions is becoming noticeable that the HSR system proposal is already serving its purpose to benefit the people. The people being served are the few politically connected share holders of the consultant and engineering companies; one might conclude no one else (CA residents) matters.

HSR joke

Fiscal responsibility doesn't matter to the California legislators. Florida's decision to cancel plans to build a train that would cost them $3billion they don't have should be a hint to CA's blind obsession to have its HSR. In 2008, the voters were misled to say yes to build a proposed $43billion train but, the bond was for $9billion. There is a $34billion dollar gap that doesn't seem to matter. While Florida says no to a $3billion dollar debt, California seem eager to accept a 10-fold higher debt. And; that $43billion price tag, BTW, is estimated at half to one fifth of what other transportation experts cost analysis are.

CA HSR

Mid-February and the antiquated train momentum rolls through the Valley with a high dollar marketing sales pitch full of deception. In an article in the Fresno Bee (February 11, 2011) the City of Fresno enthusiastically embraces the incoherent plan.

In Washington the mood isn't as joyous. February 12th the Fresno Bee reports a darker look at the possibility of the antique train being implemented. Even still, CA's rep. Costa insisted that the billion dollar boondoggle is an "economic and quality of life game-changer". His statement fails to recognize that the subsidized project is inefficient economically. Money for the project is someone else' tax which lowers American's quality of life by over-taxation.

The only feasible solution is a privately funded project that recovers it's capital costs with ridership farebox by using new technology designed to conveniently take people directly where they need to go. A privately funded project does not present a burden to the general public.

California High Speed Rail news

A congratulations is in order for Tom Richards, newly appointed to the CA HSRA Board.

Unanswered Questions of the CA HSR

The price of California's high speed rail isn't touted as civilization's salvation by everyone; in this recent blog, author Richard Rider suggests there are financial pieces missing from a viable business plan.

Another paper is summerized here with the Executive Summary done by the Community Coalition on High Speed Rail.