It’s a case of the State of CA, represented by Deputy
Attorney General Sharon O’Grady against citizens of CA, represented by an
attorney paid by two farmers near Bakersfield.
The argument is distorted by twisting of facts. The state has manipulated its project from a boondoggle
to a devastating failure of promises.
According to the article, the private attorney argues that
the people voted to have a train with its own separate track and a specific
time trip time of two hours, forty minutes from San Francisco to LA. The “blended track” concept was enacted by
legislative procedure in 2012 and totally eliminates the possibility of such a
trip time. The private attorney also
maintains the voters chose to have a financially viable train which covers its
operating and maintenance costs once it is built and running. He asks how the government is going to be
able to operate it at a profit when they can’t even figure out how to find the
money to build it?
In the State’s argument, its claims are contradictory, or at
best: confused. The State claims there
is a difference in interpretation of the law’s requirement (“All (the
opponents) are doing is disagreeing with the authority’s experts,”). The State; in its argument, commented as its
defense that the system has not been fully designed. This raises a question. Since this project hasn’t even been designed,
how is it that it was even begun? This
is equal to the State building a tall building without a set of blueprints.
So it continues. The contractor
hired to begin the Fresno to Madera segment attacked Downtown Fresno and has
successfully decimated Chinatown. There is a position to gentrification which
has justification in that the leveling of all structures in a certain area are
replaced with structures of higher value.
This position maintains that the newer structures provide a better
economic condition and thus a higher standard of living which allows a greater
value of life. What the CAHSRA is doing
to Chinatown and Downtown Fresno is merely demolishing everything and not
rebuilding any structures to which allow economic opportunity.
The major political push for the HSR in Fresno was to
capture the HSR Maintenance Yard. This
would greatly benefit the land developer who is so deeply hidden that no one
knows the name: Geil. The vote on the
Maintenance Yard is scheduled in May.
On the re-gentrification of Chinatown, what does Fresno’s interest
on the HSRA board have slated on his drawing board? Can Chinatown find economic success with an
Amtrak station in ten years if the politics in Washington DC change and the flow
of Federal gravy train dollars stop?
