07/23/14 Comment in Fresno Bee July 14, 2014 article about the first (abandoned, bar) building demolition to make way for the California HSR.  

CA HSR must be stopped to protect jobs that will be lost due to stated decreased roadside businesses, casinos. highway-dependent business cost increases and deprivation of various tax and fee, for example, Airport revenues from diverted motorists (supposedly) and worse, takes still precious and too-few funds for Californians safety net needs ranging from IHSS, schools, University student fee reductions, Calworks, children and disabled assistance, state hospital and prison improvements, our still-underfunded Court system that is slowing our constitutional needs for swift justice.  Worse yet, the Central Valley needs (jobs) for major water projects not absurd, political-only multi-tax increases, road toll (starting with SR152 Pacheco Pass (to Los Banos from US101 Gilroy (Caltrain’s not coincidental starting point—standard track width as HSR) in SCC, was originally to Madera (Wow!, surprise, surprise, then other "high-priority" freight corridors--Gagliani is as disingenuous as politicians can be (much more here) to fund this. 

So, it will cost many more jobs than HSR will create, from Casino workers, to truckers, warehousemen, agriculture, other road-dependent users (much more here). HSR competes with at least 100 flights per day from SF Bay Area to LA Area's "Intense Competition" corridor (per Virgin America, which just dropped its unprofitable routes in the corridor), 5 intercity scheduled coach lines--all of whom pay taxes and fees to all levels of local, regional, state (and Fed) govt entities.  Shame on this project.

But worst of all, is that SF Bay Area's (Gilroy-to-SJ-SF) Caltrain,  Jerry Brown and Rod Diridon Sr's acknowledged placeholder for HSR that they stated on CBS' Face the Nation w/Bob Schiefer and KBAY 94.5 Sunday a.m. Community Show last year, respectively, that they "...have been working for 30 years to bring HSR to California".

Caltrain was started by Gov. JB's initial funding in 1982, unbeknownst, and unapproved by the public with a deceitful and illegal ballot, authored by no-Livinston-Merced State Senator Gagliani, (CA 3rd Appellate Court Case C060441, January 2011) in Nov. 2008 (Proposition 1A).

 

My research of news articles has 205 dead on Caltrain’s (1864, yes Civil War era!) surface trackway ROW, since 1995, already 4+ this year, the latest only days ago July 10, 2014 in its Atherton trackway.  But, Jerry Brown doesn't care. He wants to spend taxpayer billion$ on his Crazy, wasteful, unnecessary, train to run through miles of empty land or, in the SF Bay Area, densely populated, dangerous, narrow Peninsula corridor to share 2 tracks with freight trains, 2 different speed schedules of Caltrain, and its own 110 mph runs. Crazy, Deadly, and Dangerous.    

I contend that the victims died because of Jerry Brown's obsession with his HSR Altar rather than serving the public for their true infrastructure needs with precious state tax and bond dollars..

Want more?  Here's more:  SR152's last 13 miles has been held up since 2005 when fellow Democrat Rod Diridon Sr’s (Brown's former  local 1978 re-election chair, progeny, CAHSR Chair, and, until recently taxpayer-funded (40 yrs) rail zealot, now head of the US HSR Association) announced the SR152 Pacheco Pass alignment would be the HSR route 3 years before the ballot measure.  Diridon had one of his students at the SJSU Mineta Transportation Institute (Diridon was CEO of the “Institute) do a "study" and survey about the palpability of toll roads to fund transit and rail (following the 2004 AB2002, Dutra law that permitted such for nearby transit lines from nearby toll roads). 

Accordingly, a study to finish that last 13 miles was suddenly halted shorthly thereafter due to"no money". 

Hah!  Despite TARP, ARRA, and multiple Highway Bills since, nothing has happened to seek federal or state road monies (pending their Democrat plan for Congestion-Priced Tolling with HSR being built nearby in the future to suck up road monies.  This is the model used in Portland Oregon's I-84/LRT combination, CA SR85/87 with LRT), and apparently France's Paris-Lyon HSR+Toll road.  

SF Bay Area and Central Valley Democrats, especially Gagliani, are aligned.  

But Quentin Kopp and Lt. Gov Gavin Newsom get it--the waste.  They understand HSR funds would be better spent on regional projects--BART all the way around the SF Bay-one high capacity, safer, heavy rail system; Water infrastructure needs funds in the Central Valley; and SoCal major rail and transit projects (roads,too?) need funds to move residents efficiently. 

Because of the (primarily Democrat, plus Republican Swearingen's foolishness), HSR Altar of death is resulting in motorists being killed and injured regularly in Truck/Car and Car/Car collisions on that unimproved, delayed, SR152 2-lane highway's last 13 miles: most recently May 14, 2014 a ghastly beheading in a 1995 Hyundai-truck crash. Just on Monday July 21, another died with others injured in a truck-multi-car crash. Yet, Gov. JB cut Caltrans funding this fiscal year, 2015. Incredible!

All this on Jerry Brown's HSR Altar of Death for HIS ego, not to serve the citizens, taxpayers, residents, motorists, tourists, emergency services works, and farmworkers who use the SR152 essential Farm-to-Market route from Salinas Valley work to/from the Central Valley, etc.  HSR must be killed, not people. So, the Jerry Brown HSR Altar of Death kills.   Hah, and critics say that NJ Governor has a 4-day scandal of delays, no deaths, on the GW Bridge fiasco.

How about JB's 30 year HSR scandal, or let's say last two years of his first administration and 4 years of this administration, where these two outdated transportation facilities remain unimproved 19th Century street level  trackway  (Caltrain:  46 dead since 1/1/2011) and an early 20th Century 2-lane highway (30 dead  estimated) only waiting due to JB's ego-driven rail fetish derived from an insecure childhood and a search for fame and notoriety--that congests and kills Californians in the meanwhile.

The circulating ballot measures and/or lawsuits must be successful to resume real job growth, replenish funding-short public services, schools, court justice and improve water, transportation and other infrastructure facilities. with far greater value to Neel's two focii. The above is just one face, but some of the Fresno-specific "canary in the mine" precursors for the lrest of this modern-day reincarnated SST (remember the SuperSonic Transport that was supposed to revolutionize air travel and "all developed countries" were moving toward adopting. Hah, the EU's Concorde, Russia's TU-144, and US'' Boeing and Lockheed proposal are all gone into the political wasteland of politicians' ego-driven failures. 

Governor Jerry Brown's fetish for this Crazy Train is his downfall.  I've twitted Neel K that JB's Achilles Heel is Transportation including this Crazy Train.   No malice here, just fact, tragedy, and comment.

The above can be verified by searching the web using names and keywords.