High-speed high jinks: Is it bait and switch?
When Californians voted in favor of Proposition 1A in 2008 (albeit unwisely), they thought they were approving an ambitious plan to build a new high-speed rail line from Anaheim/ Los Angeles to San Francisco (with later routes projected to link up with Sacramento and San Diego).
There were warnings prior to the vote. There was deep concern that the grandiose concept was simply not fiscally feasible — and that included lots of worry about probable huge operating deficits stretching endlessly into the future.
Now, with public construction money tight, no hints of fresh private capital, constant delays and political bickering about priorities, there is a move afoot to divert dollars to local rail projects in the Bay Area and in the Southland.
Caltrain already has benefited from this approach to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for electrification on the premise that, at some point in the future, high-speed trains would use the same trackage.
In essence, the heavilypromoted high-speed plan may be fading in favor of a much more limited concept. That, of course, is not what the taxpayers voted for.
Critics have raised this objection before. There has been litigation on the issue. Even a former avid booster of the rail plan, Quentin Kopp (an ex-state lawmaker, ex-San Mateo County judge and one-time chairman of the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority Board), has argued strongly against it. So far, those in opposition have not succeeded in halting the altered money flow.
But it is the foes’ contention that the implementation of Prop. 1A now amounts to a case of blatant bait and switch.
Jimmy Dean
Is anyone else out there just a bit perplexed by those TV ads for Jimmy Dean meat products? Having the voice of the singer-businessman emphasized in the sausage commercials, you have to wonder: Is it wise to tout an extensively processed food by using the dulcet tones of a guy who has been dead for nearly a decade? It just seems odd, not to mention out of place and a tad creepy, in the world of animal-parts specialties.
Deadly corridor
The timing was unfortunate. At almost the same time Caltrain authorities were touting September as Rail Safety & Suicide Prevention Month last week, someone walked onto the tracks in San Francisco and was killed by a train. It was Caltrain’s 12th fatality of the year. If anything, the sad irony highlighted the ongoing issue of deaths along the rail corridor — and too many are suicides.
Kris Kristofferson
A quick note regarding the new Ken Burns documentary series “Country Music” that will debut Sunday on PBS channels: Of local interest will be considerable attention paid to singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, a graduate of San Mateo High School in the mid-1950s. His contributions to the genre are farreaching, and he receives plenty of credit as the series proceeds, especially in episode 6. There was a preview this past weekend.
HMB at 60
Let’s not ignore a milestone on the Coastside: Half Moon Bay is observing its 60th birthday as an incorporated municipality this year. The coastal town is much older than that, of course. It can trace its history back centuries. Spanish explorers made use of the location in the 18th century. Indigenous people were there long before. In any event, happy birthday.