GETTING THERE FROM HERE - To those of us who still seek improvements in our transportation (and other) problems in a nation and world that is veering towards an increasingly unpredictable direction, the classic line "There's no place like home!" from the book (and movie) The Wizard of Oz has a new counterpart: "The perfect is the enemy of the good!"
And like we read and/or saw in The Wizard of Oz, the line seems appropriate for repeating: the perfect is the enemy of the good, the perfect is the enemy of the good, the perfect is...
Because we're NOT moving in the wonderful world that some proclaim, and we're NOT moving in the straight-to-hell world that others proclaim. For every bit of good news we learn, we get a bit of bad news...and vice versa.
Our market is doing very well right now--arguably better than when we began this downturn, and with apparently nowhere to go but up, (link) yet as any stock analyst (or reader of the business section of their local paper) will tell you, it's incumbent on the stability of nations such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland...and the cost to bail out these nations is (like our stock market) going inexorably up. (Link)
So it's tenuous. Wall Street is making a comeback, but bonuses are decreasing by approximately 25%. (Link) The public sector unions that have put cities, counties and states throughout the nation in perpetual budget crises are being forced to have their members endure pay cuts or layoffs, (link) and it's anyone's guess whether increased revenue or "rightsizing" the public sector workforce is the right way to proceed.
So things are looking pretty grim...but it's also premature to presume that "the end of days" is upon us.
This is particularly true in the world of transportation, where things are moving forward in a painful, yet prudent and pragmatic approach towards getting things done.
Take for example the three-month extension of the transportation/federal highway bill (which pays for both roads and rail projects) that the House, Senate and President just approved. (Link) They all hate these three-month "kickings of the can down the road", as do we all, but it gets things done. The Democratic-led Senate wants a two-year, more far-reaching and dependable $109 billion bill, while the GOP-dominated House wants more funding sources (such as oil drilling) to pay for it, because the gas tax we currently have isn't sufficient to pay for it.
No one has the guts to rip the money out of other budgetary priorities (defense, education, social services, etc.), all of which haven't enjoyed much reputation for efficiency and cost-effectiveness to date, so with a $1 trillion/year debt buildup then a three-month extension appears to be all we can do right now.
Meanwhile, in our own state, the California High Speed Rail (CAHSR) project is revising its initial plan to save approximately $30 billion of the recently-proposed $98 billion cost by limiting the scope and size of the project and coupling it with already-planned and existing Caltrain and Metrolink lines. (Link)
Critics are complaining that the once-proclaimed, once-lionized direct Northern/Southern California rail link is lost, which is not what the voters approved in 2008, but these critics are missing two key points:
1) Most of these critics never wanted the CAHSR project anyway, so their criticisms are immediately suspect, and
2) Our collective learning curve is much, much higher than it was before, so a "higher-speed" rail as an alternative to a "high speed rail" that can be delivered for a more affordable and politically-viable price than the current $98 billion price tag deserves the light of day.
Voters are both pragmatically and desperately trying to find that middle ground where we can reach for the fruits of our labor, but do so in a manner that focuses on those fruits that are most low-hanging during these tough and unpredictable times.
So cynicism towards the oil/automotive industry persists...but the recognition of their local and national benefits is growing. Cynicism towards the green/environmental industry also persists, but clear-cut and easily-defined ways they make or save money will still be winners. And commuters of both mass transit and automobiles, to say nothing of our monthly electric bills, do well with affordable natural gas or even (dare I say it?) cheap oil that even Wall Street speculators will push towards lower prices if domestic drilling and production increases.
The Expo Line will be opening in a manner of weeks, first to La Cienega and then to Venice/Robertson. If it's cost-effective and a hit with commuters, we'll see more of it. Ditto for the 405, 60, I-5 and other freeway projects. L.A. County is on the verge of extending the half-cent Measure R sales tax for years in order to pay for worthwhile transportation projects that the feds and the state should be, but aren't, paying for.
The taxpayers won't be burned again with federal and state initiatives that are promised to go towards transportation and other projects, but actually have their lion's share go to politically-connected special interests or overreaching public sector unions, with only a fraction dedicated to transportation as a virtual afterthought.
Hence the need to focus on prudent, realistic endeavors should "Plan A" on a given project or funding initiative go sour. Because, after all, the same burdened taxpayers that are sickened of broken promises and political baits-and-switches aren't so hopeless that they're giving up on our country and on our children--and the need to create a first-rate, twenty-first century transportation system--just yet.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Vice Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] . He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
Tags: Ken Alpern, Transportation, Los Angeles, LA Transportation
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 27
Pub: Apr 3, 2012
