Diane Harkey Tries To Drive Spike Through Heart of High Speed Rail Boondoggle
I’ve never heard much good about Diane Harkey, the State Assemblywoman from, um, down there somewhere.
But that changed dramatically when a Friend of mine and a devout High Speed Rail opponent sent me a link to a San Mateo County Times story that talks about Harkey’s attempt to kill the bond sale to raise $9.5 billion dollars and start putting it into the greasy palms of Curt Pringle and Harry Sidhu’s backroom buddies.
It seems Ms. Harkey thinks it’s a poor idea for the State to take on more debt given its current catatonic fiscal condition. And maybe she’s come to the realization that “jobs, jobs, jobs” at the cost of billions more indebtedness is not a conservative recipe for success. So she’s introducing legislation to stop the the floating o’ the bond (ambiguous St. Pat’s Day reference).
And I say good for her!
And I also say it’s time for Fullerton politicians and residents to figure out what the alignment impacts will have on Fullerton and how much that’ll cost us.
No, sir! We need jobs! Good paying government provided jobs.
It is called stimulus, if you did not know, sir.
Any idea how would the high speed rail boondoggle would affect Fullerton if it ever got built? Other than furthering the indebtedness of its taxpayers, of course.
Finally, Fullerton is waking up to this phony works project!
I would strongly suggest you check this out. You guys get hosed just like Anaheim, Buena Park, Los Angeles, the Peninsula….we all got screwed.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/images/chsr/20090611110104_20090602162631AgendaItem9.pdf
Who benefits? Well so far the guys getting hundreds of millions of dollars to “study” the project are Parsons Brinkerhoff. The same guys who brought us Boston’s Big Dig that is over budget and up for corruption charges. http://www.publicpurpose.com/ut-pblie.htm Yep, they’re in charge of California’s High Speed Rail system.
I posted more at redcounty http://www.redcounty.com/thank-you-diane-harkey/37841?taxonomy=29
Y’all need to contact Diane Harkey and support her efforts to throw some clothes on the Emperor. Then call Chris Norby and tell him to cover HER back, as she stands against the power structure that is pushing the biggest boondoggle in California’s history!
CR, our city council appears to have no interest in this – at least nobody is saying anything. Nelson has labeled this for what it is – a huge scam.
So far FFFF seems to be the only place where the thing is being discussed out in the open.
Some folks are saying Pringle’s got his hooks in at least one of our councilmembers – Keller. Jones and Bankhead just love choo-chho. So we may already be screwed.
This council should agendize this for a public discussion ASAP.
There’s no practical way that the HSR monstrosity could go thru Fullerton. The idea is absurd. The idea that by backing it, Fullerton would somehow reap some benefit is brazen bureaucratic make-work strategy to fool the Council into allocating funds so that City staffers can play their little planning and “redevelopment” games with flocks of similarly feathered birds throughout the State.
#4. It won’t be “practical”. It will be painful, expensive and ultimately take a bunch of property.
They are already learning how in Buena Park. And the only way to get from Anaheim to Buena Park is through F-town.
Train Rider: Practical has nothing to do with it. They don’t care about you or your city. You will be asked to “take one for the team” because the train is “for the greater good”. And on March 24th these bloodsuckers go to the Budget Committee to ask for THIRTY MORE STAFF POSITIONS to be funded on our backs. Lay off teachers but hire thiry more pencil pushers so they can more effective ruin our neighorhoods. If your City Council hung you out to dry you are in good company, Anaheim did it too. Oh wait, look who’s Mayor. And look at the campaigns the Mayor is funneling money into.
LOL, how conflicted am I as a high-speed rail supporter who also thinks Diane has been unfairly misunderestimated?
I just have to say, on saving the Fairgrounds she has been a bombshell. It was glorious hearing a politician say in such dramatic fashion “I was wrong, and I own this mistake.” Diane Harkey has balls, my friends.
Vern, I have to ask; WHY? Why do you support HSR? I could see if it was a good project, but every ounce of this thing has come up smelling like scum. It does not hit top speeds to make the trip in the time promised, takes property all over the state, and because it is not run on the nuclear power of Europe, it generates as much GHG as cars if those ridership numbers do not play out. The only people benefitting from this thing are the guys paid to work on it. Why would you support it? And yes, Diane does have them-and they have to be made of titanium to stand up to the good old boys network promoting this thing. Please support her on this.