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Politics : IMPEACH GRAY DAVIS! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (1321)	10/2/2003 4:56:49 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1641

I took Caltrain EVERY DAY when I worked in SF, its packed. Gee. Then you'd think it would be able to operate without gov't subsidies, wouldn't you? Aren't subsidies just another governmental scheme of robbing Peter to pay Paul that you complain so much about? Or is it that the only thing bothering you is who receives the loot? Bart is also a success in terms of ridership I'd say. Then it should be able to ay its way too, right? But it doesn't. Instead an enormously costly, very inefficient operation is again supported by robbing Peter. And you applaud it.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (1321)	10/3/2003 2:12:04 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1641

Lizzie, Re: I don't know what the problem is with that light rail, for one thing it doesn't even go to the airport so it seems like a case of bad management. Actually, it is a case of crony capitalist special interests working against the common good. I lived in SF from '89 until '97 and was very familiar with the efforts of the shuttle services, and the taxi companies along with their hired politicians to try to destroy the sensible efforts to create a sensible light rail system from SFO to downtown SF. It was painful to watch bad decisions get made regularly because of properly placed bribes. There are many competent public managers who could have created an intelligent light rail interface between SFO and downtown, with links to BART, CalTrain, etc. But the forces arrayed against sensible public infrastructure development are too powerful. Remember the light rail system in LA that GM willfully destroyed in order to create a demand for their automobiles and then inadvertently created the nightmare of the LA freeway system? The fine they paid to destroy the future of the LA basin was $35,000 just after WW II. Cheap thrills.