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Post by Jason Saunders on Sept 27, 2009 17:48:42 GMT -8
I saw this image on L.A. Curbed in regards to an article on Federal funding for transit projects nation wide. The image, titled, "Funding for New Starts Projects vs. Population" indicates that Los Angeles is not getting anywhere near it's fair share of Federal funding. The yellow circle indicates population while the green indicates funding. Interestly, Los Angeles is the only city where the yellow circle is larger then the green circle. The article I am referring to is here: la.curbed.com/archives/2009/09/la_to_continue_lagging_in_fed_funding_of_transit_projects.phpI looked on Metro's site for a more legible version of the graphic because it has Metro's logo on it and is presumably generated by them but I did not locate it. Granted it's a snapshot in time, FY2010. I am curious what your thoughts are?
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Post by Justin Walker on Sept 27, 2009 18:21:11 GMT -8
I looked on Metro's site for a more legible version of the graphic because it has Metro's logo on it and is presumably generated by them but I did not locate it. Larger B/W copy in this month's board report.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on Sept 27, 2009 21:58:35 GMT -8
Granted it's a snapshot in time, FY2010. I am curious what your thoughts are? Very misleading, I think. I wonder what the graph looked like back in the '90s when LA was getting funds for the Red Line and New York had very little, if any, transit projects at the time. The huge bubble for NY now is due to the 2nd avenue subway construction. Again, this map means nothing to me as an advocate. How come the two largest metro areas following LA (Chicago and SF) have $0 federal funding? Yet, the Curbsters just moan and groan by comparing LA to NY.
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Post by kenalpern on Sept 28, 2009 5:13:56 GMT -8
Respectfully, LA of Anaheim, I have to agree to disagree. I think that this is a result of the Bush Administration's almost contemptuous policy of disenfranchising the cities that are the major financial hubs of the nation, as well as a disorganized and incoherent California approach to transit funding.
I'm a Republican, mind you, so I am quite balanced in my approach to having favored the Bush Administration in certain policies while recognizing its dysfunctions--both foreign and domestic--and will strive to do so again with the Obama Administration (I am one of those crossover voters who voted for Obama).
New York was thrown a bone because of sympathy for 9/11, but L.A. was told it could only qualify for the Eastside Gold Line and (fortunately) responded with Proposition R. Salt Lake City and Dallas had more political connections and cohesive political coalitions and got what they needed.
L.A. did do the right thing, interestingly enough, because Mark Ridley-Thomas led others to get what is a long-overdue Silver/Bronze Busway upgrade combined with congestion pricing and a whole bunch of money for sprucing up transit/transportation for the 10 and 110 freeways. Cohesiveness and political adroitness won the day there.
The previous Red Line funding was nothing to be ashamed of, and the Mayor's goal of building the Wilshire Subway in ten years is a reasonable plan that is NOT too expensive for a nation like ours--$5 billion is NOT too much to spend in a nation with a budget like ours for the second-largest city economy of the nation.
I look forward to smart and cohesive political coalitions from L.A., N.Y., Chicago and every major city in the nation--both conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat--to identify what they need and get help from the national budget to fund these needs.
When the state and the nation talked either about bond or stimulus measures, transportation was ALWAYS on the front of the list even though other budgetary priorities like education, health care and others often got more funds in the end.
I think that there would be bipartisan support for a pure Transportation/Infrastructure (roads, sewage, dams, trains, electrical grid) measure of $100 billion a year with a fork stuck in the hand of any education, housing, health care or other lobby that reached for some of that money.
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Post by bobdavis on Sept 30, 2009 20:51:49 GMT -8
That's a rather forceful metaphor about "a fork stuck in the hand" of other interests trying to "hijack" infrastructure-related funds. A comment I've made in a number of situations is "Politics is the art of getting everyone else to pay for what you think is important" (not sure who said that first). Of course, without efficient infrastructure, it's hard for the other interests to achieve their goals.
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Post by kenalpern on Sept 30, 2009 21:24:13 GMT -8
Hence I'm sticking to the fork-in-the-hand metaphor. The voters/taxpayers want more transportation/infrastructure, and they're sick of getting it diverted somewhere else.
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Post by rajacobs on Jul 31, 2010 17:20:49 GMT -8
There's a great article on Huffington Post today entitled, "Los Angeles Pushing To Become Nation's Mass Transit Leader," www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/31/los-angeles-pushing-to-be_n_666261.html. "The region famous for jilting the street car to take up a love affair with the automobile is trying to rekindle its long ago romance with commuter rail. "If successful, the novel plan to borrow billions from the federal government, led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, would result in the largest transit expansion project in the nation..."
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Post by spokker on Jul 31, 2010 21:55:13 GMT -8
I loved this comment.
"Unless an enormous number of additional miles -- at least five times what exists now -- is built, the system will not work. So, better get ready to really open up your wallet! Translation: Are you willing to raise your taxes?"
As I told him, yes, we already did raise our taxes.
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Post by rubbertoe on Sept 17, 2010 9:51:46 GMT -8
Yonah over at The Transport Politic points out that the huge ARC project in New Jersey just had all contract letting put on a 30 day hold: www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/09/17/political-will-disappearing-new-jerseys-arc-project-could-be-on-the-way-out/The Feds have ponied up $3,000,000,000 towards this project, their largest commitment ever to a single project. If New Jersey drops the ball on this, no one is quite sure what happens to the $3B the Feds have ponied up. Maybe with the DC and the Red Line getting through their environmental stages in a timely manner, we may be in a position to pick up the ball and run with it. Maybe some of that $3B can make up for the $174M missing from the DC, assuming that the DC is in a very good position for New Starts money. RT
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Post by rubbertoe on Oct 7, 2010 14:20:54 GMT -8
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Post by rubbertoe on Oct 27, 2010 8:16:56 GMT -8
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Post by Gokhan on Oct 27, 2010 8:40:47 GMT -8
I wish the I-710 extension will be dead. To build a $4 billion per mile freeway tunnel is a great robbery of taxpayers. The Big Dig in Boston was a great robbery as well.
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Post by Justin Walker on Oct 27, 2010 10:26:21 GMT -8
It's a shame but I am glad to see it get cancelled at this point. More trans-Hudson rail capacity is badly needed but the ARC project, in its final form, wasn't a very good project. The ARC tunnels were planned to end not at Penn Station but rather at a new dead-end 34th Street station. Project planners also eliminated track connections from the new ARC tunnels to the existing Penn Station. The ARC tunnels therefore only would serve New Jersey Transit trains, leaving Amtrak and other regional operators with no benefit.
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Post by metrocenter on Nov 3, 2010 10:37:35 GMT -8
It will be interesting to see what happens to transit funding and programs, given the new political climate.
The good news - Southern California still has a very transit-friendly congressional delegation, plus Senator Boxer, Mayor Villaraigosa, Governor Brown, and President Obama.
The bad news - the House has been taken over by anti-government Republicans, who are likely to fight new spending and cut existing spending. Also, the chair of the House Transportation Committee -- Jim Oberstar -- not only will lose his chair (because the GOP is taking over) but lost his reelection.
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Post by jdrcrasher on Nov 3, 2010 13:30:59 GMT -8
^ John Boehner, the Tea Party, and Republicans in general, really have wasted everyone's time that could have been spent rebuilding our infrastructure.
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Post by metrocenter on Nov 3, 2010 14:48:06 GMT -8
One other thing: Prop 22 passed. This measure prohibits the state from "borrowing" funds from local agencies (including transit agencies) and moving the money to the state's general fund.
I'm very happy this passed. It protects local transit money from being grabbed by the state legislature.
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Post by metrocenter on Nov 3, 2010 14:52:45 GMT -8
Good article on the election and its implications... here.
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Post by James Fujita on Nov 3, 2010 14:56:24 GMT -8
It's going to be impossible to get anything done next year. Just watch.
Republicans control the House, Democrats control the Senate, and nobody is going to be in the mood to compromise on anything. The Mad Tea Party gained a lot at the expense of not just Democrats but also moderate, level-headed Republicans as well.
The good news is, here in California, Prop. 22 will stop transit raids, while Prop. 25 will make it much easier to pass a budget without transit raids. And Prop. 23's death will allow AB 32 to move forward with all of its pro-environment, anti-pollution and pro-alternative energy measures which will help transit in many unforeseen ways (such as making gasoline more expensive).
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Post by Gokhan on Nov 3, 2010 15:37:55 GMT -8
Well, Obama should have known better before he shoved the healthcare reform, generous bailouts, and reckless and random stimulus spending during the economic tough times down the throats of the people who elected him. Now, we will have to live with the Tea Party nonsense. My projection: metrocenter won't get to ride the subway to Westwood until 2040. LOL Thank God the Expo Line is not any part of this and we will still get to ride it to Santa Monica in early 2015.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on Nov 3, 2010 15:42:46 GMT -8
Well, Obama should have known better before he shoved the healthcare reform, generous bailouts, and reckless and random stimulus spending down the throats of the people who elected him during the economic tough times. Now, we will have to live with the Tea Party nonsense. My projection: metrocenter won't get to ride the subway to Westwood until 2040, when he will already be happily retired. LOL Thank God the Expo Line is not any part of this and we will still get to ride it to Santa Monica in early 2015. Generous bailouts started from President W Bush in September 2008 with $700 billion for the banks. Unfortunately, bailouts continued through Obama's tenure, but it was a Bush policy. Source: articles.cnn.com/2008-09-24/politics/bush.bailout_1_bailout-proposal-rescue-plan-mortgage-related-securities?_s=PM:POLITICSObama should have led a restructuring to the funding of the gas tax for infrastructure improvements while they had a Democratic majority. But, unfortunately, the "gas tax" is now becoming the big white elephant (or panda, if you watch Modern Family) in the room. We'll have to wait and see with what happens. It's not like 30/10 has been passed already as an initiative by the Democratic congress. Maybe the Republicans will be more akin to it...who knows.
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Post by Gokhan on Nov 3, 2010 15:48:55 GMT -8
Yes, I remember that very well. People were very unhappy then too. I was thinking: Why have parties to start with? It would have been much better if everyone ran as an independent. Then, we wouldn't have this partisanship and blame-game nonsense, which is making progress very difficult, causing the Tea Party madness, and so on.
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Post by bzcat on Nov 3, 2010 16:03:56 GMT -8
I was thinking: Why have parties to start with? It would have been much better if everyone ran as an independent. Then, we wouldn't have this partisanship and blame-game nonsense, which is making progress very difficult, causing the Tea Party madness, and so on. Not having parties won't stop the madness. The LA City and County elections are non-partisan and look at all the NIMBY influence and crazy people that have won in the past. The party label actually helps because you know who are the crazy one just by the letter R appearing next to their name. And I don't mean to just pick one one party... it's just that for the last 10~15 years or so, we've just had one really crazy bat shit party. Now, if you want to go way back, we also had the Whig party which was pretty crazy stuff. And Dixiecrat in more recent times.
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Post by Gokhan on Nov 3, 2010 16:23:33 GMT -8
I was thinking: Why have parties to start with? It would have been much better if everyone ran as an independent. Then, we wouldn't have this partisanship and blame-game nonsense, which is making progress very difficult, causing the Tea Party madness, and so on. Not having parties won't stop the madness. The LA City and County elections are non-partisan and look at all the NIMBY influence and crazy people that have won in the past. The party label actually helps because you know who are the crazy one just by the letter R appearing next to their name. And I don't mean to just pick one one party... it's just that for the last 10~15 years or so, we've just had one really crazy bat shit party. Now, if you want to go way back, we also had the Whig party which was pretty crazy stuff. And Dixiecrat in more recent times. Ha ha, OK, let's not go too much into blaming one party or the other in this forum because some people will get upset, as this is neither a Republican or Democratic forum but a transit forum. Besides there are really crazy and corrupt people in either party. Alan Robbins, who killed light-rail in the San Fernando Valley and later ended up in prison for corruption, was a Democrat.
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Post by metrocenter on Nov 3, 2010 18:48:23 GMT -8
My projection: metrocenter won't get to ride the subway to Westwood until 2040. LOL Thank God the Expo Line is not any part of this and we will still get to ride it to Santa Monica in early 2015. I hope you'll be there too. After all, you support the subway project too, right? Anyway, 30/10 is hardly dead: I fully expect it to be implemented next year with bipartisan support, because it is a jobs program and the economy was the major issue of our day. I also expect to ride the subway to Westwood on opening day ten years from now, along with thousands of other supporters of the Wilshire Subway. In the mean time, I will continue to ride the Blue Line when it makes sense. Yes the Blue Line, which so far has been open 20 years longer than the still under-construction Expo Line. LOL
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Post by James Fujita on Nov 3, 2010 18:49:22 GMT -8
The trouble is, people vote for all sorts of reasons.
I wouldn't vote for some nutjob who believed that the Bible was the literal word of God, or who believed that gays were second-class citizens, or who supported throwing out huge parts of the federal government, even if such a nutjob supported transit.
As for parties.... parties are important. They serve as ways to organize voters into recognizable groups, they provide simple, efficient and yet accurate shorthand that voters can follow when looking to see how to vote. At a certain level, a political party is simply a group of people with the same ideals... a coalition, writ large.
And, in the United States, unfortunately, transit will be connected to politics because of funding, which comes from fees and taxes — which can be raised or reduced depending on the politicians in power (or bonds, which have to be voted on). And transit in America is public transit, so it's a big government vs. small government issue as well.
I would ask that we keep political insults to a minimum, but we can't be expected to keep politics out of our discussions, either.
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Post by rubbertoe on Nov 4, 2010 11:47:49 GMT -8
Wow, talk about how fast things are changing. A week or so ago they said that the Wisconsin system was a done deal, because they signed contracts that would be binding even after the new Republican governor took office. Thats for the $810 million HSR grant. The current governor just stopped work on the system: www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/106705698.html
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Post by metrocenter on Nov 4, 2010 12:05:05 GMT -8
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Post by James Fujita on Nov 4, 2010 14:11:49 GMT -8
Wow, talk about how fast things are changing. A week or so ago they said that the Wisconsin system was a done deal, because they signed contracts that would be binding even after the new Republican governor took office. Thats for the $810 million HSR grant. The current governor just stopped work on the system: www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/106705698.htmlWell, he's off my Christmas card list, then. I was never that impressed by the midwest HSR, considering that it involved half measures and incremental speed increases. Still, I figured it was better than nothing. However, in the current political environment, I'm concerned that John Mica might target Cal HSR as well as the incrementalist projects. He's even in favor of cutting his own home state project, so how pro-HSR can he be? It looks like he'll give NEC top priority if he gets his way. I would hope that any money that Wisconsin loses would head for California, but I do think we have reasons to worry for the next couple of years.
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Post by jdrcrasher on Nov 4, 2010 14:39:46 GMT -8
Dude, he wouldn't dare touch CHSR. We'll just hammer him with the fact that SanSac Megalopolis will likely be the size of BosWash by Mid-Century.
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Post by LAofAnaheim on Nov 4, 2010 14:50:22 GMT -8
First of all....that was the state that is cancelling the money, not the federal government. We have elected Jerry Brown who is one of the highest pro-HSR's in the country. We don't have to worry about it.
I, as an enthused transit advocate, do worry about HSR and the bad impression it gives rail. HSR makes it appear that rail transit costs billions of dollars to run. We're not China. The USA will not prioritize and give billions of billions to rail. We have to work smart on HSR. For example, $2.2 freakin' billion to duplicate existing Metrolink/Amtrak service between LA and Anaheim for a 10 minute time reduction??? That's unbelievable. That's why HSR only slightly passed 50% during election...and is a wave of concern for many people. I wish we could take that $10 billion bond we issued in '08 and just upgrade/electrify and find additional grade seperations on Metrolink, Caltrain, Sprinter...and add some reasonable track between Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, yadda yadda.
Europe doesn't have trains shooting at 220 miles per hour. We're shooting for pie in the sky with a $40 billion system and I believe the cost will skyrocket more! We need to shoot down HSR and re-allocate monies to Amtrak to help electrify, add new track, etc.. Look at how well Amtrak performs in the NE corridor. We don't need billions and billions for that. Dedicate the $8 billion Obama sent in '09 to upgrade existing track. We can have more Acela-like service throughout the USA with Amtrak instead of multiplying our track with a new service.
I'm a transit advocate who will fight for bus-only lanes, light rail (more grade seperations though), subway, pedestrian, and bike improvements. But the costs of HSR do terrify me and I don't see why we cannot just give the billions to Amtrak.
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