241 Watch: A Suggestion For Bill Lockyer
Posted by: Jubal | 01/18/2008 4:40 PM
The environmentalism-uber-alles
crowd wields a lot of influence in the California Democratic Party, and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer -- who wants to be Governor some day -- today reached out from the pages of the Los Angeles Times to remind them he's still with them on their pet cause: stopping completion of the 241 tollroad in South Orange County.
Lockyer urged
the California Coastal Commission to find the proposed route inconsistent with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. Lockyer claims the goal of traffic relief can "be accomplished with alternative
means that do no environmental harm."
Lockyer is referring to widening Interstate 5, which would entail the destruction of hundreds of homes, businesses, churches, schools and other institutions.
I
have a suggestion for Lockyer. I'll obtain a list of the properties that would be obliterated in order to widen the 5, and he can visit each homeowner, each business owner, property owner, each school head and tell them:
Traffic is really bad so I want to let you know we're going to take your home in order to widen the 5 freeway.
Sure, we could finish the 241 tollroad instead, but frankly you and your home are less important to me and the powerful environmental interest in my party than habitat for Pacific Pocket Mice and Steelhead Trout no one has seen.
After all, isn't that why you elect people like me to office? To protect your interests?"
I look forward to hearing from Mr. Lockyer, especially if I can bring along a video camera for this particular precinct walk..
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
Widening freeways is not the only option for moving people in South Orange County.
Yes it is. Unless you have a train that takes off from my front door and stops at my work and leaves whenever I'm ready.
Parents have kids, kid's friends, baseball equipment and hocky equipment to carry, groceries to buy and we are not taking that stuff on the metro, bus or the subway.
Why are Democrats so opposed to building things people want? Like dams, powerplants and ROADS!!!
Because they would rather sleep with the lizards and toads and fairy shrimp alongside all the illegal aliens crossing the border.
Maybe we should cede all of California to the critters. All humans (except the illegal aliens), all republicans, democrats, all other parties, and all the enviros can move to another state of their choosing.
Then make the entire state an illegal alien safe house state.
Gee, that almost sounds like the democratic party platform.
I'll obtain a list of the properties that would be obliterated in order to widen the 5, and he can visit each homeowner
Matt, the TCA took a big black magic marker and drew fat lines alongside the 5 to show how many houses would be removed to widen the 5. They never actually analyzed how wide that swath would be or precisely where it would go.
The reality is that most of what abuts the freeway in South OC is commercial and light industrial. Yes, widening would take some homes but the numbers need not be anything near the histrionic estimates made by the TCA.
Furthermore, relatively few people oppose extending the 241 entirely. Most (including Lockyer, I believe) simply don't want it to meet I-5 at the location currently studied.
The TCA hasn't chosen the proposed route because it will save houses. Don't kid yourselves -- they chose the route through San Onofre because that's the cheapest and easiest place for them to build. Period.
Why not just extend the 241 to Ortega Highway and widen Ortega Highway between Antonio Parkway and the 5 Freeway?
TCA maps were drawn in the 1980s and 1990s when county leaders expected an airport to be constructed at El Toro that would bring thousands more drivers to and from surrounding counties.
Now's the time to shelve this old, outdated traffic plan and put our roads where they're needed most, and not through wilderness that will never be developed.
No 241, Save the Trestles!
Too bad the facts don't support anything you say:
The Toll Roads were placed on the Orange County Master Plan of Arterial Highways in 1981.
In 1993 MCAS El Toro was selected for closure.
The idea of the Base converting to a commercial airport was first analyzed in 1994.
Nobody knew El Toro would close when the toll roads were added the OC Master Plan of Arterial Higways in 1981.
12:17 pm, what part of Disneyland do you live in? Whatever part, I'm sure it is a magical place full of make-believe.