Jerry Brown Gives Vote of Confidence to HSR Project

[bananas]

http://www.cahsrblog.com/2011/08/jerry-brown-gives-vote-of-confidence-to-hsr-project/

Jerry Brown Gives Vote of Confidence to HSR Project
Aug 17th, 2011 | Posted by Robert Cruickshank

30 years ago, Governor Jerry Brown brought the concept of high speed rail to California. He fought hard to get Caltrans to embrace it and when a group of Japanese investors proposed a Shinkansen-style train from Los Angeles to San Diego in the early 1980s, Brown helped their project along, including giving it a CEQA exemption. The project died after Brown left office in 1983, but the concept remained.

As California is on the verge of building its first set of high speed tracks in the Central Valley, there’s been a lot of criticism of the project from longtime opponents. They’ve been getting traction given the general political movement towards reckless and insane austerity. But Jerry Brown, once again occupying the governor’s office, refuses to give in and abandon support for this transformative and important project.

In a meeting with the Fresno Bee editorial board, Brown reiterated his commitment to the project:

<snip>

“The numbers look big,” Brown said, but he added that the investment is small when compared to the state’s economic productivity over the life of the system. That, he suggested, is why the state needs to “look to the future instead of the past.”

This is the best quote of all. Brown understands the value of investment, the dividends that HSR will create, and the need to build for the future.

[Le Taz Hot]

1. There is a vocal minority in the Central Valley

who are against high-speed rail. I assure you, in an area with a 16% unemployment rate, the minute people heard HSR will bring in 125,000 jobs, the VAST MAJORITY here are all very much for it and that includes conservatives.

[mbob731325]

2. +1

[Throd]

3. A bad idea that might provide jobs is still a bad idea.

This is our "Big Dig".