OMG, will someone put an end to this "high speed train" project, its an absolute train wreck financially. Its a disaster that keeps growing in costs with 0 chance of any future profitability or even break even point; an endless maintenance money sink (if built) with no public benefit.

I expect to take an unmanned air taxi to Tahoe or Carmell; within 10 years.

"High Speed" Rail (cough, cough) is a boondoggle. The CA $50 billion shortfall Covid19 is solved, your welcome. Cancel and retrain affected workers to more sensible road and bridge repairs. The consultants can spend their time elsewhere.

I suspect the farmers between Merced and Bakersfield will travel in style only if the travel is heavily subsidized.

Maybe an underground tunnel from San Diego to San Francisco that we can ask Cartel members to cost share would be more fiscally responsible.

It shows that entrenched bureaucracies and special interest groups, like cockroaches, can survive short-term protests. Of course high-speed rail on the Peninsula would be a disaster. Indeed, all mass transit is now in jeopardy with the coronavirus and the realization that mass transit will often produce mass infection of this and other diseases. Mass transit advocates will have alot of explaining to do. But high-speed rail speeding through Mountain View. Absurd.

"I expect to take an unmanned air taxi to Tahoe or Carmell (sic) within 10 years."

And I was expecting we'd each have jet-packs and flying cars by now. Ain't it great to fantasize as a kid?

Build it. Every other serious country has. America last?

It's just never made any real sense. One can currently--for business purposes--go from the bay area to so cal as a long day trip, but it's hard to envision how that could ever happen using HSR (I don't believe for a second that travel time will be three (3) hours). When I lived in the valley, I'd go to LA maybe every couple of years but I never really thought if I could take a train I'd go there a whole lot more. Furthermore, the subsidies this train is going to require to make tickets even remotely competitive with airplanes are going to be enormous. Even what should in theory be the easiest part of the route under current construction is proving very, very difficult. This system was sold under false pretenses and voters stupidly approved it. This is turning into a fiscal Vietnam for the state. Trump is actually right (god, I hate typing that) to want to w/h funds from the project. It's clearly failing to meet it's constantly downsized targets. End it now.

Some of you might have been here and attended at the MV Center for the Performing Arts a discussion pf high-speed rail sponsored by then-state senator Joe Simitian. I like to ask what others don't. So I threw out: what about terrorists? Would not HSR be an easy target? Yes it would. Blow up a tiny piece of track ahead of one train derailing it. Nobody but overpaid employees would ever ride HSR again. Not true of buses, for example. Attacking a single bus would not much discourage bus use. But why worry? Terrorists and viruses are like comets and space aliens. Imaginary threats. No they are not.

Wow. Is this really Silicon Valley? The "Can't Do" attitude here is amazing. I guess this is why BART doesn't run on the Peninsula. You people would have argued against the Bay Bridge because a terrorist can destroy one of the towers but they can't sink all of the ferries.

You can pretend there are no diseases or that they cannot be spread human-to-human or that there are no terrorists or hostile foreign regimes that would ever seek to kill Americans here or abroad or that there are criminals bent on extortion or destruction. Or you can consider real threats in assessing how to organize society - including in selecting or rejecting a form of mass transit. A few years ago, the VTA had a mentally ill man on top of a light rail car. It took all day to get him down. The entire line in San Jose was blocked and could not be used. Half the light rail service in the county was halted. If light rail is that vulnerable, it is not worth the investment. Here, though, is some good news. Not everyone needs to commute to work. Remote working and learning and other living is available. Come on folks. This is Silicon Valley. We don't need BART. We need some new thinking and action.

Yes, we can hide from the bad people in our bunkers with internet access and Amazon will ship us food. Come on folks. Everyone can look out for themselves, except for the people that bring you water and gas and electricity and internet and clean air. A good terrorist will get to you whether you have trains or not.

So a mentally ill man inconvenienced you. There, but for the grace of god go any of us.

Correction: pretend there are NO criminals. And on that topic: how many RUBLES are being paid to FACEBOOK as we post to keep Donald Trump in office? What does FACEBOOK even do for the big money it receives? What good is FACEBOOK when society needs face coverings? Why is more money spent on new weapons than on preventing the spread of diseases? How many voting and counting machines are being targeted for manipulation in the November election? How will mail-in votes in swing states ever be counted if the President shuts down the U.S. Postal Service for lack of funds or to prevent "voter fraud"? Are these real risks to guard against? Or here in Silicon Valley is it just DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY?

Gary! Good to see that you're still keeping busy! I agree with most of what you said regarding HSR. As you know, when I ran for city council, I was opposed to it for the reasons that you mentioned, plus the fact that if that boondoggle ever does get built, it certainly won't be affordable for the masses unless it is highly subsidized; but I agree that it is ridiculous to even consider making a high speed rail virus spreading train to nowhere. Couldn't that money be better used elsewhere; like, Oh I don't know EDUCATING OUR KIDS, (cough). Sorry, that wasn't the virus I swear!

All that said, I can't help but wonder if your comments regarding the President were sarcastic? Hard to tell with the written word sometimes. There's no way the President could shut down the Post Office even if he wanted to. Every time he tries to do ANYTHING, it gets immediately challenged in court (usually here in California so it's a slam dunk that the ruling goes against him) and then it's off to the Supreme Court where most of the time, the ridiculous decision by the 9th Circuit gets overturned. So far, the President has NEVER failed to abide by a court ruling, and if he did, I'm sure that 99.9999% of the media would be happy to say how unconstitutional that is and get people rioting. (Sarcasm intended for that last bit)

Anyway, hope all is well with you and yours. Take care.


Jim Neal
Modesto, Ca
(Formerly Old Mountain View)

Hey Jim. Don't forget our bet. Trump will not serve out his term. He will almost certainly lose his re-election bid unless he shuts down the Postal Service. I will come back to that. After the election, Trump will - at a minimum - resign so he can receive a pardon from President Michael Pence. There is no such thing as pardoning oneself. The Postal Service is not operated by the State of California or any state. It is a federal agency. When it has insufficient money, it cannot pay employees and can be shut down. The President cannot in good conscience allow the Postal Service to not pay employees or run up the national debt. No. Better to shut it down by executive order. Where? Well especially in swing states. Why? Because a candidate who only has 26% support needs a 50% turnout to win. Lower the turnout - or the counting of votes - and Mr. 26% can carry a state and another and win in the electoral college. Sound evil, corrupt? The kind of crap Putin would pull? Exactly why it may happen. No kidding. As to courts, the U.S. Supreme Court has 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Of course, I want all citizens to register and vote - especially in swing states. And, as you may know, I am not a Democrat. I am part of the second largest group of voters in California after Democrats. We are members of no party.