Journalism in North County Misleading as Usual?

I-5 editorial false and misleading

I read with dismay (but little surprise) the North County Times' false and misleading editorial, "Kehoe bill is poison pill," Feb. 20. The North County Times has reported dozens of stories of citizen opposition to the proposed expansion of Interstate 5 since July of 2010, which the editors have apparently failed to read.
The cities of Oceanside and Solana Beach, for example, shared consultants to evaluate the draft environmental impact report at a cost of $80,000 each. The Solana Beach report called the expansion plan "ambiguous and unstable," and Councilmember Dave Roberts facetiously suggested suing Caltrans to get our money back. The Oceanside report found very little benefit from the proposed expansion while enormous harm would befall Oceanside citizens, who may lose up to 18 parcels (including apartment buildings) and 26 more partial "takes."
Dozens more comments on the DEIR savagely criticized Caltrans for a horribly botched report that totally ignores air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Sen. Kehoe is to be complimented for taking this case to a higher court. Despite the rabidly pro-expansionist vote of the San Diego Association of Governments board, the reality of the California budget crisis is that we cannot afford this monstrosity and the funds are better spent improving mass transit.
Steve Goetsch
Citizens Against Freeway Expansion
Solana Beach

The I-5 decision: Time for a new direction

By Duncan McFetridge & Jim Mills

Friday, February 25, 2011 at midnight

The world is changing and the demands facing our region – high energy costs, foreign oil dependence, water scarcity, transportation, housing, jobs, rising sea level – are, to put it mildly, taxing. But now, in a time of need, a leader steps forward and does the astonishing: state Sen. Christine Kehoe introduces legislation to meet the environmental and social challenges of a new century by prioritizing transit over the building of Interstate 5. Yes, someone steps up to meet the real resource needs of the San Diego region and gives priority to the people, their health and their communities.

It is time for change and widening I-5 is not the solution. On the other hand, the I-5 corridor is tailor-made for successful transit because a second track for the Coaster already has right of way and is just waiting to be built. And it makes sense, because to the south, the Coaster connects with the heart of region, downtown San Diego , and to the north it connects with the Sprinter, which runs inland to the cities of Vista, San Marcos and Escondido. Thus the Coaster is a vital link in connecting most of the city centers in the subregion by rail. All of these cities are undertaking major infill transit-based projects which mean transit stations will be in walking distance to many urban residents. In addition, fast, efficient double tracking rail can handle the capacity of four lanes of freeways and will thus reduce congestion instead of producing more traffic.

SANDAG wants you to believe that it is funding freeway expansion and transit at the same time. But the so-called transit plan is off somewhere in the distant future. What is being funded, expanded and built now is the same thing that has been funded and built for the past 40 years: freeways and sprawl development.

The so-called argument for building I-5 is a clever rehash of old propaganda: that the people want it, that it’s vital for the economy, that it’s necessary to relieve congestion and that it is part of a balanced transit-freeway approach that SANDAG calls the hybrid plan. But the fact is every argument for building I-5 is a salesman’s pitch filled with half-truths and developer propaganda. In truth, I-5 is exactly what the people don’t want, don’t need and, if it is ever expanded, will be obsolete the moment it is finished because it doesn’t serve the people or their community. Instead, it actually creates more congestion by promoting ever more distant subdivisions of resource land.

Here is the truth about a first-class transit system option:

• Fact 1: To find out what the people want, look at the latest authoritative survey of San Diego voters and see that an overwhelming majority prefer transit over freeways and infill transit-oriented development over sprawl housing (transitsandiego.org/transitsandiego/pdf/San_Diego_Transit_Preference_Survey.pdf).

• Fact 2: Roads don’t relieve congestion, they produce it.

• Fact 3: In a time of severe energy dependence and resource limits threatening our national security and quality of life, transit-based communities save resources and create jobs.

• Fact 4: When we build freeways to expensive future sprawl homes, we deny infrastructure to the urban areas where it is needed by most of the people.

• Fact 5: By making us ever more auto-dependent, freeways pose serious health threats to people, air quality and the environment.

• Fact 6: Transit can help lower our dependence on foreign oil. Cars consume two-thirds of our daily addiction of 20 million barrels. Military officers warn us that our foreign oil consumption constitutes a threat to national security. If the nation were to have 10 percent transit ridership, we could lessen our dependence on foreign oil by 40 percent.

The people are ahead of most local politicians and know that before gasoline hits $5 a gallon, we must begin to change from unsustainable resource-guzzling sprawl to efficient, pedestrian-friendly community building. Kehoe has made a courageous first step in that direction and citizens need to follow up by giving vigorous support to her legislative effort. Let’s leave the failed policies and sprawl-is-good-for-you propaganda behind and support a community transportation plan that works for the future.

McFetridge is director of Transitsandiego.org. Mills is a past president of the Metropolitan Transit System and was Senate president pro tem from 1971-80.

Courtesty of the San Diego Union Tribune February 25, 2011

Starve The Beast

There have been many attempts to reason with our governing officials on why the proposed expansion of I-5 along our coastal corridor is wrong. But as most of us have learned, reason and facts are seldom considered in making decisions that affect the lives of we the tax paying citizens.

One effective way to pull the plug or minimize this nightmare project is to take away the money. While this project is funded by Federal, State and local tax revenues, one way to hit the budget is through the State's contribution. Our newly elected governor, Jerry Brown, is hacking away at the budget. So let's encourage him to take away or minimize the state's contribution. Email our governor (http://gov.ca.gov/m_contact.php) and remind him that since the state is bankrupt, we can not afford a $4billion project that started out as a $200 million project 10 years ago. Also remind him that the expansion to 14 lanes won't solve the traffic congestion...it never has in this state.

So keep the pressure on and make your voice heard.

Lots of Projects...Maybe Not Enough of Your Money?

SANDAG grapples with shaping the future with dwindling funds

By Robert J. Hawkins

Originally published February 3, 2011 at 2:15 p.m., updated February 4, 2011 at 11:15 a.m

Barona indian reservation — SANDAG Chairman and Mayor of Encinitas Jerome Stocks, described the regional planning group as "a very busy agency with a lot of balls in the air," at the annual strategic planning summit at Barona Casino and Resort on Thursday.

"About $9.2 billion worth of projects in the pipeline," according to the executive director of the agency Gary L. Gallegos.

The San Diego Association of Governments staff and directors, with local politicians and advocates, are gathered to talk about that $9.2 billion and the $110 billion that it plans on spending over the next 40 years on highways, mass transit, bicycling and pedestrians and an array of other projects, and how they all figure into the relatively new concept, sustainable communities.

That 40-year spending plan is being articulated right now and will be out in what promises to be a well-read document in April, the draft 2050 Regional Transportation Plan.

Money and policy go hand in hand and for several hours a robust dialogue spun around the meeting room trying to answer the fundamental questions at the core: What kind of community do we want to be 40 years from now?

The regional transportation plan will go a long way toward answering that question and staff and directors try to strike a balance between bigger, more-managed and less-cluttered highways; mass transit and public transit; bikeways that will interlace much of the county; and whether or not the public wants to or should want to abandon its cars for bicycles.

Before grappling with the future, the audience got a run down of just how many "balls " were in the air in 2010. By any standard, it was a great year to be in highway construction and design.

·         Widening has begun on the middle section of SR 76, from Melrose to Mission, in North County.

·         Work continues on the I-15 Express Lanes project.

·         The extension of State Route 52 to Santee is nearly done.

·         The massive $620 million overhaul of the San Diego Trolley's Blue and Orange lines was launched .

·         Design has begun on the I-805 expansion.

·         A route for the Mid-Coast Trolley extension was approved.

·         A regional bicycle master plan was adopted.

·         Green house gas emission targets for the region were set -- a move that instantly raises the importance of reducing smog-spewing traffic on the highways.

·         On the books in various stages are more than a dozen projects to improve the coastal rail corridor, from double tracking to bridge replacement to street crossings.

As a bellwether to the year ahead, Gallegos noted that there is "an unprecedented number of environmental documents in circulation" for future projects, including the widening of I-5, the final leg of State Route 76 expansion, State Route 11 and the new border crossing and, for variety, a plan for sand replenishment on local beaches which could be ready to go by March 2012.

The economy and the disappearing funding from state and federal agencies were cause for some consternation although much of the funding of county projects comes from the TransNet Fund, a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2004.

"Almost all money being collected at the state and federal level is being used to maintain what we already have," said Gallegos.

But a down economy is also good for SANDAG. Gallegos noted that in 2010, the agency acquired $350 million in funds at a fixed rate of 3.89 percent -- the lowest rate in the agency's history. The money, he noted, enables the agency to move up the schedules of many critical transportation projects.

Something new to the discussion this year -- in this form at least -- was the concept of "sustainable communities." It is an umbrella term under which is collected strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the number of cars on highways, creating more alternative transportation, guiding future growth into denser urban areas and harnessing technology to give us all better lives.

In other words, "elected officials having to make unpopular decisions," quipped Jim Madaffer, former San Diego City Council member.

San Marcos mayor Jim Desmond questioned the use of policy to prod people into taking mass transit and car pools. "I have a problem with forcing people out of their cars," he said. "I want to be in my pod. I don't want to hear your music, I don't want to listen to you sneeze...

"We're trying to force change in people's behavior."

Port Authority chairman Scott Peters sees the process differently. "We know growing closer in(to urban areas) is cheaper, that building new roads takes money from old roads," he said. If nothing is done, "Desmond will be spending extra time in his car in the future. It will be his choice."

Elyse Lowe of the advocacy group Move San Diego said creating transportation options "is not forcing people from cars but making it possible to have fewer cars in the family."

Others wondered about the consequences of living environmentally sound lives. La Mesa mayor Art Madrid pointed out that successful water conservation projects can end with higher water rates, to compensate for the lower revenues.

San Diego city councilman David Alvarez wondered "how do you (create) incentives when fares are increasing and transfers have been eliminated."

Courtesy of SignOn San Diego - The San Diego Union-Tribune