Hearing date on high-speed rail litigation

California Common Sense

A message from the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail:

Finally - A Trial Date In The Tos Case!

Mike Brady, a member of the CC-HSR Board of Directors, and the lead attorney in the case of Tos v. High-Speed Rail Authority, just gave the CC-HSR Board of Directors some very good news.

After more than four years of preparation, arguments, and legal skirmishing, Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny has just set a definitive trial date for the the Tos case.

Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 11, 2016. The trial will take place in Sacramento. Before the trial, of course, there will be extensive briefing of the issues. The Petitioners, who are fighting against the state's HSR project as currently proposed, are represented by Mike Brady and Stuart Flashman. The defendant in the case is the California High-Speed Rail Authority, represented by the Attorney General.

The petitioners in the Tos case, arguing against the currently-configured HSR project, are seeking to demonstrate how the Authority has violated the specific requirements of Proposition 1A. They have a very strong case!

The voters approved the high-speed rail bond based on commitments that the Authority would be able to deliver a project that met minimum trip times, that conformed to environmental requirements, and that didn't require a public subsidy. The project is failing in all these areas.

If the Tos petitioners are successful (and they do have a very strong case against the project), the current project will have to be scrapped.

We will keep you posted, as further legal work ensues. For now, however, we are happy to send this very good news!

CC-HSR thinks that the days of the state's costly, ill-managed, and poorly-conceived HSR project are finally numbered, and February 11, 2016 is the deadline date.

See also Bullet train agency still slow to acquire land on CalWatchdog.com.

Hypocrites 2

From the SF Examiner

More than two years ago I posted about the SF Examiner story (SF's goal of taking its cars off the road hits speed bump) about how city departments were complying---or failing to comply---with a 2010 ordinance that required reducing the use of city cars by 20% by 2015. 

Back on April 29 I asked the Department of the Environment, which is supposed to enforce the ordinance, a simple question: "Do you folks have an update on the information in this graphic from the SF Examiner in 2013?"

Still waiting for an answer. Apparently I'll have to take it to the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force to help me get an answer.

For years the city has been preying on people who drive in San Francisco, and parking tickets, parking meters, and parking garages are a major source of revenue for the city. At the same time, it's been redesigning city streets on behalf of a small minority of cyclists, encouraging city residents to abandon those wicked motor vehicles and take up cycling or ride a chronically underfunded Muni system.

Doesn't seem like too much to ask that city departments follow city policy and, while they're at it, obey the law.

Note that the SFMTA is the biggest offender.