Page 6 - Sonoma County Gazette February 2020

LETTERS cont’d from page 5
NOT a Hospital
the infrastructure we now enjoy. There are now 45 miles of rail with 12 stations, more trains and new SF Ferry service, new service to Larkspur and downtown Novato, and Windsor construction due to be completed next year. Significant progress has been made on the Pathway. Although not complete, I have every reason to believe it will be.
reconstruction of the roadbed and tracks and when funding becomes available. About a third of the active right of way now has a completed pathway and several additional segments are funded and in various stages of completion.
If officers who don’t understand that can’t be dissuaded from disgracing those who do, a time may come when even our Best & Finest can’t convince 12 jurors to trust their word.
I (and most West County voters) won’t vote for anything that spends more of our money until the County dissolves the Palm Drive Health Care District. The District was created in 2004 to oversee a community hospital.
To realize these accomplishments, SMART needed a talented General Manager with extensive local experience in infrastructure projects. Although Farhad Mansourian inherited an underfunded mandate, a vision he didn’t originate, and
IOLERO oversight should also be welcomed so the public can know how professional the vast majority of our deputies behave and appreciate the difficulties they face. Otherwise, the question arises: Who’s hiding what? Sadly, suspicions can too easily become fact for a public exposed almost daily to confirmed reports of incidents such as:
That hospital has been bankrupt twice, run a consistent deficit, and floated bonds we will be paying for til at least 2034.
This is the first new transit infrastructure in the North Bay for over 60 years, and it wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t saved
the right of way to build SMART.
We need to support SMART’s Strategic Plan to refinance, saving $12 million a year. This is practical fiscal management. Numbers are
up for weekday commuter service, but the continued focus on weekend ridership is a distraction from the real gem of an alternative to the 101 highway. In doubt about Measure I? Go and experience this beauty of a rail system. Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good.
~ An unarmed man in NYC surrounded and strangled to death by police for selling loose cigarettes.
The District recently sold the hospital (at a firesafe price) to a private operator from Texas. There is no real ‘oversight’ role anymore for the District but it refuses to shut itself down and stop spending/wasting the $400K/year for staff (incl. a $150K part time exec. director) and other overhead and unauthorized ‘medical related’ grants.
rail vehicles he didn’t select, he was able to assemble a highly capable team and build the system we have today. To do so, SMART secured $323 million of capital funding grants from state and federal programs. While some may question Mr. Mansourian’s style, It is hard to ignore his accomplishments.
~ Fleeing suspects, shot in the back in PA, CA and elsewhere.
This expensive, redundant, opaque, and incompetent District is a slap in the face of taxpayers.
~ A gun-waving Phoenix officer terrorizing a mother & her 4-year old suspected of shoplifting a doll.
A group of us is gathering signatures to demand that LAFCO dissolve the District. We need 10% of registered ‘District’ voters (that’s 2400 sigs from Seb/Occi/Graton/Meeker).
Many of us fail to appreciate the extreme difficultly, cost and time required to build infrastructure projects of any kind in the US. High labor and material costs
~ A mentally ill homeless man, beaten to death by six (6) Fullerton police.
in a growing economy, layers of often conflicting regulations and permitting requirements, obtaining the approval of the Federal Railroad Administration, and satisfying
~ A Dog, riding in his homeless master’s shopping cart, shot to death by San Francisco police for “behaving aggressively.”
At a time when we’re being asked for more tax money for the train,
fire, Analy....then soon for the library, homeless housing.... people are righteously furious that $400K is being blatantly wasted.
Dani-Sheean-Meyer
While it is difficult for a supporter of SMART to be completely objective, here is a response to your request for a review of the arguments being used regarding the SMART Train:
Despite the recent firing of an officer for brutalizing a suspect who later died, Sonoma County remains scarred by the death of 13-year old Andy Lopez at the hands of a deputy later promoted. Sheriff support
for a strong, well-funded IOLERO would evidence a determination
to make such tragedies history — not policy — and help combat the distrust our deputies must overcome every day. And if that’s not reason enough to embrace IOLERO, money should be; i.e., the millions to settle lawsuits, paid by the county to avoid potentially greater damages at the hands of juries disturbed if not outraged by what they might learn at trial.
Please sign our petition to Dissolve Palm Drive District!
the needs of numerous cities and stakeholders are only a few of the challenges the SMART team faced.
at the door, because it’s “behaving aggressively.” Most wouldn’t, but until IOLERO is strengthened — hide the Dog.
Measure I will restructure the bonds that were issued to build
We have now seen an initial segment serving 10 stations, followed by the extension to Larkspur, and
we expect extensions north of
the Sonoma County Airport as
State and Federal funding allows. Segments of the bike-pedestrian
path are necessarily built following
bob edwards, Sonoma
Nancy Hair, Sebastopol
In 2008, voters decided to fund the SMART project, but it has proved too hard to deliver the entire ambitious vision in Measure Q within just
SMART was also required to implement the first Positive Train Control system for a new passenger railroad in the US. An outdated bridge over the Petaluma River had to be replaced, and SMART saved millions of dollars by bringing a slightly used drawbridge in from Texas and restoring it to nearly new condition. What the SMART team has achieved in a short time with few hiccups is remarkable.
At the very least, citizens should not have to worry that deputies responding to a 911 might shoot dead the family Dog who greets them
SMART, Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good
In recent letters to the Editor and at the last SMART Board meeting (1.8.20) I noticed a distinct tendency during “Public Comments” toward
a ‘my way, or no way’ regarding upcoming Measure I (Stay Green Keep SMART). People seem to think that all things can be controlled and as individuals they are offended if it’s not exactly their way. Our system is only a toddler and will grow stronger with the right nourishment.
a few years. The Great Recession
was well under way when the first 1/4% sales tax receipts came in, so available funds were much lower than predicted. It also took longer than expected to get the needed permits for construction of the track and pathway, and by the time a contract to build the project could be negotiated, construction costs were rapidly rising. The project was being financially whipsawed. The SMART Board had to deliver rail service, and the multi- use pathway in less ambitious stages.
Train service is expected to improve air quality and the environment generally. As an example, SMART has published calculations showing that the trains have thus far operated with 1/3 less greenhouse gas emissions (climate changing GHG) than the automobiles that it has taken off the road. This benefit is likely to improve because the number of train riders is likely to increase. SMART opponents assume that the current railcar emissions will continue, and that GHG emissions from busses and automobiles will decline as electric
LETTERS & OPINIONS:
email to editor@sonomacountygazette.com
LETTERS cont’d on page 7
6 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 2/20