Wednesday, October 8, 2008

ladling soup to power, on SC pier



None of us need be reminded, the plus and minuses
of good political-power versus political-abuse.

Etched across our crowded landscape, daily reminders:
good planning versus "what were they thinking?"

We live in the future tense, too often hobbled by bad
planning from before. The results of self-interest
trumping the public-good.

On San Clemente Pier this past Sunday (Oct-5-08),
at SC's annual Chowderfest cook-off, the 5-Time
Individual-Best-on-Pier winningest chowder recipe
Won Again!

Ladled out by S.C.A.T. - SC'ians Against Toll-Roads.

S.C.A.T.'s message: a toll road thru SC is bad-soup
for SC - for the environment - and won't help traffic
a lick. Still TCA keeps its foul toll-stew boiling away
no matter toll road rider-ship's a thing of the past:
gas too high - no more Wall St. backstop - no more
local development fees pouring into TCA's tolling
house of mirrors. OC Toll roads are out of gas.
Their last-ditch ponzi hope: pave to San Onofre.
Scam a couple more Billion in construction-bucks.
Bulldoze hemorrhaging Bond-debt down the road
to the year 3000. Do the math. Who reading this
today will be here to protest?

S.C.A.T. says "STOP." Stop Now.
Bad road-recipe. Dump it.
Can't afford toll.
Tastes really yucky.

One visiting Boston lady (on her 3rd helping)
ran up to S.C.A.T's table exclaiming, "No Competition!
You're the Best Chowder Out Here. I Need More!"

So, Congratulations S.C.A.T. Your winning recipe for
San Onofre and San Clemente remains miles ahead
of the competition and will never leave a bad aftertaste
to our kid's future.

S.C.A.T wins #6
Toll Road - 0

(you are what you eat)

jer

Toll Road to Nowhere, we agree

Thanks to the LATimes for the editorial headline
I've been waiting to read for 10-years,

"Toll Road to Nowhere" - Oct 8, 08.

The follow-up headline should ink:
"A Toll Road Agency to nowhere good."

OC's TCA/Transportation Corridor Agency aka
toll road purveyors, have met their larcenous match -
the economy and high fuel costs, causing TCA's
price-managed toll-traffic to vaporize, as panicky
Supervisors cut toll fares on the 91's vacant toll
lanes now that TCA's once lucrative development
fee stream, fed from OC home-building has gone
bone dry. TCA's mythical traffic-relief via toll roads
is hot on the heels of Wall St's dive into the abyss.

OC's Private Investor Highway model only ever
worked on Wall St spread-sheets, causing OC and
Riv-County commuters to stall-out on decades long
politico-mischief & mass transit prejudices - their
only commute choice: private-interest, quick-buck
car-commuting to lands further and further out with
no way home today, except on overtaxed freeways
at $60 to $100 a tank fill-ups.

Result: TCA's 51-mile toll-folly basks empty in So-Cal's
sunniest clime thanks to 30-years of shortsighted
development greed and political-gaming, driving
us nowhere fast, with no train in sight.

So, throw the bums out?

OC's harsh transportation reality leaves little choice,
because "They" - OC's brain trust (gone-bust) believe
everything's just fine. Going according to plan.

Ironically, TCA plans to widen their empty toll roads
to nowhere. So who pays? Who always pays.
Stop TCA before they pave again.
Stop TCA, period.
And let our traffic flow.