Thursday, August 23, 2007

Losing Touch With Reality in Southern California...

...at least one elected official in Orange County, California has apparently lost even a loose grip of reality. That person would be Jerry Amante--Mayor Pro Tem of Tustin and a director of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

He recently wrote this editorial that essentially praises Orange County for building more and more traffic lanes while, in his eyes, Los Angeles erroneously focuses on multi-user transit options:
There is a philosophical difference between OCTA's reputation as a road-builder – at least since the proposed CenterLine light-right system was laid to rest several years ago – and Los Angeles' Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which focuses its resources on subways and rail. What it boils down to is that, in Orange County we're proud to build lanes, not trains.

Mr. Amante, please pause and reflect on what you are really saying. For the last 50+ years, Southern California has been addicted to new road-building/expanding. It has spent billions of dollars on this habit.

And, for what result?

Annually, some of the worst congestion in the United States of America. Yet, now you propose to ramp up this addiction even more?

This reminds Daily Sprawl of the last throes of Soviet Russia--desperately using rhetoric to cling to a failed policy.

We think that your once fellow Golden Stater might have best described this madness:

Mr. Amante, tear down that overpass.