Stimulus Money Well Spent

I have ridden on the subways in D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Toronto.  All of them provide a marvelous means of transportation.  Here in Los Angeles we really only have one subway line.  It stretches from Downtown to North Hollywood for 17.4 miles.  The usage proves that the city needs a subway system.  Seats are difficult to find at mid-day.

Angelenoes love their cars.  I have grown up in this city and have driven through some of the worst traffic nightmares.  They were on the 101, 405, and 5 freeways.  Some traffic has made a 30 minute drive into a 3 hour nightmare.  A trip from my home to LAX (using the 101 and the 405) is 30 miles but you should allow 1½ hours and that is the time without serious accidents.    

For two years I worked on Wilshire Boulevard.  It always amazed me that conventional buses would travel down that street in group of three to accommodate the extraordinary need for public transportation.  That was happening at lunch time not at rush hour times.  If you missed a group of three there will be another group in 5 minutes.  In spite of the obvious need for a subway under that boulevard it has been resisted by many people.  The NIMBYs have succeeded and in the process have hurt the city’s poorest people and caused major traffic congestion.  Who cares about the poorest among us?  The have no political voice and so they are ignored.

In the mid 1980s NIMBYs successfully had a federal law passed prohibiting the construction of a subway under Wilshire Boulevard.  Now that the congestion has become overwhelming, that law has been reversed.  The mayor wants to see this project completed in less than ten years.  Building that $6.1 billion subway would employ many thousands people and the resulting mass transit would be eco-friendly.  This would be a worthwhile project for stimulus money.      

Environmentalists Are Too Late

On March 1, 2009 I wrote about Solving the California Drought through the use of water desalination.  Today’s Los Angeles Times reported that the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has unanimously approved the project.  Astonishingly there are environmentalists who oppose the project because they believe it will harm the coast.   The Times report does not explain the reasoning behind the opposition.

It is interesting to note that there was little or no opposition to the over building of homes throughout California.  The urbanization of Southern California was the real issue and there is still little opposition to the continuing construction of homes and businesses throught the state.

Solving the California Drought

California is facing a drought says the governor and the mayor of Los Angeles.  OK we all understand that we have a serious problem.  There has been no discussion about ways to obtain additional water.

 

Other nations located in arid climates have looked to desalination.  There are functioning facilities throughout the middle east and Australia.  The most successful of them is the Askilon facility in Israel.  The cost of producing drinkable (potable) water is ½ cent per gallon.  That is about the same cost as the water provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

 

Happily there is a desalination facility planned in San Diego County.  For some unknown reason this project has been ignored by both Los Angeles Mayor Villaragosa and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Poseidon Resources Group of Connecticut is about to build a facility in Carlsbad, California.  The “project will provide San Diego County with a locally-controlled, drought-proof supply of high-quality water that meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards.”

 

What I do not understand is the behavior of government in retaining the available water.  There is the issue of water use on government property including the sides of freeways.  Further there is the issue of broken fire hydrants that take weeks to repair.  The biggest loss of water is in the Los Angeles River (really a giant storm drain system).  There is no program in place to catch water from that river to add to our supply. 

 

Until our government takes water conservation seriously the pubic won’t.

Paradise Lost

NOW, on PBS every Friday evening, offered the best example I have seen that confirms the impact of global warning.  Paradise Lost documents the plight of the nation of Kiribati.  This island nation is most likely to become the first victim of global warming as the rising seas drown the islands.  There is probably nothing that can be done to save the land.

This is not the first indication of global warning.  Ships are now able to traverse the north rim of North America.  There was a documentary about Glacier National Park in Montana.  The governor of that state flew over the park with a reporter.  The governor pointed out the areas that had been covered with glacial ice in past years but are now all barren rock.  He stated that each year the ice retreats and predicted that eventually all of it will be gone.

Man’s paradise is this planet.  It is changing in significant ways.  I am convinced that man has contributed to the changes that are occurring now.  Can we make an impact?  Of course I do not know.  Isn’t it worth trying?