Is Rail Service The Answer To All Our Problems? Does San Diego have Some Solutions? With Photos

ntbraymer

By Noel T. Braymer

This is looking south at the north end of the platforms of the downtown San Diego train station. In recent years there has been a building boom around the station of hi-rise buildings, mostly for housing.

Well maybe not to all our problems. But rail service it is a major factor for relieving traffic congestion, reducing the cost of housing, cleaning air pollution and promoting a healthy economy. Many of these problems are due to over reliance on the automobile for transportation. With this have come hidden costs that subsidize our use of driving. Near the top of this is “free parking”. Most drivers expect to find free parking near their destination. For years local zoning has often required that businesses provide a certain amount of “free” parking around stores, governments around public buildings and for developers to have plentiful parking around housing. The problem with…

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BOLD, DECISIVE ACTION REQUIRED NOW TO PROTECT THE NATIONAL SYSTEM AND ITS STATE-SUPPORTED ROUTES

ntbraymer

By M. E. Singer

Wherever we are located along the national distance route system, we are exhausted hearing the superficial doff of the hats and superficial pledges that do nothing to add or encourage any hope toward meaningful investment in the requisite acquisition of new equipment to increase frequencies and expand routes. Instead of starting with the usual diatribe against the obvious political emphasis of Amtrak’s direction re the Northeast Corridor at the expense of investing in the national system, as we know the historical issues, I prefer to start with my recommendations. Up front, I recommend:

Given the past history of willful neglect by the region’s politicians, and Amtrak’s perpetual “shell game” floating revenues and funding from the national system to shore-up the Northeast  Corridor, the following action must be undertaken to ensure the federal and state governments “sing from the same hymnal” as a matter of national common sense, if we are…

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Christmas Alphabet : M for Joni Mitchell – River

The Immortal Jukebox

It’s coming on Christmas.

They’re playing, ‘Jingle Bells’ and, ‘White Christmas’ in the shopping malls.

A marching Salvation Army brass band wrings the heart with, ‘In The Bleak Winter’.

There’s a tree dressed in tinsel and flickering lights in the Town Square.

Someone said the Reindeer are arriving soon.

Words like Holy, Saviour, Joy and Peace fill the Winter air.

Yet, yet, for some Christmas is not a time of unalloyed Joy.

It’s a time when, whether you want to or not, you’re reminded of Christmases past and the past that haunts your present and is sure to haunt your future.

What happened to the dreams of the 6 year old who believed in the magic of Christmas with all their heart?

The child who whooped with delight as they left crazy spiralling tracks all across the freshly fallen snow?

What became of all those promises the 16 year old…

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