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April 29, 2021
NOBODY ASKED ME and nobody told me, but I can’t see the logic behind all this chicken-cackling and frantic kicking up of dust clouds to kill the SMART train project planned for the already existing railroad tracks in Marin and Sonoma counties. It’s a classic case of snipping off one’s nose to spite the face.
Oh, to be sure, SMART higher-ups have done their share to feed ammunition to their foes with clumsy decisions like throwing exorbitant bundles of money at head honchos to “hire the best talent,” and then tossing overboard a professional talent to explain it all to a grumbling public. The image the poor guy had to explain bore marked similarities to telling ancient Romans Attila the Hun was really a swell guy who loved purring kittens on his lap and gave sugar cubes to his horse.
I GET THE impression backers of this ballot measure to kill the truncated commute train’s baby steps are securely cosseted from the economic recession 99 percent of us are treading water in. They’re fully employed, maybe running a Wall Street subsidiary office out here or shuffling foreclosure notices in a West Coast mega-bank office. Their idea of long-range vision doesn’t get much further than the nearest ATM location or groping for the TV joystick between the sofa cushions.
It seems to me when the whole world’s gripped in economic doldrums, you cut back spending and forget niceties like instant gratification. Throwing an infantile tantrum, bawling in frustration and threatening to stick a knife in the family SUV’s tires is, shall we say, non-productive.
FORTY YEARS AGO they had a rail line running between Petaluma and Santa Rosa. They got rid of passenger traffic years before, but the rails stayed for a while longer. At the time my wife and I were living in the Hessel district, there was a pencil factory in a warehouse located near the Hessel school, and a small train frequently brought in wood and then loaded up with finished pencils for distribution.
I thought this was a sensible way to encourage small business and could be done elsewhere along the line. But no, they tore up the rails, and the only reminder of the train is Orchard Station Road. The station itself is long gone.
Now, another railroad, a much bigger one, is under attack by the next generation of “do-gooders” whose vision of the counties’ future is limited by the length of their arms.
THEY DIDN’T OFFER any alternatives to the railroad 40 years ago except “add another lane to the freeway.”
Fleets of diesel trucks, grumbling noisily, were already poised to pollute the freeway north and south.
Proponents of the plan to slay SMART by scissoring its jugular have offered no alternatives. They’re very careful about not mentioning, “Well, we could always add another freeway lane.” They know residents of both counties do not favor waking up to the sounds of eight or 10 lanes of freeway traffic outside their bedroom windows. But if SMART sinks at the ballot box, what else can they offer?
IT’S TOUGH TO accept the fact SMART is a long-term project. Thanks to the Internet and television, instant gratification has evolved into an accepted feature of everyday life and not a privileged blessing thanks to Silicon Valley innovators.
I’ll be surprised if the rail line between Santa Rosa and San Rafael is completely finished within a decade.
The completion of a Cloverdale to Larkspur line could easily be 20 or 30 years in the future unless some sort of a worldwide economic recovery is thrown our way in the next few years.
This concept is unacceptable to those whimpering, “I want what I paid for and I want it now or I’m gonna kill it.” How childish this sounds.
YEARS AGO, Peter Calthorpe had the right vision. He envisioned a Marin and Sonoma railroad line with small urban clusters of businesses and homes built along the tracks, sort of like the Hessel pencil factory of 40 years ago with room to grow. The rest of the two counties would be mostly rural, albeit they’ll have to fight to keep it this way. No one doubts both counties will continue to grow once the economic recession’s shoved aside.
It’s interesting to note Rohnert Park, Cotati and Penngrove already have embraced Calthorpe’s vision of the future. All they need are the trains.
Do we have to tie a pretty lady to the tracks to save the rails like in the old silent movies, from the hordes of infantile instant gratification addicts? Any volunteers out there?
