I'm very neutral at this point about rail transit going on the ballot. I don't like initiative, but we have it at the City level and a judge has said the Stop Rail petitioners have a legal right to present their case to the voters.
My legal background leaves me surprised by Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto's comments from the bench about his ruling. I always appreciated judge Simeon Acoba's approach, which was that he just issued a ruling — no remarks that could be taken into consideration by an appeals court.
I hope the City doesn't appeal. I sense that the citizens want to vote. But the problem with such initiatives is that he who spends the most on the best advertising is likely to win. Sakamoto's ruling is a huge money boon for our newspapers, radio and television stations. They'll rake in big bucks in ads without any of us really knowing any more about trains or no trains than we do today. The undecideds will vote on an emotional level.
Here's another problem. The anti-rail people don't have a huge pot of money. Cliff Slater and a few others. Pro-rail will draw on unions who want the work and maybe more City money (that bothers me because although I fully support rail, I want you to join me without us having to spend any more than the $3.7 billion already allocated.)
We DO know everything we need to know to make the rail decision. The City HAS put people at every community meeting. The experts HAVE endorsed steel-on-steel. But now we'll be bombarded with ads of little education to most of us. I get swamped by those Stop Rail e-mails. Nothing I haven't heard. Nothing I haven't discounted. God knows who this Ben Remelb is but he sure loses me with his daily e-mails. Ben, once a week is enough unless you have something new to say. Otherwise, you now go in the Junk.
But, hey, the vote for November is cool. If you don't want rail but prefer more buses or a fly-over toll road or taxis or personal jet-packs ... it's your choice under our City Charter which allows you to take the decision away from your elected officials.
Remember, however, that if you vote NO RAIL, you've not said what else. You're not voting for buses or toll roads or more van lanes or that we should all take taxis.
You're just voting NO RAIL -- no steel-on-steel, no MagLev.
You're voting for cars.
Bob Jones is a MidWeek columnist who can be reached at mailto:BanyanHouse@hula.net
