I thought the PRC was trying to get fellow Comrades out of their fossil fueled vehicles and into electric vehicles? Why bother pushing what people are barely using
Car-dependent California seeks to follow New York’s lead and save public transit
Sadaf Zahoor has bucked California’s car culture by never owning one, yet she and other residents who rely on public transit worry its bleak financial outlook could soon leave them standing at empty train stations and bus stops.
The agencies running the public transit systems, particularly in San Francisco and Oakland, where Zahoor lives, have been living off billions of dollars in federal aid that will soon expire.
Ridership plummeted by as much as 94% during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving a gaping budget deficit. Fare box revenues have rebounded a bit, but with more people working from home, some systems haven’t returned to even half their previous levels.
Hmm, the Government locked everyone down, made them stay home, and is shocked that ridership nosedived? And then you have the homeless, crazies, druggies, filth, and criminals on public transit with the cities doing little.
The transit agencies have asked Democrats who control California’s government to rescue them, much like Democrats in New York recently did with a $227 billion spending plan. The request is proving to be a much tougher sell in the nation’s most populous state, where majestic mountain highways and seas of suburban single-family homes have made it far more automobile-reliant than much of the Northeast.
Pumping money into it won’t help when people are avoiding it, because it is often inconvenient and dangerous.
The California Transit Association says transit agencies will have a collective shortfall of about $6 billion over the next five years. The state, which relies heavily on taxes paid by wealthy people, is projected to have a $31.5 billion budget deficit this year amid a struggling stock market and layoffs in the tech industry.
Hmm, so that taxing the rich plan isn’t working? Who woulda thunk it? How many rich folks have abandoned the PRC?
The pandemic was particularly damaging to Bay Area Rapid Transit because as much as 70% of its revenue came from fares — far higher than most other transit systems, said Janice Li, president of the transit system’s board of directors. Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city, relies less on public transit than San Francisco, although voters have expressed support for it in recent years.
Perhaps they should have thought about this before the prolonged lockdowns. You gotta hate it when Democrat policies screw Democrat voting citizens. Speaking of that
Oregon to crack down on illegal pot growers by holding landowners responsible
Oregon has long been known as a mecca for high-quality marijuana, but that reputation has come with a downside: illegal growers who offer huge amounts of cash to lease or buy land and then leave behind pollution, garbage and a drained water table.
Now, a bill passed by the Oregon Legislature seeks to tackle that by making the landowners themselves responsible for the aftermath. The bill also prohibits the use of rivers or groundwater at the illegal site, as well as criminalizes seizing the identity papers of migrant workers who tend the plants or threatening to report them for deportation.
Under the bill, local governments are authorized to file a claim of lien against property used for illicit marijuana, if the owner doesn’t pay for the cleanup.
A leader of the state’s cannabis and alcohol regulatory agency has said southern Oregon is to marijuana what Bordeaux is to wine. But the state faces challenges on two fronts: The regulated industry has a glut of product that has slashed prices and profit margins, and there has been huge growth in illegal pot farms operating under the guise of growing hemp, which became legal nationally in 2018.
So, let’s see: the state legalized marijuana, and thought they’d make a killing in tax revenue off its sale. The prices were kept artificially high, so, citizens took advantage of the system and started growing their own and selling if for a lot less, leaving a glut of “legal” product they can’t sell because it’s too expensive. And because of government policy, they now have to try and get rid of all the illegal growers (who I bet mostly vote Democrat). But, come on, despite the whole war on drugs over many decades, how much of a dent did it make? You could still get pot. How did it work out when prohibition was passed?
Both Robert Stacy McCain and I have written about the problems of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, SEPTA, and the rampant crime, drug use, and homelessness which have seriously compromised rider safety, and the perceptions of potential riders, and SEPTA is in trouble because ridership has not returned to the pre-panicdemic levels. There are proposals for a $3+ billion expansion called the Roosevelt Boulevard subway, but even SEPTA admits that they have lost control of the trains they already have.
The large east coast cities are better suited to mass transportation, but the effects of liberal policies allowing crime to flourish have had the predictable — at least, predictable to anyone not stupid, a category which seems to exclude liberals — effect of driving decent people away from the places in which criminals, the homeless, and junkies congregate.
Cali was hit very hard at the beginning of the Trump epidemic. At that time we had no vaccine and masks were in such short supply that people were told they should only be used by healthcare workers.
Because of the lockdown Cali did quite well in controlling the outbreak coming in at #41 amongst states in the per Capita death rate. The highest per Capita death rates were with the red states that did not mask or kick down. According to the large scale study done by Yale in the states if FL and OH Trump voters were about 2x as likely to die as Biden voters. Depending on ivermectin instead of a vaccine didn’t work well
There have been 101, 159 deaths in Cali from Chinese flu, more than any other state! Cali also had the highest number of Chinese flu cases!.
BTW, if you removed the demonazi run cities from the Red States they would have a lower death rate than Cali in toto. It was the leftist cities that drove the rates up everywhere.
Breaking your numbers down to “per capita” to make some obscure propaganda point fools no one here. Try that shit at Daily Kos. Those stupid fukers buy anything.
Using dumbass comparisons only shows 1.)n your immaturity and 2.) your willingness to lie by omission to fool others. Not an outstanding resume.
CarolAnn,
So it doesn’t make sense to you that the most populous US state might have had the most Covid cases and deaths?
You may be right that expressing data as a “rate” is a wicked plot by scientists (aka propagandists!) to make conservatives appear stupid. Context is for suckers!
Texas had about 75,000 Covid deaths and Vermont had only 400. 75,000/400 = 187.5
Texas handled the Covid pandemic 187.5 times WORSE than Vermont!! What’s the matter with Texas?
CarolAnn: BTW, if you removed the demonazi run cities from the Red States they would have a lower death rate than Cali.
No doubt, if you remove the data from cities (those places where people live) the total deaths would drop!!
In liberal California, residents earned approximately 1.65 TRILLION dollars! In arch-conservative Wyoming, residents only earned 40 billion dollars. Therefore, liberal Californians are some 50 times more productive than the conservative, lazy Wyoming layabouts. 50 times!!!
The astute Mr Dana could, but won’t, explain it all to you.
Dear Elwood:
There are lies, damn lies and statistics. Deaths per million is a great way to compare deaths in different states or countries, etc. But it doesn’t tell us why. What caused the people to die and WHO were these people?
It was recognized early on that the main killing field of Covid was the elderly. Indeed, in TN around 30% of people 70 plus who caught Covid died.
So, the question becomes, what states have the largest number of old folks? What states are people retiring to?
FL? Yes. CA? No. TN? Yes. IL No. AZ? Yes. NY No. You are invited to study the World Meter site for details.
Philly shows the way to increase public transportation ridership, after a bridge on I-95 collapsed.
That I95 collapse should screw up Philly for a year or two. Now if the bros blockade Broad Street they can acxtually close the whole city down. Picture how it’s gonna be getting to the stadiums and all.
The 76ers want to build a new arena in downtown Philly. A lot of people want it, and a lot are opposed, particularly the residents of Chinatown, on which the proposed arena would border. There’s already a SEPTA subway station there. The current Wells Fargo Center, which opened in 1996, hosts the 76ers, the Flyers, and some less important sports. Thye city would not be footing the bill for the new arena, but there’d be infrastructure costs that would fall on government.
OMG !!!! Cami has a 30 billion dollar deficit !!! $30,000,000,000 is a lot of money scary big.
Oh wait maybe not
30billion deficit is only 1% of the entire state budget.
And Carol Ann people live longer in urban areas than in rural areas, apparently living in Dem controlled cities is “healthful”
Here in NYC people live an average of 83 years. I don’t know what state you live but New zyirkers can expect a longer life than in whatever state YOU live
Carol Ann why do you think CA had such a low (41st amongst all states) per Capita death rate?
Increased use of
Ivermectin?
Hydrochlrooquine?
Bleach drinking?
Or masking, vaccinations and lockdowns?
Exactly why was there a 300% per Capita death rate between the lowest and highest death rates ?
Johnny-it’s easy to see why you’re a lib and a global warming cult member.
“30 billion is only 1% of the total state budget..!”
Actually, the latest California budget came in around 308 billion dollars, so a 30 billion deficit would be 10% of the total, not 1%, Mr. carbon boy…
Carbon offset boy-have any data on the voting preferences of those that died vs those that didn’t? Of course you don’t, so those stats don’t mean much, sorry
“California more productive than Wyoming..” Money earned isn’t how worker productivity is measured, and of course Cal. would earn more because there’s more people, obviously. Productivity is usually measured by comparing labor output to hours worked
So you’re recommending using per capita data?
Another commenter claimed: Breaking your numbers down to “per capita” to make some obscure propaganda point fools no one here. Try that shit at Daily Kos. Those stupid fukers buy anything.
Yet, not one conservative commenter corrected the claim.
I’m not recommending anything, just conveying information. It was said that the generally accepted method of measuring productivity is to compare output to hours worked.