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By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Farhad Mansourian, head of the $60 million Sonoma-Marin commute rail project, went into the lion’s den Thursday, speaking to the Sonoma County Taxpayers’ Association.
Farhad Mansourian
“I don’t think it is any surprise that the association was not a supporter of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail District,” said Jack Atkin, president of the Sonoma County Taxpayers Association. “But now that we have the district, we still have an interest in seeing the agency use taxpayer resources effectively and efficiently.”
In that regard, Atkin said after the meeting, “there is still work to do.”
Mansourian, who has been SMART’s general manager for a year, spent an hour talking to the group, fielding questions, stressing the money he believes he has saved the district and defending the need for an alternative transportation system.
“The congestion on Highway 101, is it going to get worse?” asked Mansourian, who spent three decades in Marin’s public works department. “I’ve widened 101 many times in Marin and look at it today … parking lot. Look at Sonoma County … parking lot.”
SMART initially is building a $360 million line from Guerneville Road in Santa Rosa to downtown San Rafael. That’s a 40-mile route as compared to the 70 miles from Cloverdale to Larkspur that was promised voters in 2008.
It is financed by a quarter cent sales tax and by local, regional, state and federal funds.
Association members challenged whether SMART will carry enough riders to be effective, questioned whether public trust has been eroded by SMART’s financial difficulties and urged SMART to undertake pension reform as it gets ready to hire more employees.
Mansourian said he couldn’t say specifically what the number of weekday riders will be, but believes that people will take a 55-minute ride on SMART between downtown Santa Rosa and downtown San Rafael to avoid a 90-minute drive, and believes weekend tourist traffic will be greater than expected.
The district’s financial difficulties were caused by a recession that depressed sales tax revenues and could not have been foreseen, Mansourian said.
“You are huge on saying live within your means,” said Mansourian, addressing the association members. “When the SMART board phased the project in, they lived within their means.”
SMART was criticized for seeking to block the effort by a group of critics, RepealSMART, to put the sales tax before voters again in November and for spending money on a radio and newspaper ad campaign. The critics failed to gather enough signatures to force a ballot measure.
Mansourian said he could not predict when the train might be extended to Cloverdale, but it was SMART’s intention to build the full Cloverdale-to-Larkspur system.
Mansourian was applauded following the speech, but it was doubtful any minds were changed.
“I think it was a productive dialogue,” Atkin said. “I don’t think it changed that we are highly skeptical of commute rail in a rural area that doesn’t connect to a major city.”
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.
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The train is to transport the dead bodies once the new world order is in place. Wake up people!
SMART is the biggest progressive scam Sonoma/Marin counties have ever seen. It is destroying our road system, our economy by spending our precious tax dollars on a needless and unwanted public project and will create, if ever finished, a huge public debt.
The repeal initative could not get the required signatures because of the phoney time limit and the rules the Unsmart board setup to control the election.
That all said, this train to nowhere has no real future in terms of regional transportation. Why, because it doesn’t meet the needs of the potential passenger pool. It doesn’t go where the public needs to go.
Hey Not A Chance:
if you are a public official complicit in this train to tyranny and OneBayArea,
many of us will see to it that you
‘enjoy the ride’.
OK, natural gas.
Either way it would save LOTS of zeros,
lots of property rights, lots of freedoms and lots of oppression.
Buses would actually get you into the City.
I was thinking bio might employ some local folks.
When they use the term ‘shovel ready’,
I think I’m learning what the shovel is really for.
It’s possible to learn from your own errors and other people’s mistakes, such as SMART. I hope other counties look at this project and see what not to do.
Whether left-wingers can ever learn from their repeated stupid mistakes is another question, but theoretically possible. If only we could find one tiny bit of proof.
For Jim, Bio-diesel for buses ? Nat gas is the way. Cheap and clean and plentiful.
Go Nat Gas !!!!
Graeme has it right. I have taken the Sonoma County Transit buses, along with the Goilden Gate Transit, and most always taking my very nice urban warrior mtn bike ( kinda dichotomous ) but really, my brother lives in SF, and sometimes when I visit I take the bus. Very nice ride, and try parking near his place ! Leavenworth and Washington…
Besides when my kids lived out in Kenwood. Sometimes the transit option works for me though I may be a bit ‘different’ that other transit riders. SMART doesn’t go to Kenwood, and I have ZERO reason to use the train even though I am a frequent public transit user.
To Graeme W.:
I agree 100% with the idea of using buses.
Bio-diesel buses could run on various bio-mass grown locally.
However as I’ve said several times;
the Smart Train IS NOT A TRANSPORTATION PLAN.
Transportation is just the guise,
the excuse, a way to pitch it.
The Smart Train is a planning/land use,
crash the coffers, citizen containment, oppression plan.
Along with it’s partner in crime; OneBayArea-this will decimate the property rights and freedom of choice for 8 million citizens in the Bay Area.
Susan Gorin is on board with the ‘Plan’,
she’s on the board.
I suggest you employ your freedom of speech at this time, and speak to your council regarding this clandestine ‘Plan’ that will change your life without a vote. Without bona fide notification. That ignored the input of the few people that did show for the ‘visioning meetings’.
This plan is rooted in fraud, lies, oppression, and ‘global warming’…well,
same thing.
At this point even the “SMART” people are not trying to pretend this is an economically viable project. We are doing it because it was voted in ( forget the lies) and we still are a politically progressive county. Few people will benefit from the train and I count myself as one of them. I fear that most others will feel the pain of a social/political agenda that is overly idealistic and impractical.
Sonoma County progressives
would like to lead the way in saving the world. It looks like they will do so by
showing others what NOT to do.
Based on what I have read, why hasn’t anyone required Mr. Mansourian to document his experience with the Marin County Public Works department. Based on what I have read so far I would guess that he has had 30 years of one (1) years experience and none of that on work associated with a complex rail system such as SMART!
RE: Not A Chance – “Enjoy the ride.”
Enjoy the ride, as in ‘singular’. You stated very correctly just how frequently most people will ride the Train To Nowhere: once.
How can a commuter train survive without the ridership due to the lack of population and service connections?
Okay, so it was a trick question: it survives by massive sales tax increases because ‘ridership didn’t meet expectations’. Of course, any 6th grader could have told SMART that, and probably did.
It would be far more accurate if Not A Chance stated ‘Enjoy the tax increases and massive government subsides’. And since government doesn’t ‘earn’ income, but rather takes it from the taxpayers, that means YOU, people.
And I knew that way back in the original vote for SMART funding, and always said ‘NO!’ More taxpayers should have said the same thing back then…
If the issue is speed, a system of express busses would beat train travel times by a large margin. It doesn’t require tracks or train stations or their own police department either. All that is required is a decision, and the problem is solved.
Richard – I agree 100%. The DUMB board led by this sociopath is the problem, not so much rail transportation. We simply don’t have (and don’t want) a dense enough population to warrant rail transportation.
Frank Matters – Marin County was given the opportunity to join BART back in the late 60′s (I think). It would have cost them 1/4% increase in sales tax. Sound familiar? They voted it down.
The true backer of SMART is the construction industry that wants to build thousands of not-need high density housing units near the rail stations. They don’t care about the train at all.
Also no mention in this article about Mansourian making more in salary than the head of BART or that he doesn’t have any rail or public transportation experience. I guess that they didn’t get to those questions either.
Just another liberal based program to suck off the taxpayers.
What you people fail to realize that these people are voted into office in the first place. When you stop voting liberals into office and replace them with people, who are responsible to the people and for all people, not just the two tier society they’re creating.
Whine, snivel, and complain, it does nothing until the liberal gene pool is removed from office along with their no good for nothing lazy pathetic gene pool.
55 min to San Rafael, then what? I took the bus from San Rafael to Fairfax, it took 40 min to get there and thats if the train hits san rafael right as the bus leaves. You may have to wait up to 30min to then take a 40 min bus ride, what a great idea.
In my opinion.
Public rail transit is not the problem,’SMART’ is the problem. It has been mismanaged, is now mismanaged and most likely will continue to be mismanaged.
It’s the worst combination of government tax collecting and private business money spending without real oversight.
Not A chance
what happen to BART here in the north bay, what was the reason?
Where are the freight trains that were going to remove all the truck traffic from 101?
Relax you non believers, this thing will be defunded at some point.
Read up on SAMtrans they are bankrupt and will be ending service via Caltrain soon. Guess who cut them off? Yep you git it the same major metropolitan transport authority that fund most of this mess.
What did YOU do to help the RepealSMART effort, Taxpayer? Were you an enthusiastic, energetic volunteer? RepealSMART did have a lot of those, and if you were one, wonderful. If not, why not?
If you all don’t like this boondoggle, and agree that it cannot even in the best case ease congestion, and will be the proverbial Millstone around the taxpayers neck, then why didn’t you work harder to get the repeal on the ballot?
For me, I now buy as much as possible in a way that avoids paying sales tax. “Starve the beast” is my new motto.
Man all of you see to really REALLY not like this train, maybe you guys should try to have it repealed.
OH THATS RIGHT, you already failed at that.
Enjoy the ride.
SMART will require its own special police dept.
Ya all saw the news this morning that the report on police misconduct and police abuse during the protests in Davis and in Berkeley will be released despite howls of complaints from the police labor unions?
How about that cop in Modesto who was arrested yesterday for a sexual assault while in uniform and on the job?
Did anyone ask the obvious questions? Like how does a 150 passenger train help the commute made by 50,000 people a day? Did anyone ask if he thought it was good value for the tax money to pay an $86,000 per passenger, per year subsidy to operate this train?
You dreamers need to wake up and smell the coffee. This isn’t the interstate highway system of the 1950s or the Golden Gate Bridge of the 1930′s (paid by user tolls not taxes – that was the promise anyway).
Anyway you cut it this is a colossal boondoggle. It will be a perpetual tax burden on everyone and maybe a few people will benefit. Mostly highly paid bureaucrats and out of state and out of country construction and manufacturing firms.
Can anyone name one person besides bureaucrats who got a job from SMART and tell us what the job is and how much it pays? This is sad that the public is so uninformed on this and saddled us with so immense a burden in an era of massive taxation.
Your illiterate children will be able to ride the train back & forth for fun. But, hey, thats the government’s decision. Your kids don’t count. Public employee jobs are what need the $$$.
———-
More Than 20,000 California Teachers Pink-Slipped
Jill Tucker
Friday, March 16, 2012
SF Chronicle, online
I think it is about time to accept that Marin and Sonoma County will have an unwanted luxury, since it can’t be stopped at this point.
This project will bring no net gain to the counties, it will cause MASSIVE traffic congestion in the cities it passes through, and eventually be a blight when the cars are vandalized.
Oh lets not forget about the death toll, there will be many deaths a year as pedestrians and trespassers are hit and killed. Lawsuits will ensue and the taxes that fund this pig will rise to cover the operating losses. No doubt, no question.
Oh what about security? Well they will surely have their own security force who will eventually overstep or act improperly and cause a massive lawsuit for some poor innocent victim.
All of this so we can ride on a cutesie train just like when we were little kids. Maybe there will be free ice cream and cookies too.
Hey look out the window, there’s a Unicorn in the daisy field, awwwww.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Two-Struck-Killed-by-Caltrain-135058433.html
SMART, Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit or Some More Administrative Revenue Trashing?
The district’s financial difficulties were caused by a recession that depressed sales tax revenues and could not have been foreseen, Mansourian said.
Hahahaha, hohohoho, omg LOL
not nothing to do with the over reaching rules and reg on the private sector.
nope nothing to do with the growth of gov.
and how long has this longest ever recession been going on
whatparty has been the majority in the state cap. for the past 30 years
but for what ever reason sonoma county with vote for the Wiggins, evans, puffmans
santa rosa to loc lomand marina 45 mins at 6:00 am and your choo choo is going to take 55 mins???
When Farhad talks about how he’s spent 30 years widening 101, he seems to have somehow missed the fact that by dismantling the HOV lane to the tune of maybe just thousands of dollars, that one single lane would have carried more people than the SMART system ever will in a day…to where they actually need to get…at a fraction of the cost, using resources at our immediate disposal, and, efficiently. But no, why let common sense and an honest sense of pragmatism get in the way of sexy and more glamorous endeavors than asphalt? And here I thought that civil engineers actually thought about that kind of thing.
SMART was and remains the biggest loser and welfare program in Sonoma and Marin counties. Offen wrong, but never in doubt.
Classic example of the Peter Principle. After three decades of failing upward, and after failing at this, perhaps Mr. Mansourian’s next unelected job should be Secretary of Transportation
For someone making the kind of money he is making he is a lousy spinner. A 55 minute train ride to San Rafael rather than a 90 minute drive?? It takes 90 minutes at most to get to San Rafael, at peak time. The train will always take 55 minutes. What kind of argument is he trying to make?
Also, weekend tourists to San Rafael? What tourists will be going from Santa Rosa to San Rafael (and vice-versa) on the weekends? Is this guy for real?
The freeway HAS NOT been widened. The narrows are exactly the same as they were 25 years ago. The lanes added in Sonoma County are worthless carpool lanes utilized solely by soccer moms. Why not open the lanes to everyone at all times before burning hundreds of millions on this waste? Again, this guy is a moron making these arguments.
This train will be a black hole for taxpayer dollars in perpetuity. It is a typical government project with overpaid, over benefited “managers” sucking taxpayer money that doesn’t exist.
I certainly hope much more information, including hard FACTS, was conveyed in the meeting. But if it was, it isn’t reflected in this article which, frankly, offers nothing but vague statements. There isn’t anything really newsworthy here, except that the SMART GM talked to the SCTA, and I’m not sure that is newsworthy on its face. However, I suspect the reporter can’t be blamed for this lack of substance; one can’t report what isn’t said. Perhaps the SCTA didn’t push hard enough for more precise answers from the GM? Also, since SMART is flying by the seat of its pants, Mr. Mansourian has to be vague to justify a project that simply doesn’t pencil out.
Personally, I have always thought SMART’s biggest lie was about reliving traffic congestion. That station near hwy 101 and 12 in Santa Rosa is going to be a mess. Although a bright note is that with the loss of Redevelopment District funding all the subsidized high density housing planned for around the station will not be happening anytime soon.
Here’s what some smart people are saying about SMART.
Here’s a link to the Sonoma County Taxpayers Association http://sonomacountytaxpayers.org/
Here’s the questions Bob Andrews from NorthBay Biz wanted to ask the chief but couldn’t get a return phone call. SMART: More Questions than Answers
http://www.northbaybiz.com/Columnists/Open_Trench/SMART_More_Questions_than_Answers.php
How do you defend the indefensible?
Guess that’s why he makes the big bucks.
It would take a thick skin.