Los Angeles Metro Rail Photos

California: Ground Zero in the High Speed Rail Wars

On Thursday, the California High Speed Rail Authority accepted the resignation of Ogilvy Public Relations. The PR firm was about to get axed over accusations that it billed excessively while doing little to counter a tide of anti-rail propaganda.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, at the Rosemead Community Recreation Center, east of Los Angeles, the Authority displayed maps and renderings of the rail system it’s designing to link California’s major cities. Up and down the state, in fact, the Authority is holding regular outreach meetings as it draws up detailed blueprints, including a planned initial segment from Bakersfield to north of Fresno, through the state’s agricultural Central Valley. “We hope to start construction in the fall of 2012,” said Project Manager Maj. Gen. Hans Van Winkle at a high-speed rail conference in downtown Los Angeles. So in theory, everything’s on schedule and there’s $6.3 billion in state bonds and federal funds ready to go.

The Ogilvy firing, however, was just the latest indication of the vicious brawl going on between HSR opponents and supporters nationally and in Sacramento. With Florida’s decision to abandon its project, California is now the only state with a dedicated HSR system in advanced planning. That’s put California in the cross-hairs of anti-rail politicians and petroleum-and-aviation-industry-backed groups such as the Reason Foundation .

The battled heated up May 10, when California’s Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) came out with a report attacking the decision to build the first leg in the Central Valley. Engineers prefer this long, straight section because it minimizes construction challenges. Nevertheless, the report set off a flurry of anti-rail editorials in papers ranging from the Sacramento Bee to the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Many echoed the Reason Foundation’s statements that the Central California segment will be a “train to nowhere.”

“This initial money, if we spent it instead in Southern California…we could use it for existing commuter rail and high-speed rail,” said Southern California State Senator Alan Lowenthal.

In 2008, voters in California approved Proposition 1A, which authorized the state to issue $10 billion in bonds to begin funding a dedicated, 220-mph high-speed line from Los Angeles to San Francisco. However, it stipulated the dollars can’t be spent unless they’re matched — in this case by the Feds.

If You Want To Clown Around, Meet Me @Metro II | LA STAGE TIMES

The show features innovative, site-specific performances, curated by WVTC artistic director Guillermo Avilés-Rodríguez and associate curator Rita Cofield, from Obie winner Rick Burkhardt (Nonsense Theatre Company), seven other innovative Long Beach and Los Angeles-based theater companies and a myriad of solo performers. Each theater company will perform a 5-10 minute piece designed to engage the community.

Some of the participating companies and entertainment acts include the aforementioned Burkhardt (Nonsense Theatre Company), Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC), Killsonic, the Gangbusters Theatre Company, Found Theatre, the Long Beach Theatre Arts Collaborative (LBTAC), Opera del Espacio and 24th Street Theatre/Teatro Apolo.

Meet The Brains

The Meet Me @Metro series is the brainchild of Avilés-Rodríguez, who says it took three years of negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) before he got the go-ahead last year.