Dogs and Ponies and Public Invited

First came a wish for a happy Valentine’s Day. Then the pledge of allegiance. Then a prayer.

Then the hisses and catcalls. If things had gone on any longer, an overripe tomato might have come flying out of the crowd.

As Rodney Dangerfield might have said, “Rough crowd, rough crowd!”

Yes, feelings were running a tad high Thursday at Santa Ana City Hall, where the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies invited the public to speak on the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway project.

It was a classic emotional mismatch, played out like a worst-case divorce scenario--where one party is marching matter-of-factly toward taking the action while the other is still freshly angry and suddenly realizing the magnitude of the calamity about to hit it.

So it was Thursday, with tollway supporters talking about how the project has been around for more than 15 years and acting like it’s a done deal and talking about how long in the making the whole thing has been.

Meanwhile, the other side is finally getting the message that this fight is for real and cries out, “ How can you be thinking of doing this? “

The agency is about a month away from approving the San Joaquin Hills project, a six-lane tollway that will become a freeway when the bonds to finance it are paid off. The public hearing was to (heh-heh) get citizen input.

At best, it was a dog-and-pony show.

The meeting began with people being turned away at the door because the Santa Ana council chambers--where the corridor agency regularly meets--couldn’t begin to hold the crowd that showed up. The agency set up chairs and a loudspeaker outside the building, but when you’ve taken time during the workday to attend a public hearing, the last thing most people want to do is sit outside.

Then, public remarks were limited to two hours, with opponents of the project having to share time with its supporters. It’s a devilishly effective way of making sure that only so much opposition will be heard.

But there was a moment of true enlightenment, coming as it did out of nowhere.

When an Irvine Co. official, speaking on behalf of the project, noted that U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner had praised the project, someone in the audience said of Skinner, “He doesn’t live here!”

In its way, that two-second remark captured the moment beautifully.

As everyone knows, the tollway project is as much about philosophy and the vision of the Orange County future as it is about another plan to ease traffic.

The seers recognize that traffic is congested; ergo, another freeway must be built.

Its supporters talk about the tollway taking the load off Interstate 5, the San Diego Freeway and the Coast Highway, but we all know that we’ll come back in 20 years and see traffic backed up on the ol’ San Joaquin.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to tear up the freeway at that point and restore the land to its native state.

Supporters try to rebut arguments that the tollway isn’t a developers’ bonanza, saying the affected land nearby already is committed to development, even though much remains unbuilt. But we also know that in a lazy-but-still-pricey market, the promise of a new six-lane highway nearby can only help encourage more home-building.

I left Thursday’s meeting with a sense that no one should have skipped work to put in their two cents’ worth. Everything that happened was a mere formality.

You oppose the project? Thank you very much for your comments.

You support the project? Thank you very much for your comments.

Sorry, folks, but it’s a bit late in the game for your three-minute vision of the future to kill the project. If this tollway is to have a stake driven through it, it will be done by lawyers bearing briefs, not citizens bearing placards.

As things were winding down Thursday, John Cox Jr., chairman of the San Joaquin Hills corridor agency, announced that the next phase of the public hearing would be in two weeks--same place, same time.

“Be responsible!” someone shouted at Cox.

“We want a weekend meeting!” someone else yelled.

Save your breath. A weekend meeting isn’t going to help. Holding the hearing in Anaheim Stadium won’t help.

How much time would you need to change the minds of people who have such a clear vision of the future of Orange County?

I fear that I also have seen the future. It is a six-lane swath of concrete, clogged with cars and running through the once-virginal hillsides and canyons of Orange County.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.