Alameda Corridor

* The “go slow” approach toward the Alameda Corridor which Jerry Epstein wrote about in your paper (“A Yellow Light on Alameda Corridor Deal,” Commentary, Feb. 3) shows exactly why the most critical transportation project in California is still on hold.

As a member of the state Transportation Commission, Epstein criticized the path which negotiators followed on the price and terms for the corridor. He argued that Southern Pacific got too much money and that California should have just seized the Alameda Corridor under eminent domain.

Land seizure would only have resulted in a terribly expensive legal battle which would stall the Alameda Corridor for years and leave California’s taxpayers footing the bill for a case that would certainly end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The time has come for everyone to stop kicking dirt at the Southern Pacific railway or second-guessing the bargaining tactics of Long Beach or Los Angeles.

We must put aside our differences to make this project happen. If only our state Transportation Commission would declare that the Alameda Corridor should be the No. 1 priority for Caltrans, then California would have a much easier time getting federal money to help put the Alameda Corridor on track.

The time we waste hemming and hawing in hindsight over a deal that has already been swung just adds more cargo trucks to our freeways and bigger clouds of diesel smoke to our air.

BETTY KARNETTE

State Assembly, D-Long Beach

Betty Karnette is a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee and chairs and Assembly panel on California ports.

* Epstein’s commentary was misguided and fraught with contradictions. On the one hand, he correctly lauds the Alameda Corridor as “an important catalyst to our economic revival.”

On the other hand, he condemns the purchase price and the lack of committed funds for the project. The project has passed many hurdles and has many to go before completion. The right-of-way negotiations have been tough and protracted, savings the ports tens of millions off the original asking price. I am amazed that Epstein honestly asserts that the whole $1.8 billion should be committed before purchasing the corridor right of way. This onerous and unrealistic recommendation would put the whole project in a Catch-22 situation as no public money can be spent and little appropriated before a right of way is secured.

Stimulating California’s languid economy is not a task for the faint of heart. As chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Alameda Corridor Project, I can assure you that there is broad support for this project regardless of economic and natural disasters. We will get people back to work.

MARTHA ESCUTIA

State Assembly, D-Huntington Park