Alameda Corridor Could Be Our Biggest Boon--or Boondoggle

President Clinton is cooking up a mess of political pork for the Southland in a frenzy of election-year generosity.

On Tuesday, he permitted his best Republican friend, Mayor Richard Riordan, to announce a $400-million federal loan to help build a huge public works project, the Alameda Corridor high-speed rail line, designed to speed freight from the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors to a downtown terminal, and to points beyond. It is expected to provide 10,000 construction jobs and create about 700,000 permanent jobs by 2010 in transport, trade and many other fields.

“Thanks to President Bill Clinton for his faith in the Los Angeles area,” said the mayor, no doubt offending GOP stalwarts who don’t have much faith in the president.

Earlier, the Clinton administration approved almost $833 million for earthquake repair of local hospitals and offered $364 million for Los Angeles County public health care if local officials can come up with a workable plan to modernize the antiquated system.

It’s all great for our troubled economy and near-bankrupt health system. But if past performance is any guide, we may just pork out on the bounty, wasting it in undisciplined and unsupervised spending.

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The Alameda Corridor is potentially the greatest boon to the broad region that stretches from the Pacific through the Inland Empire--and it is the biggest potential boondoggle.

“Our Panama Canal,” is what political consultant Joe Scott calls it.

He means that it is a considerable engineering feat, a concrete ditch permitting freight to speed to and from the harbors without being slowed by the many streets and highways that cross today’s tracks.

There is another angle to his comparison. Like the Panama Canal, Metro Rail and any other big public works project, the Alameda Corridor has become a magnet for construction companies across the country.

Talk about feeding at the public trough. When the governing board of the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority meets, usually in an out-of-the-way place, the room is packed with lobbyists and consultants for building contractors, architects and engineers.

These people give campaign contributions to council members from several cities who serve on the authority board. The lobbyists are greeted as associates, sometimes as friends, when they pitch the board for increasingly lucrative contracts.

It’s as bad as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, whose board meetings also resemble construction lobbyist conventions.

Some lobbyists work both the Alameda Corridor and MTA beats, shuttling from one meeting to another, cellular phones at their ears as they report the latest deal to corporate headquarters.

MTA critics say the influence of these campaign-contributing companies and their lobbyists have helped drive up costs of MTA projects and probably share responsibility for some of the MTA’s more egregious foul-ups.

This has happened despite considerable media scrutiny of the MTA. Hardly anybody watches the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. In fact, not many people know it exists.

The authority may start construction this year. Many contracts have been signed. Reporters and other watchdogs should join the lobbyists on the Alameda Corridor beat.

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It’s an old political maxim that such federal money--known as “pork barrel” spending--is good for the president who gives it, and the local officials who receive it.

As is the case with maxims, this one is often wrong.

President Lyndon Johnson pumped billions into California in the mid-1960s, but it didn’t stop Pat Brown from losing to Ronald Reagan for governor in 1966. Nor did it prevent the state from supporting Republican Richard Nixon for president two years later.

Remember, conservatives don’t like such spending, especially when the money is handed out by Clinton. Mayor Riordan should be reminded of that. Republicans are his strongest supporters, and he will need every one of them in his reelection bid next year if he is opposed by well-known, well-financed Democratic Rep. Howard Berman.

And nobody likes waste. If the health care money is wasted, if the Alameda Corridor funds are squandered on sweetheart contracts, there could be a backlash.

Let’s be careful when presidents come bearing gifts.