There’s Not Much Middle Ground on CenterLine

Re “CenterLine Was Right, So What Went Wrong?” Orange County Voices, March 25:

I am appalled at the article written by Sarah L. Catz. She indicates hundreds of meetings and public hearings regarding the light rail. Perhaps residents in parts of Irvine were privy to this, but like most residents in Oak Creek, I was caught off guard.

I did a door-to-door a month ago, and not one person knew about the proposed light rail running through Oak Creek. I also read the environmental study the OCTA had commissioned that indicated the visual impact to Oak Creek was minimal. Whom did they talk to? Oak Creek was farmland just a couple of years ago, so perhaps there was minimal impact to the greenery? I can assure you that none of the current residents will agree with such a ludicrous comment.

DON HAHN

Treasurer, Cypress North

Homeowners Assn.

Irvine

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Sarah Catz admits, “The Orange County Transportation Authority has planned its CenterLine light-rail project as if [they] knew more than anyone else.” In spite of this admission, OCTA hasn’t changed and continues to falsely claim the CenterLine is a response to the “voters who gave their approval of Measure M in 1990.”

Neither Catz nor OCTA has acknowledged the true will of the voters to “initiate a high-capacity urban rail on existing rail right-of-way” as clearly described in Measure M, because the CenterLine is not proposed for “existing rail right-of-way.”

It’s no wonder so many voters are up in arms about the project. Measure M passed only because voters believed no new rail corridors would penetrate their communities.

Catz applauds OCTA’s outreach efforts, yet not once has OCTA contacted every property owner along the proposed rail corridors. OCTA must avoid this kind of direct communication because it cannot risk receiving overwhelmingly negative responses. Feeble support for the CenterLine trolley appears only when OCTA officials speak in generalities, and only to the vast majority who would not be directly impacted.

JOHN KLEINPETER

Irvine

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Has it ever crossed Sarah Catz and her cohorts’ minds that the reason there is so little support for CenterLine is that it is simply a bad idea? Why do we need a light-rail system that would cost the taxpayers about $10 per ride to take 1% of the commuting public from nowhere to nowhere?

Sarah, when is the last time you rode the bus in Orange County? When was the last time you went from Fullerton to Irvine? Haven’t you noticed the correlation that the cities with the best public transit are also the ones with the worst traffic and parking? New York, Washington, San Francisco, and even Los Angeles come to mind. Why do you want to wish those problems on us?

ROB PURCIEL

Anaheim

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The San Diego trolley celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. That’s how long Orange County has been studying rail transit. Whereas residents of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver have the choice of fighting traffic or using modern transit, Orange County residents are forced to drive. Buses lumbering along surface streets at an average of 8 miles per hour are no alternative.

Drivers for Highway Safety and other NIMBYs act as if we are still living in the low-density suburban Orange County of the 1950s. Orange County is a major urban area, larger than many with successful rail transit systems. The proposed CenterLine route would connect our many “downtowns,” such as the Anaheim Resort, the Block, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, South Coast Metro and Irvine Center, quickly, quietly and safely.

The argument that CenterLine would serve only a small percentage of Orange County commuters is a red herring. Comparing the ridership of one route with the total number of trips in a much wider corridor is comparing apples to oranges.

Major public works projects like CenterLine cost lots of money, but so do airports and freeways. Fortunately, the federal government would pay a major portion of the capital cost. Why should other cities get the money that was earmarked for Orange County?

I applaud Art Lahey, Sarah Catz and the OCTA board of directors for having the foresight to continue working with the communities and neighborhoods along the corridor to get consensus on the best route. We can’t build our way out of congestion. It will take a variety of transportation improvements, including CenterLine, to provide mobility and remain competitive with other urban areas in the future.

KIRK D. SCHNEIDER

La Habra