Some depressing thoughts from long-time Democrat (who will be voting for Mickey Kaus in June) Victor Davis Hanson:
…how would we return to sanity in California, a state as naturally beautiful and endowed and developed by our ancestors as it has been sucked dry by our parasitic generation? The medicine would be harder than the malady, and I just cannot see it happening, as much as I love the state, admire many of its citizens, and see glimmers of hope in the most unlikely places every day.
After all, in no particular order, we would have to close the borders; adopt English immersion in our schools; give up on the salad bowl and return to the melting pot; assimilate, intermarry, and integrate legal immigrants; curb entitlements and use the money to fix infrastructure like roads, bridges, airports, trains, etc.; build 4-5 new damns to store water in wet years; update the canal system; return to old policies barring public employee unions; redo pension contracts; cut about 50,000 from the public employee roles; lower income taxes from 10% to 5% to attract businesses back; cut sales taxes to 7%; curb regulations to allow firms to stay; override court orders now curbing cost-saving options in our prisons by systematic legislation; start creating material wealth from our forests; tap more oil, timber, natural gas, and minerals that we have in abundance; deliver water to the farmland we have; build 3-4 nuclear power plants on the coast; adopt a traditional curriculum in our schools; insist on merit pay for teachers; abolish tenure; encourage not oppose more charter schools, vouchers, and home schooling; give tax breaks to private trade and business schools; reinstitute admission requirements and selectivity at the state university system; take unregistered cars off the road; make UC professors teach a class or two more each year; abolish all racial quotas and preferences in reality rather than in name; build a new all weather east-west state freeway over the Sierra; and on and on.
In other words, we would have to seance someone born around 1900 and just ask them to float back for a day, walk around, and give us some advice.
It’s hard to see much hope, given how the looters in Sacramento have arranged things with their gerrymandered districts.
On that last recommendation, does he mean upgrading I-80, or a new freeway with a different (presumably more southerly) route? Perhaps just south of Yosemite, providing a quick route to the Mammoth ski area for the Bay Area? But where would it hook into another interstate? The only two options are I-80, way to the north, or I-15, far south. Ideally, I guess it would continue east all the way across Nevada to extend I-70 in Utah all the way to California. In any event, it’s a pipe dream given the current state of state finances.
[Update a while later]
I haven’t been up that way in a few years. Is 395 four lanes all the way to Mammoth through the Owens Valley now? That would be a natural place to hook in a new road.
A commenter on Ace of Spades posted this data from the California ed dept.
California Standards Test Scores – 2009
star.cde.ca.gov
CST English-Language Arts, 6th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 47.3%
CST English-Language Arts, 5th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 47.6%
CST English-Language Arts, 4th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 47.9%
CST English-Language Arts, 3th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 49.0%
CST English-Language Arts, 2nd Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 51.4%
CST Mathematics, 6th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 47.4%
CST Mathematics, 5th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 47.9%
CST Mathematics, 4th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 48.3%
CST Mathematics, 3th Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 49.2%
CST Mathematics, 2nd Grade, HISPANIC OR LATINO: 51.3%
California, Enrollment by Ethnicity in Public Schools
http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us
2003-04, WHITE: 32.5%
2004-05, WHITE: 31.3%
2005-06, WHITE: 30.3%
2006-07, WHITE: 29.4%
2007-08, WHITE: 28.5%
2008-09, WHITE: 27.9%
In the 90s, the most common name for new babies in LA was “Jose”. According to the census, in 2002, 37 percent of the population of LA county were not born in this country. Obviously, that was an under estimate.
If this influx of immigrants had gone through the California educational system I grew up with, there wouldn’t be a problem. But these folks are the products of the teachers unions. We are now being treated to the practical consequences of multiculturalism and neglect of the culture by conservatives and liberty advocates.
A decent freeway East – West from Fresno to the coast would be highly used I’m sure.
I’m not so sure that extending I-70 past Groom lake would makes sense. An East-West road from Fresno to Vegas would.
The contiguous national parks in the sierras effectively make this politically impossible.
That’s why it would have to go between Yosemite and King’s Canyon.
No, you don’t want a new freeway. You are getting a North-South high speed train. And after you get the train, admit it, you enjoyed it!
High speed — Ha!
I equate high speed with getting to the destination quickly. Unfortunately, the HSB (High Speed Boondoggle) winds it way back and forth across California while it leisurely heads north. Even if it went as fast as an aircraft it would not be get there before a plane.
Factor in the average train speed of 90mph (if they manage to get it that fast) and you will end up with a trip slower than the boring I-5 drive.
Did I mention that you won’t have a car when you get there?
Stupid waste of money.
Yes, California is getting crazier and crazier. But its natural to want to retreat to a fantasy past rather then embrace the future.
“I equate high speed with getting to the destination quickly. Unfortunately, the HSB (High Speed Boondoggle) winds it way back and forth across California while it leisurely heads north. Even if it went as fast as an aircraft it would not be get there before a plane. ”
We have a situation kind of like that in Madison, Wisconsin. We “got” some ARRA money, some 800 million dollars in all, to renovate a weed-ridden branch line between Watertown, WI and Wisconsin along with more track upgrades, new trains (and I guess locomotives, but locomotives are kind of uncertain right now), and build new stations. The entire line from Madison to Chicago is supposed to operate at 110 MPH, which, I guess, is the fastest that you don’t take out all of the grade crossings.
What this is supposed to get us is “one hour Madison-Milwaukee, two hours Madison-Chicago.” Or that is what those of us advocating for this train have been telling people.
Turns out, the 110 MPH won’t be when the line opens in 2013 — that will have to wait until the Federal Government mandates automatic train stop for all trains, including the freight trains sharing this line — when is that 2016? So to start off, 800 million is getting us 3 hours (plus) Madison-Chicago.
Then, the train station is by Dane County Regional Airport, which is a good thing, because you can get there by car and park. And then you have to drive there (take me about 25 minutes) get there some time in advance of train departure time. So are we up to about 4 1/2 hours? But then again, it once took me 5 1/2 hours from Sox Park back to Madison (OK, Friday afternoon, and all the toll roads were tore up at the same time for major renovation — so the train is an improvement of the bad state of roads, which I think is part of the California equation).
The real reason for the 800 million is that a bunch of people in Madison with time on their hands like to take the Amtrak long-distance trains out of the Chicago hub and resent having to take 4 hour (schedules, in clear traffic it takes less) bus ride from Madison to Chicago Union Station. I infer this because the talking points are now 1) “that the new train is a Madison-Milwaukee commuter train is a myth” (why? If people want to commute on that train do we discourage them?) 2) “the Mayor’s plan to have the train station downtown is wrong”, and 3) the new train gives access to “1000 Amtrak destinations” meaning the connection at the Chicago hub.
Translation: “The new train is for the Madison senior and other leisure classes to ride trains around the country without having to take a (cough) bus — this business of fast downtown-to-downtown service between Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago for economic development was just a line to get us the 800 million dollars.”
Bingo:
{{ this business of fast downtown-to-downtown service between Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago for economic development was just a line to get us the 800 million dollars. }}
They could could taxes and spending both is they would privatize the infrastructure expecially the schools, the roads, the airports, the trains and even the university system. Auctioning it all off would provide a huge capital infusion to the state to pay off its pension and debt issues.
Sorry, I had my mouth full while I was typing. What I meant to say was:
They could cut both taxes and spending if they would merely privatize their infrastructure including the schools, the roads, the airports, the trains and even the university system. Auctioning it off would provide a huge capital infusion for the state to use to satisfy its pension and debt obligatons.
Perhaps this is part of it.