Light rail just one solution

Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo? One, that’s

CenterLine, the Orange County Choo Choo. Two, don’t call me “boy.”

And three, where have you been, if I may ask?

Last Monday was a big day for the supporters of the CenterLine

light rail system, of which I am one. The Orange County

Transportation Authority, or OCTA if you’re into acronyms, voted 9-2

to keep the CenterLine project going. In the interest of full

disclosure -- as opposed to semi-disclosure -- I have been working on

CenterLine for a long, long time, both as a public official, which

was then, and as a consultant, which is now.

Come back with me to 1988. George Bush -- the senior one -- was

President, Southern California was growing by leaps and bounds and

the streets and freeways were jammed. It was a totally different

world.

In that very year, a pod of central Orange County mayors (they

always travel in pods) put their heads together (fortunately no one

was hurt) and started to think deep thoughts about a light rail

system that would run through the core of Orange County.

There was the mayor of Santa Ana, Dan Young, now a senior vice

president with the Irvine Company; the mayor of Irvine, Larry Agran,

who is closely related to the current mayor of Irvine; the mayor of

Anaheim, Fred Hunter; and the mayor of Costa Mesa, whose name I can’t

recall and who has not been heard from since. After a lot of

ruminating, a little cogitating and a dash of debating, the pod of

mayors gave birth, figuratively speaking, to the “Central Orange

County Fixed Guideway Agency” or, the “Central Orange County Fixed

Guideway Agency” for short.

What they proposed was a light rail system that would run from the

Irvine Transportation Center in the south, to Anaheim and Fullerton

in the north, and eventually expand east and west once the core

system was built. Seemed like a reasonable idea, but it ignited what

would become the Great Rail Debate in Orange County.

The Great Rail Debate never equaled the ferocity of the Great

Airport Debate, but it started earlier, lasted longer and will

smolder for years to come, with an occasional flare-up along the way.

As is usually the case with Great Anything Debates, what you hear the

most usually comes from one end of the spectrum or the other. In this

case, it’s the cement heads on one side, and the steel heads on the

other.

What the cement heads say, among other things, is that CenterLine

is a total boondoggle. It will cost a zillion and a half dollars and

no one will ride it. The only solution to our transportation

problems, they say, is to build freeways and streets that are bigger,

faster and wider -- thus the appellation -- “cement heads.” The steel

heads, on the other hand, say they have seen the future, and it’s

name is Rail. Once CenterLine is built, people will abandon their

cars in droves. They will either leave their cars behind, exactly

where they stand, keys still in the ignition, or park them on their

front lawns and use them for planters.

Within a few months, you’ll be able to fire a cannon down the

freeway with no problem, other than being arrested for firing a

cannon down the freeway, which is a problem. Can you tell where the

truth lies? Everybody: “Somewhere in between.”

I’d need the rest of today’s paper and the next two Sundays’ to

sift through all these arguments, but let’s try a few. Will anything

ever replace the automobile as the sled of choice in Southern

California? Not in my lifetime, or yours’, or your children’s, or

their children’s, which is to say, not ever.

In these here parts, the car is king. Period. End of story. That

said, you may have noticed a teensy, weensy problem that tends to

happen when you pump about 3 million people into a space the size of

Orange County, and 90 percent of them are trying to get around, each

in their own car, at all hours of the day and night. Yes. That

problem. And I’ll tell you a secret ....Come closer, I don’t want

anyone else to hear this: it’s getting worse! Please don’t tell

anyone I told you. I’ll get in trouble. OK, fine. But what should we

do about it?

Improve the freeways and streets? Yes.

Synchronize traffic lights? Correct.

Improve the bus system? Yep.

Expand regional “heavy rail” systems like Metro Link? Si.

Build CenterLine? Absolutely.

Wait. Stop.

The cement heads have me worried on that CenterLine thing. Will a

light rail line that is now all of 8 miles long, and will only serve

Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, really solve our transportation problems?

Whaddayounuts? Of course not.

It’s just the first step in a system that will eventually run the

length and width of Orange County, connect with other light rail

systems like the Blue Line, and definitely be a part of the solution.

Along with the other aforementioned parts (see “streets, freeways,

rail, traffic lights, etc.”) -- if we have the will, the vision and

the rubles to make it all happen -- there will be cleaner air and

more open space for our children and grandchildren, they will get

around easier, and they will be smarter, better looking, and not need

braces.

OK, maybe not the last three, but the rest of it is true. But

here’s the real problem. It doesn’t take years to build a system like

CenterLine. It takes decades. You always have lots of screaming and

yelling and rude gestures at the start, and years later, the same

people who said “no way, no how, over my dead body” are demanding to

know why there’s no station near their house.

Always happens, never fails, see the folder marked BART, D.C.

Metro, San Diego Trolley, et cetera.

So two thumbs up to OCTA, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, and all the

elected officials who have hung in there for years, getting battered

and bruised, fighting for something they know is right, but will

never see on their watch. And that is what we call “the vision

thing.” I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs

Sundays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].