When I lived in Virginia, I learned that only the state legislature could allow a referendum. There is no such thing as the people alone starting one. Not allowed unless the Commonwealth allows it.

We are either cursed or blessed with our ability to start a referendum in this formerly great state. So, with all of the folks who don’t want the California High Speed Rail Boondoggle, why is there no referendum to end it yet? I need some schooling in this matter and just how to do it.

Maybe there is already. I’ve asked many folks I know along the proposed path of the bullet train, and they are prepared to sit in places to collect signatures for long days. Maybe electronic signatures are legal to use now. Anybody know about that?

I also wonder if any of you are willing to write the petition. I can write commentaries, but a petition is a whole different thing.

I know it seemed most everybody voted to fund the bullet train, but I’m sure having trouble finding anyone to admit it now. Almost everyone can think of only one problem to solve now. That problem is our need for water. Gee, it would be great to go to San Francisco on a fast train, but we would still be thirsty when we got there.

We seem to be saving little fishes and not giving water to farmers who need it. What is with that? Our state is the agricultural leader in the whole United States of America, and we don’t have the water supply to keep it that way. Instead we are building a train. A fast train. A train that is using our money to get built and doing so without an elected board of directors. Seems they are a bunch of politically active cronies who are trying to build a very expensive and very unwanted high-speed train.

I was taking another look at that pesky addendum to the report on the track routing from Palmdale to Burbank. When it comes to the Santa Clarita Valley, the track routing seems to move a few hundred yards for no apparent reason – except it makes pretty lines on paper. They can’t really tell you why some of the routes go one way and some go other ways, but there it is, disrupting most of the northeastern part of the Santa Clarita Valley.

That same group of sales people who issued that 100-page report (because no real civil engineer would admit to it) seems to think tracks set below ground level or in tunnels eliminate the problems. Of course, not a single one of those folks will live anywhere near the tracks.

How does this sound to you? “Let’s dig a deep trench through Sand Canyon and most of San Fernando that will house the train.” I don’t think it sounds good at all.

What with all of the tunnels and trenches, maybe we might as well keep Cemex around so it can turn the dirt from the trenching into the cement that will be needed. If we thought we were going to have truck pollution and dust problems before, wait until they start digging.

I still can’t see any justification for building this railroad. It will make a few stops between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but not here. Not in any part of our valley. Instead we must travel to Burbank or Palmdale to catch the train. Maybe there will be buses we can catch just like Amtrak. Funny, there are existing tracks to complete a train ride from here to places north.

I would love to take an Amtrak train through the mountains at Tehachapi. Ride through the famous loop. Maybe Congress can get funding to make it possible. How about that, Congressman Knight? Can we get off the bus to ride Amtrak?

Do we really need to be the first place in the Western Hemisphere to have a high-speed rail system? Really?

Another problem the HSR sales folks keep saying is solved is our propensity to have earthquakes. I know. They tell us Japan has solved that problem. The solution isn’t well proven yet.

Just what I want to ride – a fast train that crosses the San Andres Fault a couple of times between San Francisco and Gilroy and at least twice more as it nears the SCV.

Don’t forget all of our little faults that have caused us a few problems like the Northridge and Sylmar quakes. Do you want to be on a train going 200 mph when one of those happens? Not me.

So yes, we do need to get this train stopped. Let me know what you’re willing to do to help. Write the petition? Collect signatures? Do what it takes to get it done?

While I think about it, the Legislature just passed the biggest state budget ever. It lacks the $400 million shortfall needed to get more money from the feds, and it also lacks promised funding for children with special needs. The money for the kids was promised long ago. What would we expect? Must be another promise broken? Thanks, Jerry.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].