Bay Area bridge tolls to rise to pay for High Speed Rail? (people)

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

You think middle class (especially lower middle) actually relish such a choice?

Which ivory tower are you in?

Yeah that was a pretty crass comment (by bigdumb). I know people who have been doing Rio Vista to S.F for years because that's where they can afford to live.

[Think About It!]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Another one of those 'unforseen' expenses they omitted to tell us about before.

Bay Area faces new high-speed rail costs - SFGate

Yep... I don't get how people keep voting for these people. I am sure more are to follow.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Yeah that was a pretty crass comment (by bigdumb). I know people who have been doing Rio Vista to S.F for years because that's where they can afford to live.

If I hadn't had some things break my way I'd likely have been among the anguished exurbanites or would have bailed completely. The Bay Area has not been kind to the Middle Class over the past 25 years. It is said that this is a general issue for most Western Industrial Countries but here in the Bay Area it's an entirely greater level of the thing.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

If I hadn't had some things break my way I'd likely have been among the anguished exurbanites or would have bailed completely. The Bay Area has not been kind to the Middle Class over the past 25 years. It is said that this is a general issue for most Western Industrial Countries but here in the Bay Area it's an entirely greater level of the thing.

The Bay Area is this different animal. Part of it is the high wages, and amount of jobs. But another part of it I believe is manufactured to a certain degree. People believe that the Bay Area is just simply better, almost like branding in a way, and it got really bad during the housing bubble. I kind of agree with the external view that some people who live in the Bay think that they live in paradise, and are some sort of special chosen few.

I see people even now buying 3 bedroom, 2 bath homes in Danville for more than the price that I paid for a home twice the size, and a few acres in Lafayette. That's lunacy to me.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Another one of those 'unforseen' expenses they omitted to tell us about before.

Bay Area faces new high-speed rail costs - SFGate

It was not "unforseen." Extending the Caltrain tracks to the Financial District has been part of the plan for 30 years.

Besides which, it will be a massive benefit to Caltrain even if the HSR line is never finished. There are more jobs within a half-mile of the planned Transbay Terminal than all the existing Caltrain stations combined. Yes, that includes every station from the current "San Francisco" stop in the middle of nowhere all the way down through San Jose to Gilroy!

Our bridges are horribly underpriced and do not pay for themselves. I say raise 'em up, add tolls for freeway commutes that do not cross a bridge (101, 880, 680, 580), and funnel the extra cash into BART and HSR.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

You think middle class (especially lower middle) actually relish such a choice?

Commuting IS A CHOICE. Nobody is forcing anybody to live in a McMansion hours away from where they work, they just insist that is what they must have, without fail. Disasterous for the health of the regional environment, a tired played-out relic of the Post War years. If you can't live near where you work, then don't take the job.

[sjnative]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

If you're commuting all the way from The Bathrooms, you've created your own struggles.

It's not that simple, bdg. Not everyone wants to send their children to school with the illegal alien low achiever kids, but they can't afford private school either. That leaves them with limited choices, including The Baths.

Scorning real grown-ups with real responsibilities is juvenile of you.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by sjnative

It's not that simple, bdg. Not everyone wants to send their children to school with the illegal alien low achiever kids, but they can't afford private school either. That leaves them with limited choices, including The Baths.

Scorning real grown-ups with real responsibilities is juvenile of you.

Real grown-ups who didn't plan ahead of time how to take care of these responsibilities? Those aren't real grown-ups, those are lazy fools acting like they're living 60 years in the past, trying to keep up with the Joneses.

You had to have that job, you had to have that big house light years away from that job, and you had to breed, and then you find that you can't reconcile all this towards a workable solution (i.e., you work so long and commute so many hours that you and your kids never see each other - what was the point?).

[Boompa]

When do the millions who sit waiting to pay their toll every day with their engine idling realize that they are the problem

[krudmonk]

They are just people chasing the American dream*!


*circa 1970