High Speed Rail

By April Vargas

* It has to be right or it shouldn't be built.

Submitted by april on September 21, 2010 - 1:45pm Two years ago, 176,000 voters in San Mateo County supported high speed rail. What would that number be today? After a first Environmental Impact Statement, a successful challenge by Atherton, a second EIR released in March and over 3500 comments from San Mateo County residents, the High Speed Rail Authority's plans for San Mateo County are under siege.

As one of the 176,000 voters who voted yes on high speed rail in 2008, I still believe that conceptually we need high speed rail in America but for San Mateo County it has to be right or it shouldn't be built. Fifteen years ago, I was part of a similar impasse that was resolved in the building of the Devil's Slide Tunnel. As with High Speed Rail Authority, what Caltrans proposed as a solution was not right for our community. Caltrans had proposed to relieve road closures and massive traffic jams on Highway 1 by building a highway through a state park. It wasn't right for our community or for the environment.

We were effective in stopping Caltrans because we were able to come together as a community around three main points. · No freeway through the state park. · No massive cuts and fills in seismically sensitive areas. · The solution needs to be sooner, safer, and cheaper We built support by tapping into the county's love of the coast and desire to have a safe and reliable road that would allow them to appreciate the area without destroying its natural beauty. We were able to make the case, emotionally and practically, that a tunnel was a far better solution than a freeway in such a sensitive area.

We needed to contrast the Caltrans solution with the tunnel solution in a very immediate way. One of our most talented and committed volunteers was an Oscar-winning software research and development professional in the local film industry. Through computer modeling and meticulous craftsmanship he was able to create a portable, three dimensional model of Devil's Slide complete with the peaks of Montara Mountain, constructed out of wood, modeling clay and paint. This model showed the proposed tunnel passing through the mountain, virtually invisible except for openings at the entrance and exit, blending in with the natural setting. The model also showed the Caltrans proposal with its deep cuts into the landscape, flattened mountain tops and huge artificially created mounds of soil supporting multiple bridge structures, and all in a seismically unstable area. The contrast couldn't have been clearer.

Four of these models were created. Over a nine month period volunteers took them to shopping malls, civic organizations, street fairs, schools and public forums all over the county, showing the public what was at stake and building support for the alternative that everyone could clearly see was better and safer. At the same time over 35,000 signatures were collected from county voters, putting the tunnel initiative on the ballot.

A turning point in this community-led effort occurred when our Congressmember Tom Lantos invited the Vote Tunnel campaign to place one of our models in his local congressional office in downtown San Mateo a few months before the election. Tom had fought tirelessly to secure funds to permanently repair the road at Devil's Slide from the day he was sworn in 1981 and had been successful in getting money allocated by Congress. His willingness to now consider the tunnel solution instead of a freeway meant that we were finally building the kind of political support we needed to get the tunnel built as well. We won with 74% of the vote.

With the help of Tom Lantos and Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein we got the money to complete the project. The tunnel will open in 2011, named in honor of Tom Lantos, a representative who was willing to listen, learn and lead. But without a shared vision and a united voice this victory would not have been possible.

Of course, as in any coalition, not everybody agreed with the tunnel solution or its design, but we were able to agree on three main points. By building support county-wide around our battle cry of `Sooner, Safer, Cheaper,' we were able to convince Caltrans to consider an alternative to paving over a park.

The Peninsula Cities Consortium has advanced the ideas that the "final design should minimize the impacts, improve the quality of life in local communities and incorporate the best urban design ideas." They are on the right track. I support their initiative. The next step is building a community consensus around a solution that we can support. It has to be right or it shouldn't be built.