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Mike posted an update in the group
Public Discussion 6 years, 10 months ago I’m getting glimmers via a friend of a friend via FB via Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/882281501538361346
that someone at NYT is complaining about rural Northern Calif would not exist without the big cities and tax revenue to support it. Anyone with more verbiage than I, want to respond. I’ve seen the spreadsheets that lay out a different viewpoint, but I’m no economist, but can balance a checkbook.
The short answer is to look at some of the other states in the union of similar population, economic activity, a geographic character. They are all fully viable, balance their budgets, and have a whole lot less state government. The graphic inside our brochure shows examples of how other states spend less and get better results. We won’t be doing things the California way.
I thought we discussed this at our RWF meeting with Randy and at our Committee meeting. I thought it was a good idea to get a port big enough to export/import as well
What does ‘RWF’ stand for?
The states which are benchmarked on the brochure do not have seaports, and they are doing fine, so that should not be a stumbling point.
Mendocino County has no ports other than to serve the fishing industry. Eureka, I believe, has the potential to be a good sized port. I think the reason it has not been developed has been the relatively small population in the area and a lack of infrastructure to get large amounts of goods in and out. The railroad that runs along the Hwy 101 corridor has been shut down for quite some time. It is tied into the rest of the country at Santa Rosa … so some serious RR construction would have to be undertaken to keep RR transportation to Eureka within the new state.
As you might know, the idiots in Sacramento have or are working on legislation to cut off Utah coal exports through the Port of Oakland. They say it is for ‘Climate Change’, but it is really because Utah is a conservative state.
Recently, the railroad in Humboldt has been targeted for shutdown and liquidation:
http://www.willitsweekly.com/documents/WillitsWeekly_07062017_A&BPages.pdf
(front page, right side. Same height as
pic of me passing out flags at the parade)
excerpt –
Last week, members of the California
Transportation Commission got tough with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the public agency that owns
the defunct railroad tracks around Humboldt County, which has been operating in the red and selling off
publicly owned property to stay afloat……….
Yes Rick I think that is what we discussed about Eureka and the possibility of a port if we could get the funds but I don’t remember what Randy said about it all. TY for that info about Utah and the rail road being shut down! Do you have the links to those articles? I would like to share that info with my CA followers on Twitter including a few politicians who follow me as well. TY
Much of the track north and south of Willits, is in BAD shape. Ukiah has paved over many of the RR Crossings, south of Ukiah, there are washouts and rails hanging in the air. North of Willits, also many washouts and much hanging and missing rail. It’d take a LOT of work to get connected again to a mainline.
(based on my personal observations )
Yes, it would take quite an investment to get the rail system ‘road worthy’ again. But the most important part is ensuring the entire Right of Way exists from the Sonoma County border to Eureka. In these days of environmental activism, the whole she-bang can be ‘derailed’ if even just a small portion of the Right of Way is lost.