Anyway they’ve premiered a blog with several of their correspondents. Of note is a piece by Richard Florida analyzing high-speed rail projects across the country, looking at likely stimulus funding recipients based on the economic output of the regions where rail is proposed.

He has a lot of interesting things to say about the concept of the “mega-region” and it should be pretty obvious to folks who live out here that desert communities like Barstow and the Palm Desert areas to the south represent the eastern edge of the Los Angeles “mega-region.”

More importantly, if the portioning of the money for high-speed rail is done in a fashion anywhere near as logical as his analysis, there’s absolutely no chance that the Maglev project from Anaheim to Las Vegas will see a cent of federal funding.

In fact, even when politics get involved, as it inevitably does in any major government project does, it still won’t see a cent. It doesn’t pay political dividends to use federal money to pay for a project (which will cost more than the entire sum President Obama is setting aside for high-speed rail) to serve primarily tourists in one particular travel corridor. It’s not even included in Florida’s map.

(Aside to fomer mayor Lawrence Dale: Your assistance in the organization of Barstow’s Tea Party might have been treated more seriously if you didn’t continue endorsing wasteful federal pork projects like this one.)

Post from: The Editor's Desk