Posted on by Californiacontrarian

They Know Best

Getting on to northbound I-15 at Mission Gorge Road in San Diego between 7:45 and 8:15 a.m. on weekdays is a nightmare. The backup to get on the on-ramp is usually about a half-mile long with, of course, no separate way to get onto the carpool lane without waiting in the long line. Typically there are close to five-hundred cars lined up in two lanes, spewing car-exhaust fumes into the air for close to twenty minutes before getting onto the I-15 freeway. This is reality. I know as I have been there in the line.So of course what does the city council do? They approve close to 1000 new apartments to be constructed on Mission Gorge Road (MGR) approximately a half-mile east from the end of the present wait line to get onto I-15. Add in an additional at least 500 more cars each morning that will be waiting in line to get onto the same now backed up on-ramp. Does anyone think that any member of our city council has to use MGR? Dollars to doughnuts, none of them ever use MGR to get to work, and in all likelihood none of them have used Mission Gorge Road in the past few years, but they know best! I do not need to use MGR to get to work in the morning, so I am not NIMBY on this issue, but guaranteed the traffic on MGR will be even more of a nightmare in the not too distant future!

In the same vein, the same city council have recently okayed new apartment construction within walking distance of our rapid transit system (the Trolley). The problem here is that they waived the standard requirement of on-site parking accommodations for these new apartments. Because they were to be built within walking distance from the Trolley, they assumed that none of these new tenants would have cars! Once these new tenants begin to take up all of the local street parking spaces, it will be too late. Oops! The reality is that many of these new apartments dwellers will have at least one car per apartment, and if they actually try to use the rapid transit to get to work, they will quickly get dis-enamored. Odds are that none of the know-it-all members of the city council live in the same neighborhood as these new apartments, but they know best!

This “I know what is best for you” philosophy is not restricted to members of the San Diego city council. In fact this attitude is pervasive in California. Those members of the state legislature who passed this state’s exorbitant recent gas tax, in all likelihood do not need to buy gas when they are in Sacramento, and I would bet that they get some sort of “transportation allowance.” They do not have to struggle to pay the state’s inflated gas prices, but they know best!

Likewise how many environmentalists live where the recent conflagrations have destroyed communities? How many of those who adamantly argued against thinning the dead trees and underbrush actually have suffered a live changing disaster because of these deadly fires? My guess . . . very few, if any! However, they have convinced the state legislators that they know best!

I could go on and on about the “we know best” people who are running California, but I am at my word limit for this piece. 
BTW: Does anybody think that it is just a coincidence that the San Diego City Council, the vast majority of California’s state legislators, and the environmentalists of California are all Democrats?

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