Published Monday, November 9, 2009, by the Palo Alto Daily Post

Comment

New gimmick trotted out by rail promoters

By Diana Diamond
Associate Editor

Remember when those flip charts came into vogue at community meetings around the
Peninsula? They started in the late 1960s but were ubiquitous for years
afterward at nearly every public forum.

What I hated about them was that anytime anyone said anything, one of the
facilitators would note it by writing with a green or blue marker on this chart,
perched atop a clumsy easel.

The problem was that all comments were noted. No screening allowed. If an angry
resident said he didn't want one damn new thing in his neighborhood and the city
manager would say that the proposed project would bring thousands of dollars to
the city treasury, both comments were duly noted on this big flat piece of
paper.

Consensus declared

Then we would look at these many flip charts stuck onto the walls with masking
tape and the facilitator would declare what he discerned was the community
consensus. Our work as residents was done.

No analysis of probability or feasibility, no mention of cost, total disregard
for any expertise in the room -- the community's consensus was golden and
gospel.

Now a new process is being introduced in the debate over the proposed high-speed
rail line -- "Context Sensitive Solutions," or CSS.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, CSS is a "collaborative,
interdisciplinary approach that involves all stake holders to develop a
transportation facility ... (it) considers the total context within which a
transportation improvement project will exist."

I think CSS is being used as a device to get Peninsula residents to buy into
their rail system coming through the middle of all our towns.

However, Palo Alto City Council member and Assembly candidate Yoriko Kishimoto
is touting this approach, and spoke highly of it at last week's meeting.

More than engineering

Kishimoto said CSS is a process to lead us away from simply engineering
approaches to transportation and instead taking people's concerns about
high-speed rail and sensing if they can be transformed into new ways of looking
at transportation.

For example, she said, if someone said he preferred the high-speed rail train
going along 101 instead of through our towns, he would be asked why he preferred
this approach and then see if these reasons can be transformed into
goal-oriented solutions.

In other words, everyone has an oppotunity to opine.

Will they listen?

According to Kishimoto, the California High-Speed Rail Authority board
apparently has bought into this process. They want to hear our concerns.

But that's only because it's to their PR advantage.

And authority officials will alter say, "We heard the Peninsula residents -- we
had a series of CSS meetings."

But whether we will be listened to is the underlying question.

When authority board member Rod Diridon appeared before the Palo Alto City
Council several months ago, he flatly stated that the route had already been
decided and this was no longer the time for community options.

So to me the board has already decided where they want this high-speed train
running alongside Caltrain tracks, most likely on an elevated platform, since
that is their present plan.

And while we might prefer tunneling, the decision rests entirely with the
authority. I bet they will tell us tunneling is too expensive.

Rotten apples

On Thursday, the authority agreed to a $9 million PR contract with Ogilvy
Worldwide, to promote the benefits of the high-speed system. But the No. 1
direction from Diridon was to quell Peninsula residens' concerns, which he
likened to a "rotten apple" in a barrel (see <http://tinyurl.com/yhzznbs>).

The CSS approach, which may work sometimes in some places, is being heralded
here way too late to make any difference. It's just a "feel-good" gimmick.

Because ultimately, whatever we may decide locally, the authority can reject our
concerns and build the high-speed rail system any way it wants -- probably the
way it decided back in 2005 to have it go plunk through our cities.

And so much for public input into a project that ultimately could cost at least
a conservative $80 billion -- that's a number with a "b."

Diana Diamond is associate editor of the Daily Post. Her e-mail is
<Diana@...>.



[BATN: See also:

Peninsula HSR foes insulted by Diridon's "rotten apples" remark
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/43137

Planners to use CSS to develop Peninsula HSR design consensus
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/43078

Peninsula HSR planning to employ context sensitive solutions (CSS)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/43056

Peninsula Cities Consortium meetings to introduce HSR CSS process
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/43055

CSS expert to explain community input process for Peninsula HSR
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/43026 ]