Analysis Paralysis?
A government paralyzed by analyses, while problems surmount is evading its mandate to govern. This applies to county government as much as all levels of government in the United States. Change for its own sake is clearly not what people in Lake County are motivated to support. Myself included, most people in Lake County would like to turn back the clock to a simpler time, when Clear Lake was, in fact, clear.
However, decades of collectively trying to preserve the simpler life has taken a devastating toll on Clear Lake. The world outside of Lake County will continue to negatively impact all residents of the county, if a strategy for preserving and restoring the inherent beauty and natural resources of the region is not implemented before it is too late.
As one method of reversing this trend, I am proposing a revival of over a century of historical efforts of sensibly relating the Clear Lake basin to the greater Bay Area with a rail connection. Rail connections have universally been a means of controlling development, while also providing development through technological innovation, employment and cultural interaction with other regions.
Lake County has one of the most unique opportunities for doing this due to its geographical situation and history. If the forefathers of Lake County had been successful in the earliest attempts to build the rail connection, the technology of the time would have been steam locomotion. Obviously, with the technology we have available today, we would now be able to use cutting edge electrified rail transportation for tourism, transit and freight. California is lagging woefully behind the rest of the world in developing the infrastructure for this.
Yet, the good news is that by starting now, Lake County would have the latest technology available. It is sort of like people who waited years before buying their first computer, when they finally did, they ended up with better computers than all of their friends whose computers were almost obsolete at that point. However, with a new Lake County rail system, the improvements would not stop there. BART riders, eat your hearts out!
I have developed a basis for a complete and detailed plan proposal. However, I need the Lake County board of Supervisors, at a minimum, to show a modicum of interest in the proposal. From there, I would be glad to work closely with the Lake County Planning Commission and gather input from residents throughout the county. I firmly believe that Lake County could have a project that would contribute to preserving and restoring the local environment. I can not promise a return to “the good old days.” Yet, I am certain that a new Lake County rail system would be a project that would help contribute to a future much more in line with the overall satisfaction of all Lake County communities. Failure to consider the revival of this project would fall into the same category as sitting by and watching the death of one of the world”s greatest natural lakes.
Al Bulf retired from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and worked on many rail projects during his career.
