California Today: Bullet Train Is Not Top Priority, a Candidate for Governor Says

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. #deletefacebook is a joke. You think Twitter isn't doing the same thing? All social media and every website you log into is selling your information. People need to stop complaining and either come to terms with that or turn off the internet.

I had been considering not supporting Delaine Easton, but her common sense approach on the so called "Bullet Train" is appealing. This project is a 19th Century approach to a 21st Century problem, that is slower than promised, behind schedule and (excessively) over budget with no funding source for completion. As far as I can tell, the majority of Californians do not support this project as it has panned out into reality. It should be discarded.

She's never been much of a visionary or long range thinker.

Homelessness is a problem with no clear answers. We have a wealth of information about the problem given all the attempts to find an answer in SF and other concerned cities/counties/states, and yet there doesn't seem to be a clear solution. We shouldn't stop trying to find an answer, nor should we stop looking to the future as the bullet train does. They are not exclusive. Moonbeam has vision like few politicians out there, and I will miss him.

Does Eastin not know we are building the train because we got money for a transportation system? We cannot use it for homeless housing.

This article is a puff piece that tells us nothing. It is full of statements that anyone could parrot out. The is a candidate for governor not for junior high treasurer. Where is she getting the figure that 25% of the homeless are in California? Given the highway congestion in our cities what is the alternative to a bullet train that has success in other countries? Has Trump so influenced elections that we let candidates present a list of problems without well thought out solutions? Where are the questions about issues like water, agriculture, the wall, and combating Trump’s attacks on California? This article isn’t NYT worthy.

Brown has been a "strong environmental governor"? Nonsense. Brown has presided over the most pro-fossil fuel administration in California history, closing two carbon-free nuclear plants so they could be replaced by gas-fired plants; raising California's carbon emissions by 18 million metric tons; giving millions in tax breaks to CA fracking interests. Not surprisingly, sister Kathleen was on the Board of Directors of natural gas-purveyor Sempra Energy. http://shellenberger.org/

If Thailand can find a way, California can too. California has always shown us the future. Children, Homeless, Logical transportation can all be done. Don't let them tell you otherwise. We are still America. https://youtu.be/NQ0quoRcz44

Thank you for this. I've never heard of Delaine Eastin, but she's right IMO. When 25% of the nation's homeless are in California, including women and children, they need to be the priority, not a high-speed train. I see homeless everywhere. We voted for a tax increase to help, but it's only a first installment, and the money doesn't do much. Everyone is ashamed, saddened and feels helpless. Why can't the governor do something about the homeless?

Oh lovely. Another Democrat with no spine, and no vision. I know Jerry Brown is a tough act to follow, but I'm confident Cal Dems can come up with someone better than this woman.

I've voted for Jerry Brown any time he was on a ballot here in California with the exception of Oakland Mayor because I live in Pasadena, so I admit his head-strong push for his idealistically fanciful bullet train in the face of all impracticality, has been a big disappointment; it's like he's become a slave to his own mystique, regardless of the insanity of it. Moonbeam was the correct nickname for him back then, but now it's become his scarlet letter. I'm glad to read the next Democratic governor could be a woman from here on earth.

As for the many homeless in Cali and the nation in general, I feel shipping containers should be fashioned into homes and set up in c communities to shelter and give refuge to homeless. Sure, it isn't Park Avenue, but at very least children could have a safe & warm place to sleep, and the parent(s) could have a base from which to get it together and keep their possessions safe until they get on their feet.

This is interesting, and Eastin is well-meaning, but she is not going to be governor. In California's top-two primary, she will not be one of the front runners for a run-off, if there is one.

Ms. Eastin's refusal to acknowledge the potential for high speed rail (HSR) to be an economic driver in CA, rather than a net drain on revenue, demonstrates her inability to plan long term for the state's health. This interview lacks specific facts as to what she considers priorities. Declaring a "public emergency" are words. What would she do for the homeless? What revenue streams could fund HSR? What are top priorities and what would she do about them?

I had been considering supporting Delaine Easton, but after reading this article she’s no longer on my list of possibilities. She seems to want to put a bullet in the bullet train and declare a state of emergency to deal with homelessness — either/or choices. Yet she also has great praise for former Governor Pat Brown. Pat Brown was one of my heroes not because he wanted to slow or halt progress while responding to problems as emergencies. As with issues such as building a high-speed rail connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles— planning for the future — and dealing with the scourge of homelessness, Brown did not choose between such choices. He built the California water system, an expensive and amazing infrastructure feat, while leading the building one of the greatest public educational systems in the world, bolstering and strengthening a tremendous system to protect public health, raising the minimum wage by 25%, promoting economic growth and much more. That is the kind of leadership that I want, not either/or choices.