Sunday, July 27, 2008

The begining of it all...again

Hello all,

This is the first post on this blog, and as such, I want to let you know a little more about why I felt compelled to start writing.

Here in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area, meaning Marin and Sonoma counties, we have a problem. Ask most anyone what problems could possibly plague them in such a beautiful area, and they all have the same answer: traffic congestion on highway 101.

This long corridor of highway is the only means for transportation around the North Bay.

That needs to change.

And so it did, or started to, when the California Assembly created the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) district, which was given the directive to instituting a viable commuter rail system on the now publicly owned right of way that stretched along the old North Western Pacific Railroad corridor from Larkspur to Healdsberg.

SMART went about their mission by introducing a sales tax in the 2006 election cycle.

California being what it is, the sales tax had to pass with a super majority in the General Election. Measure R (R for rail, as they liked to remind us) fell just, and I mean just barely short of the needed 66.7% majority vote, landing instead at 65.3% We were so close, so very very close to getting a new and viable alternative form of transit for the congested and car-reliant North Bay.

Well, guess what, we've got another chance.

That's right, two years later, this November the 4th of 2008, we will have an opportunity to pass the sales tax measure, now titled Measure Q. This 1/4 cent sales tax increase will help pay, over the 20 year period of its activity, will help pay for the planning, inmplementation, construction, and start up of a new commuter rail line in the Bay Area, and the North Bays first mass transportation system.

It is essential that we pass this tax measure. The environment, the quality of our lives, and the weight of our pockets hang in the balance.

Please take a look at a couple of the links above this, and other posts. Join the mailing list. Donate if you can, by either forking over cash or by volunteering your time and effort. Endorse the campaign and the idea, and attribute your name to this necessary and important endeavor. Heck, even try and get some positive opinions onto the pages of the local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal, and beat back the minority of radical activists that are selfishly blocking the passage of this sales tax.

We only have 29 days to go until election day!

Lets do this, and make the SMART choice on Nov. 4th. Vote YES on Measure Q!

/SystemAnomaly

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