From the LATimes:the $40-billion dream of building a Japanese- or European-style bullet train through the Central Valley may find itself stopped in its tracks.
...Schwarzenegger asked the Legislature in his 2007 budget to slash money for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The governor also wants lawmakers to postpone indefinitely a $9.95-billion rail bond issue that is slated to appear on the November 2008 ballot.
...
At stake is a 700-mile rail corridor with no potentially dangerous vehicle crossings. It would follow several routes from Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area south through Bakersfield to Los Angeles and San Diego.
Rolling along at up to 220 mph, the electricity-powered train would zip passengers between Los Angeles' Union Station and downtown San Francisco as fast as the fastest plane trip, planners say — factoring in the time to get to the airport and go through security.
...Backers say that based on ridership estimates, the train could rack up an annual operating surplus of as much as $2 billion by 2030.
Okay, a few FActs. The more than $40 billion is in public money for the first segment Los Angeles to Oakland. This hinges upon municipalities donating additional land and facilities along the route and possibly as much as $20b in private concessions/cooperation. And the CHSRA has cut back on the top speeds and increased travel time estimates.
Without saying HSR is a bad thing I can safely say this particular idea is complete bullsh!t.
100 comments:
First to shut yall up
& Murst!
Dawg, did ya get my email?
...Still recovering from an "Ale Fest" microbrewry tasting last night.
Good times.
How can I be so Mursty when I drank so much last night?
Considering what the government spends out money on I think this investment would be well worth it. If it's built properly of-course, that's a big IF.
I'm constantly amazed how much our tax money is wasted and how short sighted politicians are. They've been talking about HSR in California for decades, most people recognize that it's an excellent idea, and it could have been built long ago. The delay has made it more expensive and harder to build.
Meanwhile the politicians are wasting our money. I recently received our annual property tax statement for the city, this basically lists how the city spends our property taxes. While I don't have the numbers in front of me I was struck by the fact that they spend significantly more money on welfare than they do on education. So, if you drop out of school because it's crappy the government will give you money; that's a great use of our tax dollars.
The HSR should be built, it would help the environment, the economy, everyday folks, that's why it will never get built. My bet is they'll continue to spend money "investigating" the possibilities, maybe even break ground on a test track one day, but we'll never see it.
Give Cheney a no bid contract on HAS and watch it get built, not fast, over budget, but built.
HRS rather. Sry, in Florida.
HSR, doh
The problem is that if they told the truth about how much, how long, exactly where, speed and all that the project would be rejected. I could be okay with a $55b Sylmar to Oakland HSR with 200mph speeds and a requirement of hundreds of millions in annual subsidies but this tissue of lies needs to be fought on moral grounds.
Before I trot out my world famous alternative consider the following:
$40b @ 6% is 25 million round trip tickets on Soutwest annually. 8 times the very most optimistic ridership they predict.
I love Eurostar from London to Paris, but I'm talking about the trip and not the economics of the entire project.
Tip: Leisure Select (AKA First Class) is typically minimally more expensive than standard class, and much more comfortable. I booked this by accident for my sons and I. The seats are larger, it's much less crowded, and you get a nice meal served at your table. Sweet!
How much do we know about Casey and Galinas finances for 2006?
Can we determine how much was spent on rehab and debt maintenance of the properties?
30k? on seminars. I could see them spending $500 on lodging and meals for those. Travel costs?
No vehicle other than the Jetta during this time? Did they share the borrowed vehicle and the Jetta?
Rent, utilities minimal most of the year.
$100/day for meals/juice/latte?
$500/day on meals/lodging that is.
It's hardly worth getting deeply in to the economics of HSR in California. Given the history of recent large project in the state it's safe to say that huge amounts of money will be wasted regardless of whether or not the thing is built.
I do believe that there are many advantages to HSR in California though. Here's a few...
1) Trains are better on the environment than aircraft.
2) Trains have higher capacity, which means more people can travel for less.
3) Unlike aircraft, trains can stop in areas that are not currently serviced by mass transit. When was the last time a 747 stopped in Modesto?
4) The HSR could also be used for frieght. You can't move a bunch of artichokes by air, you can by train.
5) The cost per passenger would be lower.
6) Jobs and technology would be created.
The questions are. Why is it taking so long? Why 220MPH, surely California could build a world-class system that's faster than Japan's or Europe's.
@kirk -- the dirty little secret is that Medicaid (i.e., healthcare for the poor) is the largest (and fastest growing line item) on most property tax bills. And most of that goes to warehouse grandma and grandpa in a nursing home.
The state footing nursing home bills has created a moral hazard w.r.t. retirement saving. Why save for retirment when the government will take care of you?
Heck, the state footing health care costs for so many creates a moral hazard as well. People have little insentive to take care of their health if the state pays for their health care. But, if the sick had to pay their own way, I'm pretty sure people would make an effort to take better care of themselves...
Kirk, you ask a lot of questions but you present a long list of assertions in a way that makes it seem that you believe them to be true. My study of the proposal leads me to believe that everything you list is demonstrably false. Where shall we begin?
@ kirk:
4) The HSR could also be used for frieght. You can't move a bunch of artichokes by air, you can by train.
Well... only if the freight is fairly lightweight. Typical US freight train loads aren't getting up to anything near 200 MPH with current technology. Even if the power was available, the train would spend half the trip braking.
UK said @ 12:58 pm and Rob dawg @12:50pm....
the reason airfares are cheap is because their fuel isnt taxed. Also if they were a carbon tax system to properly price in pollution and carbn emissions than high density rail transport is the most efficient and enviromentally friendly way to move ppl. this is fact...rail (or any land transport) will use less energy to move x amount y distance because it doesnt have to generate lift to support its own weight and overcome the huge drag from doing so. and I think one of the 'values' in EN is about reducing consumption?
flying may be sexy and glamorous in the past but the real cost of doing so is only now being realised in the damage done to the enviroment.
Rob Dawg,
Why don't we begin at #1 in Kirk's list.
Cool, I've got the Dawg riled up.
Seriously, I don't claim to be an expert on the issue, so I'll be more than happy to admit any mistakes in my assertions. For example, Ogg mentions that frieght wouldn't be feasible on HSR. He's right. Although I counter that while HSR wouldn't replace traditional freight trains it would serve a significant community. Smaller farms that need to ship loads of heirloom artichokes (if there are such a thing) to a farmers market 200 miles away for example. It may not seem like much, but I'd bet it would add up and it would be a big boon to the farm.
My more practical assertions, serving more communities, environmental benefits, greater passenger capacity, etc seem fairly obvious to me. Where am I wrong Rob?
@King
"People have little insentive to take care of their health if the state pays for their health care. But, if the sick had to pay their own way, I'm pretty sure people would make an effort to take better care of themselves..."
King, recently I surveyed homes for one of my parents. Trust me, most people don't want a home that is paid for only by Medicar/aid and not supplemented by private insurance. After seeing what was available in a major metropolis I increased my own insurance. As for taking better care of themselves...no matter how well you take care of yourself, if you live long enough your body will start breaking down. Don't forget, not long ago 30 was middle aged - we're now living into our 90s. The one good thing coming out of Medicare is hospice care. But this probably a topic for another thread.
I sometimes suspect the Dawg is trolling a la Casey with some of his crazy anti-public transportation ideas;).
@bemused guy,
not sure about your state, but I can tell you what I know about NY state. In NY state, you can literally have the case where 2 people lying in the same room and one is paying out-of-pocket and the other is on Medicaid. Same care, same food, same orderly wiping up after you.
Only reason I know is that one of the persons in the room told me. I know the same situation exists in PA (through family), and other places.
1) Trains are better on the environment than aircraft.
This breaks down into footprint, energy and pollution.
We are talking about denuding and closing off a 400 mile long strip 200+ feet wide to everything from tumble weeds to migratory animals. This isn't a fast choo-choo this is essentially a runway from end to end with everything except the takeoff.
While cargo trains are fantastically energy efficient the record in the US for passenger transport is far less honorable. THe Bureau of Transportation Statistics tracks this stuff in their "H Series" data and the ever popular TEDB annuals available at:
cta.ornl.gov/data
In 2002 BTU/pass mile air;3,703, Amtrak;4,830, rail; 3,268, commuter rail;2,714.
Not the energy savers you thought eh? And disel, ewwww.
Casey finally throw in the towel and delete that site?
500 errors are mad scripting skillz at work. No big deal. He'll figure it out after his nap.
There is a fire in Georgia and the air in Orlando is full of Smoke. It is so thick I thought the fire was right down the road!
So I'm pedaling at 18 mph at 150 watts, or about 28 BTU per passenger mile, if I have the conversion right!
It takes 2 hours just to get out of LA, driving. So somebody wants to do something different, besides the usual spending of billions on more roads and car registration discounts? How is this a bad idea?
Lost Cause said...
It takes 2 hours just to get out of LA, driving. So somebody wants to do something different, besides the usual spending of billions on more roads and car registration discounts? How is this a bad idea?
Because if we spend $40b on the HSR boondoggle then it will take 4 hours to get out of LA driving. Besides we don't "spend" money on roads. Roads users and beneficiaries pay money that the govt administers on roads and other stuff. You did know why LA is so congested? They spend 77%+ of their transportation budget on the 2.4% of trips taken on transit. The places in the US with the most congestion are those with the most transit. Be careful with that last it is very easy to listen to the transit advocates and confuse cause and effect.
LA is very different than other cities, in that it has the worst air pollution in the country by a huge margin. Spending money on more roads is just asking to spend it on medical cost associated with bad air. Please explain how spending money on an electric train will make this situation worse.
Looks like snowflake's website is down.
I remember when they told us we'd all have flying cars in the year 2000! It was on the cover of Popular Science! It was in "The World Of Tomorrow" at the NY World's Fair! And while I'm at it, that friggin' Supply Sergeant said I'd grow to like Ham & Lima Beans C-Rations. Those lousy liars!!
@Lost Cause,
How do you plan to generate the electric power for the electric trains? Mr. Fusion?
You have to consider that California in general suffers from air quality problems. The coastal pollution moves into the central valley. Natural gas fired electrical plants burn cleaner than any tailpipe emmisions, and clean renewable sources are being exploited. There is already an existing electricity infrastructure, as there is no virgin swath that is going to block coastal access. You are asking us to reconsider questions that were answered over 100 years ago.
According to the EIR for the HSR California is going to need almost 3000 miles for new roads over the next couple of decades. 400 miles for a train doesn't seem too bad in comparison.
It's not that new roads wouldn't be needed as well, the train would offer an alternative. That alternative would be welcomed by many people IMHO, and it would help the environment. Many people would use the train if it were available, simply due to the convenience, speed, lack of traffic, cost, and environmental concerns. Those people wouldn't be on the road. That's gotta help
It's not that new roads wouldn't be needed as well, the train would offer an alternative. That alternative would be welcomed by many people IMHO, and it would help the environment. Many people would use the train if it were available, simply due to the convenience, speed, lack of traffic, cost, and environmental concerns. Those people wouldn't be on the road. That's gotta help
It hurts. Even in a world of unlimited funding it hurts. Then there's the paradox of transit advocacy. Advocates claim that transit adds to the economy. If that were so then we'd need even more roads than without transit as roads are necessary even for transit oriented development.
The truth is it isn't cheap. It may be that they'll decide not to chrage very much but it won't be anything close to cheap. It will be subsidized. Again, if this were a world of unlimited funding that wouldn't be a problem but there is only one place they could get enough money for the subsidies; taxpayers and roads users. By definition the State is planning on shortchanging the general populace for the benefit of the very very few train riders.
Again with the environment. A train every 20 mintutes at 200 mph is environmentally friendly how? Repetition is not data.
On the face of it, putting forth that more roads and cars will deal with a transportation system that is a already a disaster because it consists of only roads and cars is asking too much.
California is an oil state. You can see that the reputation as environmental is largely blowing smoke. The sprawl, the freeways, the car culture -- it all supports a major hometown industry. Who are we kidding here? It is is just another Texas, with better PR, provided by Hollywood.
Snowflake must be using his award winning PHP skillz.
Hey Fliptard, see if this works. Be sure your .htaccess file was uploaded in TEXT mode.
Using FTP, rename the .htaccess file, copy the contents, and upload from your desktop a new file named htaccess.txt - and then change the file name to: .htaccess
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sorry,,
http://iamfacingbankruptcy.com/
is already taken!
but theres a nice snowflake on the squatter site...
http://iamfacingbankruptcy.com/
by the way anybody see the indie movie "SNOWFLAKE" with sigorney weaver as an autistic mom
... the electricity-powered train would zip passengers between Los Angeles' Union Station and downtown San Francisco as fast as the fastest plane trip, planners say — factoring in the time to get to the airport and go through security.
Um, you have to factor in the time it takes to get to and from Union Station and in and out of downtown SF. Also, LA has multiple convenient airports and only one inconvenient train station. No way this will compete with air travel.
History shows that passenger trains always lose big money. Why would we build another one?
When casey serin is done, this blog by Cote will be like a partially dried pile of dogshit on the information superhighway...
You know it's there, but you simply avoid it,without giving it a second thought, as you pass on by.
Rob Dawg,
Regarding your 2:27 PM comment, I assumed we were discussing high-speed rail not just any commuter rail..
Want to know the only part of Amtrak that's profitable? The Boston - NYC - Philly - Washington DC corridor.
Why /not/ have something similar connecting SF - LA - SD?
There are no reliable energy stats for HSR. The SNCF treats the real data like the State secrets they are. The general estimates are that operationally they a similar to jets.
As to the BosWash Amtrak corridor. THey claim operational profitability. Did you also know they record state subsidies as operational income? Ohhhh, sneaky math.
What part of air travel is that profitable these days, without the massive government support? Shall we shut them all down? No, first we need a competing industry, so that they can get the goverment to supply massive infrastructure subsidy and monopoly rights -- and then screw them down, just like the airlines did to the rail industry.
Exactly, Lost Cause.
I think California would be in better shape if we split SoCal from NorCal. My relatives in L.A. are crazed car addicts without any sense of the overall geopolitical and environmental impact of their behavior and their voting patterns reflect that.
About half of the population of the state lives in the LA area. One of the chronic economic problems in the region is the lack of local banking and finacial center. It is treated as a cash mine for the most part, and the city suffers because of this lack of reinvestment.
Lost Cause,
I think northern California could do just fine without L.A. and the rest of the smoggy mass down south (and we'd be happy to provide an extra bonus of the Sacramento area :)).
Rob Dawg,
Just a thought that could also be a metaphor: Maybe you don’t find rapid transit a personally beneficial financial expenditure in the manner that taxes spent on education might be for me. While I don’t have kids, nor do I intend to, I always vote for education because it benefits society as a whole.
Transit is unlike any other service it is not needs tested for one thing.
Oh, and the airlines. They pay taxes, lots and lots of taxesTransit consumes taxes and still cannot come close.
Funny thing is SoCal seems to think the same about NorCal. Me I'm in favor of at least 5 States with 8 more Senators and 17 more Representatives we'd get something like a little respect at the Federal level.
Akubi,
I am glad that you have an opinion, but everybody already knows how snooty people are in the bay area, without you providing a demonstration.
Here is how the HSR should be built. Privatize it. No Fed/State funding. Now, would it be built? Doubtful...Letting the California Legislature get involved is the worst thing possible. Ain't gonna happen. And how the fuck is it gonna go 200+MPH if it's stopping aint every poodunk town like Modesto or Merced?
@Sprezz -
want to know why that line is so profitable? The last two times we rode from NYC to DC (Sunday afternoon) with our pre-paid first class tickets the trains were so oversold we sat on luggage in between cars until Philly. And of course no one in Amtrak cared enough to listen to complaints. ****ers.
The reason why California will never be split into 2 or more states is because a compromise over how to divide up the Central Valley.
When you think about it, the California economy is essentially just the Salad Bowl and two production centers of intellectual property (Hollywood and Silicone Valley). The rest of the economy is basically a service based Ponzi scheme that produces very little of actual value.
Question on the train?
Can we Casey as the conductor?
@bemused guy
Sounds like my last flight on American Airlines. Gak. Miami to Dallas: overbooked by 30 people; 40 on standby - no further flights that day.
And don't get me started on the service.
Hey Walt,
You like strawberries? Avocados? Use oil? Know where BMWs arrive? Know anybody saved by Epogen? Very little of value. Hmmmph.
Click the link for the latest foreclosure developments!
You people are all wrong. The future is nucular powered dirigibles. Ask Nigel.
I don't buy the argument that mass transit creates congestion by the way.
Lost Cause,
Where do you reside given your snooty response?
I live in SoCal, but I love NorCal too. I never once have I ever said that the state would be better off without it.
There are plenty of snooty ones here, for sure. Here we have Disneyland, but there you have Frisco. One has gates and parking, and the other one doesn't.
Akubi --
What other places do you like? I know that Lake Tahoe rates for most in the BA, but I think the rest of Nevada and California are out, except for Napa and Yosemite.
I think Seattle, maybe, but I am not sure about Portland. Anything out of state?
You must like San Diego, but isn't that SoCal? What about Santa Barbera? Santa Monica?
Anything east of the Rockies?
New BMWs arrive via the port of Charleston if they are slated for Performance Center Delivery (a sweet deal--no extra charge, and you get one night's hotel stay and a half day at their track in their car at no charge, but I digress)...
Sadly, the salaries here in Flyover Country make it nearly impossible to retire to more desirable places like California or NYC, but I can still enjoy a very good standard of living while I'm here, and can still afford to visit CA and NYC on occasion... Like Jack's tattoo on "Lost" says, "he walks among us, but he is not one of us."
That said, I have not travelled by air since the year 2000, and the reports I regularly read about airline quality tend to make me think it was the right choice... Although I have a passport and intend to do the Europe thing someday (er, at least the partially-English-speaking parts)...
Arrrgh! It's not "frisco", it's also not "San Fran" or the "fruits and nuts city". It's either San Francisco or the City.
LA on the otherhand is lala land.
Akubi,
Lost Cause attempted to insult me earlier for being and East Coaster making a comment about my experience on the West Coast. Apparently, Lost Cause takes issue with every part of the country.
Lost Cause,
I believe Rob Dawg is well aware that public transit is a touchy subject with me since I regularly vent about that topic (and related ones like ExxonMobile, Halliburton, George W. etc.), yet while we might disagree he has been cordial and never made comments like yours despite the fact that I was agreeing with you.
7:06 PM, Lost Cause said...
Akubi,
I am glad that you have an opinion, but everybody already knows how snooty people are in the bay area, without you providing a demonstration.
____
I just don't get it, but it bugs me nonetheless.
Regional flame wars appealing to chauvinism are too easy, but at least reliable.
Just to sum things up: I love the Bay Area, and even New York, but everybody hates LA, and New Yorkers hate Frisco.
Akubi,
I agree with you too. I like the public transit in the Bay Area. It is just too bad you can't find anything to like about SoCal, and imagine that to seperate yourselves, you can avoid helping solve the problems of the state. I find the refineries in the Bay Area just as ugly, and the smog that the costal cities send to Fresno just as sickening. It is too bad that part of your solution is to point fingers.
@ flailing:
You people are all wrong. The future is nucular powered dirigibles.
For long-distance travel, perhaps, but we can hardly have our own personal nuclear dirigible. No, in the future we shall all travel short distances by velocipede. The only question is whether the newfangled "safety" model will displace the tried and true ordinary.
Actually Lost Cause I think a lot of New Yorkers probably love SF. At least when I visited LA, I found the fact that everyone was shameless to be utterly refreshing. What you saw was what you got. I have a problem with passive aggressive people. I have a much easier time when people decide lay it all out. The West Coast is a beautiful place - I think perhaps I would like Seattle a lot more than San Francisco.
Ogg,
I like human powered. But first you have to deal with the health club industry. For a caveman, you are ahead of your time.
I like LA. Nice weather. Shame about the earthquakes.
I scored 7.792 MegaBits per second (0.974 Megabytes per second) on a BitTorrent download tonight, over a cable connection. My past records were all in the 0.3xx Megabytes per second range. Don't know what they've done to my cable system recently, but it works!
@ Ogg
LOL! What do think of these 'helmet' things?
Some British riders are quite amusing about helmets. There is a significant, vocal minority who point out helmets don't decrease mortality--that is death from all causes from trauma during a bike accident. Therefore, you are wasting your time wearing a helmet. The more accurate question is: "Do helmets decrease morbidity/mortality from traumatic brain injury compared to not wearing a helmet when you suffer equivalent blows to the head?"
I think in the future we'll all be driving white 98 VW Jettas with sweet rims, no front passenger side window, and wires hanging from the cavity where the stereo used to be.
I am a native NYer who lives in the Bay Area. I miss a lot of things about NY, but there's also things here that don't suck.
If only there weren't that 2400 mile continent in between the two.....
@ Segfault
Shush! Fer christsakes, if they read that, they'll go back and fix it so it works the way it used to.
@ sprezzatura
If you're homesick for NYC, it shouldn't be too difficult to find some unshaven, unwashed folks who barely speak English to drive by your house, honk their horns and flip you off.
I miss the Sheridan Square diner and Puglia's myself.
@orson -- drive in NYC? You must be thinking of Long Island. Real NYers don't have cars.
@ UK:
Helmets are something of a third rail issue in a lot of cycling fora. It's *far* more controvorsial than most non-cyclists would expect. I don't really care enough to argue about it, but since you asked I'll mention a few thoughts.
I'm not qualified to comment on the mortality statistics, however, I do think that looking at mortality alone is an oversimplification.
I've busted my fair shair of helmets, mainly off-road. I'd be *very* surprised if any of those accidents would've killed me without the helmet, but there's little doubt that I've saved myself a concussion or two and plenty of facial road rash by wearing them. That's worthwhile in my opionion.
@Spezz: Now that would be a good use for a high speed train, SF to NY and no worries about the 2400 miles. Get on the train in downtown SF, have dinner, watch a movie, go to bed, wake up in Manhattan. Sweet!
I support biker solidarity but when I see bikers with no helmet and dark clothes (at night), I think they're fucking idiots who need to get schooled. So many bikers assert their freedom to use the public roads, but they need to assert equal measures of caution and insurance.
I hate take you folks off topic, but why are there 229 comments on snowflake's latest post, but the counter notes 224 comments, and what's with the last 8 comments having Technorati bubbles (whatever those are).
ratlab: I was just talking about this with a friend today. Nigel probably criticizes Casey because he lets critical voices participate. Nigel figures, if you jsut crack down on off-message or critical comments, you can control the conversation. Certainly Nigel works hard at this goal. But Casey is actually a bit smarter than this. He "keeps it organic" and must figure any press is good press. Those little word bubbles designate other blogs that are linking to his blog. Casey has wisely/accidentally kept ahold of a unique nexus role for traffic that seems to recognize that he is the lightening rod for a lot of commentary/criticism/comedy associated with him. if he followed Nigel's model, he would not be the internet persona he is now. Too bad that and three bucks can buy you a latte'.
Bike helmet laws, ugh.
But a bike helmet, fine.
That's my feeling. I've lived in places (other places, not here!) where biking was a typical way for a lot of us to get to and from work, and especially to and from the pubs/bars! Helmets in such places were not required, just encouraged.
As an example, I'll use Germany. I biked all the time, and to be honest, I rarely used a helmet on my pokey empty-bike-path ride to the office and back; I wasn't keen on riding fast and sweating all up in my office attire, hence the slow +safe speed. I did, though, always don a helmet for jaunts to the next city/town/suburb, or any unfamiliar terrain, or whenever mixed up with traffic.
Anyway, the law there was shaped by the debate that in order to encourage commuters to to use bikes at all, you better not discourage them with thing like helmets. Mandatory lights, yes, and a bell! But not helmets. You'd be surprised how many people would rather burn petrol than have "helmet hair". Seriously. It came down to the issue that by requiring helmets, they would increase automobile driving.
Then again, in those other countries like Holland, Germany, etc. the auto drivers actually noticed people on bicycles, not like here when they only notice as you bounce off their windscreen.
It still doesn't make me like helmet laws, though, even if I do admit being a chicken, and I won't even get out of my own driveway without one on. But that's my own choice. (Cluck, cluck!)
Well, this is a bit odd.
Here is the original filing for Hammar Investments, Inc. 9/22/2003 by Michael Marshall.
http://134.186.208.228/caleasi/PDFDocs/003822897.PDF
Here is Michael Marshall's current website calling himself the Tax Rabbi at Rapid Tax.
http://taxrabbi.com/new/taxrabbi/
Notice the address is the same:
21241 Ventura Blvd., Suite 244
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
The question is what business would Tax Rabbi have and why did he sell it? And I don't think the last four digits of the telephone number (1040) is a coincidence considering this is a tax prep firm.
Public transportation is bullshit.
ratlab
Any possibility that this guy just keeps a few corporations (sorry don't know the correct term) "in stock" ready to sell to clients? I'm sure similar thing happen here with limited companies.
@Arthur
The thought has crossed my mind. I couldn't find a search feature at the CA Dept of Corporations which allows searching by name.
It's very possible Marshall created a corp (or multiple corps) and never used it/them and eventually sold it/them to an outfit like Corp Credit or whomever fliptard was shilling for.
From a corporation revival site:
http://www.sundocumentfilings.com/revivesuspendedcorporation.htm
Revive a Suspended Corporation
When a corporation's status is suspended, the corporation has lost all its rights and privileges as a corporation and cannot legally operate. California Corporations can achieve good standing status but first, they must be revived. Two powers have the authority to suspend and revive a corporation. The first being the California Secretary of State's office and the second being the California Franchise Tax Board.
Reasons for suspension
California Secretary of State's office: 1. Failure to file and pay the annual Statement of Information. Failure to file a Statement of Information on time may results in a $250.00 late fee. In addition, the California Franchise Tax Board may assess interest on the $250.00 late fee.
California Franchise Tax Board's office:
1. Failure to pay the minimum tax of $800.00 a year (assessed after the first year) or failure to pay any taxes that are owed.
2. Failure to file tax returns. Tax returns are required annually regardless if the corporation was doing business or not.
3. Failure to file the Statement of Information with the California Secretary of State which resulted in a $250.00 late fee that has accrued interest.
NOTE: A corporation can be suspended by the Secretary of State ONLY, the Franchise Tax Board ONLY, or both the Secretary of State AND the Franchise Tax Board.
Much more info including who to contact (Sec. of State or FTB) to find out exactly who suspended the corp and why.
@ Ogg-
I said nucular. It's a new energy initiative being spearheaded by Dubya. It will solve all of our energy woes, provided it is not abused by Iran or terrists.
I'm with Ogg on the helmets. I've busted at least a half dozen in the past 10 years. 2 of which were commuting to work. One of those I have no doubt I would have been dead or a vegetable for the rest of my life. riding without a helmet makes for extra organ donors.
I'll take a wild guess and say that Hammar Investments, Inc. is the "aged corporation" that snowflake bought from the corp credit scammers.
I don't suppose it occurred to anyone just to live closer to where you work. If you live within walking distance of your workplace, you wouldn't have to worry about the whole car vs train vs airplane issue, would you?
PV,
It just doesn't work that way. In large part because cities are too inflexible about providing living/working environments to meet changing needs. Instead they attempt to influence behavior with incentives rather than respond to the needs of the populace.
Mixed Use Urban Development (MUUD) is the latest fad in this direction.
@ Rob Dawg
Sorry if this was covered already - but do you know how much it would cost for a RT LA-SF train ticket on this thing? Comperable to flying? Significantly cheaper?
The 1998-99 scoping said two things. One comparable to airfares and two $65 one way. My best guess at this point is $150 (2007$) each way which is kinda the one way airfare if you exclude Southwest type fares which don't serve Bakersfield and Fresno trips.
Speaking of So Cal and mass transit... there used to be an efficient transit system in place in So Cal.
Was called the Pacific Electric Railway. General Motors bought it out and sold off the right-of-way real estate so it could never be revived.
The movie "who framed Roger Rabbit" was loosely based on this story.
Thanks Rob-Dawg
As much as I love public transportation, I'm not sure I'd pay $150 each way, cause for LAX-SJC Southwest works just fine at a considerable discount. It would be nice if they could bring the price down a bit and make it more competitive.
badgerjim,
That is a myth. The places where NCL invested retained their rail transit longer than the places where the lines remained in public hands.
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