Save Newport Real News in Newport Beach
Despite a significant outpouring of objection to the idea, including a 100-person-per-day submission to vote for “NO BUS”, last week on Tuesday the Newport Beach City Council decided to pass the bus anyway, awarding the contract to a single bidder who had zero competition for the bid. Perhaps some of our council members were celebrating 4/20 a bit too early.
The city continues to refer to this bus as a “trolley” for some unknown reason, even though– by definition– trolleys have to be electric, not run off a gas engine. Here’s proof:
trol·ley : ˈträlē : noun
1. short for trolley car or trolley bus.
2. a wheel attached to a pole, used for collecting current from an overhead electric wire to drive a streetcar or trolley bus.
trol·ley bus : noun
a bus powered by electricity obtained from an overhead cable by means of a trolley wheel.
trol·ley car : ˈträlē kär/ : noun
a passenger vehicle powered by electricity obtained from an overhead cable by means of a trolley wheel.
This is not a trolley. This is a bus.
If you just asked yourself “do they really think we are that stupid?”, then note that serious description problem has been brought up at many meetings, and they continue to use the term “trolley” when pitching the idea to both the public and our elected officials about the idea of what they were going to vote on. The supporters of the idea included Dixon and Herdman, who were no surprise. Avery, also not a surprise. Duffy was a a bit of a surprise, since the very people who he said gave him reason to vote for the bus actually wrote him emails about why NOT to vote for the bus.
But the real shock was Will O’Neill, who repeatedly said that he was on the fence during the meeting, but ultimately voted to support spending $22+ of taxpayer money on a bus that offers no benefit above what the current free market offers for $0 to both riders and taxpayers.
Mayor Kevin Muldoon and Councilman Scott Peotter were the two whose opinion on the free market I can continue to respect. They saw that this was creating a government-funded business to compete where the free market was already operating, and said no to the debacle which I can predict right now will show absolute failure on the very first year, and yet its supporters will continue to try to spend your tax money to renew it for a second– with your help, we won’t let that happen again, though. Unless Scott Peotter changes his tone, then please remember to NOT sign the petition to recall him. So far, he’s been doing a decent job for the last two years– even though I do take issues
So be prepared for not just one gigantic bus to be clogging traffic up and down Balboa Peninsula– be prepared for five of them making routine stops every “15 minutes” (a laughably impractical timeframe, as it will take them 20-25 minutes to reach each stop– further adding to summertime weekend congestion).
Why am I slamming the bus so much even after it passed? Because unlike the supporters of this project, I’ve actually done the math on it. I have no problems with stating my predictions, and I will bring them all back up next year when it’s up for a re-vote (and also at the end of the summer when this bus fails). This time, we had only three speakers show up in opposition to this colossal waste of funds. I hope you will join me at the council meeting next time!
