Because it’s likely that Gavin Newsom will be the next Governor of California, it’s important to review his thoughts on two of the large infrastructure projects that Governor Jerry Brown has been pushing fervently, but which have run into financial and political stumbling blocks. These are the High Speed Rail and Twin Delta Tunnels projects.
These issues have not been debated extensively during the election period by either Newsom or his Republican opponent (who is known to oppose the High Speed Rail outright). Newsom has indicated that he will have a somewhat different take on these projects than Jerry Brown, but it has been somewhat unclear what those positions will be. I have not seen this additional information posted here yet, but in case I or others missed it previously, I’m going to cover it briefly here.
There was a recent article in the LA Times in which Newsom expanded a bit on his thoughts for these projects. While many who follow these issues, myself included, have looked at them mostly as all or nothing proposals, Newsom seems to have a different take. When he was mayor of San Francisco, Newsom had a reputation for looking at things outside the box at times, and his thoughts here seem to fit into that pattern. Here are the opening paragraphs that summarize his current position:
www.latimes.com/...
If Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is elected governor as expected, he’ll keep building the state’s two contentious public works projects: the bullet train and twin water tunnels. But he’ll scale back both.
He’ll be more cautious, realistic and practical about the super-expensive projects than termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown.
Newsom will concentrate on completing a high-speed rail line from the San Joaquin Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area. The southern half of the ambitious project, from the valley into Los Angeles, will be delayed until the initial line proves to be financially feasible and can attract more money from taxpayers or private investors.
As for the embattled water project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Newsom will try to reduce its size to one tunnel. That would ease northern fears of a Southern California water grab.
One of the things that surprised me about these positions is that they are contrary to some of the conditions that were spelled out in the original proposals, and they take on a northern vs. southern California angle that may be politically challenging. Newsom does not seem to fear these contradictions or challenging positions in some cases, so it will be interesting to see how this develops.