Thursday, June 19, 2008

Monorail I-70

Ali Hassan, pretending to be a traffic engineer with "a background in land development", has determined that the best thing will be a monorail from the Denver front range to the western slope. Hassan says the State of Colorado should provide the credit which will allow private companies to profit from the construction project. Presumably, Ali Hassan will have the state use eminent domain to force people off their land so private companies can profit from construction and operation of the monorail.

It is notable that a monorail will not carry cargo, so truck traffic will not be reduced. Are voters on the western slope clamoring for a scenic ride to the DIA airport? Alternatively, is a high-speed and reliable train intended to bring day labor in and out of the vail vally and beaver creek? With reliable (and cheap) labor imported from far outside the rich enclaves, the town councils can proceed with raising property tax and changing building codes to push out the (eyesore) trailer parks where the day laborers now live.

Do conservative Republicans encourage government to force people from their property so private companies can build a Walt Disney-esque monorail that is financially backed via a letter of credit that puts the taxpayers on the hook?
Ali Hassan's proposal is for a big-government project that will steal people's land while putting Colorado taxpayers at economic project risk from the letter of credit.