After a ruling by the Sacramento Superior Court threw out a frivolous lawsuit challenging the high-speed rail last week, we thought it would be smooth, bullet-paced sailing from here on out. It turns out that was premature. As reported in Streetsblog this morning, and the Portrero Boosters this afternoon, some Portrero residents have taken issue with an option that would keep the tracks at street grade, pushing 16th Street into a short subterranean tunnel.
At major issue is the creation of another barrier in the neighborhood for pedestrians and cyclists. This is a fair point, considering 280 and 101 already serve to chop up the area into a Road Warrior-esque landscape. Still, it will all eventually come down to dollars and cents, as both burying the tracks and elevating them above street traffic are astronomically more expensive than leaving the tracks at street level.High Speed Rail Authority Addresses Alignment Concerns in SF
- [Streetsblog]
Residents eager for details of high-speed rail, voice concerns
- [PortreroBoosters.Org]
