Sunday, August 9, 2015

From Facebook: Treasure Coast Citizens Against the Train wave white flag of surrender (with a little sour grape thrown in)

 "The final environmental impact statement on the All Aboard Florida project, released Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration, is everything I expected it to be: a whitewash of the facts, a minimization of impacts to our region, and a rubber-stamping of the project.

In short, the report is a JOKE.

The entire process has been a CHARADE.

The system has failed Treasure Coast residents opposed to All Aboard Florida. The only real hope, at this point, to stop the Miami-to-Orlando rail project lies with the marketplace:

Will All Aboard Florida find buyers for its $1.75 billion of tax-exempt bonds? On Wednesday, the Florida Development Finance Corp. — the quasi-governmental agency charged with deciding whether the rail company can sell the bonds — gave unanimous approval to the sale at the end of an eight-hour meeting in Orlando.

Will the rail company recruit enough passengers to become financially viable?

Treasure Coast residents fought a valiant battle. There were more than 15,400 comments in response to the draft environmental impact statement, which was released in September 2014. Almost two-thirds of the comments — 9,500 — were in opposition and 'most came from individuals ... living, working or having property interests in the project study area, particularly residents of Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties,' according to the report.

We fought a good fight. However, the outcome now lies with forces beyond our power to influence. Truth be told, we never had much power to influence this project."
A recent silly ad that appeared in the Post from the 'Guardians of Martin County' prior to their surrender.