Cost of 4 mile long L.A. street car route doubles to $328 million

Welcome to the People's Commune

• The virtually bankrupt city of L.A. wants to spend $125 million on a new streetcar that will travel only four miles.
• Now cost estimates have more than doubled, to as much as $327.8 million.  Yet more proof that liberals have no clue how the real world works.

Welcome to the People's Commune of Los Angeles where every liberal wet-dream spending program ever conceived can come true.

Democrat run Los Angeles is imploding with debt.  But with mountains of debt City Hall staffers have kept mum about concerns that the cost estimate for reviving downtown's streetcar system was not detailed and the price tag could balloon, according to a newspaper investigation.
   
The Los Angeles Times cites records that show aides to Councilman Jose Huizar were reluctant to incorporate higher estimates into public discussions, partly because of concerns they could slow the streetcar system's progress reports the San Jose Mercury News.
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Officials recently announced that cost estimates have more than doubled, to as much as $327.8 million. Earlier budgets had not accurately accounted for inflation or the potentially high cost of relocating utilities.
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The route probably will be shortened, no longer passing by two high-profile venues, the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.    
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Huizar's chief of staff, Paul Habib, explained that earlier not enough engineering work had been done to move beyond "guesstimates."    
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When downtown voters agreed last winter to bring back the Los Angeles streetcar, they were pitched a $125 million plan, with funding split between federal grants and a new property tax.    
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The concern now at City Hall is that with no clear way to close what could be a $200 million funding gap, the federal grant could be in jeopardy, potentially delaying construction by several years.


Also see Bankrupt Los Angeles votes to build a $125 million streetcar

The Los Angeles Red Car Rail System Built in 1901.
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Government Insanity
#1)  First you build an extensive light rail system.
#2)  Then you tear down that extensive light rail system.
#3)  Now you raise taxes to build another light rail system
to replace the light rail system you just tore down.
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Yes, the Government is run by idiots.

Pacific Electric had over 500 miles of inter urban track in Los Angeles in the early 1900's. The image shows the "Red Cars" stacked for sinking in Los Angeles Harbor - sunk ostensibly for "fish habitat", but really sunk for General Motors Corporation profit.