The Great ARTIC Melt Down

Pringle's Pipe-n-glass Dream

According to an article in today’s LA Times here, the cloudy jewel in Anaheim’s ex-mayor-for hire, Kurt Pringle’s tarnished crown, ARTIC, may not be eligible for $99 million in special Measure M funding. The money had strings attached. However those strings seem to have come loose.  And by loose I mean really loose. You see, “Project T” Measure M funds can only be used to “expand” existing stations to accommodate high-speed rail, not build new ones that don’t.

So far the OCTA has pitched over $40,000,000 bucks into this glorified bus station and at this point nobody can show that the high-speed rail choo-choos can even get to it; or that high-speed rail will ever even come to Anaheim. Of course the City of Anaheim (that isn’t paying for any of this) is now saying ARTIC is a “stand alone” facility, which is great, but it ain’t what the voters approved back in 2006: a stand alone facility doesn’t qualify for the $100,000,000 (yes, you read that right) Project T funding.

The hot light of public scrutiny is bound to have interesting environmental effects. The great ARTIC melt-down begins this morning at an OCTA Transit Committee meeting, where newly re-elected Supervisor Shawn Nelson is going to ask members to start reflecting upon their complete lack of responsibility in funding this Pringledoggle.

24 Replies to “The Great ARTIC Melt Down”

  1. Of course, you’re right. A number of years ago when ARTIC was just a wet dream in Der Pringle’s pants, he hosted a huge soiree at the Pond. It’s purpose was to attracted private investment in what at that time was being touted as a “public private partnership”. Even Kathleen Brown was there, representing Goldman Sachs. And of course, an army from Disney was there, drooling over all the free stuff that was going to bring a few patrons to the Parks.

    Now years later, not one buck of private money was ever been dropped on the ex-Mayor’s desk (for ARTIC anyway), but nobody ever reported that. It’s all on the OCTA now as Pringle was deftly able to keep city funds out of the mess and take it from Measure M.

    Pringle was challenged that long ago day as far as what might happen if High-Speed Rail didn’t make it to Anaheim, but of course he tap danced around the question as it was obviously from someone in the great unwashed.

  2. Good point regarding new vs. existing. ARTIC is not be built at or on top of the old station in the stadium parking lot; rather it’s going in across the river on a city yard. Never mind that the current station is perfectly adequate for Metrolink and Amtrak (and doesn’t make a direct connection to the Metrolink’s Inland Empire line). It isn’t even the most heavily used station in the County (Irvine or Fullerton is).

    And it wasn’t until about two years ago that the Anaheim Resort Transit system (the maroon buses that transit between the hotels and Disneyland) even stopped at the current station — they have over a dozen routes, but there weren’t enough Disney visitors coming in by train to even justify their stopping there (until someone noticed and made them do a stop, probably for traffic counting purposes.

  3. We need infrastructure; when France can afford high speed rail, why cant we? Because we are the Worlds free (to the World) police force. We could afford infrastructure and Health Care if we stopped spending Trillions of dollars paying foreign corrupt govts. Even our corrupt govt officials dont get that kind of payoff. Lets keep the bribery in America! Get out of all our foreign wars. (If you think about it, Tribal Govt is truly democratic because it is run locally, so we are really destroying democracy)! Shifting our funding priorities makes sense for those of us who want a public transportation system now that flying is onerous due to TSA heavy, and stupid, rules. WE NEED HIGH SPEED RAIL LIKE FRANCE, JAPAN CHINA, ET AL HAVE! Why do Americans have to suffer? BTW, it is too cutesy to misspell Pringle’s first name, it makes you look like you dont know what his name is.

        1. Okay, you got me on that one. The key is to clean out the kleptos (in OC read: repuglican) and not become a socialist bureau-archy.

  4. One of my all time favorite Jerbal slobbers was when he claimed that if we MUST have high-speed rail he was damn glad we had a great conservative like Der Prinlgle in charge of it!

    Ha! Hahahaha!

  5. Whether or not Orange County “needs” high speed rail next to our “regular speed rail” is debatable.

    But here’s a certainty for you: Curt Pringle’s sticky little fingers guarantee waste, misappropriation and failure. And nobody needs that.

  6. “According to an article in today’s LA Times here, the cloudy jewel in Anaheim’s ex-mayor-for hire, Kurt Pringle’s tarnished crown, ARTIC, may not be eligible for $99 million in special Measure M funding.”

    Wow. That sentence is quite a mouthful. I suggest fewer subordinate clauses next time. That’s why God gave us full stops.

  7. Related to this mess is Anaheim’s plan to run what will probably be a monorail from NEAR (not at the Maingate) Disneyland to ARTIC (remind anyone of mass transit to almost LAX?). This is Natalie Meeks’ mess, and she’s bound and determined to build it for around $400M (+/-$100M).

    It will need to run over the 5 Freeway. Curt likes Monorails and always wanted one like Walt’s.

  8. Pringle rolled out all the guns this morning and aimed them at the idiots on the committee. Of course they couldn’t counter the arguments so they showed lots of pretty pictures. Iconic! Iconic!

    1. That’s what I heard, too.

      Pringle is getting pushback for the first time. The drones on the Transit Committee will of course back up Der Pringle. The whole Board is a little (not much) more sophisticated and some of its members have good cause to resent the way Pringle has manipulated OCTA over the years for his own benefit.

      At the very least the Measure M funding should be put on hold until it can be proven that High-Speed Rail WILL come to ARTIC. And then there’s the EIR process for Anaheim-LA that is a year or more away and already way behind schedule.

      The burden of proof should be on the recipients and donors – not on ARTIC critics. Will it deliver what was promised to the voters? Any doubt? Put it on hold.

      1. “At the very least the Measure M funding should be put on hold until it can be proven that High-Speed Rail WILL come to ARTIC.”

        That sure would be the intelligent and honest thing to happen. So of course it won’t. Too many bureaucrats and “engineers” of all sorts at OCTA and Anaheim have been sucking at the ARTIC teat for way too long to kick the habit now.

    1. They also thought they were experts at light rail. The ARTIC needs to go the same way as the CenterLine — no where.

  9. Arnold, two-thirds of federal debt goes to social security and medicare, and no state or local budgets go to corrupt third world tyrants. I really dont think that is America’s problem. The problem is an aging population, over-paid public employees, and a lack of economic competiviness due to a ton of reasons.

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