The Folly of Passenger Rail Service

Former Wall Street money manager Paul Marin chairs the LVEDC's Transportation Committee and is a LANTA board member. Those two facts, all by themselves, make me suspicious. He's also been identified as the driving force behind an effort to bring passenger rail to the Lehigh Valley. He's already persuaded the publicly-funded LVEDC to kick in $100,000 for a study, and wants Lehigh and Northampton County to kick in the rest. An unelected official wants to spend $250,000 in public funds to study the notion of a passenger rail service from NYC to Easton.

That's great for commuters. For the rest of us, alarm bells should be sounding as loudly as those on any train.

I'd love the idea of light rail or expanded bus service in the Lehigh Valley. But a passenger rail service connecting the Lehigh Valley with the Big Apple will create the very congestion it is designed to eliminate. It will gobble up the very green space that we spend millions to preserve as developers build more homes for commuters. Our school districts, stressed with the burden of educating all their children, will increase taxes even more. It will destroy whatever rural charm is left. We all will be funding a service that benefits very few of us.

I love choo choo trains as much as the next person, but prefer to see them winding around Christmas trees, not carrying an army of commuters to invade the Lehigh Valley and increase our cost of living.

Amazingly, large segments of the Lehigh Valley's progressive community have been brainwashed by this folly. This Tuesday, there will be an 8 PM open house at Easton's Third Street Alliance (41 N. 3rd Street), starring Paul Marin.

A well-meaning puff blog is also promoting this effort to have all of us make life easier for commuters and real estate developers.

We Say New Jersey and They Say New Joisey

It's election time, bippy. Pols are preying upon our fears about nasty illegal immigrants who are so evil they don't even take showers. They may even be responsible for avian flu!

But there's another set of immigrants Pennsylvanians don't like. It's those bastards from Joisey. Are they simple refugees fleeing high taxes and insurance? Or are they jerks who'll do anything for a buck, even if it involves daily four hour commutes?

Needless to say, they're not too popular in the Lehigh Valley. Whenever a moron does something rude or obnoxious, someone else will turn and knowingly say, "New Jersey." You'd be surprised at how many times I've been accused of being from Jersey.

But Joiseyites have their attitudes about us, too. I belong to a gym in Jersey, and often hear us discussed as trailer park trash. Most of us have just fallen out of the trees. Our driving habits are disparaged as much as we complain about theirs.

There's no denying that the Jersey exodus has led to more traffic, bigger schools and higher taxes. And it's become next to impossible to buy a home with a Pennsylvania income. But if you sit down and talk to a former New Jersey resident, you'll meet a person who's really no different from the rest of us. They love their children, and just want them to have a better home. Is that so bad?

Reality and perceptions are two different things.

By the way, illegal immigrants love their children, too.