Interesting piece here by Marin IJ publisher Robert Sterling. [blogs.marinij.com] . SMART GM Mansourian refused to go on air with Mike Arnold, noted SMART critic, instead making his appearance on the debate show conditional on debating someone with transit experience of some kind who is not Mike Arnold. Finally, he agreed to self-debate. iRonically, the SMART GM did not have any transit experience when he was hired for the iSMART head job. Instead he brought major project management experience and iAbility in dealing with Marin Board of Supervisors. Mike Arnold is an economist, is fully conversant with SMART's EIRs and white papers and revenue streams, as well as other issues. He is an outspoken critic who has an interesting take on the issue of SMART extending its line to Larkspur. But apparently not qualified to debate the benefits of SMART extending to Larkspur.

Arnold believes SMART should not extend its line to Larkspur. San Rafael is currently suffering from a huge uptick in traffic due to SMART trains using the line, and this traffic issue promises to only increase once SMART trains begin running four trains an hour through here during commute time. The extension to Larkspur will cross 2nd Street in downtown San Rafael which is the main crosstown street that links up to southbound 101.