Property Developer Wrote:
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> San Rafael and Novato could institute their Quiet
> Zone as soon as Thursday. The PUC has advised them
> to wait until after SMART starts service before
> taking this action.
>
> Novato, the screwiest town around when it comes to
> trains, is also voting tonight on budgeting the
> remainder of the millions of dollars they are
> paying out of their own pocket to build a SMART
> station downtown. That station passed on a 3-2
> vote and the city council member who led the
> charge has recused himself from other votes on the
> matter after a complaint was made against him as
> being conflicted, due to a property he bought near
> the station site a matter of months before
> starting his campaign to build the new station.
> The hilarious thing is that this member is now a
> representative on the SMART board, representing a
> regional agency and not Novato, but he can't even
> vote on Novato Downtown Station items due to a
> conflict which should have prevented the station
> from ever being built. Classic Novato.
>
> Another Novato City Council member has a quote in
> the IJ where she seems to be equating safety as an
> equal or possibly lower priority than "quality of
> life" issues like enduring horns for two or three
> more months to safely get her city's citizens
> familiar with the new reality on the rails with
> SMART trains running during commute hours.
> Petaluma already made the decision that their
> quality of life was more important than safety,
> despite pleas from regulators and the railroad. So
> it's not like Novato is alone in this.
>
> The only person with any real vision or
> understanding seems to be Gary Phillips of San
> Rafael. He seems to be pushing to delay quiet zone
> implementation until after service has been going
> for a time and people are used to the huge number
> of train trips that will be occuring.

equip smart with K5LA'S, that should
get the blood circulating