CITY OF ANAHEIM SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON THE ANAHEIM FIXED-GUIDEWAY TRANSIT CORRIDOR STUDY

The City seeks to bring a new, more reliable transportation choice to the heavily traveled east-west corridor between ARTIC, the Platinum Triangle and The Anaheim Resort™ area

ANAHEIM, Calif. (November 5, 2009) – The City of Anaheim is holding a public scoping meeting on Thursday, November 12^th in cooperation with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to obtain input on the City's Fixed-Guideway Transit Corridor Study.

"The goal of this regional initiative is to provide a last-mile transit connection for residents, workers and visitors to the area's major employment and activity centers," said City of Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. "As one of the most highly visited cities in the U.S., Anaheim needs a world-class transportation system employing modern technologies."

The Anaheim Fixed-Guideway project is a proposed high-capacity transportation system that will link Orange County's "backbone" Metrolink commuter rail system at the planned Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) to the City's major employment and activity centers.

"We're very excited about the prospect of providing a transportation solution that will vastly transform and improve mobility from ARTIC to homes, places of employment, and entertainment destinations in the Platinum Triangle and The Anaheim Resort area," said Natalie Meeks, City of Anaheim Public Works Director.

The City of Anaheim is hosting this meeting in cooperation with the OCTA and FTA to collect public input to satisfy requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In August, public comments were collected in a separate meeting, pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) public outreach process.

This additional public meeting will be held from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Anaheim Downtown Community Center, 250 E. Center Street. Stakeholders can participate at any time during the meeting; there will be an open house from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., with a brief presentation starting at 5:00 p.m.  For more information, please contact the project's hotline at (877) 865-6618 or send an e-mail to info@anaheimfixedguideway.com.

Ben Gibbard & Jay Farrar Set Jack Kerouac To Music

The lead singers of Death Cab for Cutie and Son Volt had never met until they discovered their mutual admiration for writer Jack Kerouac. Now, they've released an album based on Kerouac's 1962 novel Big Sur.

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ANAHEIM MAYOR CURT PRINGLE JOINS GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER TO BRING HIGH SPEED RAIL TO ANAHEIM

ANAHEIM, Calif. (Oct. 2, 2009) Anaheim Mayor and High-Speed Rail Authority Board Chairman Curt Pringle today joined Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger at a press conference in Los Angeles as the Governor submitted the state's application for a share of $8 billion set aside for high-speed train development under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Joining Governor Schwarzenegger and Mayor Pringle were State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and labor leaders, business, and environmental groups in support of California's project and its stimulus application.

California is bidding for more than $4.7 billion in federal stimulus funding for engineering, design and construction of the state's high-speed train system – nearly a $10 billion investment when state, local and private matching funds are added. California's application includes $2.19 billion for Los Angeles to Anaheim, including high-speed train facilities at Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS), Norwalk Station, and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC).

"Unlike any other state, we can double the value of the federal dollars with matching funds, we'll soon have the environmental reviews we need, we can break ground before the federal government's 2012 deadline, and we can show that projects funded with stimulus dollars can stand alone as important improvements in their own right," said Pringle. "This kind of kick-start to our historic project will quickly provide nearly 130,000 quality jobs and give our state the economic boost it needs."

Mayor Pringle noted California is proposing the only true high-speed train capable of traveling 200+ miles per hour and is further along in planning than any other similar project in the country.

The City of Anaheim is a leader in addressing the needs of travelers, and in addition to High Speed Rail, is currently engaged in the development of the ARTIC site, and the Anaheim Fixed-Guideway system.

In May of this year, the Anaheim City Council approved the team of Parsons Brinckerhoff/HOK for 100% design of ARTIC. Designed to be a world-class, iconic transportation center, and built to LEED™ "Platinum" certification, ARTIC will serve as a connectivity gateway and mixed-use destination for the region on a prominent 16-acre site owned by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and the City of Anaheim.

The ARTIC project is a partnership between the City of Anaheim and the OCTA, and is a multi-year, multi-phase project with each phase coinciding with new and/or expanded transportation services and development. The first phase of this project, valued at approximately $180 million, shall consist of site work and preparation, transportation center and supporting facilities, trackwork and platforms, parking, public art, and access and street improvements. Completion date is expected mid-2013. For more information please visit www.articinfo.com.

The Anaheim Fixed-Guideway project is in its environmental study and public input phase. A "fixed-guideway" describes a system where transit vehicles operate on a dedicated alignment, such as rail or track. There are a variety of fixed-guideway technologies that could operate on this type of alignment such as monorail, automatic people mover, low-speed magnetic levitation, and personal rapid transit. This connection will link Orange County's "backbone" Metrolink commuter rail system to Anaheim's major employment and activity centers in the Platinum Triangle and The Anaheim Resort^™. For more information please visit www.anaheimfixedguideway.com.

For complete details and the press release from today's press conference at Los Angeles Union Station, please visit the California High Speed Rail Authority Web site at www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov.

For more information on the City of Anaheim, please visit www.anaheim.net.

reBlog from Maracas: Bad code is good for you?

I found this fascinating quote today:

 

I’d argue that bad code is often a sign and a side effect of a thriving, welcoming user community around a project.

The OSS projects with good code tend to have a relatively small group of committers doing nearly all the work. There is a big learning curve to working within the project’s (probably unwritten) architectural guidelines, and a big reputation curve that a new person has to climb to get their patches accepted.

Bad code is often a sign of welcoming new contributors, taking patches that do something useful even if the approach is ugly.

We  all know the problems bad code brings, but I would argue that some  projects are not just successful in spite of bad code, but successful  because they allow bad code.

Maracas, Bad code is good for you?, Sep 2009

 

You should read the whole article.