WE NEED GLOBAL UNITY IN OUR ACTION FOR THE EARTH.

The Oxfam organization revealed in 2016 that the 1% richest people on Earth possess more wealth than the other 99% taken together. Yet, this 1% possesses not solely the wealth but they also control Humankind path and right now these guys are taking the human species towards the precipice. These guys like Trump, Bolsonaro but also the Oil Industries which controls incredible amounts of money (enough to brainwash a lot of people through Public Relation action) and this while their business is to sell the poison that is killing our common Mother the Earth. In 1968, the Stanford Research Institute warned the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. government, that if nothing was done our global CO2 emissions would generate a cataclysmic upheaval in the 21st century. Not only nothing was done and these guys kept hidden the information, but on the top of that, both the API and the U.S. government spent billions of dollars in a worldwide campaign denying a manmade Global Warming was underway. And in 1997, the U.S. government based on this lie its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. After the very shy attempt of Obama which was much under IPCC requirements, the Oil Masters decided it was too much and they hired Trump who, thanks to Cambridge Analytica was elected President of the United States and resumed the Oil Industry program denying a manmade Global Warming is underway. But Trump is not alone even though his position as President of the leading country renders his betrayal of the human race very dangerous. The 1% of Humankind which controls the situation, or some mere 75 million people, roughly does not suffer from Global Warming, at least not yet, and they see their personal material interest and comfort first. This is why the grassroots movement that supports Nature must rapidly grow and become an overwhelming tsunami that will neutralize these guys. Indeed, we will succeed ONLY if we break the fragmentation, potentially conflictual; our frontiers represent and behave as ONE, UNIQUE, PEOPLE, no matter our nationality, religion or other differences. The Global Warming and the 6th Mass Extinction of LIFE on Earth, both plagues we have generated and continue feeding, can be controlled ONLY if humans put their divisions aside and work side by side as one body and under the guidance of the IPCC scientists who are the ones among us who know the best.

I think that symbolically people who want to have the “Earth Nationality” should be able to get it. Their passport would be delivered by the United Nations and would work everywhere. Indeed, we must displace our nationalism from a little portion of the Earth to the whole Earth because it is our divisions that are destroying the only and common HOME we have to survive in the universe. Our planet, the Earth is worth this change and our survival as a species is also worth this change. A new era is waiting for us don’t be afraid of the change. “All things must pass,” said George Harrison a forgotten prophet. So, let’s leave this obsolete system that destroyed the Earth. Yes, if the system has turned toxic to LIFE then let’s not fanatically cling to it, LIFE is more important than the system by which we pretend about living. A huge revolution or better said, a huge re-evolution is awaiting for us and it is truly thrilling guys! What I propose here may seem crazy to some people enclosed into their thought-identity like in a straitjacket, and addicted to their habits like to a powerful drug, but what is truly crazy is to remain arms folded why we are systematically destroying our world and endangering our own survival.

Posted on Facebook by

Yima (Ali) Pahlavi

September 14, 2019

SANDAG’s traffic solutions:Congested 15/215 Highway

We have a long way to go before we ever could solve the problem of regional transportation. Yes, I need to use my car to travel within my town and some of the towns in Temecula vicinity.  But, to travel to the airports either in Los Angels, San Diego or for leisure, I would best be served using a rapid electric commuter train.  We have had fully congested highway 15/215 now, but with a massive population expansion within the region, we would need more access to faster commuter transportation. We are really hemmed in with our highway 15/2015 with no other options at this time.

San Diego is attempting to develop a solution.  I have attached a copy of an article published on May 12, 2019, describing a positive approach to solve the highway congestion problem.

Please read it and let me know what you think.

Michael H. Momeni

SANDAG’s traffic solutions novel but contested

Congestion pricing, train corridors would shelve highway expansions

By Joshua Emerson Smith

New details of a controversial plan to prioritize rail over widening freeways are starting to emerge — from laying hundreds of miles of high-speed commuter rail to charging drivers to use many of the most congested freeways

Officials with the San Diego Association of Governments told the Union-Tribune last week that the agency plans to run trains along highway corridors that travel as fast as 100 miles an hour. The most current plan calls for no further expansion of the trolley system, which goes only about 35 miles an hour on average.

At the same time, SANDAG plans to roll out so-called congestion pricing on those stretches of freeway, which would charge drivers a fluctuating toll based on traffic conditions.

Experts say this ambitious, multibillion-dollar the proposal could be the first of its kind in the country.

“We know about toll roads, and we know about commuter rail, but to combine them all at once would potentially be a new model,” said Ethan Elkind, a transportation expert who directs the climate program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Voters would likely need to approve multiple tax increases to fund the transit expansion. The first test will come in 2020 when the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System expects to put a sales-tax increase on the ballot. SANDAG would then likely follow up with its own tax measure.

North and East County officials desperate for traffic relief in the near term have balked at the costly new vision, which would take decades and likely require plowing through the property, as well as building underground and elevated sections of a rail line.

However, what has most rankled politicians from Oceanside to Santee to El Cajon is that SANDAG’s leadership has simultaneously called for indefinitely shelving more than a dozen long-planned freeway expansions. Those projects — outlined in the 2004 voter-approved half-cent sales tax known as Transnet — include many sought-after projects, such as adding express lanes to state routes 78 and 52, and widening state routes 67 and 56.

County Supervisors Kris-tin Gaspar and Jim Des-mond, who both sit on SANDAG’s board of 21 elected officials from around the region, have led the charge to preserve the highway projects.

“The vision that’s been presented to the board is a mass transit vision only,” Gaspar said. “People are trying to make this a roads-versus-transit debate. I’m looking for a balanced transportation plan for our future.”

Desmond echoed that sentiment and said that the proposed transit projects will not materialize fast enough to accommodate new housing and population growth.

“This technology is not going to happen within the next 10 years, or 15 or 20,” he said. “In the meantime, we still have housing needs.”

On Thursday, Desmond and other elected officials joined local talk radio host Carl DeMaio to announce a campaign to shame “road raiding politicians” on the SANDAG board. DeMaio, the former San Diego City Council member who spearheaded the failed attempt last year to overturn the state’s newly enacted gas tax, also threatened a recall campaign aimed at lawmakers who support nixing the highway projects.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Chula Vista Mayor Mary Salas have been the most high-profile supporters of SANDAG’s transportation vision. However, neither politician has said much publicly on the topic since those opposed to shelving the road projects kicked off their campaign two weeks ago.

Faulconer and Salas declined multiple interview requests by the Union-Tribune for this story.

Faulconer’s office released this statement: “Mayor Faulconer is committed to working with his fellow SANDAG board members on the regional transportation plan as the San Diego region is at its best when we stand together. His top priority is creating a complete transportation system that delivers options for residents and businesses in every part of the county.”

The chief architect of the new vision, SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata, has said his approach is the only way to get people to and from their jobs in a timely fashion.

He has argued that adding new lanes will only end in more gridlock as new drivers pile onto widened thoroughfares. Traffic engineers often refer to this predicament as induced demand.

“I’m a planner and engineer,” Ikhrata said. “I’ve spent 30 years of my life in this business. Adding one lane in each direction does not work. Period. It will just make things worse.”

Most transportation experts agree that expanding freeways does little to solve traffic congestion, although many point out that adding rail is no panacea, either.

“Rail is not really suited to reduce traffic congestion,” said Elkind of UC Berkeley. “It’s designed as an alternative to traffic congestion and is a way to accommodate new growth in a region without contributing to air pollution.”

However, implementing congestion pricing to, in part, help pay for transit operations can improve road conditions, according to experts.

“The only proven way to reduce traffic is congestion pricing, but that has been politically unpopular” in the United States, said Martin Wachs, a professor emeritus at UCLA’s department of urban planning. “It’s been done 30 or 40 places around the world, and it actually increases the capacity of the highway.”

The tolling scheme has encouraged drivers, especially those with more flexible schedules, to stay off target roads during peak times in places such as Singapore, Stockholm and London. New York City is developing such a plan for lower Manhattan, and Los Angeles is considering the approach.

While rail will not solve San Diego’s traffic woes, it can help the region meet state-mandated reductions in greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, Wachs said. “Transit enables higher density development and reduces vehicle miles traveled in relation to the population, whereas highways are associated with more dispersed growth.”

Ikhrata said he will ask the SANDAG board to amend the Transnet ordinance this fall to include new rail projects so the agency can start funding the environmental review process. Actual construction could not start until voters approve a tax increase or the agency secures another source of funding.

SANDAG officals have said the agency doesn’t have enough money to complete all the road projects it already has planned.

The agency is strapped for cash because of declining sales tax revenues and skyrocketing construction costs. More than $30 billion in upgrades to major highway and transit projects are still slated for completion through 2048, and officials estimate the region will be roughly $10 billion short.

sduniontribune.com

Sunday April 5, 2019

https://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/desktop/sdut/default.aspx?pubid=ee84df93-f3c1-463c-a82f-1ab095a198ca

Volunteers Sought For Lake Elsinore 'Clean Extreme 2019'

From The City of Lake Elsinore: Each year, hundreds of extremely dedicated volunteers, non-profits, and community organizations come together to beautify and improve areas of the City of Lake Elsinore as part of our Clean Extreme initiative.

Our mission is to invite and inspire residents, businesses, leaders, faith-based organizations, nonprofits and others to beautify and improve the City of Lake Elsinore through the investment of their time, resources and love for our community.

On April 27, 2019, the City's Clean Extreme Committee will host our 2019 event along the Lake Elsinore Riverwalk. The City has a variety of projects planned for the Riverwalk and surrounding areas. Stay tuned for more information.

Clean Extreme is a program created by the community, and for the community. Join the community to pick up trash, clean up weeds, trim plants, pour concrete, paint bridges and clean up and beautify our Riverwalk trail.

Source: https://patch.com/california/lakeelsinore-wildomar/volunteers-sought-lake-elsinore-clean-extreme-2019

On April 27, 2019, the City's Clean Extreme Committee will host our 2019 event along the Lake Elsinore Riverwalk. Join the community to pick up trash, clean up weeds, trim plants, pour concrete, paint bridges & clean up and beautify our Riverwalk trail.

Event Schedule:

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.

Registration/Check-in at Swick & Matich Park

8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Clean Up Activities along the Riverside from Elm Grove to Chaney St.

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Free BBQ On-Site for Participants Sponsored by Storm Baseball

Follow Clean Extreme's Facebook page for news, updates and reminders at https://www.facebook.com/LECleanExtreme/.

All participants will receive a FREE T-shirt (while supplies last), a FREE BBQ lunch at Swick & Matich Park and vouchers for a FREE Storm Baseball game ticket.

This is the perfect opportunity for High School volunteer service hours. Children 17 & under will require a parent at check-in or they may complete this release and indemnification form in advance. All participants are required to complete and sign a release and indemnification form. This can be completed in advance or on the day of the event.

For questions, please contact Nicole Dailey at (951) 674-3124 ext. 314 or pio@lake-elsinore.org.

Here's the link to the full Patch article on it, with pre-registration and consent forms embedded.

Volunteers Sought For Lake Elsinore 'Clean Extreme 2019'

Movement to Oppose the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage (LEAPS) Project

• The Santa Margarita Group (SMG) of the Sierra Club is opposed to the project named above and wants its members to be aware of it and its ramifications.
• Stakeholders--residents of Lake Elsinore, Lakeland Village, and other local areas-- plan to form a Political Action Committee (PAC) to oppose it; see contact info, below.

What the project proposes:

·         Permanent installation of a water pump system to take water from Lake Elsinore to a reservoir in Decker Canyon in the Ortega Mountains, then use the water to generate electricity for San Diego County.

·         Installation of 180-foot towers and 32 miles of cable in forested areas

·         Water will be pumped during the day and released to generate electricity at night.

Who will benefit:

·         San Diego County, in the form of electricity

·         Nevada Hydroelectric, as the builder and provider, will gain financially

Negative effects:

·         Will kill living organisms in the lake, thereby killing wildlife that depends on them

·         Will threaten wildlife habitat in the Cleveland National Forest

·         Will add to fire treat in local mountains due to electrical activity overhead

·         Will drastically lower the level of Lake Elsinore, reducing recreational usage, tourism, property values

·         Will limit the availability of the lake’s water for firefighting  

The information below was excerpted from the internet: News Desk, News Partner | Dec 21, 2017, 9:09 am ET | Updated Dec 22, 2017, 3:48 pm ET

The LEAPS Project is a hydroelectric project that consists of an upper and lower reservoir with a set of tunnels running between them. When electrical energy is in high demand, the water in the upper reservoir is released through tunnels flowing down to turbines at the powerhouse. The upper reservoir becomes, in effect, a source of stored energy.

For LEAPS, the Lake [Elsinore] would serve as the "lower reservoir" and the upper reservoir would be constructed in the Cleveland National Forest at Decker Canyon (just south of State Route 74). The pump/powerhouse facility would be located near the Lake on the west side of Grand Avenue in the Lakeland Village area (and is typically referred to as the Santa Rosa Powerhouse). To power the pumps and deliver the generated electricity onto the state's electrical grid, LEAPS also involves the construction of approximately 32 miles of 500 kV transmission lines and towers.

Facebook public group: Stop LEAPS

Add your name to LEAPSoppositionteam@gmail.com

Prepared by Elena Garcia, SMG Political Chair, March 14, 2019

Southwest Transportation Now, February 2019 Meeting

I attended the first 2019 meeting of Western Riverside CountyTransporation Now, February 27,  in Menifee. Among the objectives of the meetings are to promote the use and expansion of mass-transit systems.

The meeting was in the conference room of the City Hall.  The meeting organizers had a successful meeting and had prepared a well-organized presentation.  This city is growing well and has a present population of about 91,000 and supports 39,000 local jobs.  The median price of a home for this community is about $400,000.  

From Temecula, in addition to myself, the new Council member, Zak Schwank, attended the meeting.  Council member, Maryann Edwards had previously represented the city of Temecula at the meetings of Transportation-Now. 

I had requested an update on the issue of connecting Temecula to Perris by Train. This issue is on the agenda for the next meeting of Transportation-Now.

I am looking forward to more active participation by Councilmember Schwank relating to regional transportation.  As you know, I have been an advocate for construction of a regional commuter train connecting Temecula to San Diego and Ontario commuter trains hubs.  Under the present Federal and State status, an expectation for such a development demanding about $7 billion would not seem reasonable at this time.  Any incremental development for regional transportation is progress forward.

A copy of the agenda was:

T-NOW Goals

1. Enhance customer’s

experience

2. Promote ridership

benefits

3. Enhance Riverside Transit Agency’s name recognition

Chair: Joseph Morabito

Vice-Chair

Kayla Charters

Secretary

Southwest Transportation NOW

February 27, 2019, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Menifee City Hall 29714 Haun Road Menifee, CA 92586

The meeting is graciously sponsored by the City of Menifee

AGENDA

1. Welcome / Roundtable Introductions

2. 2019 Chapter Secretary Election

3. Continued Business

  a. T-NOW Annual Meeting recap b. Bus Ride Challenge

4. New Business

  a. 2019 Goals and Activity Planning

5. Ridership Report

6. Legislative Update a. State b. City c. Transportation d. AQMD

7. Announcements

8. Items for Future Agenda

  a. RCTC Next Gen Rail Study

9. Adjourn

The next meeting will be March 28, 2019, at the City of Murrieta

.

Michael Momeni

History of Water and the Temecula Valley, California

by Darell Farnbach

Think of the Temecula Valley as God created it. Visualize a flat pan with an outlet on one side. The flat pan runs up to Lake Elsinore, around to French Valley, up to Sunshine Summit in San Diego County, past Aguanga and around the north side of Mt. Palomar, and down to Pechanga.

The Outlet is the Santa Margarita Gorge. The drainage comes from Murrieta Creek, Santa Gertrudis Creek (sort of parallel to Winchester Road), Temecula Creek and Pechanga Creek.

This is what the Native Americans had. It provided them with year-round water, which gave the plants and animals what they needed for their subsistence. The land was very wet and swampy. Ducks, geese and all sorts of waterfowl stopped by on their migrations.

When our valley became settled by the Spanish in about 1800 and later by the Mexicans in the 1840s this natural flat pan still provided all the water for the people and their domesticated animals such as sheep, horses, and cattle.

Maybe a stream would be diverted to form a small lake or reservoir. Or a hand-dug well would be used for household use. A small orchard or field could be planted and would provide for family and livestock and maybe enough to sell to a neighbor.  

                                                                                               

When California became a state in 1850, Americans started moving into the valley, requiring more water. The newcomers hand-dug wells up to 40 feet deep using a windmill to bring the water up to ground level where it would be stored in a tank. The tank not only provided storage but also it provided water pressure. You could move the water uphill a little.

By the 1890s San Francisco Savings owned vast amounts of land in the valley and surrounding mountains - land that had been foreclosed on. You might wonder why ranch owners lost their ranches. It was from not having enough water to grow a profitable farm crop. There was a severe drought at that time.

San Francisco Savings formed the Cosmos Land and Water Company, mostly for the purpose of selling the land. The hired engineers to develop elaborate plans for water dams and they formed a water company on paper.

At about the same time, the Temecula Land and Water Company were formed for the same reason. They had a large 4^th of July party to bring people into the area to buy property but to no avail.

When Mr. Culver and Mr. Cobb leased part of the Pauba Ranch, Mr. Cobb sank a well over 500 feet down and it was an artesian well. He had tapped into the aquifer. So, that meant that the flat pan not only held water on the top, but there was also water under the pan, a lot of water, one of the largest aquifers in California, I was told.

The Vails bought most of the valley and water rights in 1905 and had more wells drilled. The water table dropped. Vail was using as much water as he could until the owners of the Rancho Santa Margarita downstream noticed they weren’t getting all the water they wanted. So around 1917 they filed a lawsuit against the Vail Company. That lawsuit was not settled until 1945. By then the US government had appropriated the Santa Margarita Rancho for the US Marine base – Camp Pendleton – in 1940. So the settlement agreement was made with the Marines.

In the settlement, the Vail Company was required to let a certain amount of water to go freely through the Santa Margarita River.

Mahlon Vail then knew how much water he could keep, so he built the Vail Dam which was the most expensive private dam built in the US at that time. It cost one million dollars to construct the Vail Dam. A pipe runs from the dam to the head of the Margarita Gorge to give Camp Pendleton the amount of water to fulfill the terms of the lawsuit.

When the Vail Company sold their holdings in the Temecula Valley in 1964 the Vail Dam and all the water infrastructure became the basis for the Rancho California Water Company. The first thing they did was to drill two 1,000-foot wells.

At some point, Rancho Water joined with the Metropolitan Water District. I understand now the aquifer is constantly refilled with Colorado River water.

You can’t talk about water without talking about the weather. The Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted in the winter of 1883 – 84 triggering record rainstorms in the Temecula area that dropped 21 inches of rain in one day, causing major floods including the one in the Santa Margarita Canyon. It washed out the train tracks and ultimately the train route was abandoned.

Beginning in 1916 the Wolf Valley was flooded for a couple of years. In 1980 we had a 100-year-rain. In 1981 we had a second 100-year-rain.

The first time I went up Rancho California Road where Target is in 1981 it was a two-lane road. In a ditch on one side was a car buried up to its top. The Wine Country had to have helicopters drop hay for animals cut off by floods. In 1937 and 1993 Old Town was flooded up to 2 feet.

With the re-dredging and widening of the Murrieta Creek through Old Town it is likely it will not flood again. And with the careful refilling of the aquifer from the Colorado River, it is not likely that we will run out of water in the Temecula Valley any time soon.