With a $200 Billion (mostly pavement, not a dime for transit) bond on the table, now the one silver lining – that we might get some rail out of this mess, too – appears to be fading:

“In a word of finite choices, when you combine what you know you need and haven’t done with what the public wants done, high-speed rail sounds too futuristic and does not generate the kind of enthusiasm any number of other projects do,” Perata said.

Note to Senator Perata: this is California, remember? You can not be “too futuristic” here, OK? We like the future, we want it to happen. We want it to be easier to get from LA to SF without having to deal with airports or be stuck in our cars for six hours! We want to be like other modern and industrialized countries! We don’t want to do nothing but build roads!