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Posted on 03/05/2026 7:03:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In 2008, Californians voted on what they were told would be a modern transportation system — a sleek, high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco in under three hours, financed in part by private investment, delivered at a defined cost, and built within a reasonable timeframe. Eighteen years later, all that has been delivered is one of the largest eminent domain land grabs in modern history.
No serious person disputes that infrastructure requires land. But the power of eminent domain is not merely an administrative tool. It is among the most formidable powers government possesses: the authority to compel the transfer of private property for “public use.”
The Founders allowed it reluctantly, instituting constitutional protections and the requirement of just compensation. The theory was simple: The public benefit had to be clear, direct, and necessary.
What Californians are witnessing today is a perverse transmogrification of the concept.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has acquired more than two thousand parcels of land — along its proposed routes, particularly through the Central Valley. Much of this land was obtained through negotiated purchase, but a substantial portion required formal eminent domain proceedings. Farms have been bisected. Family homes have been condemned. Small businesses have faced displacement. In many cases, the takings were not entire properties, but strips and easements — yet those “partial“ takings often cripple the economic viability of what remains.
The most striking fact is not merely the number of parcels, but the context in which they were taken.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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The project that voters approved bore specific representations: a defined route, defined endpoints, cost estimates, and a timeline. Yet over the years, those routes have shifted, and timelines continue to stretch toward infinity. The grand statewide vision is little more than a pipe dream. Meanwhile, land has already been taken — permanently.
When government exercises eminent domain, it is asserting that the public need outweighs the individual’s right to keep what is his. That assertion demands that the project be real, viable, and necessary.
When land has been taken for a project that later changes, the property owner does not get his land back. When construction phases are delayed for years, the displaced family does not rewind time. When farmland sits idle because funding gaps stall progress, the farmer does not recoup lost continuity of operation.
THESE ACTIONS ALSO REMOVE EVERY SINGLE INCH FROM LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES.
Perverse transmogrification of the concept.
That’s an every day event in Ca. it went from building cities to building shities and they still vote democrat.
Pity meter not moving.
In case you are wondering, as I was, what “transmogrify” means:
to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.
Mongo only pawn in game of life.
It was a boondoggle from the start - when Gov. Jerry Brown said “I like trains!”
If I want to travel to San Francisco from So Cal, where I live (which I do frequently) - I go to the airport, catch a plane and am there in under an hour.
Now the non-existent train is only slated to travel between Bakersfield and Wasco or Merced - a route few travel.
I guess the people of CA keep voting for this. Of course it’s the cities that control most of the votes so the people who voted for the rail aren’t he ones affected by the land grab...so why would they care?
Wasco-Merced, about 140 miles and far short of SF & LA.
So, they wish to get a [subsidized] route almost nobody would use up & running, then ask for more $Billions every few years to “extend” the line. Basically a permanent grift.
I do not believe it will be built in my lifetime - and I plan to live a long time..
Newsom has been promising “track is being laid down” since 2018 (Jon Kobylt has a great montage of Newsom repeatedly saying this) - and not a single inch of track has been put down - in 18 years!
Yet he and others just like him continue to be voted in by stupid voters, illegals and a healthy dose of vote fraud.
In 2008, Californians voted on what they were told would be a modern transportation system...
Californians have also voted for the construction of additional water storage that still hasn't seen the light of day the last I checked. (Article view now partially obstructed with advertisement.)
Californians approved billions for new water storage. Why hasn’t it gotten built? (Non-FR; 1.16.23)
An even bigger problem with these ignored voter-approved state projects imo is that misguided voters in the whole nation with too much voting power (17th Amendment) will predictably reelect the worthless federal career lawmakers in 2026 midterm primaries who are blatantly ignoring their constitutionally enumerated duty to guarantee each state a republican form of government.
Article IV, Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government [emphasis added], and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
This seems out-of-date.
I thought that, today, they just burned it to the ground...
.
There. Fixed that.
Wouldn’t it have been much easier and less harmful to simply run the line parallel to I-5 and/or SR99? Like where California probably already owned much of the land or no one would have cared if CA bought or eminently domained some more next to existing highways?
My first house was taken by eminent domain for a parking lot for a new city park. Thus began my hatred of all things government. I would love to see an audit of which connected politicians acquired cheap land for the California choo choo and made bank flipping it when the routes just happened to go through their parcels. It made Harry Reid very wealthy when he did the same in Nevada.
Yes. I thought I would be reading about the Palisades, from the headline. And Bass is STILL the mayor!
Cali is a great state - to be FROM!
Sadly, all our presidents are for eminent domain.
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