Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
From the incredible oeuvre of Jerry Collamer, cartoonist extraordinaire.
Jerry Collamer expounds on the not-so-shockingly tone-deaf antics of the Orange County Toll Road Agency that will literally do anything to extend their oft-rejected SR 241 Foothill Toll Road through the backcountry wilderness and down around world class surf destination, Trestles Beach. What did Einstein say about doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results?
OC’s toll roads have a new way to make money from their empty lanes crisscrossing the county: Hundreds of dollars charged in automated fines per missed toll payment, versus a measly single-time $6-per toll. Commuters beware.
San Onofre’s nuclear reactors are permanently shut down. However, Southern California Edison has left tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste that will remain on site for decades, if not longer. San Onofre’s spent fuel contains 89 times the amount of radiation (Cesium-137) released from Chernobyl. What is being done to rectify this situation?
Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) CEO Neil Peterson, who was placed on leave last month, has offered to resign in exchange for receiving a hefty out-the-door payment. This from an agency suffering low toll revenues and misguided attempts to extend their roads against environmental rules and opposition.
Caltrans plans to widen the 91 Freeway [again], spending $1.3 Billion to improve commute speeds 1.5 miles per hour, while further destroying the only wildlife connection between the Santa Ana Mountains and the Puente-Chino Hills. Commuter trains, anyone?
When a pilot instructor and student emergency-landed a small plane in the perpetually-empty northbound lanes of the debt-ridden, failing-business-model 241 toll road in Orange County, California, he exclaimed: “What a waste of perfectly good asphalt.”
Jerry Collamer muses on the sanctity of life, the impact and burden of death, and the awakening of a child to the reality of the world.