By Orange County Register in The Sentinel

March 23, 2016

Of all of the well-documented adverse effects of California’s high-speed rail project — the ever-changing cost, ridership, design and other assumptions, noise and vibration issues, the environmental impacts of construction and many others — the most egregious, yet seldom discussed, is the project’s violation of private property rights through the use of eminent domain.

To make way for the train system, thousands of homes, businesses and parcels of farmland will be taken by the state. People are being displaced, businesses are being forced to close, and thousands of acres of farmland will no longer be able to produce crops. Sure, the High-Speed Rail Authority will offer “fair compensation” for the land, but the government knows that most people do not have deep-enough pockets to fight it in court, and there have been widespread complaints about low-ball offers made by the rail authority.

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