Diego Garcia III, editor of the Brownsville Beacon, is not starstruck or schoolgirl giddy at the mere mention of entrepreneur Elon Musk, but views his ideas objectively with a critical eye out for any possible self-serving motivation with his recently unveiled plan for a tunnel linking Boca Chica Beach and South Padre Island.
We submit Mr. Garcia's recent blog article below:
County administrator Pete Sepulveda talked to The Brownsville Herald about an idea an Elon Musk company called Boring — no, seriously, it's The Boring Company — digging a tunnel from the southern end of South Padre Island to the northern end of Boca Chica Beach.
This would open the beach up and solve the problem of the all-too-frequent beach closures and allow access to the northern end of Boca Chica.
So, here's the proposal. Instead of keeping to the original legal binding deal which very specifically laid out a set schedule for public road and beach closures, Musk would continue to close off the beach access whenever he wanted. In exchange, his Boring company would dig a tunnel so his employees living out at Laguna Vista and Laguna Madre would be able to just cut across and they'd be at the SpaceX facility in no time, flat.
Oh, and the public would be able to use the road, too, I suppose. Yeah, I guess.
Sepulveda says the tunnel would be a good idea since it'd be less environmentally impacting than tearing up the surface and building an alternate route to the beach.
Here's the best part — Sepulveda met with The Boring Company and made it clear the road would have to be funded by means outside the county. In other words, Musk would have to foot the bill for the construction himself.
I'm almost certain he'll be able to afford it. He probably has enough money to fund this project in his pant pockets. However, funding this road means it could very well turn into a private road patrolled by the Musk Secret Police to be used by the employees of SpaceX.
The best part of The Herald's reporting is the way Sepulveda sees this as a legitimate project just as long as the county doesn't have to pay for anything.
Why don't you just empower the county to crack down on the original agreement and tell Musk if he wants to build his own public road, or tunnel, or sky bridge, for everyone's use, he can close State Highway 4 and his small section of beach whenever he wants?
He's not hurting for money. He says he cares about the people and the community.
Prove it.
It doesn't matter who pays for a tunnel or a road, it is a very bad idea. Where on Boca Chica will the entrance/exit be? And it won't be a simple tunnel mouth. It will have to be above the high water line to avoid flooding and that means it will have to rise way above the surface of the sand. And, since the beach is not always passable, are they going to maintain a road on it somehow or just plow through the dunes or the wild lands behind the dunes? By the way, the dunes and the property behind the dunes are, with the exception of some scattered private holdings, USFW protected lands. And it won't be much of a benefit to the people of Brownsville, the traditional users of Boca Chica Beach. It will add miles and an hour or more to a trip to the beach when we have to drive to the Island, some days fighting the holiday traffic we go to Boca Chica to avoid.
ReplyDeleteBuild a road. Another great bad idea. Build it where? Through the USFW refuge property? Along the ship channel, mowing down mangroves and impeding the flow of water into the tidal flats?
I think it likely the county will bend over for Musk and SpaceX and give him as much of the beach as is in their power to give as they have in the past. These foolish sons of bitches are going to take away one of the reasons people live in Brownsville. I guess we are supposed to be happy with an imaginary riverside walkway along the river. You know, the one behind the border wall.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is suing NASA because they gave SpaceX a 2.9 billion dollar contract.
ReplyDeleteJeff Bezos personal worth is 189 billion. He could today, sell Amazon stock to fund the entire 2.9 billion himself, volunteer to cooperate with NASA to develop the alternate lunar lander as a team with vast goodwill to explore space together, rather than sue for them for access to taxpayers' dollars.
I hope Musk doesn't behave the same way with the boring hole. If he wants it, build it, demonstrate it. Don't hassle one of the poorest counties in the country to pony up tax dollars scraped from the few successful people here, when Musk is himself a billionaire.
I hope these men show some understanding of the relative poverty of the rest of the world, and even our government agencies, compared to their own vast wealth.