A high-speed rail detour near the Chavez monument could cost California taxpayers $1B
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California taxpayers may be waiting for an estimated $1 billion high-speed rail project aimed at preventing disruption of a monument honoring disgraced labor leader Cesar Chavez.
Despite tearing down and abandoning Chavez memorials, top California lawmakers did not immediately respond when asked if taxpayers in their state should still be on the hook for a nearly billion-dollar project aimed at preventing the state’s new high-speed rail from approaching the mountain monument. The deviation, according to 2020 estimates by the California High Speed Rail Authority, will cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion when adjusted for inflation.
Leaders in California, universities and beyond quickly began stripping the honor they had given the late labor leader after news that he sexually abused and groomed children and adults, including one girl who was 13 at the time of the abuse and another who became pregnant twice after they met.
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Cesar Chavez, head of the United Farm Workers, makes the point at a press conference in Sacramento. (Getty Images)
The labor union founded by Chavez, the United Farm Workers, called the allegations “deeply shocking” and decided earlier this year to cancel its annual celebrations in his honor. Meanwhile, the César Chavez Foundation chose to do the same, describing the allegations as disturbing and commenting that they were “deeply shocked and saddened.”
The Chavez Foundation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, successfully requested a $1 billion deviation known as the “César E. Chávez Memorial National Monument Option,” which moved the high-speed rail line nearly three-quarters of a mile from the boundary of the Chavez monument. The monument, part of the National Park Service, is 187 acres and includes the burial grounds of Chavez’s wife. It is reported that it is the place where Chavez founded his labor movement.
The monument already sits next to an important single-track transport corridor that circles the site carrying dozens of freight trains a day. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the train is causing constant noise for those traveling in the area.
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US President Barack Obama and the late wife of Cesar Chavez walk from Chavez’s grave site during a visit to the memorial garden at Chavez National Monument on October 8, 2012 in Keene, California. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
“I’ve been to the monument,” Adriana Rizzo, a member of Californians for Electric Rail, told the San Francisco Chronicle. He noticed that it was “just next to the freight corridor” which led him to ask “why this quiet, low-polluting train would have to be invisible.”
“This is a billion dollars that we do not have. There are many other things that we need. If there is a better route, we are always open,” said the director of the board of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Ernest Camacho, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Martha Escutia, another director of the board, is reported to have said that she is “always willing to reopen current commitments to ensure that we get the best savings for taxpayers.”
Estimates for the high-speed rail project are north of $200 billion, but rail officials have challenged those estimates, telling CBS47 and KSEE24 the estimate is closer to $125 billion.
A rendering shows a high-speed rail train as it enters the station during an open information session held by the California High-Speed Rail Authority at the Hilton DoubleTree in downtown Fresno, California, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (Craig Kohlruss/Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital reached out to top California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, to ask if there should be a debate about whether to end the diversion programs, especially when many of them have taken steps to remove medals and memorabilia of the disgraced labor leader. However, none of them responded in time for publication.
