#31 Going Against the Flow

Warbler's Tree exposed, trees down around her

Before: Warbler's Ponderosa second big tree from left

After: Warbler's Liberty Ponderosa Gone

           All six tree sitters were forcibly “extracted” from their trees on Tuesday, and Warbler’s beautiful “Liberty Ponderosa” was cut down. These 3 photos show Warbler’s Treesit site, before her tree was cut down, when many trees were cut down around her, and after it was destroyed on Tuesday.
             I have gone to the Treesit site three times and cried each time, not just for a beautiful tree destroyed unnecessarily, but for what seems to be so much nefarious intent accompanying the whole CalTrans+CHP operation.

            Warbler was removed with a cherry picker and no observers were allowed. At another site, many protesters witnessed the intensity of the dozens of police in riot gear making their “attack” on the treesitters.    One of the young men in the tree was shot at with rubber bullets to make him release his grip on the tree. All of the paramilitary presences makes you wonder why this big bureaucracy of CalTrans feels so threatened.          

            Here are some links to a couple of articles about the extraction of the tree sitters; at least the Bypass conflict is getting press attention. Press Democrat article and Sacramento Bee article  and YouTube video of that process:YouTube film of "extraction"

         

Warbler herself is pictured here on Wednesday with one of her big supporters who spent many nights under her tree to be sure she was protected.  (Thanks to Judi Berdis for the photo) She has said that she is processing what has happened over these last three months.

           Friday I went back out to the Treesit Site to continue my protest with a sandwich board and my sign that asks, “Do you understand what is happening?”

            As I think about who is for and against the Bypass, I imagine the irony that many Willits people who support the Bypass are probably the same ones who hate Big Government, yet they are happy that Big Government is going to ram through this cement freeway if it means they will get work. It’s kind o

f like senior citizens receiving Medicare who complain ardently about the government subsidizing healthcare for everyone.

            One police car is permanently stationed at the Treesit Site, with others stopping in frequently. Once I arrived on foot, having walked along the highway for about a quarter of a mile, so did another police car shortly. An officer took a movie of me standing there alone by the road. Soon a third police car pulled up on my side to tell me that I couldn’t just stand there or I would be arrested for loitering.

            So I started walking. Within 20 minutes, yet another police car came up and told me I was in violation of walking by the freeway, where I could create a traffic disturbance with people trying to read my signs.

            Gotta love it! I’m disturbing the peace by walking along the road with a sign where a forest is been cut down, with bulldozers and humongous trucks pulling in and out by the minute. 

            I was asked to leave or I would be arrested. I am not against getting arrested in opposition for breaking laws that promote unethical actions. In his essay “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau said, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”

            I just needed to be sure that my dog Sata would have someone rescuing her from the car, first. So I left.

            I continue to plug away at educating myself, to learn whether CalTrans and their supporters are right, or those opposed to the Bypass are harbingers of a disaster in the making. After all, George W. Bush called those of us who protested the Iraq War a mere “support group.” It turned out that we were right: No Weapons of Mass Destruction existed in Iraq, and the American people were hoodwinked into going to war there, leading many valiant soldiers to give their lives and their limbs. The same was true in Vietnam. Jefferson himself encouraged critical thinking and dissent, so let’s give it a chance.

            What I’m learning about the Bypass conflict just gets weirder and weirder. Here are a couple more reason to hold the Bypass suspect.  

1. Traffic Flow A California Department of Transportation graph  documents traffic volume along Highway 101 in Northern California from 1992-2011, registered via video monitors at the southern and northernmost traffic lights.

            It notes that traffic in Willits has remained fairly steady at around 20,000 cars entering Willits and about 8000 cars as traffic leaves the north side of town.

            Sorry to get technical on you, but isn’t God in the details? At the southern end of town, Highway 20 goes out to the Mendocino coast. When I told people I moved to Willits, lots said, “I know Willits. I go through there to get to the coast.” Actually, they don’t go through Willits because the HW 20 turn off to the coast is south of town. About 30% of traffic leaves 101 there. Part of the problem of the Bypass is that that traffic will still come into town to get to Highway 20, which is over a mile from what is supposed to be the only southern Bypass exit for Willits.

Turn off left to HW 20 to Coast south end of Willits

            If you’re still with me, we’re still doing the numbers on what happens to all that traffic going through Willits. (And it’s all about the numbers—especially the $300 million and rising that CalTrans will get for this job.) Apparently, another huge chunk of traffic exits at the last stoplight in town, Sherwood Road, which leads to Brooktrails, a large development of suburban homes, and to back country homes beyond, like that of yours truly, with over 5000 residents.

            As relates to traffic flow, the large number of Brooktrails residents heading off of Highway 101 at the northern end of town means that the actual flow of through traffic is fairly minimal. That is, most of the 20,000 cars coming into Willits at the south end winds up being around 8000 cars on average still on 101 at the north. Certainly, the traffic is far heavier in the summer with tourists, including those continuing north, but you can count on that traffic at limited times Friday evening and Saturday mornings, and then again on Sunday evenings.

            SO, the question for those studying the Bypass carefully: why did CalTrans push through a plan for a four-lane highway to handle 40,000 cars when it isn’t necessary? Even the two-lanes they’ve planned as a temporary route are designed for 20,000 cars, still unnecessary.

2) Bottlenecks by Design? One of the most disturbing aspects of this whole process that I’ve learned relates to the infamous BOTTLENECK at the Safeway on South Main. Two lanes of traffic come into town, and then the two are forced to merge into one, just before coming to the HW 20 light. This merge is the source of much ire in town. Many pro-Bypass people I’ve spoken to have said that the bottleneck creates unhealthy pollution and that’s why we need the Bypass. Really? A $300 million

cement freeway to resolve a merge.
            The hell of it is that there used to be four lanes there, but long-time Willits resident Judi Berdis informed me that the bottleneck was created in 1994, and she is not alone in thinking that the purpose was to manufacture support for the Bypass.
 

           The community has provided many alternatives to increase the flow right there, including a traffic circle. Those suggestions were overrun.

          As someone who has lived through Bay Area and even Sacramento traffic, Willits traffic problem (see photo left) does not seem worthy of a $300 million bypass!

            I really don’t want to join a league of belittled conspiracy theorists who like to come up with larger schemes to understand why community criticism of a plan continues to get shot down (so to speak), but sometimes you have to really wonder what is in the minds and hearts and plans of those who have power and money. For anyone studying the machinations of big corporate and government interests over time (read Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the United States, for starters), the drive for profit is a hungry beast. And hungry working people are all too ready to put their chainsaws to the trees if the rich will pay.

Pro-Bypass? Show me why

            If you want reasons to support the Bypass, I encourage you to go to the Environmental Impact Report produced by the US Department of Transportation, the California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and start picking out the reasons that make you feel like this is gonna be really good for Willits and good for California. Clearly, CalTrans is winning so far, given their ability to mow down forests and garner paramilitary support to extract tree sitters, and we’ve learned that might makes right. CalTrans Website on Willits Bypass Plan