OC STREETCAR rendering (OCTA)

As a character in an episode of the TV series “Justified” (one of my Top Five shows) – a bad guy– once said, “Negative thinking leads to negative results.”

Not only is that generally true, the character who uttered those words gets fatally shot by other bad guys.

Which brings me to the point of this column: shooting down the idea that the OCStreetcar, now nearing (slowly …) completion is some sort of gigantic boondoggle in a consensual relationship with a white elephant.

Marc Joffe, writing in (where else?) The Register, points out that the project is over budget and behind schedule for completion. That should come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever launched a home improvement project.

Folks like me can never predict materials shortages, rising prices, weather conditions, pandemics and labor issues that lead to those things. and neither can anyone else. Fortune-telling is a fictional occupation.

I’m not trying to defend government waste; I’m just trying to live on this planet in the 21st century.

He also suggests that the rail line – which will connect Garden Grove and Santa Ana – once completed, won’t be widely used and buses would be a better idea for public transit.

That’s right; let’s put more motor vehicles on our already crowded streets, which also means more wear-and-tear on our beat-up boulevards and awful avenues and more air pollution and traffic accidents.

Mr. Joffe chides the OCStreetcar people for not being able to predict the future, but comfortable reading our tea leaves.

He also goes on to suggest that potential riders could instead just walk, bike or call Uber. I’m sure all the folks who are aged, handicapped or trying to get home with an armful of groceries will leap at those options.

And motorists will be gleeful to have more lumbering buses clogging up the traffic lanes both while moving and while boarding and de-planing (I like that term) passengers.

That’s only the first part of why Mr. Joffe is taking negative thinking to negative conclusions. In the next column we will join with “Monty Python” and “Always look on the bright side of life.”

On Friday: Revival of the “Golden City.”