Building infrastructure in California is notoriously difficult; trains are even more so. So why would anyone try to shut down a line that’s been operating for less than a decade?
That’s what the Marin County-based Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers wants to do with the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, known as SMART. So do the Gallahers, a powerful Wine Country family, who oppose the train so much that they paid to publish a hardcover book full of arguments against it — and have spent millions of dollars in the past six years campaigning against public funding for it.
The Gallahers’ effort now faces a public referendum in Sonoma and Marin counties in the form of Measure B in the June primary…