The author of this video would like to thank Channel 9 news and Channel 2 news. They have been very effective in helping shed light on this dangerous area of the freeway. They interviewed me today and they also saw the video and took video footage on their cameras. The video will be shown tonight on televison April 2nd on channel 9 and channel 2. Or see it at their web site at cbs2.com
Also a very Special thanks to Dan Bernstein with The Press Enterprise Newspaper in California. He was the very first person to help us when nobody else cared. He has written an article on this freeway and the extreme dangers of it.
See below:
By DAN BERNSTEIN representing the Press Enterprise Newspaper
Back in 2001, MoVal launched its Spring Offensive -- a $165K PR campaign to show the world what it was missing. From the P-E:
The (cable TV and radio) ads will contrast a traffic-packed Los Angeles freeway with a wide-open Eucalyptus Avenue interchange over Interstate 215.
(Even then, MoVal was smart enough to avoid mentioning the "wide-open" Highway 60.)
Fast forward (all right, slowforward) to 2008. Assuming LA cared, it could launch its own Spring Offensive, complete with that memorable lyric: "Who's got the last laugh now?" The last thing MoVal electeds want to talk about is "open roads." Can't we please talk about violent crime? DHL? Foreclosures! Illegal immigration!!
In 2001, Mayor Bonnie Flickinger was ever so anxious to tell the MoVal story. "We need to work on the outsiders' perception -- which is inaccurate."
Slow forward to 2008, and learn how Councilwoman Flickinger (they recycle mayors in MoVal) negotiates hideous westbound Highway 60 near the I-215 junction. The P-E: "Flickinger said she has avoided the 215/60 merger for years."
Got that, MoVal commuters? Freeway avoidance! It's good enough for your councilwoman. Other MoVal electeds admit to occasionally getting gagged by the chokehold.
Councilman/lawyer Richard Stewart says he's been late for Riverside court appearances.
Mayor Bill Batey: "When I have to go into Riverside, I plan way, way, way ahead."
Councilman Charles White submits himself to the 60 crunch about five times a month.
These guys (Councilman Frank West didn't call back) are hardly your hard-core commuters. They have the luxury of avoiding or planning way ahead. The hard cores and ordinary MoVallians could be forgiven for being fed up.
Debbie Wolgemuth, an "average Moreno Valley resident," writes, "A 15-minute drive into Riverside repeatedly turns into a nightmare 1-hour drive. Many commuters are now driving 2 hours one-way to work, solely because it is impossible to get out of the city we live in."
Rich Allen motorcycles toMoVal daily from Chino. He is so appalled by the "criminal" condition of westbound Highway 60 (from the 215) that he tucked a camera under his nose, hopped on his Kawasaki and narrated a tour ("Oh, my God!") of the cracked, craggy road. He posted his not-so-easy ride on You Tube. (Search for Moreno Valley Freeway -- it's the second clip, right under a year-old Caltrans puff piece.)
The most maddening thing is that Caltrans has developed an immunity to accountability. And electeds seem defeated.
Councilman Stewart: "You get to a point where you just sort of give up."
Mayor Batey: "The more I complain, the slower we go."
Good thing MoVal isn't launching a Spring Offensive in '08. They'd have to run footage of the mayor saying retailers probably "think twice about coming" to the ghostly MoVal mall (which has lots of empty space and is about to lose Gottschalk's). "They see this parking lot (that'd be Highway 60) sitting there."
Then there's Rancho Belago, the part of MoVal that wants no part of MoVal. What if its warehouses are built before Caltrans packs up? Eighteen wheelers rambling to and from Rancho Big Rig-O will make things even worse --if that's possible.
Oh, yeah. It's possible.
Dan Bernstein
Note from Author of this video. Please take just a few moments and call this free # its Caltrans. Express your disgust with this dangerous situation. Their number is
866-383-4631
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