Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit
Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is a rail line and bicycle-pedestrian pathway project in Sonoma and Marin counties of the U.S. state of California. When completed, the entire system will serve a corridor between Cloverdale in northern Sonoma County and Larkspur Landing in Marin County. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . The first phase of the system, a segment between Northern Santa Rosa and Downtown San Rafael, opened to public preview and excursion services (as far south as Marin County Civic Center) on June 29, 2017. Regular service began on August 25, 2017, after Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) gave the final approval for the Positive train control (PTC) system. The southern of the line was completed to Larkspur with service commencing on December 14, 2019. History Background and formation The last passenger rail service along the Northwestern Pacific Railroad south of Willits was discontinued in 1958 as automobile ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Santa Rosa Downtown Station
Santa Rosa Downtown station (known as Santa Rosa–Railroad Square during planning) is a Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit train station in Santa Rosa. It opened to SMART preview service on July 1, 2017; full commuter service commenced on August 25, 2017. It is located west of Wilson Street between 4th and 5th Streets, across the U.S. Route 101 freeway from downtown at the site of the ex-Northwestern Pacific Railroad station building. The station is the focal point of the Railroad Square Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places historic district designated in 1979. History The original Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP) Depot was built in 1903. Surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the station was eventually served by ten trains a day. Increased automobile ownership and highway construction led to decline of rail use in Sonoma County, thus leading to disuse of the facility as a passenger terminal around 1958. Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film ''Shadow of a Dou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marin County Civic Center
The Marin County Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California, United States. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green; it was completed in 1962. The Hall of Justice was begun in 1966 and completed in 1969. Veterans Memorial Auditorium opened in 1971, and the Exhibit Hall opened in 1976. Located away from the former county seat in downtown San Rafael, the expansive complex stretches across two valleys just east of US 101. Its pink stucco walls, blue roof and scalloped balconies are distinctive. The smaller wing is the county administration building and the larger the Hall of Justice, joined by a round structure on a small hill that houses a county library. A battle between factions of the Marin County Board of Supervisors played out through the selection of the site and the architect, the financing of the project, and its event ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stacy & Witbeck
Stacy and Witbeck is a construction firm operating in the United States. It has received contracts to build several rapid transit lines. In 2011, ''Engineering News-Record'' reported the firm was the 103rd largest construction firm in the United States, and had $450 million in annual revenue. In 2007 the firm received a contract to construct commuter rail stations in Wilsonville, Oregon Wilsonville is a city primarily in Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A portion of the northern section of the city is in Washington County, Oregon, Washington County. It was founded as Boones Landing because of th .... In 2013 the firm received the contract to construct Detroit's M1 streetcar route. References Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States {{US-company-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Railway Age
''Railway Age'' is an American trade magazine for the rail transport industry. It was founded in 1856 in Chicago (the United States' major railroad hub) and is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. History The magazine's original title was the ''Western Railroad Gazette,'' and was renamed the ''Railroad Gazette'' in 1870. In June 1908, after purchasing its chief rival, ''The Railway Age'' (founded in 1876 in Chicago), it changed its title to ''Railroad Age Gazette'', then in January 1910, to ''Railway Age Gazette''. In 1918 it shortened its name to the current title. ''Railway Review'' (originally the ''Chicago Railway Review'') was merged into ''Railway Age'' in 1927. Publications that have been merged into ''Railway Age'' include ''American Railroad Journal'', founded 1832, renamed ''The Railroad and Engineering Journal'' in 1887 by its then new owner/editor, Matthias N. Forney. It became ''American Engineer & Railroad Journal'' in 1883, then ''Railway ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At the time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded that it was the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression. One result was a serious disruption of normal international relations. The causes of the Great Recession include a combination of vulnerabilities that developed in the financial system, along with a series of triggering events that began with the bursting of the United States housing bubble in 2005–2012. When housing prices fell and homeowners began to abandon their mortgages, the value of mortgage-backed securities held by investment banks declined in 2007–2008, causing several to collapse or be bailed out in September 2008. This 2007–2008 phase was called the subprime mortgage crisis. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Supermajority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fundamental rights of a minority, but they can also hamper efforts to respond to problems and encourage corrupt compromises in the times action is taken. Changes to constitutions, especially those with entrenched clauses, commonly require supermajority support in a legislature. Parliamentary procedure requires that any action of a deliberative assembly that may alter the rights of a minority have a supermajority requirement, such as a two-thirds vote. Related concepts regarding alternatives to the majority vote requirement include a majority of the entire membership and a majority of the fixed membership. A supermajority can also be specified based on the entire membership or f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sales Tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a governing body directly by a consumer, it is usually called a use tax. Often laws provide for the exemption of certain goods or services from sales and use tax, such as food, education, and medicines. A value-added tax (VAT) collected on goods and services is related to a sales tax. See Comparison with sales tax for key differences. Types Conventional or retail sales tax is levied on the sale of a good to its final end-user and is charged every time that item is sold retail. Sales to businesses that later resell the goods are not charged the tax. A purchaser who is not an end-user is usually issued a "resale certificate" by the taxing authority and required to provide the certificate (or its ID number) to a seller at the point of purchase, al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novato
Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225. History What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok villages: Chokecherry, near downtown Novato; Puyuku, near Ignacio; and Olómpali, at the present-day Olompali State Historic Park. Mexican era In 1839, the Mexican government granted the Rancho Novato to Fernando Feliz. The rancho was named after a local Miwok leader who had probably been given the name of Saint Novatus at his baptism. Subsequently, four additional land grants were made in the area: Rancho Corte Madera de Novato, to John Martin in 1839; Rancho San Jose, to Ignacio Pacheco in 1840; Rancho Olómpali, awarded in 1843 to Camilo Ynitia, son of a Coast Miwok chief; and Rancho Nicasio, by far the largest at , awarded to Pablo de la Guerra and John B.R. Cooper in 1844. Post-Conquest era Following the American Conquest of C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parsons Brinckerhoff
WSP USA, formerly WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is a multinational engineering and design firm with approximately 14,000 employees. WSP stands for Williams Sale Partnership. The firm operates in the fields of strategic consulting, planning, engineering, construction management, energy, infrastructure and community planning. In 2013, the company was named the tenth largest U.S.-based engineering/design firm by ''Engineering News Record''. In 2020, it was ranked #7 of the Top 500 Design Firms and #2 of the Top 100 Pure Designers by the same magazine. On October 31, 2014, Parsons Brinckerhoff became a wholly owned independent subsidiary of WSP Global, a Canadian-based professional services firm. Parsons Brinckerhoff was renamed to WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff, then to WSP USA in 2017. Together with WSP Global, WSP USA is one of the largest professional services firms in the world, with approximately 31,500 employees in 500 offices serving 39 countries. History F ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental impact assessment" is usually used when applied to actual projects by individuals or companies and the term " strategic environmental assessment" (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programmes most often proposed by organs of state. It is a tool of environmental management forming a part of project approval and decision-making. Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an enviro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Station Building
A station building, also known as a head house, is the main building of a passenger railway station. It is typically used principally to provide services to passengers. A station building is a component of a station, which can include tracks, platforms, an overpass or underpass, and a train shed. Normally, a station building will be of adequate size for the type of service that is to be performed. It may range from a simple single-storey building with limited services to passengers to a large building with many indoor spaces providing many services. Some station buildings are of monumental proportions and styles. Both in the past and in recent times, especially when constructed for a modern high-speed rail network, a station building may even be a true masterpiece of architecture. A typical railway station building will have a side entrance hall off the road or square where the station is located. Near the entrance will be a ticket counter, ticket machines, or both. There will ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |