Thursday, April 04, 2002

 
Passionate debate on housing plan

More wholesome goodness comes from San Rafael. This is actually a fun little event going on, because it crosses a lot of different issues. There are disadvantaged children, open space/environmental concerns, affordable housing, and traffic concerns. This represent a good litmus test to see what's really, really, REALLY important to people, so let's get to the quotes.

Needy children: Good

Only by selling some of its land can the St. Vincent's School for Boys build a badly needed campus for its residential treatment center, which serves youths between the ages of 7 and 17. Its historic buildings are suffering the damages of age, he said.

Unless some of those folks who want the open space so much could put their money where their is and make a nice donation, right buddy? *wink* *wink*

Open Space: Very Good

San Rafael resident Keilman asked audience members who oppose any development to raise their hands. Gesturing toward the response, he said, "Here are people who want zero building. These are the zero people," drawing laughter from the crowd.

Affordable Housing: Good

One critic disputed that any units could be sold for as little as $195,000, expressing astonishment when Koch explained the affordable-housing guidelines that mandate below-market-rate prices.

"Some people say Shappell is in this to make a fast buck and get out," Koch said. "And if you believe this is the best way to make a fast buck, folks, give us a little more credit. We're not that slow."

Neither are we dude, selling undervalue makes a great tax write-off.

Traffic: Bad

"I know traffic is a big concern, but it is not fair to hold us accountable for a problem that starts in Windsor and ends in San Francisco."

Things won't be so bad by 2006...trust us.


Corporations: Bad

"This is all a lot of corporate doublespeak," said San Rafael resident Kyle Keilman. "The majority of people I've spoken to think it's a horrific idea. Many of the people who are for it are making money off it."

This guys just pissed because he's not making any money off of it.

Jobs: Bad

Don Dickerson of the Marin Conservation League disputed whether the development would solve the county's crisis in affordable housing or exacerbate it, since the commercial component will create more jobs than there are affordable units.

What?!?

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 3:04 PM

 
Little risk if cousins have kids

This story made front page above the fold at the Contra Costa Times...I'm trying to figure out what that means.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 12:55 PM

 
Transbay projects leading nowhere...

I just love the way the Chron turns a phrase. There's a little blurb up on SFGate "reporting" on various options to alleviate transbay traffic around here. The problem is, well...they're expensive...and the article makes no bones about pointing out just how expensive:

A report released to a regional panel studying potential bay crossings placed the cost of a new toll bridge between Interstate 238 in San Lorenzo and Interstate 380 in San Bruno, just north of San Francisco International Airport, at $8.2 billion.

It also placed high price tags on two other big potential projects: a second transbay tube for BART -- estimated at $10.3 billion -- and a rail tunnel to handle commuter trains and high-speed rail -- estimated at $11.8 billion.

"I don't think they're going to happen," said Sue Lempert, San Mateo's mayor and head of the panel, "unless Sacramento or Washington want to fund them. We can't afford to pay for them ourselves with bridge tolls or gas taxes or sales taxes."

What is failed to be reported in this instance is that infrastructure should be one of the highest priorities of local governement (police, fire, infrastructure). Land is scarce up here, and as the metro area expands out, it's going to take more and more time to get around. If the local governements don't deal with this problem, it's going to put a major stopper on the economic prospects of the entire region. What we have here is the local governments billing other projects that should be lower priority as mandatory, while pushing off primary duties to the state and federal governement. This is exactly the process that creates statist, hyper-centralized, over-taxing, patriarchal governements, and we're watching it in action.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 10:16 AM

 
Sand in the Gears

This is one of the best sites I've had the fortune to run upon in the last who knows how long. I've been reading for the last week or so, but this posting really drives home how much this cat is on the ball:

So while the nature of man is to do evil in pursuit of his ends, perhaps we can make meaningful distinctions between those whose ends are peace, and those whose ends are murder; between those whose moral systems give pause in the face of violence, and those whose moral systems celebrate atrocity.

To use a phrase I've tried to avoid until now, "read the whole thing".

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 12:09 AM

Wednesday, April 03, 2002

 
News Flash

It seems as though Megan McArdle is now officially Jane Galt (as would appear by the signings on her postings).

This is cool...I always liked her moniker anyway, but I thought since she made her name available, edicate dictated refering to her by it...I now see she really wants to be refered to as Jane Galt...it's not just a cool "side reference, this is where I'm coming from" thing.

I, personally, hold Jane up there with Virgina Postrel. I know this is a sexist view, but intelligent women are still a little low on the radar...it doesn't mean they're not out there...just that most seem to be flying low and you have to pay attention to see them. Especially when what qualifies these days seems to be the Susan Sontags et. al. which don't hold a candle to the Postrels, Jabobs', and Galts.

Anyway, I enjoy keeping an eye out for intelligent women, which is why once I found the woman that is my wife, there wasn't a whole lot in this world that was going to keep me away from her...and there still isn't.

Anyway, from this little backwater on the web...Go Jane!

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:32 PM

 
Zoning Against Cigarettes

Here's a more blatant abuse of zoning based on ideology (in yellow, down the right side of the page):

Retailers specializing in the sale of tobacco products will find it harder to open new stores in unincorporated areas of Marin County following the passage of a new ordinance by the Board of Supervisors yesterday.

[...]

Given the large number of youth-oriented locations in unincorporated areas, Supervisor John Kress asked if the ordinance would leave any areas for tobacco retailers to open new stores.

"It will be very limited," said Brian Crawford, deputy director of Planning Services. "More than one, perhaps, but not a whole lot more than one."

The ordinance will not affect existing tobacco retailers, but the supervisors left the door open to expand the law's scope.

The most interesting thing I've noticed about people up here is that smoking marijuana is OK, but tobacco is bad. I'm trying to figure out if this is simply based on a "big corporation bad/small distributor good" ideology, or if stoner's are just stupid.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 4:01 PM

 
Mideast carnage speaks louder than U.S. words

Well, Rob Morse over at the Chron gives us some great insight, although he seems to keep vacillating between we should react with force/shouldn't react with force. I think he's mainly saying we should stick to sitting at a negoiating table, but by the end, I'm not really sure of that either. Let's take a walk, shall we?

This is not my idea of a war on terrorism. These are examples of terror in answer to terrorism. We paid for it. We should own up.

[..]

If America's interests are threatened by war over small pieces of land by two intransigent peoples, one funded with almost $2 billion in American military aid, we damn well have to do something about it. We did in the past, under presidents as diverse as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

[...]

Meanwhile, Bush refused to condemn Arafat as a terrorist because "he has agreed to a peace process." If Arafat, the man who brought us Fatah and the PLO, escapes the label of terrorist, obviously, the word is useless.

[...]

There's no solution. Both sides deserve each other. Each side wants to eliminate the other. "The peace process" was as fake as processed cheese.

[...]

There's no power in the world but America that can stop the war process -- and we must stop the war process because it's taking us into a new world disorder of Muslims versus Jews and Christians.

I dunno...somebody else want to give the whole thing a read and provide me with a translation of what he actually is saying? Thanks.

UPDATE: InstaMan provides a link to a rather good op-ed that's on topic. And as he says "More proof that even footwear is smarter than the editorial-writers at the New York Times, something I've often suspected." Same goes for the Chron, I guess.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 2:53 PM

 
More Zoning abuse

Eminent domain may end up in court reads the line from the Oakland Tribune. This story releates to a few holdouts in a Hayward City "redevelopment zone":

Eminent domain refers to the right of a city to take land for public use. Usually, it is used when a city wants to build a freeway or park.

The C-D-Watkins-Atherton block is different. The city wants housing, and state law allows it to invoke eminent domain because the block falls within a redevelopment district.

So once again, all the city has to do it redefine it's zoning arrangments and all bets are off. The courts can be invoked, but at this stage in the game everything is already in progress, most of the land has been purchased, and the new development project has already been designed. The process needs more checks and balances before the project begins and without court involvement....of course, I would stick to the track that eminent domain should ONLY be used for infrastructure purposes, not pet development projects.

Notice, too, that this is in Hayward...a few miles SouthWest of the previous articles location in Contra Costa County where there rezoned to ensure open space.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 10:38 AM

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

 
Holy Shit!

Andrew Sullivan's latest article is up at Indymedia, although it's only credited as A. Sullivan.

I wonder how long it will take for them to figure it out...assuming, of course, they ever read dissenting opinions.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:26 PM

 
How we know progress is being made

Suicide bombers get their wish, but no goes along for the ride with them.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:03 PM

 
Contra Costa group eyes open land

This starts out as a little piece talking about converting some land to open space over in the East Bay, but then it comes to this backgrounder paragraph:

For Gerber, the new open-space plan would deliver on a promise she made a few years ago during her campaign for a new county urban-limit line.

A unanimous county Board of Supervisors adopted the new line in August 2000 that made some 15,000 new acres of undeveloped land off-limits for housing development.

"This is all part of what I promised when I said I wanted to keep lands in agriculture," Gerber said later. "There is no legal right to be able to convert farmland to residential, but I do believe we should figure out a way to compensate landowners who are engaged in agriculture or ranching."

You get all that? The country rezones some land to absolutly disallow development, then is going to swoop in after the fact to buy it up. There is no legal right? This is where bad zoning and planning laws at the hand of folks with an agenda are just plain dangerous. No to go to the next move, they will have to implement some kind of additional tax to pay for the land...but if that doesn't pass, that's no problem. The land isn't going anywere as the only purpose it serves is as open space or agriculture. These landowners do not have the power to sell the land to whomever they want at this point, as the land has been pretty much zoned out of usefulness.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 7:02 PM

 
Protesters call 'one-strike' eviction ruling unfair for blacks

So here's the premise:
The one-strike policy against drugs targets those who live in public housing
Most residents of public housing are black.
Therefore, the policy targets blacks and is racist.

"This is a blatant disregard for the rights of blacks and other oppressed people," said Bakari Olatunji, president of the Oakland chapter of International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement. "Mostly black people live in public housing in Oakland."

I really hate it when the race card is played like this. There is, of course, no pointing of any specifc times whan a non-black has been found with drugs and this policy is not enforced. THAT would be racist. What Olatunji needs to be doing is proactivly monitoring and patroling the streets with the members of the IPDUM to keep the drugs as far away from the housing projects as possible before the Housing Authorites get involved. That keeps the area clean, and people can keep their homes - a COMMUNITY enforced drug free zone. But I guess that would solve the problem instead of creating a photo op.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 4:30 PM

 
SFO's oldest business closes shop

There's a piece running on SFGate (Chron) about how the oldest shop as the SF Airport is closing up it's doors (or, at least, transfering employees and lease to the See's Candy store). This paragraph proved especially enlightening:

Despite ABC's staying power at SFO, changing times eventually did in the family-run operation. San Francisco's living-wage ordinance, the high cost of quality merchandise and the need to bid to do business at the airport made it tough to continue, said Givens.

Of course, everyone who had clue one has said from the begining that Living Wage ordinance would squeeze out the smaller businesses. But aren't the same folks who are for Living Wages usually against the big mean corporates? (Sorry, I know this argument is pretty old, it's just interesting to watch it all happen now).

And the bidding on store space is a whole different animal, pretty much coming into existance to generate revenues to pay for all kinds of expansion plans, that may or may not pay off. I hope they don't jack up the prices with all these crazy overpriced leases, thereby making more and more people make sure they stock up on whatever before they get to the airport, thereby lowering revenues, thereby causing stores to close up, thereby causing a rise in unemployment, and an inablilty to pay back the loans from the city, thereby creating a massive debt crisis in SF, thereby....

...oh, nevermind.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:30 AM

 
I'm actually going with Burton on this one...

There's currently a bill in the state Senate that would allow the State to force inmates to give DNA samples. This unsigned peice in the Chron is coming out in favor, while Burton is against it because "He's concerned that protesting inmates may be injured, perhaps fatally, by the forced sampling. "

I don't think he needs to be that wishy-washy, though. The bill is an obvious violation of the 5th and 8th Ammendments. There is already a process in place for obtaining evidence under subpeona, which should just be clarified for this issue.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 12:29 AM

 
I hate resolutions

One of my estimeed Senators, Barbara Boxer, has release this little blurb:

Reacting to the third suicide bombing in the Middle East carried out by a woman in recent months, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called on world leaders to add their voices to the 13 women of the Senate who united together, earlier this month, to sponsor a resolution condemning the alarming trend of women becoming suicide bombers.

This resolution was preceded by a Boxer amendment passed by the Senate in October 2001, which condemned suicide bombings as horrific acts of terrorism.

"sponsoring" a "resolution" "condemning" "women becoming suicide bombers", in addition to that other thing that, oh yeah, "condemed" "bombings" as "acts of terrorism". I feel so much better.

At least Israel is really doing something. They've been asking Arafat for 18 months to put a stop to these war crimes, and he hasn't..so they will. And when it's all done, Israel will go back to the bargaining table with a set of conditions of their own.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 12:02 AM

Monday, April 01, 2002

 
Local Bias

So first Matt Welch hits the Chron, now Tim Blair hits HotCoCo...I just can't seem to stay focused on my own backyard. But there's one section from this article that I'd like to hit:

The nobility of self-sacrifice, albeit not always a mortal sacrifice, for the sake of victory is not an unusual ideal in American society. For example, schoolchildren are taught "Remember the Alamo," the battle cry inspired by Texans who fought to the death against Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in 1836.

"We even indoctrinate this in our football teams," said Windmiller, the San Francisco State professor. "How many fight songs are 'do or die'?"

How...is...this...even...comparable? Football? And the Alamo? IN the Alamo, the Texans hunkered down and staved off an invading army...they didn't just go rolling in for the sake of dying to make some kind of point. If anyone out there can draw comparisions between Sam Houston and a whacked out Suicide bomber, I'm all ears...really I am.

One more thing is this article seems to refer to "lots of experts" a lot of the time.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:49 PM

 
Just for contrast...

...compare the Tal G. posts to those over at indymedia.

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:36 PM

 
Surprise, Surprice, Surprise

Well, the National Taxpayers Union has released their '01 report, and here's where we're lucky enough to stand right now:

Feinstein - F (18%)
Boxer - F (6%)
Woolsey - F (11%)

And I'm getting what from this, again?

posted by Marin Hot-Tubber 11:22 AM