Comments by Barry Parr

Big Wave project gets its first public hearing

It seems to me you’re saying that because the project is for developmentally disabled adults (not children) that this project is above disparagement.

SamTrans hasn’t addressed Coastside concerns

Mark Simon of SamTrans, who used to write a column for the Chronicle.

Album:  Rebuilding Devil’s Slide, and a persistent question

If not for the duration, drilling the holes does seems to be a big part of the job.  They’re building the whalers (walls) now, and will begin drilling in a couple of weeks.

Letter: It’s time to conserve water and save money

Economic incentives aren’t sufficient to get us to conserve water. There’s plenty of evidence that without genuinely punishing price increases, the raising the cost of wasting water isn’t enough to make a real difference.

As a former resident of Phoenix, I know that in Scottsdale, AZ, desert landscaping used to the norm. Now, every property wants to look like a golf course. In a desert city that relies on ground water!

Water resources don’t increase in nice, smooth curves. They require huge investments. And they’re not reliable. Some years we have less water than others. Creating huge investments in landscaping that sucks up large amounts of water creates a vested interest for waste and sets our baseline use of our limited water resources way too high.

I’m not recommending any particular solution at this point, but it would be a mistake to dismiss alternatives out of hand.

Coastsider endorses Leland Yee for state senate

Voters who are registered as independent can also request a Democratic ballot at the poll, by the way.

Coastsider endorses Leland Yee for state senate

Actually, I am surprised we haven’t heard from any Democrats who support Nevin.

Coastsider endorses Leland Yee for state senate

I think it’s the significant that the only comments against Leland Yee so far are from people who are registered as something other than Democrats.

This is a party primary, so if non-Democrats don’t like Leland Yee, that might be considered an endorsement of sorts.

Coastsider endorses Leland Yee for state senate

I, for one, do not believe that support for living wages and small business are mutually contradictory.  Nor do I think it’s necessary to roll over on worker’s compensation when reforming the system. But then, I’m a moderate.

Coastsider endorses Leland Yee for state senate

That’s pretty entertaining.

As silly as that proposal seems to you, it would be a lot sillier to dismiss Yee because of it.  First, as one story points out at the end, it was a resolution with no binding authority. So, any arguments about “taxpayer money” are off the mark. Second, the idea that government buildings should be designed to be pleasant for their occupants isn’t silly at all. Feng shui is one way to get there.  There are plenty of Western traditions that would do the job as well. A good starting place is Chris Alexander’s “A Pattern Language”.

Senate and Supervisor candidates will appear at Wednesday’s MCC meeting

Cindy Epps, Pro Measure S and Ken Johnson against.

Be civil

One more thing, readers should feel free to point out when they think commenters are being uncivil. This is a tricky business, by any community needs to set its own standards of civil discourse. 

Opinion: Fear of Foothill

The argument that “if we built a wall around the Coastside there would still be growth” is a non sequitur.

The question is where do we as a society want the growth to be. And how much growth (in houses, people and traffic) do Coastsiders want in the future. That’s beyond the scope of this discussion.  But I’ve heard you use this example in the planning commission interviews and it made no sense to me then, either.

The Coastside is not a closed system.  But that’s not an argument for or against growth.

HMB Review waves its petard about, with predictable results

Not having seen the financials, I’d guess $2million +/- 50%

The Review’s (local, paid) circulation is declining, despite the fact that the Coastside’s population is growing.  That’s not a good sign.

I think it might be cheaper and easier to start a print competitor from scratch, depending on how eager the Wicks family is to sell.

HMB Review waves its petard about, with predictable results

Eric Rice’s three-part series on the history of the tunnel ran in the Half Moon Bay Review.

Come meet Coastsider at Rock the Block Friday

Coastsider’s booth will be on the North end of main between mill and kelly - closer to mill.

Caltrans may end “free” right turns onto Hwy 92 for HMB commuters

Timothy: I think the organizers of last week’s Solar Home Tour were people you would characterize as “no-growthers”.  I see more LCP bumper stickers on hybrids and cheap compacts than I do on SUV’s.

Considering how meaningless any local gestures are in the face of global warming and and our current energy consumption, I find their seriousness about such matters to be awfully sincere.

To say “They seem more conderned about preserving the empty lot next to their house as open space than doing anything meaningful for the environment.” is unsupported by the evidence. Even ignoring the fact that you don’t say who “they” are.

Please keep to the facts and skip the ad hominems and generalizations.

Devil’s Slide will be open in late September, says Caltrans

We’ll have more detail on how the repair will work later today.

Opinion:  Foothill Bypass, Part III: We can’t afford it

Wow!  $2,000 a year! How much more would you be willing to kick in for schools, libraries, parks, sports fields, pedestrian and bike paths, and other community facilities?

Opinion:  Foothill Bypass, Part II: A legal (and literal) quagmire

Brian’s commment is more incendiary than helpful.  Several people have characterized Mike and others as obstructionists and naysayers, but I think Mike has done a good job laying out the practical challenges to making this project work.

CCF has made a proposal, but has addressed none of these issues, as far as I can tell.

Unless someone can show how this can be done and how it will solve our present problem, Mike’s inference that this is being proposed for cynical political purposes to exploit a community crisis stands as the likeliest explanation for the proposal.

Un Dia Sin Immigrantes (A Day Without Immigrants)

The LA Times has posted their own debunking of what they describe as a “hoax”. Here’s the introduction, following by a link to the complete story on their LAT editorial blog:

Just the Facts--UPDATED

According to the search service Technorati, at least 130 weblogs have recently posted 10 “facts” about immigration, allegedly coming from the L.A. Times. As Readers’ Representative Jamie Gold has pointed out, this list, which is being forwarded around the world at lightning speed, is a hoax.

We combed our archives to see whether the paper has indeed written anything like these facts, and found just one Op-ed column — by leading anti-immigration figure Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.) — that comes close to stating what the e-mail hoax claims. Meanwhile, we’ve tried to assess the veracity of the various statistics from online sources as well as representatives of federal, state, county, and city officials. We’ll continue to post more details as we receive them. Here are the results:

http://opinion.latimes.com/immigration/2006/05/according_to_th.html

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