Comments by Darin Boville

Meet the Democratic assembly candidates tonight  on May 02, 2008

>>Will you Democrats be asking them how they stand on AB 1991, and why? Do they understand the nature of the precedent for the rest of us who do not live in HMB?<<

Yes, they were asked. I taped it...should be ready by Monday or so. In the meantime, Hill said he wold oppose it in its current form, ditto for Holober (with even more emphasis), Papan says she supports AB 1991.

--Darin

Why the Coastside Fire Board should keep the copyright to tapes of its meetings  on February 21, 2008

Here’s my two cents on the copyright issue.

First, as for my own videos and photographs, no matter whether they are published on Coastsider, Montara Fog, or in any other form--they are copyrighted.

Why? Because I am the one who created those works. I am the one who paid for those works. Artists and content providers aren’t reverse charities. While there may be little to no hope of monetary gain from holding the copyright to certain works--such as government meetings--the principle still holds.

With that in mind I am very generous with my photos and videos, allowing and encouraging wide dissemination with little to nothing asked for in return. I do prevent certain uses--I’ve had several requests for the use of my photos and videos for use in the real estate industry to advertise the attractiveness of our area to buyers and builders. Since I owned my work via the copyright I was able to decline that category of use.

But my view on the copyright question regarding the competing proposals from MCTV and my own Montara Fog is just the opposite.

Why the switch?

Because the public interest far and away outweighs the private interest.

That’s the key issue.

There are exceptions. The government, even though it is paying, doesn’t have to automatically make it public. There are important areas such as in national security and certain kinds of scientific research where it is deemed that the private interest trumps. But this is far and away the exception, not the rule.

What possible case could be made for allowing a private entity to own videos of government meetings paid for by the government? What possible case could you think up that would be powerful enough to outweigh the public’s need to learn what what goes on at these meetings--the whole point in filming them in the first place?

I can think of none.

It is a self-defeating policy to copyright (and thus legally restrict the public’s use of and access to) government-funded videos of government meetings.

--Darin

Why the Coastside Fire Board should keep the copyright to tapes of its meetings  on February 20, 2008

Ahhh, you should try it with a high fever!

--Darin

Supervisor Gordon suggests MCC has “outlived its usefulness”  on January 29, 2008

Kevin,

You wrote: “Here are the endorsements I referred to above:

Rich Gordon endorsed Merrilees, Lieberman, and Ptacek. “

This is news to me. When did Rich Gordon endorse candidates for election?

You also wrote: “That statement was based on the premise that most MidCoast residents don’t want to see another 3400 houses crammed into an area where the infrastructure (roads, schools, waters and sewer) are already overburdened (see link below). “

I think that is close to the mark. But it fails the reality test. Walk around Montara, for example. There’s an awful lot of houses newly built or being built.

It seems to me there are two inter-related parts needed for any strategy for controlling growth here on the coast--and so far only one exists, such as it is.

We are fairly good at slowing and stopping projects (although that claim is increasingly in doubt the more houses I see going up).

Where we have almost totally failed is to shape the growth that we are getting. It’s coming out in a random hodge-podge with no vision at all.

And by not admitting that we will get some level of growth no matter what we really want, we find ourselves opposing so-called “growth inducing” improvements.

You are an economist, Kevin. I’ve had plenty of economics classes. Show me the evidence that a crosswalk in Montara or a bathroom at Surfer’s Beach will induce meaningful growth. I believe such claims to be on the level of fables or reassuring stories that we tell ourselves because it represents (and fits in with) our larger goals of preserving the coast. That is, such stories *represent* something to us rather than serving as an accurate depiction of reality.

What we need is a strategy of controlling growth, stopping bad projects, while at the same time making common-sense improvements on the quality-of-life here on the coast by developing a vision of what the growth we are going to get should look like.

Control growth and shape the growth. We need both parts.

--Darin

Supervisor Gordon suggests MCC has “outlived its usefulness”  on January 28, 2008

Hi Kevin,

I know you don’t agree with Neil Merrilee’s views but are you hinting that something subversive is going on? If so, I don’t see it.

Neil, as you point out, won with 29.1% of the vote in a five-way race. I believe that was the second highest percentage for a candidate in an MCC election ever, only bettered by a tiny fraction by April Vargas in a four-way race, way back when.

He was also endorsed by the whole spectrum of the coastside political establishment--the League for Coastside Protection, Put Community First (the pac of Coastside Community First), and the Half Moon Bay Review.

To my mind the only way to interpret those election results--Neil’s high percentage followed by Deborah Lardie’s--a complete newcomer to coastside politics--is that voters were looking for a change.

I believe the voters still want to see that change reflected in the actions of the MCC.

We’ll see if they get it.

--Darin

UPDATE: Coastsider’s technical difficulties  on December 07, 2007

Hey! Drop the camera all you want but be nice to my tripod!  :)

--Darin

HMB loses $36 million judgement  on November 30, 2007

Here’s a point I’m confused on.

According to the SF Chronicle, the Keenan bought the property in 1993. But the city projects that he claims led to the man-made wetlands occurred in the early 1980s--ten years earlier.

Is that right?

So the wetlands existed at the time Keenan bought the property?

--Darin

Letter: Airliner over Montara?  on November 20, 2007

The stories can be found at the following web addresses for KCBS and the County Times. Here you go:

http://www.kcbs.com/Low-Flying-Jet-Over-Bay-Area-Creates-Alarm/1230023

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7509802?source=most_viewed

--Darin

Letter: Airliner over Montara?  on November 20, 2007

It was a promotional flight for a restored jetliner. A poster on the other chat site has links to news reports.

Sorry I missed it!

--Darin

Letter: Sign stealing  on November 06, 2007

I think Neil was saying that there was “selective culling"--if that is the case that would suggest that it wasn’t Caltrans…

--Darin

Letter: Sign stealing  on November 06, 2007

I noticed we had what looked like over-the-hill union guys with Cilia signs staking out the school. They arrived on trucks earlier with many signs on board. When I got near the guy I overheard him talking on his phone to others in his organization, apparently located at other sites nearby.

Don’t know if this is an actual organized labor sort of thing but it looks like it.

The reason I mention this is (having been raised in northern, highly-unionized, Ohio) I think it is a common tactic to remove other candidate’s signs to get rid of the visual clutter--make your guy stand out.

Don’t know if that is the case here…

--Darin

Coastsider endorses Boyd, Slater-Carter for MWSD  on November 04, 2007

Hey Ken,

Don’t worry about me on the Internet. I’ve been active online since the late 1980’s or so, before the Web, before America Online was formed, etc.

I know how it works. :)

--Darin

Coastsider endorses Boyd, Slater-Carter for MWSD  on November 04, 2007

For the record, and I’m the last person to defend Brian Ginna, but he has posted on TalkAbout that he believes in signing posts with his real name. Now, maybe that has changed, I don’t know.

But your general point is, I think, correct. You get a clear sense that there’s a lot of multiple posting going on.

--Darin

CUSD spending per student is near the bottom of San Mateo County  on October 30, 2007

Hey Ken,

Nice data!

One thing interesting (unusual, I think) about our district is that the demographic groups “disadvantaged” and “Hispanic” are essentially the same groups. Is that true for the other districts you cite above?

To me the big obstacle is language skill. According to the tests only a tiny handful of kids at Farallone View (for example) are not “proficient” in English (i.e. are in the Language learner demographic category). But I know from my first-hand experiences there over the last three years, and know from other parents who have interacted and volunteered in the classrooms, that the “language gap"--combined with cultural issues--is a much bigger hurdle than the tests reveal.

So I do think demographics are a big factor and do not understand why you think they are not. I’m not saying they are the *only* factor (I don’t know enough to say) nor am I saying that there is no fault at the board level or staff level (I don’t know enough to say).

Cabrillo has about 50% Hispanic kids, most seem to be from recently immigrated families or illegals. Please compare that to the other districts…

I’m still puzzled why you don’t see demographics as a significant factor--it seems we might disagree on the strength of it as a factor or whether there are other factors, but to dismiss it as a factor seems odd…

--Darin

City and Chamber welcome Peet’s with official ribbon-cutting  on October 23, 2007

Any idea what it costs to buy a place like LaDiDa? I’m curious.

--Darin

Darin’s Tuesday Photo: Ocean from Wavecrest  on September 19, 2007

Thanks for the comments.

To answer a question: It might be hard to see due to the JPEG compression but the colored light on the horizon is a ship and the white dot of light that you can see between the branches is Venus. The more you look the more you see!

--Darin

Letter: Amazing raptor display at Wavecrest now  on September 14, 2007

I was there, too, from 8:30 to 10:30. I walked through Wavecrest then headed north past the Poplar parking area. The harriers are all in the field along the paved portion--at least four of them. Lots of kites (they seem to hate my video camera--maybe the tripod is freaking them out?). A blue heron also arrived at about 10:00--not the usual one--this one was *very* skittish when I got anywhere inside of 150 feet or so...very cool. 

Letter: Amazing raptor display at Wavecrest now  on September 13, 2007

Ken’s not kidding--and this isn’t a “birder’s only” sort of thing. I was down there Tuesday shooting video and it was almost too much--everywhere I looked there were large raptors doing their thing.

Ken’s the expert, not me, but the harriers you can pick out easily by the big white spot at the base of their tale and by the amazing, fighter-jet-like flying technique they use. They zoom over the ground, just above grass level looking for prey and make these improbable-looking, hairpin, twisty turns and brief hovers. Astonishing to watch.

The kites are also highly unusual in their behavior. Instead of swooping like the harriers they pick a vantage point about thirty feet up in mid-air and flap their wings against the wind in such a way that they hover in one spot while they scan the ground below.

Well worth the effort to see--even for a few minutes. It’s that easy to find them...(you can go north, too, along the paved trail--there you can be perplexed at the many people who walk by unaware of the nature show taking place just a few feet away...)

--Darin

Letter: Plug-in Prius comes to the Coastside Eco-Energy Expo and Solar Home Tour  on September 13, 2007

If you can’t make the event check out Costco for ultra-cheap fluorescent bulbs--they are subtracting the PG&E;discount at the register--for the price of dinner for one you can convert your whole house...(I was so excited I overbought, I think...)

--Darin

Darin’s Monday Photo: Hawk at Poplar Beach  on August 24, 2007

It lives/lived in the dead tree in the field near the Poplar Beach parking lot. I don’t know who banded it--anyone?

Also, if you look closely at the image (especially the larger version) you can see that it was raining fairly heavily.

--Darin

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