Comments by Barry Parr
March 27, 2008
Certainly, the bureaucratic imperative is self-protection. However, there are ways to deal with that problem. MCTV has to be pushed in the direction of openness, inclusion, and access. I agree that nothing we can do will produce a flood of creativity from our little bedroom community. But I'd certainly like to see MCTV encouraging, rather than discouraging, people trying out their ideas. Now that most of us have cameras and video editing equipment, a model based on the scarcity and cost of equipment,…
March 27, 2008
At minimum there should be an open process for proposing and evaluating programming ideas. We should know what ideas have been brought to MCTV and what happened to them. More importantly, MCTV should set the barriers to access really low. Give people the opportunity to fail, rather than imposing a filtering process. MCTV's management and board come from a very limited segment of the community and we should not have to satisfy their taste and judgement to get access to this community resource. No…
March 27, 2008
I know a number of people, including myself, who went to MCTV with programming ideas that they were personally excited about, only to be discouraged, ignored, or simply turned down flat.
Yesterday, I submitted a couple of questions to MCTV about what proposals they have received in the last year and how many resulted in programming. I'll let you know what they tell me.
March 24, 2008
George, one big difference between Coastsider and TalkAbout is that you can carry on a conversation with the editor. Your comments and mine carry equal weight. And other folks who support your position are welcome to post as well. You and I disagree about this issue, but my goal is always to have a respectful conversation about the issues. I linked directly to the pdf of Zumbrun's article in my comment. I think Mr. Zumbrun's arguments are weak and obscure the real purpose of the bill. I know you…
March 23, 2008
Here's a direct link to Mr. Zumbrun's article: http://www.zumbrunlaw.com/viewpoints/2007/October%208,%202007.pdf He makes several arguments: * Commissioners are pre-signing appeals for staff's use, so that staff can file by them before the (tight, ten day) deadline. He acknowledges that there are no known cases of signatures submitted without authority. * Staff may be venue shopping, selecting commissioners most likely to approve of an appeal, rather than those in the community where the permit was…
March 22, 2008
Perhaps if we could build a freeway through them, the governor would be willing to keep these parks open.
March 22, 2008
Greg says: Finally the State is doing something about a system that has been, and is being abused by the “Usual Suspectsâ€.
But, of course, this bill would not prevent this from happening. It would prevent commissioners themselves from appealing. Which seems to defeat the entire spirit of the Coastal Act.
March 21, 2008
George, perhaps you could elaborate on what you think is wrong with the current appeals system. I mean, the right of appeal is fundamental, and it's clear that plenty of municipalities have the incentive and will to flout the Coastal Act and their own Local Coastal Programs. We've also got the basic premise of the Coastal Act that the coast doesn't simply belong to the people who live there.
It seems to me that a robust appeals system is essential.
March 20, 2008
I'd prefer to settle it with a conversation and a little compromise, which I tried repeatedly, but Connie won't even talk to me.
February 25, 2008
Larry Lessig has decided not to run for Tom Lantos's seat.
http://lessig.org/blog/2008/02/on_why_i_am_not_running.html
I'm disappointed, but it's an understandable decision.
February 25, 2008
There's a good description of the situation on the Chron's website as well. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/21/MN35V5V9I.DTL Gomes and others have blamed much of the city's financial woes on police and fire contracts, which she says comprise 80 percent of the city's $80 million budget. The starting salary for a Vallejo firefighter is about $70,000 a year, among the highest in the state. Ten firefighters earned more than $200,000 each last year, including overtime, city officials…
February 22, 2008
Watch out for falling trees! In their latest bulletin, the NWS says that because the ground is already saturated and the winds will be so high, falling trees are a danger.
A couple of years ago, we had a 100 ft cypress come to rest in our back yard, just missing the house.
February 21, 2008
Allan, thanks for posting. I've corrected your class in the story.
February 21, 2008
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that intellectual property is a bad thing. I've been extremely careful on Coastsider not to use others' writing or photographs without permission. What I'm saying is that the public record shouldn't owned by private parties. Vince is also correct that the actual monetary value of the recordings is insignificant. I have zero financial interest in being able to stream the newsworthy portions of public meetings. Darin's got the recordings of the discussion up on Montara…
February 21, 2008
Larry Lessig's work and his book The Future of Ideas influenced a lot of my thinking on copyright and intellectual property. He started the Creative Commons project, which I use to license Coastsider's content.
Coincidentally, his work deeply informed my point of view on MCTV's copyright of public meetings.
February 20, 2008
It's very strange. I do a lot of public speaking in my job and I'm good at it. But every time I speak in front of one of these local boards, my heart races and my hands shake.
I'm glad no one was taping my performance.
February 17, 2008
I just watched the McCain video Jonathan recommended, and it's brilliant and hilarious.
February 08, 2008
Deborah, thanks for posting. I think maybe it's a mistake to expect Midcoasters to come to MCC and perhaps MCC should be reaching out to the Midcoast. I don't know how much of this you've already done, but by participating here on Coastsider and other places, you're going to reach a broader cross-section of the community than you ever will by holding meetings and workshops. That's the reason you're seeing a livelier discussion here than you might on a Wednesday night at Seton. I think that MCC is…
February 04, 2008
It's challenging to make the numbers comparable, because different people are compensated in different ways. It's important to compare individual incomes, and not family incomes, from the census data. The firefighters are compensated as individuals. The numbers you're citing are for households and include the income from all working members in the household. Also, keep in mind that lots of folks in high tech work plenty of "overtime" (more than 40 hours a week) and don't get any extra pay. And, as…
February 04, 2008
Looks like they're making at least twice as much as the typical Coastside resident -- the people who pay their salaries. I haven't been able to get a Coastside number from the Census Bureau, but the numbers for Half Moon Bay are interesting.
Wikipedia: "The median income for a household in the city was $78,473, and the median income for a family was $92,204. Males had a median income of $60,913 versus $41,265 for females."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Moon_Bay,_California
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