Comments by Ken King
June 16, 2006
Charlie Gardner says, "Let's be accurate and avoid any spin here." Although addressed to Mike Ferreira, I want to say, "Amen, Charlie, Amen!" In his essay in Wednesday’s Review questioning the Ailanto Settlement agreement, he implies that the developer is being allowed to build here, "but is not paying its fair share for being able to do so under our growth limitation laws." He goes on to say that "a disproportionate burden has been placed on the smaller individual homeowner and remodeler." Besides…
June 15, 2006
Hal Bogner's ideas for off-ramps and on-ramps along 92 at Main could be combined with Tim Pond's ideas for a traffic circle with a wetlands in the center, a.k.a. Tim's Pond. With luck it might attract our local celebrities, the Redlegged frogs: HMB could be declared a wildlife sanctuary and biological reserve. Think of all of those wide-eyed children, noses pressing against car windows, squealing delighted phrases as they speed past our natural wonder.
ken king
June 15, 2006
There was once a happy-go-lucky pair of cowbirds who enjoyed life to the max. It came to their attention that they were about to have a lifestyle setback due to a trick of nature. Thinking unselfishly, they decided to forego the pleasures of parenting so that someone else might enjoy that blessing. So they flew over the hill and left their progeny in a warbler’s nest. These warblers were dedicated parents and provided a safe home and lots of loving attention. As Roy grew, he became curious about…
June 15, 2006
The HMB Review's June 14 editorial about Foothill Blvd. concludes, "Foothill will never get a toehold." The editor, Clay Lambert, bases this on three main reasons: a cost of "untold millions," the wetlands issue and the Coastal Commission (the Coastal Act really), and Ailanto's wish to not begin anew when it has an acceptable deal now. It is significant when the principle organ of communication for Coastside realtors reaches the same conclusion that many of us have, that energy is better spent looking…
June 13, 2006
CCF should advocate usefully; if Mary Bordi is CCF, then the shoe fits. Ms. Bordi, speaking as an individual, sidesteps CCF’s advocacy position with talk about education and future meetings, and considering “public policy issues in an educational manner.” However, what we have to go on is what appears on its website, and the posts of its officers on Coastsider.com. The thrust of CCF’s website, at least presently, is dedicated to the proposition that the intersection at 1 and 92 is a bottleneck,…
June 12, 2006
CCF is an "educational organization," and not one founded to lobby for developers? Then Mary Bordi and Charlie Gardner should rewrite the Foothill portion on their homepage since it only offers one-sided arguments favoring development. There is a difference between education and indoctrination, although monied interests usually aren't bothered by this distinction. There are many comments in the thread above yet to be addressed by CCF adherents. Traffic is a problem and busing is an easy solution…
June 10, 2006
Coastside Community First wants to help develop needed infrastructure, but chose a lemon for its first project. CCF can serve a positive function by helping local agencies secure funds for needed projects. Start by lobbying for school busing and bridging the $4 million shortfall for Highway 92. HMB has plans to widen Highway 1, but no funding: CCF should help lobby for those funds. Funds are needed to join the Coastal Trail in HMB with a parallel trail through El Granada and Montera that will allow…
June 09, 2006
The Ailanto document does not contain "valid routing options." The Bayview option ended several years after that agreement with the court finding that the city's definition of wetlands applied to the Beachwood property. LIkewise, the part of Foothill directly behind the highschool does not allow room to clear the readily apparent wetlands indicated by the willow habitat there. Many who favor building Foothill have walked this area and have dismissed these wetlands as being important, but they're…
June 08, 2006
Kern's admonition shouldn't dampen the ardor of our Foothill boosters who, like the cargo cults before them, don't need no stinkin' evidence that they are pursuing a recurring dream, one that, if ever realized, would turn into a coastside nightmare. (Does CCF stand for "cargo cult foolishness?")
ken king
June 09, 2006
Mr. Jones, I was fascinated by your statement on Wednesday evening that Eric Schiller “is just another emotional liberal” because you label him so. That’s the post, if you want to scroll up and reread it, where you give your emotional screed about all of the things that you don’t like about the educational system run by (you say) liberals. You offer no evidence in support of your claim about liberals, and the only data that you offer about how we’re chiseled by the educational establishment…
June 07, 2006
One bonus question deserves another: What DID Mr. Gardener do to help pass S? And why wasn't he out the night before the election drumming up support for S instead of promoting the Big Wave development in El Granada?
June 07, 2006
When telephoning for Measure S, I heard two repeated objections. Many said they did not want to give more money to the district when it had "wasted" the funds raised ten years before for the middle school. They just don't believe the school district. And by canceling bussing, the board angered many and reduced its historical base of support for the tax on the mid coast. Many of us supporting the tax were ambivalent for the same reasons expressed by Mr. Dantes in announcing his decision yesterday.…
June 06, 2006
Fabulous products at TJs! They're on the lookout for new location opportunities--with this lacuna maybe they can be persuaded.
ken king
June 06, 2006
David Byers, the attorney for Big Wave, made reference to the county's zoning map showing that the project was in an area long zoned for commercial development (M-1 and AO), and that with a use permit for residential construction, there were no other concerns. However, he omitted reference to the environmental map set next to the zoning map that clearly showed much of the area encompassing the land is designated a wetland. The architect presenting the residential and commercial layouts continually…
May 27, 2006
I want legislators who work for me and my family, not tell me that we cannot afford to solve our problems. I'm voting for Yee because he has the most progressive message of all the candidates, not just on the environment, but on vital issues like universal health care. California needs to convert to a Massachusetts-style healthcare system and Yee was talking about this before we heard about it from there. Check out his website and see for yourself: http://www.lelandyee.com/index.html ken king
May 22, 2006
Thanks, Barry, for posting your reminder. It is easier to negatively characterize those we oppose than construct valid arguments to rebut their claims. It is also easier to impugn intentions than to directly address arguments. These fallacies don't shed light on issues, except to the degree that personalities dominate an increasingly bleak landscape. Like Steve Katz, I stopped visiting comments at sites I found toxic, like Yahoo finance, for instance. Writing posts is an opportunity to inform and…
June 03, 2006
HMB Public Work's Highway 1 plan (submitted to the county transportation authority February, 2004) is available at city hall. I discussed the highway-widening plan with Lucy Lopez on her porch last summer, so it's not a secret. It is interesting that those intent on blocking the signal at Terrace Avenue and 1 did not inform citizens signing their petition about this plan. I suppose Mr. Steinberg's mantra of "full honest disclosure" should not apply to him when he's intent on achieving praiseworthy…
June 02, 2006
Mr. Steinberg discounts the telling economic arguments against Foothill and Beachwood as a digression from "full honest disclosure." They are hardly that; they make said project economically unsupportable. He thinks the Pacific Ridge Settlement Agreement is nefarious because HMB’s council made decisions in mandated closed session with two other litigants, the Coastal Commission and Ailanto Properties. As a thirty-year resident of Terrace Avenue, I was rocked to my core when the 1999 council approved…
June 02, 2006
Mr. Steinberg commits the straw man fallacy since I never used the phrase, "cargo cult science" on which he builds his case. It might profit him to google “straw man fallacy” if he wants to avoid this error in the future. His 1974 Feinman quote is nice but irrelevant to my subject. Cargo cults have been around since at least the 1890s. Google has any number of links pertaining to cargo cults should he want to pursue the topic. One to get started is: http://www.afa.org/magazine/1991/0191cargo.asp…
June 01, 2006
The HMB Review's lead article is about the funds shortfall for SR 92 expansion, with the cost going 40% over what was predicted six months ago, roughly $4 million over. In an ideal world, this level of unpredictability would not occur. In an ideal world, you would lay out the entire infrastructure needed in an area well beyond current needs, but the conundrum concerns who'd pay for it? Here on the coast we had a miniscule population in the 1950s, one not making great demands on the two main roads…
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