Comments by Darin Boville

Letter: School district’s dropout statistics are misleading

If "upwards of a third" of high school students are dropping out on the midcoast (or even 16.8%, as suggested above) then it should be child's play to come up with extensive, in-depth evidence of such a disaster without the need to read the tea-leaves of class cohort sizes. I still have not seen that evidence. I'm not saying drop-out rates are high and I'm not saying they are low. I'm saying the evidence is weak and unconvincing. --Darin

Letter: School district’s dropout statistics are misleading

I think Ken is doing a little more than simply raising the issue that there is no verification of what happened to the missing seniors, etc. As I read his somewhat meamdering post I get the clear suggestion that he thinks there is a major problem occuring at the high school and that there is a cover-up of that problem by school officials. That's a high level of accusation considering the lack of any supporting data. (Innuendo doesn't count, I'm afraid.) Jonathan says that it is suprising that, if…

Letter: School district’s dropout statistics are misleading

Ken, I'm afraid you lost me. You seem to be saying that the drop-out rate is higher than officially admitted. You point to the evidence of a smaller senior class this year than the junior class last year. Am I right so far? Did you account for the students who really did go to Mexico, or went at least to a different school district in the US? Did the rate of incoming students change (perhaps a 12% exit rate is the norm and it is the entry rate that has changed)? Is this phenomena something new this…

HMB City Council video is no longer available on Coastsider

Well, *way* before video and online streaming we sat around in caves and grunted a lot. It generally been a pattern of increasing democracy ever since then, in no small part due to technology. I wouldn't want to go back, even ten years... --Darin

HMB City Council video is no longer available on Coastsider

This is very frustrating. MCTV is a government/taxpayer funded entity (partly funded by HMB, it seems), who has posession of a film of a highly newsworthy event--and how do I see it? Catch it on the community channel, if you can. No other broadcast allowed. For information on MCTV's funding, see http://www.mctv.com/history.html Is this still 1970? --Darin

Letter: Peak Oil is here. What does this mean for the Coastside?

Ahhh--"The Prize"--what a great book (by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, by the way). Yergin has been vocal recently trying to make the point that oil hasn't peaked yet. But the book is a great one. PBS made a multi-part series out of it, though I haven't seen it. I even once had an intern who I turned on to "The Prize." A few years later (and degrees from MIT and Oxford later, too) he gets his first job at Yergin's CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates). Still has his copy. --Darin

Letter: Peak Oil is here. What does this mean for the Coastside?

To be sure, oil stocks are limited--it is a question of "when" not "if." Everyone agrees on that point. But the answer to that question makes all the difference. A rapid, large, unplanned for loss of oil production would certainly be a shock to the world with ramifications that are difficult to predict--a very scary situation. A slightly more gradual decline in oil would make all the difference--not only giving various technologies that were formerly too expensive on the consumption side a chance…

Coastsider now requires real names and prior review of all comments

Leonard's "reasonable setup" #1 is closer to what I see as the ideal solution. I don't know the history of the post that caused Barry to institute the new rules but I suspect that if people were required to use their real names the tone of some of these posts would change. After all, Coastsider, as Barry has expressed in print, in an exercise in community-building and openness. I would find it valuable to hear my neighbors' views on things--mystery posters aren't much in the way of neighbors. But…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

>>I want to reiterate one of the key points in the survey. This was a real surprise to us because we had no idea that so many businesses were “propped up”, so to speak, and needed outside support to help keep the doors open.<< No offense, Frank, but I find it hard to believe that it took the survey to figure out that. When I first moved here I was toyig with the idea of opening a center for photography--exhibits, lectures, classes, events--something that stayed open in the evening…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

I've been here, in Montara, for almost a year. I've tried to spend money in downtown Half Moon Bay but have found it to be a difficult task. There is very little there that I would buy. I do buy fish food at the Feed Store. I bank at Bank of America. My kids take swim lessons at the pool. That's about it. My other needs are served well elsewhere. There is also nothing to *do* in downtown Half Moon Bay. A Movie theatre would be great, especially one with "character." I grew up in Akron, Ohio and the…

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