Comments by Janet Zich
June 13, 2006
David Gorn, who was appointed to replace Sid McClausland, did McCausland proud. David, like Sid, brought to the job professional experience outside Half Moon Bay, which made him an unusually informed member of the City Council. Like Sid, David tried to work with the then-minority on the City Council to get things done. They, now the majority, would do well to appoint someone in the McCausland/Gorn mold. They also would be following a recent precedent; no, make that two: 1) to appoint, rather than…
May 31, 2006
Is the Mark Simon of Caltrans the Mark Simon who used to write a column about the Peninsula in the San Francisco Chronicle?
January 14, 2006
There's a classic book called "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences," by John Allen Paulos, that bginna and other beginnas in arithmetic might read before posting such mathematical nonsense. It ought to be required reading at the new Cunha Middle School.
December 12, 2005
I think the explanation for the "strange operation" of the Review lies in the finances of the paper buoyed by the publisher's lack of interest in First Amendment niceties. Hear me out. Income from advertising is enormously important to any paper’s survival. Circulation matters only as much as it drives advertising revenue. The Review thrives on divisive elections because they feed the advertising kitty every fall (HMB City Council one year, CUSD board the next, to name the most divisive of the…
November 15, 2005
bginna -- I didn't suggest voters should or should not know the definition of a Vested Tentative Map. I was replying to Lani's message. She wondered why voters had elected Naomi after Naomi helped issue Vested Tentative Maps for a number of questionable projects. My reply was intended to suggest that most voters don't follow the ins and outs of politics so closely, that many don't know or care about arcane matters like Vested Tentative Maps. They vote for the person (the nice coach-lady), not the…
November 13, 2005
Unfortunately, being a "popular figure" is enough. Voters chose Naomi in part because they don't know or care what a Vested Tentative Map is. Witness the national elections: they want a simple person, or at least a simple message. In Naomi's case, they want this nice coach-lady who wants playing fields For The Kids. How the woman got away with coming out against a wonderful new park as opposed to hitching HMB's future to Wavecrest/Smith Field's star is something I will never understand. But the role…
August 27, 2005
You bet it's inspiring. Is it too obvious to say this is what community journalism should be all about? (Wonder how Oliver DeNiles would answer that.)
August 06, 2005
This is a well deserved honor. Armando Ramirez is -- can this be an oxymoron?-- an exciting librarian. I've seen few public librarians rev up the patrons, children and adults, the way he does. He is a treasure. I hope HMB and the Coastside recognizes him for what he is.
May 03, 2005
I'm curious. How many times have Jones and/or Larimer been given op-ed space in the Half Moon Bay Review over the past few years? Compared to other opinionators? And what about the Review's onetime guru Chris Mickelson? Let's, please, not forget Chris. How much free space has he or his ghostwriter filled? I have to wonder: Is this a case of the Jones/Larimer/Mickelson well-oiled machine being the only one in town to fill unsold ad space? Or, is the Review turning down submissions from the opposing…
March 31, 2005
FYI, it was football. Marina and Naomi went to Canton, Ohio together in the summer of 2000 to witness Joe Montana's induction into the NFL Hall of Fame. There's also the Marina-Naomi softball connection, but that wasn't the Hall of Fame trip. I know because I wrote the story you mentioned. I enjoyed meeting Marina. She had a sense of humor about her Montana addiction (personalized "Joe" plates, a lifesize cardboard cutout of Joe in her home office) and about having a story written about it. She thanked…
January 25, 2005
First, I’d suggest two books by “editor/publishers” of weeklies on both coasts. *The Light on Synanon: How a Country Weekly Exposed a Corporate Cult—And Won the Putlitzer Prize (Dave Mitchell) is a first-person account of courageous community journalism at the Point Reyes Light, where in 1979 the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. According to a recent report in the SF Weekly (http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2004-12-08/news/feature.html), the paper and Mitchell are almost broke.…
November 13, 2005
Poor Jessica wasn't a hero by any definition of the word. She was a bright, imaginative, by all accounts lovely seven-year-old who wanted to fly. What seven-year-old doesn't? Jessica had the misfortune of being enabled by a number of adults -- starting with her parents and extending to the local community and the national press -- none of whom showed the judgment a seven-year-old might reasonably hope for from grownups. Helping other children in Jessica's name is a wonderful idea. Naming the starting…
August 26, 2005
Did anyone ever discover who took out the anonymous ad? Now that the 2005 election season is revving up, it seems important to review (no pun intended) the political shenanigans of last year.
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