Stop Blaming the Messengers

The Burlingame Daily News on Saturday tells us that the Janney/Rubin coalition - also strangely called "a smart growth" organization - is regrouping over the Safeway Saga to overcome the "strident minority". A "strident minority" who managed successfully to get the real issues out about Safeway ie size, safety, bulk, parking and so on. It is offensive that the "strident minority" is constantly blamed for the Planning Commission (6:1) and City Council's (3:2) decision on the Safeway project. For goodness sake, stop blaming the messengers, stop whining and get over it!

Hundreds of hours, press articles, letters, meetings ad infinitum over the last 6/7 years gave the unstrident and invisible "majority" plenty of time to fight for a huge Safeway. Where were they? Also, surely the Council made their own decisions over and above "the strident minority"?

Very disturbing is that Burlingame was up for sale. As noted in the newspaper it seems that Safeway "informally offered $500,000" to mitigate the parking problems caused by a bigger store. BUT $2 million was the asking price for those precious votes. Shame, shame and more shame.

So will Safeway regurgitate the same old tired plan for their proposed humongous Safeway, will they cough up a $2 million "donation" to the City coffers, will the Burlingame City Council flipflop on their votes and will Safeway then be given the go-ahead to build its mega store? Oh Burlingame politics, don't you just love it!

- Written by Fiona

Comments

[Leslie]

Was anyone surprised to read the remarks of Rosalie O'Mahony? In said article she said "a loud minority of residents who opposed Safeway's project caught the attention of the council."

What is going on with her? Did she not see all the people that showed up for standing room only meetings at city hall? She needs to realize that these remarks make it appear that she does not know what she is talking about and is living in a small bubble.

Now we kinow she voted against the project because of parking - not because of the size of the proposed gigantic store.

Rosealie is either getting bad advice or is losing it completely!

[Pauline]

It is puzzling, isn't it? If you had been at the meeting when they voted it was plain to see how the two "yes" voters were trying to prolong the process, muddy the waters and prolong the vote - perhaps they were waiting for the $2 million to come fluttering down from the Council ceiling!

Another thing ... why does everything in this town come down to parking. It is pitiful and distressing that our town can be bought for $2 million. Peanuts! It wouldn't have even covered a 2-story parking garage!

[rich grogan]

As always Fiona, you are right on point. I am truely concerned about Rosalie's position. To call those individuals, who opposed the proposed Safeway project a loud "strident minority" are the same individuals, who exercised their right to express their feelings and campaigned for her re-election. As with Safeway, we were successful in getting our point across. For Rosalie to bite the hand that helped feed her "just isn't right!"

[carole]

Its obvious that your minority has taken over The Voice. I read this for its comic value.

[Jack]

It's fun isn't it to be informed and amused. It's great

[joe baylock]

Sigh. Once again, some of our gentle readers appear to need to be reminded that 80 percent of the votes in the last election were cast for candidates who said, very clearly, that they would uphold the Planning Commission's denial of the Safeway. Yes, 80%.

And Burlingamers voted at twice the rate of the County average in that election. Anyone sticking to the "strident minority" line is either mathematically-challenged or delusional.

[carole]

gag..Delusional no-just not part of your gang. I think of us as the silent majority. The more you try to force this BS , the more you will hear from us. Next election we will be loud and clear. Lets back Janey and her new group now!

[Fiona]

Carole, would love to hear what Janney's group is about? Do you know? I don't think anyone is going to back her just because she is Janney - if she has some good ideas, lets hear them. What do they mean by "smart growth"? Is it like no to Safeway, yes to Walmart? If they have a website let us know so we can decide whether her group is worth the time of day. Please share their ideas with us so we can be informed - and amused!

[joe baylock]

Double sigh...wonder when this "majority" will show up? After 26 years in office with all the name recognition that tenure implies and spending $36,667 (or $17.49 per vote) one wonders what else it would take to get the non-existent majority to the polls. Seems like a delusion to me :-)

[Cinderella Story]

A while back, a blogger stated that it seemed the "vocal minority had taken over the Voice". It prompted me to look up the origins of the term "silent majority" in William Safire's "Political Dictionary" (Random House, 1978). He attributes the popularization of the term to then President Richard Nixon who basically countered the growing dissent over the Viet Nam war in his November 3 "silent majority" speech: "If a vocal minority," the President warned, "however fervent its cause, prevails over reason and the will of the majority, this Nation has no future as a free society...And so tonight-to you, the great silent majority of fellow Americans-I ask for your support."

And, the rest Folks, so they say, is history.