The Burlingame Voice

High Cost Rail - Part 40 Hey, Taxpayer, wanna buy a bridge?

This is self-explanatory from the Daily Post:

 

Teachers and District Make a Deal

The Mercury Times is reporting on a deal between the SM Union High School District Board and the Teachers Association.

Earlier this month, the district board ratified an agreement that gives no pay raises to teachers and reduces their health care coverage.

The piece goes into much more detail, but the bottom line is the gulf that has existed for sometime has been bridged and president Craig Childress from the union and Dave Pine, the president of the District board, kept things calm in the press.

 

High Cost Rail - Part 39 It's the Same All Over

I would prefer to link to The Economist's site for this letter to the editor, but the site is too finicky for letters prior to the current print edition, so here are some excerpts:

SIR - The multi-billion pound High Speed Two rail line to link London, Birmingham and the north of England is based on a number of assumptions.  The first is that, 20 years from now, businessmen will continue to travel regularly to appointments rather than make their presentations through the means provided by new technology...

A further assumption, that high speed rail is green, is open to question when the carbon costs of construction and very high operating speeds are taken into account.

The scheme's adocates speak of boosting national and regional economic regeneration, but the findings of Terry Gourvish, a rail expert at the London School of Economics, could fairly be described as equivocal.

And the conclusion:

High Speed Two appeals to politicians because it is glitzy and because they enjoy forays to Brussels and Strasbourg on its forerunner, High Speed One.  It is a project, however, which will consume Britain's transport budget for the benefit of a few, rather than the many.  Hard pressed rail and road users deserve better.

Marilyn Fletcher

Great Missenden,

Buckinghamshire

Well Marilyn, I don't think Caltrain or 101 drivers could have said it any better.  A boondoggle is a boondoggle regardless of whether it is in Brussels, Birmingham or Burlingame!

Right Up Our Alley, Bloggers

The S.F. Examiner's little Newsmakers column can be entertaining as it was today.  The Examiner notes that our own

Jerry Hill, the San Mateo Assembly member, announced his third annual "There Oughta Be A Law...or Not" contest.  People who live in the 19th Assembly District can submit ideas for improving life in San Mateo County or the state.  Hill will select a winner and introduce the idea as legislation, giving the victor a chance to testify in Sacramento.

OK, OK, I'll go first.  I suggest a law that says the Assembly must present annually, at the same time as they pass the budget >insert sly grin here< a list of 25 past laws that they are cancelling.

Que Sera, Sera

This little B'game hors d'oeurve has been seen in a couple of places, but Leah Garchik at the SF Comicle happened to catch my eye first with her report:

And Alicia Parnell, proprietor of Burlingame's Que SeRaw SeRaw, was thrilled to hear this on "Jeopardy!" the other night: "A restaurant called Que SeRaw SeRaw makes this with organic buckwheat crust and macadamia cheese."

The response: What is pizza?

Leah failed to mention that is the Correct response, but you knew that already.  The restaurant is directly adjacent to Earthbeam on the cross-street if you are feeling something raw will be good.

High Cost Rail - Part 38 How Secure? Not Very

We've alluded to the idea that High-cost rail in California, if ever built, would be an immediate target for terrorists and that the CHSRA is carefully avoiding this discussion because it complicates their planning.  It appears the head of the TSA is on the same wavelength.  Here is an excerpt from a website that is new to me called Infowars.com that captures the thought:

If past comments made by Mr. Pistole are any indicator, however, the government would like to see naked body scanners and intrusive pat downs expand from airports to train stations and subway platforms.

Soon after taking over the TSA earlier this year, the former FBI deputy director Pistole told USA Today that he will work to expand airport Gestapo zones. “Protecting riders on mass-transit systems from terrorist attacks will be as high a priority as ensuring safe air travel, the new head of the Transportation Security Administration promises,” the newspaper reported on July 17.

“Given the list of threats on subways and rails over the last six years going on seven years, we know that some terrorist groups see rail and subways as being more vulnerable because there’s not the type of screening that you find in aviation,” Pistole said. “From my perspective, that is an equally important threat area.”

While I reject their Gestapo analogy as unnecessary and unhelpful, the basic idea that trains, especially new, expensive trains that are supposed to carry 1,000 people each, would be immune from attack is so naive that it hurts.  Quentin "Q-ball" Kopp, et al, are you listening?  If not, why not?  If so, how much land will that add to the eminient domain proceedings at each station?  How much more cost?

Dough for Streets

The SF Examiner has a piece on the funds arriving with the success of Measure M (ten more bucks to register your car..haven't we been here before?).  From the chart that is shown, B'game is 10th in the County based on "population and road miles".  Also:

The struggling Caltrain and SamTrans expect to get a large portion of the other $3.2 million dedicated for regional transportation.

The B'game share is apparently $125K--what shall we repair?

 

High Cost Rail - Part 37 - Conflict of Interest?

Today's SF Examiner is reporting that High Cost Rail Authority board member Richard Katz is resigning due to his positions on other transportation boards:

Richard Katz has been the focus of a state attorney general's review to determine whether he can legally hold both the state and county positions because of potential conflicts of interest on issues such as rights of way.

This will be an interesting indicator of where Gov.-elect Moonbeam's head is at on HCR.

Spam Control

Dear Bloggers,

You may have noticed lately that we are suffering from some spam attacks.  We've communicated with WordPress who run this TypePad-based blogging platform and they are looking at some improvements to their anti-spam defenses.  But there are no improvements in the immediate future so they are suggesting, and we have decided to implement, "moderated comments" for awhile.

This means that when you add a comment to a post, it will sit in queue until one of the editors approves it as a real comment--not a vague advertisement for sneakers, Viagra, Ugg boots or anything else.  Please be assured that any and all real comments about anything on the blog will be approved and will appear as they have in the past.

We suspect that the spam is coming from hired, human spammers in Asia and this approach may well push them to go spam elsewhere.  We can turn "moderated comments" on and off at will, so there may be times when your comment appears immediately and times when it does not.  It's sort of like cat-and-mouse while Wordpress works on the challenge.

Blog on,

The Editorial Board

Mayoral Change 2010

Mid-November is when B'game changes mayors according to a rotation set out about 10 years ago.  Last night outgoing Mayor Cathy Baylock was thanked by numerous citizens for her year of leadership, mostly on the High Cost Rail issue and years of work on Safeway.

Noting that 2010 had been a year of "community and unity", Baylock stayed focused on major issues like the declining budget, the Downtown plan and the work with the City's bargaining units to freeze labor costs.  Here's hoping the new Mayor can stay focussed as well.  Thanks to local photog extrodinaire Mark Hundley for this shot of the proceedings.