According to a judge in San Benito County, it’s OK to call someone a dumb-ass on a website, The Fly reports in Metro. Note to readers of my column feeling tempted: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
This month, VTA is testing a hydrogen-powered bus. Check out Routes 33 and 45 to get taken for a spin. Those buses may be the way we get around in the future, while BART may not be. Barry Witt and Gary Richards of the Merc detail the problems posed by new federal standards that make receiving federal funding for the plan unlikely any time soon.
The new early-morning flights from Las Vegas have hit the airport and some people are unhappy about it. Meghan O’Hare of the Willow Glen Resident describes the protests led by Council Member Ken Yeager against the 1:40 a.m. landings by America West. The airport is taking the curfew pretty seriously as well. Tracey Kaplan of the Merc writes about their plan to install cameras to catch planes that violate it.
Speaking of take-offs and landings, Mayor Gonzales is going on a trip to England and Finland in an attempt to help the city’s bid to be the stem cell research center for California, as Aaron Davis describes in the Merc.
So, airport noise is bad, but whistle noise is good? The City Council is getting close to approving a new phone hotline for whistleblowers. Another article by Aaron Davis lays out the process they’ve gone through.
Another project that the Council has had a hand in for an even longer time than the creation of the hotline is the Coyote Valley development. Rodney Foo has the story of the “sneak peek” the council is going to get at the environmental impact report currently being prepared. How will Coyote Valley turn out? I don’t know, but please, no wagering, even after reading this story by Mari Sapina-Kerkhove.
You got rid of Cipolla. Now get rid of Tucker, VTA #2 man, who caused most of VTAs grief along w/ Cipolla and a few others. There are many conflict of interest problems at VTA, hiring and promoting. Its a thiefdom upper management want to keep secret from the public, press, and BOD. Even Supervisor Gage couldn’t break through and see the light when he was chair of VTAs financial stablility committee. Cipolla and others closely around him have mislead the BOD and public through a kind of smoke-and-mirrors charade. Look and what kind of money these people make, would you want to upset the applecart. More later.
Will someone please proof-read the Mayor’s sandwich-board before he takes his embarrass-the-city campaign to Europe. Should his sign promote San Jose as a “Stem-sell Senter” he’ll not only fail to get the research center he covets, but he’ll do something that will finally get him noticed by the baseball world: strike-out on one pitch.
You might want to add to the list the editorial this week in Knight-Ridder’s Palo Alto Daily against bringing BART to San Jose. In the editorial Knight-Ridder Palo Alto also complains about SVMG’s Carl Guardino and his attempts to keep the project moving forward. Looks like Mayor Gonzales needs to make a few phone calls to help Knight-Ridder figure out if BART to San Jose is a good idea or not.
“Federal officials have long worried that the extension will not carry enough riders to justify its $4.2 billion cost, and now they are planning to measure it against a new cost-effectiveness standard it cannot possibly meet.”
Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah – lightrail! Nice to know there’s somebody on the job at the federal level.
Well, lets bring the mayor home no research center for san jose. Maybe now that’s he’s lured the A’s to san jose, he can make another sign, STEM SELL RESEARCH FOR SAN JOSE. What does England and Finland have to do with this? I wonder who paid for this trip?
As blogger # 4 so correctly pointed out, BART to San Joise will not justify its cost. In my view, not in the lifetime of my grandkids.
The major problem with BART is the “R”. It’s not Rapid transit. Nothing that stops at every station will ever be Rapid transit. Regional transit, OK, I’ll buy that.
The huge mistake made with both BART and SJ light rail is that all trains stop at all stations. There is no express line, as there is in NYC, NY subways.
Land acquisition cost was acceptable when BART was first proposed, and should have included acquisition for two lines—local and express, as in NYC, NY, even if building the express lines had to wait a decade or so. It’s WAAAY too late for that now. Elevated lines—one local and one express—will not fly in this area until we get to the science fiction days.
The social engineering of keeping one lane of highway 87 closed to force people to use light rail was an utter failure. So now, for the next two years we’ll endure drivers who freak out when they see the K-bars on 87 from280 to 85, and make the gridlock even worse.
Mass transit works in vertical residential environments, not in horizontal residential environments like Santa Clara Valley. Disagree? So why is VTA sucking budget wind? Huge half empty buses on many routes, when a fifteen passenger van would be more practical/cost effective.
Many folks keep trying to make San Jose something it’s not—a city. This is suburbia, because the vast majority of folks who live here actually prefer suburbia to cesspool cities with downtowns full of derelicts that the politically correct politicians refuse to deal with effectively.
BART to San Jose will end up another taxpayer subsidy that the overburdened taxpayers just don’t need, especially since San Mateo County isn’t in on the BART bandwagon. So, I want to go to The City on BART. Am I really going to jump on BART at The Cahill Station ( not Diridon to me) and ride all the way around the East Bay and then under the bay to get there in two hours or so. I don’t think so!
Let’s just be who we are—horizontally developed suburbanites who need roads without ruts.
John Michael O’Connor
John hits all 12 nails squarely on the head.
Is BART to SJ…
– a symptom of city planner egos run amok?
– an obsession with trying to be a big league city?
– an attempt by pol’s to get more money into the pot so they have more influence?
– the bluer than blue bay area’s obsession with all things mass transit – cost and common sense be damned?
I think it’s all of the above. But it’s also been awhile since my last glass of VTA koolaid.