With the overwhelming load of data that keeps arriving concerning planetary environment, the contrast between knowledge and wisdom becomes clearer.
Mark Bowden: Model climate science problem
By Mark Bowden -
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, November 15, 2007
Two weeks ago, a paper in Science magazine reported the curious fact that, despite mountains of new data and several generations of improvements in computer modeling, we are no better at predicting the outcome of climate change today than we were 20 years ago.
What's more, we are not likely to get better at it, even as we gather more and more data and feed them into faster and faster computers. That's because the system itself is, for all intents and purposes, organic and infinitely complex.
Written by Gerard Roe and Marcia Baker, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, the study showed that, as global temperature rises, we encounter greater and greater levels of uncertainty predicting its consequences. Since greater uncertainty widens the range of possible outcomes, I predict that their findings will fuel arguments on both sides of the global-warming issue, from the dwindling No-Worries camp to the Run-for-Cover crowd.
I like this study for a reason that has nothing to do with climate change. It suggests a broader truth, one that has to do with the difference between knowledge and wisdom. It says that knowing more does not necessarily lead to greater understanding. It may just cause more confusion.
As I understand it, the problem with climate modeling is feedback. If one factor changes in the planet's atmosphere, say, the temperature, it causes many other things to change, and each of those changes triggers still more change. The most widely accepted outcomes for global warming are the melting of the ice caps (which is happening), which leads to higher and higher sea levels, possibly bigger tropical storms, etc. But melting ice caps could also increase water vapor in the atmosphere, forming more cloud cover, blocking more sunlight, and cooling the planet, perhaps enough just to offset the warming, perhaps enough to turn Manhattan into the North Pole -- as in the scary eco-disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow." If there is big climate change coming (and there might not be), then apparently it will vary widely from place to place. The Earth, it seems, doesn't have a global climate, but a mosaic of micro ones. One model, out this summer, has projected that, while North America is in for a thorough roasting in coming decades, there will remain a comfy cooler pocket in the Midwest. Invest in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa real estate? (It should be noted that universities in Missouri and Iowa employ the scientists who discovered this projected "hole" in the warming trend. I'm not saying they're wrong, but, hey, it's worth knowing.) So which is it? Warmer or cooler? Drier or rainier? Should I invest in sunblock or home insulation? Apparently, we should expect no clear answer, and without a clear answer, we should expect lots more political debate. But maybe we already know enough.
One of the unique features of modern times -- perhaps the one thing that makes our daily experience different from that of every human being who came before -- is that we live in a constant storm of information.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tool Adopted
It is a very good thing to have a more accurate method of projecting the effects of natural disasters on communities and their buildings.
State panel gives hospitals a break on seismic safety
Adoption of new tool will delay retrofit deadline for many.
By Gilbert Chan - gchan@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, November 15, 2007
In a move expected to keep the doors open at hundreds of medical buildings in the coming years, a key state panel Wednesday adopted a new high-tech tool aimed at reassessing the seismic safety of California hospitals.
Members of the California Building Standards Commission said the emergency regulations will give the state a better picture of hospital structures most at risk of collapsing during a strong earthquake and allow operators to save billions of dollars in construction costs in the near future.
"What we're doing is paying attention to the ones that really need paying attention to," said Rosario Marin, commission chairwoman and secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency.
Currently, 1,100 hospital buildings fall into the high-risk category and must be retrofitted or shut by a state-imposed 2013 deadline. The rankings were based on a decade-old method.
The new tool "corrects a very significant overstatement of the seismic risks to hospital buildings in California," said Bob Eisenman, public policy director for Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente.
State panel gives hospitals a break on seismic safety
Adoption of new tool will delay retrofit deadline for many.
By Gilbert Chan - gchan@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Thursday, November 15, 2007
In a move expected to keep the doors open at hundreds of medical buildings in the coming years, a key state panel Wednesday adopted a new high-tech tool aimed at reassessing the seismic safety of California hospitals.
Members of the California Building Standards Commission said the emergency regulations will give the state a better picture of hospital structures most at risk of collapsing during a strong earthquake and allow operators to save billions of dollars in construction costs in the near future.
"What we're doing is paying attention to the ones that really need paying attention to," said Rosario Marin, commission chairwoman and secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency.
Currently, 1,100 hospital buildings fall into the high-risk category and must be retrofitted or shut by a state-imposed 2013 deadline. The rankings were based on a decade-old method.
The new tool "corrects a very significant overstatement of the seismic risks to hospital buildings in California," said Bob Eisenman, public policy director for Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente.
Cities Matter
A delightful reflection on the value of cities to our community memory, common heritage, and future sense of ourselves; ideas lending themselves well to our dear city so rich in history, which though of fairly short duration, truly marked the world.
Why Conservatives Should Care About Cities
By Wilfred M. McClay
Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 7:42 AM
It is not only conservatives but Americans in general who have had a hard time reconciling what they think of as characteristically American aspirations with the actual life of modern American cities. It’s a certain disharmony between the way we think and the way we live. Our fierce attachment to ideals of individualism, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and closeness to nature do not always seem, for many Americans, to comport with the conditions of modern urban life. Perhaps that is because America, as historian Richard Hofstadter quipped, is a nation that was born in the country and has moved to the city but has never entirely adapted its mentality. Or, to put it another way, altering a famous saying about the British Empire, we became an urban civilization in a fit of absence of mind, having never fully adjusted our ideas about ourselves to the conditions in which we find ourselves actually living.
This outlook stands in marked contrast to that of many Europeans, who have a more robust urban ideal, taking pride in their great cities as centerpieces of their civilizations and “naturalizing” their urbanism with the pleasant concept of rus in urbe. Not so Americans, who more often than not resist seeing urban life per se as a worthy ideal, instead preferring to see America symbolized by its natural beauty—Grand Canyons and Rocky Mountains, redwood forests and gulfstream waters. Suburban life is embraced as a second-best form of country living, a form of urbs in rure that, at its best, has the conveniences of city life without the disadvantages. Something similar can be said about our passion for “country” music, which is actually a thoroughly urban and commercial music suffused with nostalgia for the lost virtues of country ways.
This American resistance to an urban identity goes back to the very beginnings of American history. Consider these words of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in a letter written in 1800 to his friend Thomas Jefferson: “I consider [cities] in the same light that I do abscesses on the human body, viz., as reservoirs of all the impurities of a community.” Needless to say, the agrarian-minded Jefferson, who famously asserted that “those who labor in the earth” are the “chosen people of God,” was likely to agree completely, even if it meant putting out of mind his own memorable experiences in the sublime precincts of Paris.
Yet there has long been something wrongheaded about this anti-urban disposition, and there is no reason why it has to continue forever. In fact, there is every good reason why American conservatives in particular should be the ones to look most skeptically at it. One should, to begin with, set aside the idea that conservatism is at bottom merely a timeless philosophy of landed elites and fixed social structures. For the idea of conservatism, far from being anti-urban, has always been inextricably bound up in the history and experience of great cities. When Russell Kirk wrote his celebrated book The Roots of American Order , he ingeniously built it around the central cities of the history of the West: Athens, Jerusalem, Rome, and London (and arguably also Philadelphia). Each city was taken to exemplify a foundational stage in the development of American liberty and American order. This was not merely a literary conceit, like a metonym. Such developments could only occur in cities. The civilization that conservatives wish to conserve is rooted in them. It is no accident that the Book of Revelation at the conclusion of the Christian Bible aims at the creation of the New Jerusalem, not the New Tara Plantation or the New Grover’s Corners.
Why Conservatives Should Care About Cities
By Wilfred M. McClay
Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 7:42 AM
It is not only conservatives but Americans in general who have had a hard time reconciling what they think of as characteristically American aspirations with the actual life of modern American cities. It’s a certain disharmony between the way we think and the way we live. Our fierce attachment to ideals of individualism, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and closeness to nature do not always seem, for many Americans, to comport with the conditions of modern urban life. Perhaps that is because America, as historian Richard Hofstadter quipped, is a nation that was born in the country and has moved to the city but has never entirely adapted its mentality. Or, to put it another way, altering a famous saying about the British Empire, we became an urban civilization in a fit of absence of mind, having never fully adjusted our ideas about ourselves to the conditions in which we find ourselves actually living.
This outlook stands in marked contrast to that of many Europeans, who have a more robust urban ideal, taking pride in their great cities as centerpieces of their civilizations and “naturalizing” their urbanism with the pleasant concept of rus in urbe. Not so Americans, who more often than not resist seeing urban life per se as a worthy ideal, instead preferring to see America symbolized by its natural beauty—Grand Canyons and Rocky Mountains, redwood forests and gulfstream waters. Suburban life is embraced as a second-best form of country living, a form of urbs in rure that, at its best, has the conveniences of city life without the disadvantages. Something similar can be said about our passion for “country” music, which is actually a thoroughly urban and commercial music suffused with nostalgia for the lost virtues of country ways.
This American resistance to an urban identity goes back to the very beginnings of American history. Consider these words of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in a letter written in 1800 to his friend Thomas Jefferson: “I consider [cities] in the same light that I do abscesses on the human body, viz., as reservoirs of all the impurities of a community.” Needless to say, the agrarian-minded Jefferson, who famously asserted that “those who labor in the earth” are the “chosen people of God,” was likely to agree completely, even if it meant putting out of mind his own memorable experiences in the sublime precincts of Paris.
Yet there has long been something wrongheaded about this anti-urban disposition, and there is no reason why it has to continue forever. In fact, there is every good reason why American conservatives in particular should be the ones to look most skeptically at it. One should, to begin with, set aside the idea that conservatism is at bottom merely a timeless philosophy of landed elites and fixed social structures. For the idea of conservatism, far from being anti-urban, has always been inextricably bound up in the history and experience of great cities. When Russell Kirk wrote his celebrated book The Roots of American Order , he ingeniously built it around the central cities of the history of the West: Athens, Jerusalem, Rome, and London (and arguably also Philadelphia). Each city was taken to exemplify a foundational stage in the development of American liberty and American order. This was not merely a literary conceit, like a metonym. Such developments could only occur in cities. The civilization that conservatives wish to conserve is rooted in them. It is no accident that the Book of Revelation at the conclusion of the Christian Bible aims at the creation of the New Jerusalem, not the New Tara Plantation or the New Grover’s Corners.
California Leads
A proper role for the largest state in the country and one of the birth places of high technology.
California fighting global warming with technology, greenbacks
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
California is leading the way in the fight against global warming as its investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into green technology companies and its citizens have cut per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases by nearly 10 percent in recent years.
So says a new report that praises the Golden State for making a fast start but warns that much more effort and innovation are needed to truly make a difference in the crisis.
The California Green Innovation Index, due to be released Wednesday by a local public-policy group and an economic consulting firm, shows progress on a number of fronts.
The amount of greenhouse gases emitted per capita in California has dropped 9.8 percent since 1990, although total emissions continue to rise along with the state's population. California has become the nation's biggest hub for green tech companies, which are developing new fuels and smarter ways to use energy. Those companies employ 22,000 Californians and are soaking up more venture capital money than similar businesses in other states, about $884 million in 2006.
Perhaps most important, the report's authors found that California has the right political environment for more progress.
The state's government says it is committed to fighting global warming and has passed laws to cut emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. Many Californians support the effort and have shown willingness to change their habits as a result, according to the report. They are buying energy-efficient appliances and are driving less - a stunning change in a state known for its car-centric culture.
"California is a model," said F. Noel Perry, founder of the Next 10 policy group, which commissioned the report. "The people of California are very forward-looking, and they like to solve problems."
Perry's nonpartisan group, which looks for solutions to statewide problems, worked with some of California's most prominent energy experts from government, academia and private industry to draft the report. Collaborative Economics, a consulting firm that has a long history of tracking Silicon Valley's ups and downs, conducted the research.
California fighting global warming with technology, greenbacks
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
California is leading the way in the fight against global warming as its investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into green technology companies and its citizens have cut per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases by nearly 10 percent in recent years.
So says a new report that praises the Golden State for making a fast start but warns that much more effort and innovation are needed to truly make a difference in the crisis.
The California Green Innovation Index, due to be released Wednesday by a local public-policy group and an economic consulting firm, shows progress on a number of fronts.
The amount of greenhouse gases emitted per capita in California has dropped 9.8 percent since 1990, although total emissions continue to rise along with the state's population. California has become the nation's biggest hub for green tech companies, which are developing new fuels and smarter ways to use energy. Those companies employ 22,000 Californians and are soaking up more venture capital money than similar businesses in other states, about $884 million in 2006.
Perhaps most important, the report's authors found that California has the right political environment for more progress.
The state's government says it is committed to fighting global warming and has passed laws to cut emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. Many Californians support the effort and have shown willingness to change their habits as a result, according to the report. They are buying energy-efficient appliances and are driving less - a stunning change in a state known for its car-centric culture.
"California is a model," said F. Noel Perry, founder of the Next 10 policy group, which commissioned the report. "The people of California are very forward-looking, and they like to solve problems."
Perry's nonpartisan group, which looks for solutions to statewide problems, worked with some of California's most prominent energy experts from government, academia and private industry to draft the report. Collaborative Economics, a consulting firm that has a long history of tracking Silicon Valley's ups and downs, conducted the research.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Parkway Tax
Though we don’t support a tax of Parkway adjacent property owners—as it is unfair to those who, though adjacent, don’t use the Parkway, and doesn’t include those farther out who might; and that the County would then reduce its general fund support for the Parkway—we do support the formation of the Joint Powers Authority.
If the property owners choose to tax themselves, perhaps the Joint Powers Authority formed to manage the funds, will see the wisdom of moving to a formula of management of the Parkway by a nonprofit organization with a set funding amount coming from the local government entities whose residents use the Parkway and the rest raised through philanthropy, as is being done by other successfully managed parks.
Residents back American River Parkway levy
A poll finds that people living near the 23-mile stretch favor annual assessments that would add up to $6 million in support.
By Ed Fletcher - efletcher@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Residents living near the American River Parkway are ready to open up their wallets to burnish the region's recreational "crown jewel," according to a survey conducted on behalf of the local governments along the parkway.
Depending on the funding levels, support ranged from 50.3 percent to 60.7 percent overall. If ultimately approved by property owners, the annual assessments would add between $2 million and $6 million toward parkway funding, allowing parks staff to tackle overdue maintenance and repairs, improve safety and further protect the environment.
The mostly untamed 23-mile parkway is a riparian oasis running from the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers at Discovery Park near Interstate 5 to Nimbus Dam near Highway 50. The survey also included the trail that extends to Folsom Lake that is under state jurisdiction.
Thousands of area residents visit the parkway to walk, bike, swim, boat, fish or just enjoy the outdoors.
Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters said leaders and the public have a long way to go before ballots are printed. The exact assessment amount and ballot date are undecided.
"You had to make sure everybody wanted to do it first and that is what the poll was about," Peters said.
Once leaders from the cities of Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Sacramento County coalesce around a plan, each of the bodies will discuss it in public forums, Peters said. Property owners would eventually vote via weighted mail ballots, similar to the recent vote on increased flood protection.
A joint powers authority would be created among the jurisdictions involved to distribute the funds, said John O'Farrell, a consultant for local governments.
If the property owners choose to tax themselves, perhaps the Joint Powers Authority formed to manage the funds, will see the wisdom of moving to a formula of management of the Parkway by a nonprofit organization with a set funding amount coming from the local government entities whose residents use the Parkway and the rest raised through philanthropy, as is being done by other successfully managed parks.
Residents back American River Parkway levy
A poll finds that people living near the 23-mile stretch favor annual assessments that would add up to $6 million in support.
By Ed Fletcher - efletcher@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Residents living near the American River Parkway are ready to open up their wallets to burnish the region's recreational "crown jewel," according to a survey conducted on behalf of the local governments along the parkway.
Depending on the funding levels, support ranged from 50.3 percent to 60.7 percent overall. If ultimately approved by property owners, the annual assessments would add between $2 million and $6 million toward parkway funding, allowing parks staff to tackle overdue maintenance and repairs, improve safety and further protect the environment.
The mostly untamed 23-mile parkway is a riparian oasis running from the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers at Discovery Park near Interstate 5 to Nimbus Dam near Highway 50. The survey also included the trail that extends to Folsom Lake that is under state jurisdiction.
Thousands of area residents visit the parkway to walk, bike, swim, boat, fish or just enjoy the outdoors.
Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters said leaders and the public have a long way to go before ballots are printed. The exact assessment amount and ballot date are undecided.
"You had to make sure everybody wanted to do it first and that is what the poll was about," Peters said.
Once leaders from the cities of Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento and Sacramento County coalesce around a plan, each of the bodies will discuss it in public forums, Peters said. Property owners would eventually vote via weighted mail ballots, similar to the recent vote on increased flood protection.
A joint powers authority would be created among the jurisdictions involved to distribute the funds, said John O'Farrell, a consultant for local governments.
Green Star
This is very good news, a lot of star power for a good cause, green technology.
Gore joins Silicon Valley's Kleiner Perkins to push green business
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
(11-13) 04:00 PST Washington -- The crowd of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs making big bets on a global revolution in green technology added one more big name Monday: Al Gore.
The former Democratic vice president and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner announced he is joining the prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner in the firm's effort to finance global warming solutions.
Gore, who lives part time in a high-rise condo he and his wife, Tipper, bought in downtown San Francisco, said there's a reason the green tech movement is sprouting in the Bay Area.
"I think the expertise that became concentrated here with the development of computing, chip technology, Internet technology and biotech ventures ... those skills turn out to be very applicable to the analysis and the development of early stage ventures in green tech and clean tech," Gore said Monday in an interview with The Chronicle.
California's passage of the nation's first economy-wide limits on greenhouse gases also will make the state a testing ground to see which technologies - biofuels, hybrids, solar power plants, green building techniques - will prove most viable and cost effective, Gore said.
"We are calling out to all the innovators and technologists and inventors to send us the best ideas they have," he said.
Gore isn't the only one making the bet. Kleiner Perkins, best known for early investments that spawned Internet and biotech giants such as Google and Genentech, plans next year to spend one-third of its $600 million investment fund on green technology startups. Gore's role will be to advise the firm on which companies and technologies look most promising.
John Denniston, a Kleiner Perkins partner who has helped lead the firm's green tech effort, said Silicon Valley's push for clean technology is fueled by a mix of engineering talent, financial capital and a strong environmental ethic among Bay Area investors and entrepreneurs.
"The vice president's message on the climate change crisis and the need to develop solutions to that crisis quickly has resonated particularly well in Silicon Valley," Denniston said.
Gore joins Silicon Valley's Kleiner Perkins to push green business
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
(11-13) 04:00 PST Washington -- The crowd of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs making big bets on a global revolution in green technology added one more big name Monday: Al Gore.
The former Democratic vice president and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner announced he is joining the prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner in the firm's effort to finance global warming solutions.
Gore, who lives part time in a high-rise condo he and his wife, Tipper, bought in downtown San Francisco, said there's a reason the green tech movement is sprouting in the Bay Area.
"I think the expertise that became concentrated here with the development of computing, chip technology, Internet technology and biotech ventures ... those skills turn out to be very applicable to the analysis and the development of early stage ventures in green tech and clean tech," Gore said Monday in an interview with The Chronicle.
California's passage of the nation's first economy-wide limits on greenhouse gases also will make the state a testing ground to see which technologies - biofuels, hybrids, solar power plants, green building techniques - will prove most viable and cost effective, Gore said.
"We are calling out to all the innovators and technologists and inventors to send us the best ideas they have," he said.
Gore isn't the only one making the bet. Kleiner Perkins, best known for early investments that spawned Internet and biotech giants such as Google and Genentech, plans next year to spend one-third of its $600 million investment fund on green technology startups. Gore's role will be to advise the firm on which companies and technologies look most promising.
John Denniston, a Kleiner Perkins partner who has helped lead the firm's green tech effort, said Silicon Valley's push for clean technology is fueled by a mix of engineering talent, financial capital and a strong environmental ethic among Bay Area investors and entrepreneurs.
"The vice president's message on the climate change crisis and the need to develop solutions to that crisis quickly has resonated particularly well in Silicon Valley," Denniston said.
Technology Saves Dollars
This seems like a tremendous advantage and one hopes the framework of figuring all the elements in determining the level of government regulation required to be met, spreads into other areas.
One size does not fit all.
Hospitals may save billions in seismic retrofits
By Gilbert Chan - gchan@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007
State building regulators will decide today whether to use a new high-tech tool to assess the seismic safety of hospitals, a proposal that would delay or erase billions of dollars in retrofits and reconstruction.
The staff making this and other emergency proposals expect approval from the California Building Standards Commission since no organized opposition has surfaced. In the past, labor groups have criticized hospitals for delaying the building improvements.
For years, hospitals have lobbied the state for relief, arguing nearly half of the operators are struggling to stay in business and can't afford to be saddled with costly upgrades at this time. Some predicted that facilities would shut down because it would be too costly to retrofit them in time.
"It is important that we keep (hospital) access available," Daniel Gross, board chairman of the California Hospital Association, said during a conference call Tuesday. "The economic challenges will not go away based on the (new) criteria.
Hospitals will have to continue to look at how they will finance future seismic construction."
If building commissioners adopt a customized software assessment model developed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, hundreds of California hospitals, grappling with the escalating costs and a deadline of 2013, would get a reprieve until 2030.
The delay, however, is not the biggest reason for cheer among hospital companies. The new software model is likely to cut by half or more the number of buildings classified as being at high risk of a collapse during a major earthquake.
"There has been a lot of expertise poured into this effort," said Evan Reis, a structural engineer and president of Certus Consulting Inc. in Oakland. "They have made a very careful effort not to treat (it) as a black box."
About 1,100 hospital buildings rank in the high-risk category using current seismic standards, and the final price tag for their retrofit was expected to surge to $110 billion.
Using the new software model, the number of high-risk buildings is estimated to drop to 550 to 660. No one has yet projected how this will affect long-term costs. The lengthier timetable alone, though, is expected to give hospitals $4.6 billion in savings.
Unlike the current method, which primarily looks at the structure of a building, the new process also would consider factors such as soil conditions, proximity to earthquake faults and an area's history of seismic activity.
One size does not fit all.
Hospitals may save billions in seismic retrofits
By Gilbert Chan - gchan@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, November 14, 2007
State building regulators will decide today whether to use a new high-tech tool to assess the seismic safety of hospitals, a proposal that would delay or erase billions of dollars in retrofits and reconstruction.
The staff making this and other emergency proposals expect approval from the California Building Standards Commission since no organized opposition has surfaced. In the past, labor groups have criticized hospitals for delaying the building improvements.
For years, hospitals have lobbied the state for relief, arguing nearly half of the operators are struggling to stay in business and can't afford to be saddled with costly upgrades at this time. Some predicted that facilities would shut down because it would be too costly to retrofit them in time.
"It is important that we keep (hospital) access available," Daniel Gross, board chairman of the California Hospital Association, said during a conference call Tuesday. "The economic challenges will not go away based on the (new) criteria.
Hospitals will have to continue to look at how they will finance future seismic construction."
If building commissioners adopt a customized software assessment model developed for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, hundreds of California hospitals, grappling with the escalating costs and a deadline of 2013, would get a reprieve until 2030.
The delay, however, is not the biggest reason for cheer among hospital companies. The new software model is likely to cut by half or more the number of buildings classified as being at high risk of a collapse during a major earthquake.
"There has been a lot of expertise poured into this effort," said Evan Reis, a structural engineer and president of Certus Consulting Inc. in Oakland. "They have made a very careful effort not to treat (it) as a black box."
About 1,100 hospital buildings rank in the high-risk category using current seismic standards, and the final price tag for their retrofit was expected to surge to $110 billion.
Using the new software model, the number of high-risk buildings is estimated to drop to 550 to 660. No one has yet projected how this will affect long-term costs. The lengthier timetable alone, though, is expected to give hospitals $4.6 billion in savings.
Unlike the current method, which primarily looks at the structure of a building, the new process also would consider factors such as soil conditions, proximity to earthquake faults and an area's history of seismic activity.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Bay Clean Up
It will take awhile and as of yet, there is still no cause found for why the ship collided with the bridge causing the 58,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Bay.
Ship's crew ordered to appear before grand jury investigating bay oil spill
Kevin Fagan, Demian Bulwa,Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
(11-12) 18:02 PST San Francisco - -- The cleanup of the San Francisco Bay oil spill settled Monday into what is expected to be a weeks-long slog of mopping off rocks, beaches and birds, as authorities subpoenaed the crew of the ship that spewed the fuel, gleaned new details from its pilot and began to examine what might be wrong with the area's disaster response plans.
Investigators are focusing on the crew of the Cosco Busan - the container ship that rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower Wednesday morning and dumped 58,000 gallons of heavy fuel into the bay - as well as how the Coast Guard and the company conducting the cleanup have responded to the disaster.
On Monday night, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said ship pilot Capt. John Cota told them that as the Cosco Busan left Oakland's port for its fateful trip Wednesday, he was "concerned" that his radar was having trouble getting a fix on objects and that there seemed to be inconsistencies in his ship charts. The fog had reduced visibility to a quarter of a mile, he told them.
"At some point while making his turn (in the bay), he told investigators that the images on the (ship's) bridge radar had become distorted," said NTSB member Debbie Hersman. She said the agency's investigators have not yet examined the equipment to check out the pilot's account.
"We haven't determined any causes for this accident," she said.
The U.S. attorney's office is investigating whether any criminal laws were broken in the spill, either by the crew or anyone else, and it issued subpoenas to members of the ship's crew, ordering them to appear before a federal grand jury. Dumping toxic oil into U.S. waters is a civil violation and a potential criminal violation.
"The fact of the matter is this event should have never occurred," said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard. "This is a prevention issue as much as anything else."
Allen told The Chronicle on Monday in a meeting with its editorial board that he believes now that his agency's response was appropriate for the size of the spill, but he said a full assessment remains to done.
Ship's crew ordered to appear before grand jury investigating bay oil spill
Kevin Fagan, Demian Bulwa,Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
(11-12) 18:02 PST San Francisco - -- The cleanup of the San Francisco Bay oil spill settled Monday into what is expected to be a weeks-long slog of mopping off rocks, beaches and birds, as authorities subpoenaed the crew of the ship that spewed the fuel, gleaned new details from its pilot and began to examine what might be wrong with the area's disaster response plans.
Investigators are focusing on the crew of the Cosco Busan - the container ship that rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower Wednesday morning and dumped 58,000 gallons of heavy fuel into the bay - as well as how the Coast Guard and the company conducting the cleanup have responded to the disaster.
On Monday night, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said ship pilot Capt. John Cota told them that as the Cosco Busan left Oakland's port for its fateful trip Wednesday, he was "concerned" that his radar was having trouble getting a fix on objects and that there seemed to be inconsistencies in his ship charts. The fog had reduced visibility to a quarter of a mile, he told them.
"At some point while making his turn (in the bay), he told investigators that the images on the (ship's) bridge radar had become distorted," said NTSB member Debbie Hersman. She said the agency's investigators have not yet examined the equipment to check out the pilot's account.
"We haven't determined any causes for this accident," she said.
The U.S. attorney's office is investigating whether any criminal laws were broken in the spill, either by the crew or anyone else, and it issued subpoenas to members of the ship's crew, ordering them to appear before a federal grand jury. Dumping toxic oil into U.S. waters is a civil violation and a potential criminal violation.
"The fact of the matter is this event should have never occurred," said Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the Coast Guard. "This is a prevention issue as much as anything else."
Allen told The Chronicle on Monday in a meeting with its editorial board that he believes now that his agency's response was appropriate for the size of the spill, but he said a full assessment remains to done.
Volunteer Clean Up
Though the state’s reluctance to allow volunteer help to get involved in the Bay oil spill clean up without training seems strange from the outside, the question of liability if any untrained volunteers are somehow hurt is probably part of the cause.
Daniel Weintraub: Government leaves helpers high, dry after oil spill
By Daniel Weintraub -
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The San Francisco Bay Area has long been a hotbed of civil disobedience. So it was only appropriate that, even as government authorities tried their best to keep volunteers from helping with the cleanup from last week's big fuel spill, a man from Marin led a group of monks-in-training on a covert mission to save a beach.
Sigward Moser was the ringleader, according to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle. He and about 30 others, including 20 aspiring monks from the Mill Valley Zen Center, ventured onto Muir Beach on Saturday afternoon. They scraped up 500 bags of oil-laden sand before The Man – in this case a National Park ranger – put Moser in handcuffs and led him away.
He was cited for entering a restricted area and failing to obey an official order, and then released. No word on the whether the monks were also detained.
Funny? Sure. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. But the story also illustrates a serious problem with the government's response to last week's spill of 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel after a ship slammed into a concrete support under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Daniel Weintraub: Government leaves helpers high, dry after oil spill
By Daniel Weintraub -
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The San Francisco Bay Area has long been a hotbed of civil disobedience. So it was only appropriate that, even as government authorities tried their best to keep volunteers from helping with the cleanup from last week's big fuel spill, a man from Marin led a group of monks-in-training on a covert mission to save a beach.
Sigward Moser was the ringleader, according to an account in the San Francisco Chronicle. He and about 30 others, including 20 aspiring monks from the Mill Valley Zen Center, ventured onto Muir Beach on Saturday afternoon. They scraped up 500 bags of oil-laden sand before The Man – in this case a National Park ranger – put Moser in handcuffs and led him away.
He was cited for entering a restricted area and failing to obey an official order, and then released. No word on the whether the monks were also detained.
Funny? Sure. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. But the story also illustrates a serious problem with the government's response to last week's spill of 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel after a ship slammed into a concrete support under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Railyards Vision
It is truly a magnificent plan and one hopes the proper time will be spent evaluating it, balanced against the obvious need of the developer to move quickly.
It is also important to remember that Sacramento is a suburban region and whatever pedestrians do arrive at the finished railyards to make it a destination point, a large part of them will travel by car, so accommodations need to be made.
Vision put to a vote
Railyard plan designs vibrant downtown area
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 13, 2007
After years of dreaming, the downtown railyard development faces its first key vote tonight when the Planning Commission decides whether to recommend approval of the project – perhaps the most significant civic rebuilding effort in the city's history.
Commissioners spent the past few days wading through reams of documents, released by the city last week, containing the ingredients for the 240-acre railyard project. They spell out details large and small, from how much room store displays should occupy on the sidewalks to how tall the high-rise buildings can thrust into the sky.
It's the commissioners' responsibility to decide whether the ingredients sprinkled throughout this pile of paper will combine to produce the winning recipe for five vibrant new neighborhoods that would double the size of Sacramento's downtown.
If the city gets it right, Sacramento could reinvent its urban core into a place pulsing with life with thousands of new residents and visitors to the railyard's museums, stores, restaurants and cultural attractions.
If the city gets it wrong, the development could feel fake and soulless, fail to attract residents and visitors, and be dominated by cars rather than pedestrians.
It is also important to remember that Sacramento is a suburban region and whatever pedestrians do arrive at the finished railyards to make it a destination point, a large part of them will travel by car, so accommodations need to be made.
Vision put to a vote
Railyard plan designs vibrant downtown area
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 13, 2007
After years of dreaming, the downtown railyard development faces its first key vote tonight when the Planning Commission decides whether to recommend approval of the project – perhaps the most significant civic rebuilding effort in the city's history.
Commissioners spent the past few days wading through reams of documents, released by the city last week, containing the ingredients for the 240-acre railyard project. They spell out details large and small, from how much room store displays should occupy on the sidewalks to how tall the high-rise buildings can thrust into the sky.
It's the commissioners' responsibility to decide whether the ingredients sprinkled throughout this pile of paper will combine to produce the winning recipe for five vibrant new neighborhoods that would double the size of Sacramento's downtown.
If the city gets it right, Sacramento could reinvent its urban core into a place pulsing with life with thousands of new residents and visitors to the railyard's museums, stores, restaurants and cultural attractions.
If the city gets it wrong, the development could feel fake and soulless, fail to attract residents and visitors, and be dominated by cars rather than pedestrians.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Homelessness Progress
Progress is important and to see that local homeless providers are feeding less people than last year is a good indicator, but what remains is the public’s expectation that they can venture out into their neighborhood shopping areas, parks, open space or their part of the American River Parkway and feel safe.
Feeling safe is partly dependent upon a contract between the public and public safety departments that public space is reserved for legitimate use by residents of the community, and illegitimate use (camping/sleeping in public, aggressive panhandling, using public space as a bathroom) results in sanctions, preventative sanctions.
Editorial: Progress, slow progress
Here and nationally, homelessness wanes
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
Almost overnight, a vast homeless camp sprang up recently on vacant land north of downtown. In the gentrifying neighborhoods of the center city, an endless stream of homeless people can be seen huddled in doorways or trundling by pushing grocery carts.
To the weary public, homelessness looks intractable. It is not. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced "a 12 percent decline in the number of persons experiencing chronic homelessness in the nation." Based on homeless counts that took place in 3,900 cities across the country, the number of chronic homeless fell from 175,914 in 2005 to 155,623 in in 2006.
Loaves and Fishes, the private charity that feeds homeless people in Sacramento, reports the number of diners at its facility, half of whom are chronically homeless, has been trending down for years, from 907 a day in the mid-90s to about 460 a day now.
Feeling safe is partly dependent upon a contract between the public and public safety departments that public space is reserved for legitimate use by residents of the community, and illegitimate use (camping/sleeping in public, aggressive panhandling, using public space as a bathroom) results in sanctions, preventative sanctions.
Editorial: Progress, slow progress
Here and nationally, homelessness wanes
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
Almost overnight, a vast homeless camp sprang up recently on vacant land north of downtown. In the gentrifying neighborhoods of the center city, an endless stream of homeless people can be seen huddled in doorways or trundling by pushing grocery carts.
To the weary public, homelessness looks intractable. It is not. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced "a 12 percent decline in the number of persons experiencing chronic homelessness in the nation." Based on homeless counts that took place in 3,900 cities across the country, the number of chronic homeless fell from 175,914 in 2005 to 155,623 in in 2006.
Loaves and Fishes, the private charity that feeds homeless people in Sacramento, reports the number of diners at its facility, half of whom are chronically homeless, has been trending down for years, from 907 a day in the mid-90s to about 460 a day now.
Land & the Public Purse, Part 1
The public purse is always under attack from some cleverly designed tactic, and this is no exception.
Dan Walters: Appraisals could be minefield
By Dan Walters - dwalters@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
A major factor in the collapse of the residential real estate market in California and elsewhere has been the willingness of lenders to accept very questionable, even bogus, property appraisals to justify subprime mortgage loans.
Anecdotally, appraisers have described the pressure brought to bear on them by sellers, buyers and hyperactive loan officers to inflate property values; implicitly, appraisers who didn't play the game simply didn't get hired.
Ironically, the Legislature's budget analyst has found that the state has played a similar game in its purchases of property, especially large tracts that are being acquired for environmental protection purposes.
This column described what it called "the land game" earlier this year. Someone – an individual or a corporation – owns some land that, as a practical matter, cannot be developed but has some theoretical environmental value. The landowner wants to peddle the otherwise low-value property to the government and, directly or indirectly, enlists environmental groups as allies – sometimes by issuing paper development plans.
The enviros put the heat on politicians to acquire the supposedly "threatened" property, an appraiser sets a value that reflects the bogus development potential and the taxpayers overpay the landowner for the parcel. The property owner pockets the money, the environmental groups celebrate their victory, and the politicians pat themselves on their backs for doing something positive.
The column cited three big examples of the syndrome in recent years:
• The 405,000 acres of California desert that the Catellus Corp. traded and sold to the federal government as an environmental preserve.
• The state's acquisition of 16,000-plus acres of salt flats in San Francisco Bay from Cargill Corp.
• The state-federal purchase of old-growth redwoods on the North Coast, dubbed Headwaters Forest, from Pacific Lumber Co.
Dan Walters: Appraisals could be minefield
By Dan Walters - dwalters@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
A major factor in the collapse of the residential real estate market in California and elsewhere has been the willingness of lenders to accept very questionable, even bogus, property appraisals to justify subprime mortgage loans.
Anecdotally, appraisers have described the pressure brought to bear on them by sellers, buyers and hyperactive loan officers to inflate property values; implicitly, appraisers who didn't play the game simply didn't get hired.
Ironically, the Legislature's budget analyst has found that the state has played a similar game in its purchases of property, especially large tracts that are being acquired for environmental protection purposes.
This column described what it called "the land game" earlier this year. Someone – an individual or a corporation – owns some land that, as a practical matter, cannot be developed but has some theoretical environmental value. The landowner wants to peddle the otherwise low-value property to the government and, directly or indirectly, enlists environmental groups as allies – sometimes by issuing paper development plans.
The enviros put the heat on politicians to acquire the supposedly "threatened" property, an appraiser sets a value that reflects the bogus development potential and the taxpayers overpay the landowner for the parcel. The property owner pockets the money, the environmental groups celebrate their victory, and the politicians pat themselves on their backs for doing something positive.
The column cited three big examples of the syndrome in recent years:
• The 405,000 acres of California desert that the Catellus Corp. traded and sold to the federal government as an environmental preserve.
• The state's acquisition of 16,000-plus acres of salt flats in San Francisco Bay from Cargill Corp.
• The state-federal purchase of old-growth redwoods on the North Coast, dubbed Headwaters Forest, from Pacific Lumber Co.
Land & the Public Purse, Part 2
Is this a case in point?
Quiet island in dispute
Use of state flood grants to buy land scrutinized
By Judy Lin - jlin@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
STATEN ISLAND – This time of year, when the sun falls earlier by the day and the corn has been harvested, is the best time to see the sandhill cranes.
The sky above a stretch of flooded farmland on this island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta becomes speckled with white and pale gray birds.
The creatures – distinguished by long legs and longer necks – come to roost on this wetland each winter. Some have been spotted for at least 18 years.
Conservationists tout the 9,200-acre island, located south of Walnut Grove in San Joaquin County, as a successful marriage between wildlife and agriculture. They applaud the state Department of Water Resources for its willingness to invest in wildlife preservation.
But a recent state audit has raised questions about the department's decision to hand $17.6 million in flood protection bond money to a non-governmental organization that emphasizes habitat protection over flood control.
State Auditor Elaine Howle stressed the need for better monitoring as the department gets ready to dole out $330 million in additional flood protection bonds.
Quiet island in dispute
Use of state flood grants to buy land scrutinized
By Judy Lin - jlin@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, November 12, 2007
STATEN ISLAND – This time of year, when the sun falls earlier by the day and the corn has been harvested, is the best time to see the sandhill cranes.
The sky above a stretch of flooded farmland on this island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta becomes speckled with white and pale gray birds.
The creatures – distinguished by long legs and longer necks – come to roost on this wetland each winter. Some have been spotted for at least 18 years.
Conservationists tout the 9,200-acre island, located south of Walnut Grove in San Joaquin County, as a successful marriage between wildlife and agriculture. They applaud the state Department of Water Resources for its willingness to invest in wildlife preservation.
But a recent state audit has raised questions about the department's decision to hand $17.6 million in flood protection bond money to a non-governmental organization that emphasizes habitat protection over flood control.
State Auditor Elaine Howle stressed the need for better monitoring as the department gets ready to dole out $330 million in additional flood protection bonds.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Bay Area Oil Spill & the Salmon
This looks like a disaster that may take years to recover from and will impact the salmon coming up for the fall run in the Sacramento, Feather and American Rivers.
Bay cleanup efforts expanding
LINGERING CONSEQUENCES: Spill will have far-ranging effects on plants and animals in and around bay for years, scientists fear
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A major oil spill is making San Francisco Bay look like a dirty bathtub, and the ring of black that soils the shoreline is likely to pose dire consequences for birds, mice, ducks, fish and the smallest of aquatic creatures for years to come, scientists say.
Hidden under rocks or lying deep in the sediment and soil in wetlands and the bottom of the bay, the residue from 58,000 gallons of ship oil could remain for years, daubing creatures with a fatal blob or contaminating the food chain.
"It's pretty awful," said John McCosker, a senior scientist at the California Academy of Sciences.
While the long-term impact of Wednesday's spill from the Cosco Busan container ship is yet to be known, one scientist assessing it said the accident is similar to the last big oil spill in the bay.
In 1996, the cargo ship Cape Mohican dumped 40,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the bay off San Francisco's southeastern waterfront, fouling the shore from Candlestick Point to the Golden Gate. The oil hit Angel and Alcatraz islands, went as far north as the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and traveled west out of the Golden Gate a mile or two past the coastline.
"It was a lot like this spill," said Dan Welsh, division chief for environmental contaminants for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who also worked on an assessment team in 1996. Both incidents involved a similar fuel type and amount, and coated mudflats and beaches.
"The Cape Mohican spill had some serious impacts to birds and to the habitats that were oiled," Welsh said. "But there was also a good cleanup, particularly at Angel Island, and things did recover."
Scientists disagree about the lasting damage from the Cape Mohican spill. But now officials are thinking more about cleanup than recovery as oil still spreads from the new spill.
Some of the bunker fuel oil immediately headed out to the open ocean, where it threatens seabirds, diving ducks and marine mammals.
Oil that is now sloshing around the heart of the bay puts at risk the last of the fall run of Central Valley chinook salmon traveling toward the Sacramento and Feather rivers. Herring, awaiting the winter rains offshore, will enter the bay to spawn in December.
Bay cleanup efforts expanding
LINGERING CONSEQUENCES: Spill will have far-ranging effects on plants and animals in and around bay for years, scientists fear
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A major oil spill is making San Francisco Bay look like a dirty bathtub, and the ring of black that soils the shoreline is likely to pose dire consequences for birds, mice, ducks, fish and the smallest of aquatic creatures for years to come, scientists say.
Hidden under rocks or lying deep in the sediment and soil in wetlands and the bottom of the bay, the residue from 58,000 gallons of ship oil could remain for years, daubing creatures with a fatal blob or contaminating the food chain.
"It's pretty awful," said John McCosker, a senior scientist at the California Academy of Sciences.
While the long-term impact of Wednesday's spill from the Cosco Busan container ship is yet to be known, one scientist assessing it said the accident is similar to the last big oil spill in the bay.
In 1996, the cargo ship Cape Mohican dumped 40,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the bay off San Francisco's southeastern waterfront, fouling the shore from Candlestick Point to the Golden Gate. The oil hit Angel and Alcatraz islands, went as far north as the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and traveled west out of the Golden Gate a mile or two past the coastline.
"It was a lot like this spill," said Dan Welsh, division chief for environmental contaminants for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who also worked on an assessment team in 1996. Both incidents involved a similar fuel type and amount, and coated mudflats and beaches.
"The Cape Mohican spill had some serious impacts to birds and to the habitats that were oiled," Welsh said. "But there was also a good cleanup, particularly at Angel Island, and things did recover."
Scientists disagree about the lasting damage from the Cape Mohican spill. But now officials are thinking more about cleanup than recovery as oil still spreads from the new spill.
Some of the bunker fuel oil immediately headed out to the open ocean, where it threatens seabirds, diving ducks and marine mammals.
Oil that is now sloshing around the heart of the bay puts at risk the last of the fall run of Central Valley chinook salmon traveling toward the Sacramento and Feather rivers. Herring, awaiting the winter rains offshore, will enter the bay to spawn in December.
Homeless Camping, Tent Cities?
Our organization was an early supporter of the Housing First approach to dealing with the chronic homeless as the best method to address the long-term and large-scale illegal camping in the American River Parkway that had deprived the residents of the adjacent communities from safely using their part of the Parkway.
This approach, now adopted by the city and county, calls for placing the chronic homeless in housing before delivering services to them that can help them climb out of their homeless state.
Congruent with the solid reasoning of the Maslow hierarchy of needs, that until you have a sense of safety and security (housing and food), the chronic homeless (those who have been homeless for years) can’t really deal with the larger issues of work, education, and building a future.
This is a good approach, but it seems to be lately overshadowed by the legal one of fighting the very ability of local communities to regulate sleeping/camping in public by the homeless, which strategy has had some success in Los Angeles and is now being implemented here.
The outcome of this is an acceptance by community leadership of camping in public, and establishing tent cities in a certain area; which will virtually destroy the ability of those who are doing business or living in or near that area, from pursuing their futures without having to deal with the results of tent cities, so well outlined in the recent article in City Journal we summarized in our blog post of October 30th at http://parkwayblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/homelessness-in-la.html
Stuart Leavenworth: Rousting the homeless embarrasses our community
By Stuart Leavenworth - sleavenworth@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 11, 2007
Two weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle past Sacramento's field of dreams – the downtown railyard – when suddenly I came upon Sacramento's field of broken dreams.
Just north of the railyard, dozens of homeless people had established a makeshift tent city on a vacant lot on North B Street.
The encampment looked reasonably clean, considering that its occupants had apparently been living there for a week or more. Several of the tents were shiny and new, as if someone had bought them straight off the shelf at REI.
Yet no one would mistake this camp for Bohemian Grove. The lot was dusty and forlorn, and the faces in the crowd revealed a gnarled, leathery look that comes with years of living on the street. As I rode by, some the squatters were gathered around a sedan whose well-coifed driver was either a preacher or a dope dealer. I didn't stick around to find out.
As I expected, the North B Street encampment didn't last long. Last week, the police rousted the squatters, as they were obligated to do, following complaints from nearby property owners…
For more than a decade, efforts to help the homeless, in Sacramento and elsewhere, have run up against this wall. Writing in The Bee in 1995, a midtown resident declared that "a considerable segment of the transient population got that way as a result of deliberate lifestyle choices ... Many have destroyed the usual safety net of family, friends, employer and church through substance abuse, criminal involvement and irresponsibility."…
On paper, both the city and county have endorsed a 10-year plan to end homelessness by 2016. (Read it at www.communitycouncil.org/homelessplan). Tim Brown, former director of Loaves and Fishes, says some 500 units of housing are now in the works – along with services – to "break the cycle of homelessness."
Despite its merits, the 10-year plan skirts a key question: How will authorities deal with the 1,000-plus people, right now, who are sleeping on the streets?...
Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Los Angeles was practicing cruel and unusual punishment by arresting the homeless on public property without providing adequate shelter. The basic legal argument: You can't criminalize people for sleeping on the street if they have nowhere to go.
In August, a coalition of local homeless individuals and advocates filed a similar federal lawsuit against Sacramento city and county, claiming that authorities were violating the constitutional rights of the homeless by rousting them without adequate options for shelter.
Since that lawsuit was filed, the city and county have changed some of their practices. Instead of citing and arresting the campers at the North B Street lot, authorities first gave them warnings. Later they handed out 70 motel vouchers so the homeless would have a place to stay until the county opened its winter shelter at Cal Expo. It did so on Friday, one week early.
Yet once the Cal Expo shelter closes at the end of winter, its occupants will go back on the street. The shell game will continue.
City and county leaders need to settle this lawsuit. They have several options. They could agree to stop arresting the homeless for sleeping in certain public spaces at night, as Los Angeles and San Diego have done. Better yet, they could establish year-round shelters as they work to expand permanent housing.
They could also consider something more radical: Establishment of a semi-permanent tent camp, with rules and sanitation facilities, similar to the one that has survived in Portland, Ore., known as Dignity Village. (Go to www.dignityvillage.org for more information).
This approach, now adopted by the city and county, calls for placing the chronic homeless in housing before delivering services to them that can help them climb out of their homeless state.
Congruent with the solid reasoning of the Maslow hierarchy of needs, that until you have a sense of safety and security (housing and food), the chronic homeless (those who have been homeless for years) can’t really deal with the larger issues of work, education, and building a future.
This is a good approach, but it seems to be lately overshadowed by the legal one of fighting the very ability of local communities to regulate sleeping/camping in public by the homeless, which strategy has had some success in Los Angeles and is now being implemented here.
The outcome of this is an acceptance by community leadership of camping in public, and establishing tent cities in a certain area; which will virtually destroy the ability of those who are doing business or living in or near that area, from pursuing their futures without having to deal with the results of tent cities, so well outlined in the recent article in City Journal we summarized in our blog post of October 30th at http://parkwayblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/homelessness-in-la.html
Stuart Leavenworth: Rousting the homeless embarrasses our community
By Stuart Leavenworth - sleavenworth@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 11, 2007
Two weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle past Sacramento's field of dreams – the downtown railyard – when suddenly I came upon Sacramento's field of broken dreams.
Just north of the railyard, dozens of homeless people had established a makeshift tent city on a vacant lot on North B Street.
The encampment looked reasonably clean, considering that its occupants had apparently been living there for a week or more. Several of the tents were shiny and new, as if someone had bought them straight off the shelf at REI.
Yet no one would mistake this camp for Bohemian Grove. The lot was dusty and forlorn, and the faces in the crowd revealed a gnarled, leathery look that comes with years of living on the street. As I rode by, some the squatters were gathered around a sedan whose well-coifed driver was either a preacher or a dope dealer. I didn't stick around to find out.
As I expected, the North B Street encampment didn't last long. Last week, the police rousted the squatters, as they were obligated to do, following complaints from nearby property owners…
For more than a decade, efforts to help the homeless, in Sacramento and elsewhere, have run up against this wall. Writing in The Bee in 1995, a midtown resident declared that "a considerable segment of the transient population got that way as a result of deliberate lifestyle choices ... Many have destroyed the usual safety net of family, friends, employer and church through substance abuse, criminal involvement and irresponsibility."…
On paper, both the city and county have endorsed a 10-year plan to end homelessness by 2016. (Read it at www.communitycouncil.org/homelessplan). Tim Brown, former director of Loaves and Fishes, says some 500 units of housing are now in the works – along with services – to "break the cycle of homelessness."
Despite its merits, the 10-year plan skirts a key question: How will authorities deal with the 1,000-plus people, right now, who are sleeping on the streets?...
Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Los Angeles was practicing cruel and unusual punishment by arresting the homeless on public property without providing adequate shelter. The basic legal argument: You can't criminalize people for sleeping on the street if they have nowhere to go.
In August, a coalition of local homeless individuals and advocates filed a similar federal lawsuit against Sacramento city and county, claiming that authorities were violating the constitutional rights of the homeless by rousting them without adequate options for shelter.
Since that lawsuit was filed, the city and county have changed some of their practices. Instead of citing and arresting the campers at the North B Street lot, authorities first gave them warnings. Later they handed out 70 motel vouchers so the homeless would have a place to stay until the county opened its winter shelter at Cal Expo. It did so on Friday, one week early.
Yet once the Cal Expo shelter closes at the end of winter, its occupants will go back on the street. The shell game will continue.
City and county leaders need to settle this lawsuit. They have several options. They could agree to stop arresting the homeless for sleeping in certain public spaces at night, as Los Angeles and San Diego have done. Better yet, they could establish year-round shelters as they work to expand permanent housing.
They could also consider something more radical: Establishment of a semi-permanent tent camp, with rules and sanitation facilities, similar to the one that has survived in Portland, Ore., known as Dignity Village. (Go to www.dignityvillage.org for more information).
Global Warming Bill Update
Our Senator is in charge of moving this through the Senate, and there are some intricate politics ahead.
Boxer delicately steers Senate's global warming bill
By David Whitney - dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 11, 2007
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barbara Boxer, who heads the U.S. Senate committee handling legislation to curb global warming, has called the law California enacted last year the "gold standard."
But the bill taking shape in her committee isn't identical to the package that emerged from the California Legislature.
Here's a primer on the emerging legislation:
Q: Is this Boxer's bill?
A: No. Although the liberal Bay Area Democrat has her own bill patterned on California's landmark law, the law her committee is debating is a bipartisan compromise introduced last month by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va.
Q: How are the state and Senate approaches alike?
A: Both seek to lower emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Both use emission releases in 1990 as the benchmark. And both seek emission reductions broadly throughout the economy.
Q: Are their targets the same?
A: Close. The state law caps greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2020, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order pledging the state to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050. The Senate bill would require them to be cut by 63 percent by 2050.
Q: What is "cap and trade," and do both the California law and the Senate bill require it?
A: A cap-and-trade system would immediately cap emissions and then steadily lower them to reach reduction goals. Key to the program are emission allocations – basically annual pollution rights given or sold to big industries that would permit them to release a defined amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Boxer delicately steers Senate's global warming bill
By David Whitney - dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, November 11, 2007
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barbara Boxer, who heads the U.S. Senate committee handling legislation to curb global warming, has called the law California enacted last year the "gold standard."
But the bill taking shape in her committee isn't identical to the package that emerged from the California Legislature.
Here's a primer on the emerging legislation:
Q: Is this Boxer's bill?
A: No. Although the liberal Bay Area Democrat has her own bill patterned on California's landmark law, the law her committee is debating is a bipartisan compromise introduced last month by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va.
Q: How are the state and Senate approaches alike?
A: Both seek to lower emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Both use emission releases in 1990 as the benchmark. And both seek emission reductions broadly throughout the economy.
Q: Are their targets the same?
A: Close. The state law caps greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2020, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order pledging the state to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050. The Senate bill would require them to be cut by 63 percent by 2050.
Q: What is "cap and trade," and do both the California law and the Senate bill require it?
A: A cap-and-trade system would immediately cap emissions and then steadily lower them to reach reduction goals. Key to the program are emission allocations – basically annual pollution rights given or sold to big industries that would permit them to release a defined amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Preserve Sacramento’s Heritage
The railyards are an important part of our—and the nation’s—heritage, and as such, we need to do whatever we can to ensure that the vital aspects of that heritage are preserved while creating an economically viable new downtown development.
And this will require some amount of work, involving compromise and leadership from city executives.
Editorial: Historical indeed
Drawing a sensible boundary in railyard
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
In the 140-year-old Sacramento railyard, the city has irreplaceable markers of its contribution to world history. Tracks have remained continuously on the route of the first transcontinental railroad for more than a century. In the Central Shops, craftsmen invented, built and repaired locomotives that could traverse the Sierra Nevada.
One question in the larger 244-acre railyard project has been where to draw historic district boundaries to acknowledge the site's significance. Two approaches emerged. The developer, Thomas Enterprises, proposed a city historic district with the Central Shops buildings, plus the foundation of the Roundhouse building. A coalition of local groups proposed National Register of Historic Places status that includes a portion of the transcontinental route.
Both approaches are important.
National Register status is an honor, without strings attached, but formally makes the site a part of the nation's heritage. It can bring in federal tax credits to rehabilitate the historic buildings. Local historic status provides negotiated standards to assure development harmonizes with the old and, possibly, environmental review if a development might threaten historic resources.
And this will require some amount of work, involving compromise and leadership from city executives.
Editorial: Historical indeed
Drawing a sensible boundary in railyard
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
In the 140-year-old Sacramento railyard, the city has irreplaceable markers of its contribution to world history. Tracks have remained continuously on the route of the first transcontinental railroad for more than a century. In the Central Shops, craftsmen invented, built and repaired locomotives that could traverse the Sierra Nevada.
One question in the larger 244-acre railyard project has been where to draw historic district boundaries to acknowledge the site's significance. Two approaches emerged. The developer, Thomas Enterprises, proposed a city historic district with the Central Shops buildings, plus the foundation of the Roundhouse building. A coalition of local groups proposed National Register of Historic Places status that includes a portion of the transcontinental route.
Both approaches are important.
National Register status is an honor, without strings attached, but formally makes the site a part of the nation's heritage. It can bring in federal tax credits to rehabilitate the historic buildings. Local historic status provides negotiated standards to assure development harmonizes with the old and, possibly, environmental review if a development might threaten historic resources.
Light Rail to Airport
Though the cost is getting outrageous, it is part of what Sacramento needs as part of its light rail profile, but, if there is any reasonable weighting to what gets funded with local transportation funding, the bulk should go to improving the conditions for the form of transportation heavily favored by an overwhelming majority of people, cars: so lets upgrade and maintain our roadways and bridges.
When you consider the cost of building urban freeways averages about $10 million per mile, compared to the $46 million it just cost Regional Transit to build 6/10ths of a mile light rail extension, it is a downright bargain.
Editorial: Does light rail to airport make financial sense?
With costs rising, even longtime backers have to question whether it's still practical
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
For several years now, this page has been an enthusiastic supporter of the notion of extending light rail to the Sacramento International Airport. All things being equal, we're still enthusiastic about it. But some recent numbers suggest that all things are far from equal.
The numbers in question stem from Regional Transit's light-rail extension from 8th and K street downtown to the Amtrak Station at 5th and H. That extension, a mere six-tenths of a mile, was supposed to take 15 months to construct and cost $35 million. It took 30 months and cost $46 million. That's twice as much time and 30 percent more money than originally estimated.
RT cites many reasons for this, as The Bee's Tony Bizjak noted in a recent article. Builders ran into unmapped underground utility lines and Indian artifacts. Federal judges complained that the tracks, as originally routed, ran too close to the downtown courthouse, posing a potential security risk. When federal judges complain, government listens, so the tracks had to be rerouted. And there was lots of rain last year, too. If it's not one thing, it's another.
As a result of such factors, the per-mile cost of the downtown extension turned out to be an eye-popping $77 million.
When you consider the cost of building urban freeways averages about $10 million per mile, compared to the $46 million it just cost Regional Transit to build 6/10ths of a mile light rail extension, it is a downright bargain.
Editorial: Does light rail to airport make financial sense?
With costs rising, even longtime backers have to question whether it's still practical
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
For several years now, this page has been an enthusiastic supporter of the notion of extending light rail to the Sacramento International Airport. All things being equal, we're still enthusiastic about it. But some recent numbers suggest that all things are far from equal.
The numbers in question stem from Regional Transit's light-rail extension from 8th and K street downtown to the Amtrak Station at 5th and H. That extension, a mere six-tenths of a mile, was supposed to take 15 months to construct and cost $35 million. It took 30 months and cost $46 million. That's twice as much time and 30 percent more money than originally estimated.
RT cites many reasons for this, as The Bee's Tony Bizjak noted in a recent article. Builders ran into unmapped underground utility lines and Indian artifacts. Federal judges complained that the tracks, as originally routed, ran too close to the downtown courthouse, posing a potential security risk. When federal judges complain, government listens, so the tracks had to be rerouted. And there was lots of rain last year, too. If it's not one thing, it's another.
As a result of such factors, the per-mile cost of the downtown extension turned out to be an eye-popping $77 million.
Roseville Smoking Ban Announcement
Roseville bans park smoking
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
ROSEVILLE – The City Council has approved a new ordinance banning smoking in public parks and open space areas.
In a 4-1 vote Wednesday night, with Councilman John Allard opposed, the council approved the first reading of the ordinance that prohibits smoking in the city's 55 parks and more than 4,000 acres of open space, including streambeds and bicycle trails.
Golf courses, however, are exempt.
Roseville will join a growing number of California cities that have outlawed smoking in parks to reduce health risks from secondhand smoke, particularly to children and infants, and to minimize the risk of fire.
Enforcement will rely heavily on voluntary compliance.
The city will spend $10,000 for a public education campaign and to post signs in parks and open space areas.
– Jennifer K. Morita
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 10, 2007
ROSEVILLE – The City Council has approved a new ordinance banning smoking in public parks and open space areas.
In a 4-1 vote Wednesday night, with Councilman John Allard opposed, the council approved the first reading of the ordinance that prohibits smoking in the city's 55 parks and more than 4,000 acres of open space, including streambeds and bicycle trails.
Golf courses, however, are exempt.
Roseville will join a growing number of California cities that have outlawed smoking in parks to reduce health risks from secondhand smoke, particularly to children and infants, and to minimize the risk of fire.
Enforcement will rely heavily on voluntary compliance.
The city will spend $10,000 for a public education campaign and to post signs in parks and open space areas.
– Jennifer K. Morita
Peanut Shells
A very cool discovery.
Peanut Husks Could Be Used Clean Up Waste WaterScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2007) —
Peanut husks, one of the biggest food industry waste products, could be used to extract environmentally damaging copper ions from waste water, according to researchers in Turkey. Writing in the Inderscience publication the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, the team describes how this readily available waste material can be used to extract toxic copper ions from waste water. The discovery offers a useful alternative to simple disposal of this ubiquitous food industry waste product.
Copper is an essential trace element found in many living organisms, but at high levels it is potentially harmful and when discharged at high concentration into natural water resources could pose a serious environmental threat to marine ecosystems. Various industries produce waste water containing dissolved copper(II) ions, including those that carry out metal cleaning and plating, paper pulp, paper board mills, and wood pulp production sites and the fertilizer industry.
Peanut Husks Could Be Used Clean Up Waste WaterScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2007) —
Peanut husks, one of the biggest food industry waste products, could be used to extract environmentally damaging copper ions from waste water, according to researchers in Turkey. Writing in the Inderscience publication the International Journal of Environment and Pollution, the team describes how this readily available waste material can be used to extract toxic copper ions from waste water. The discovery offers a useful alternative to simple disposal of this ubiquitous food industry waste product.
Copper is an essential trace element found in many living organisms, but at high levels it is potentially harmful and when discharged at high concentration into natural water resources could pose a serious environmental threat to marine ecosystems. Various industries produce waste water containing dissolved copper(II) ions, including those that carry out metal cleaning and plating, paper pulp, paper board mills, and wood pulp production sites and the fertilizer industry.
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