This report looks at annexation and in the ongoing discussion about the feasibility of Arden Arcade becoming a new city, which would bring a new player to the table in relation to caring for the Parkway as Arden Arcade’s southern boundary would be the American River, the possibility of the city of Sacramento annexing Arden Arcade as an option has been mentioned.
An excerpt.
A Brookings Institution Report
Annexation and the Fiscal Fate of Cities:
Findings
An analysis of the relationship between the annexation patterns and fiscal health of the nation's largest cities shows that:
A city's ability to annex land from its surrounding county is a primary determinant of its fiscal health. Cities with greater abilities to annex have much higher bond rating scores. Of cities in large metropolitan areas, every city that expanded its boundaries by as little as 15 percent between 1950 and 2000 had a high bond rating in 2002. Conversely, all cities with low bond ratings are those that had been unable to expand their boundaries.
The ability to annex land varies widely by region and state. Most high-bond-rated cities are located in "big box" states (primarily in the South and West) where land is more easily annexed. Most low-bond-rated cities are in "little box" states (primarily in the Northeast and Midwest) where land is more difficult, or impossible, to annex.
Annexation is far from an outmoded, dying practice. During the 1990s, about 90 percent of the central cities that could annex additional land did so. Collectively, in just one decade they expanded their municipal territory by more than 3,000 square miles.
The flexibility to annex surrounding land and communities was more important to a city's bond rating (a sign of fiscal health) than the area's poverty rate or median household income.
Annexing land, therefore, appears to be an important route to economic health and development for the nation's urban areas. State legislatures can play a vital role in ensuring the fiscal viability of their state by reviewing, and revising if necessary, state land development, zoning, and annexation laws. With careful planning, states can promote more compact development, preserve farmland and natural areas, and encourage reinvestment in older residential and commercial areas.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Klamath Salmon
This might be a situation where removing some dams that are no longer needed will be of great help to the salmon.
An excerpt.
Salmon fishing disaster declared
Catch limits hit coast's economy
By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 11, 2006
Federal officials on Thursday declared a commercial salmon fishing disaster in California and Oregon, the result of severe catch limits imposed this year to preserve Klamath River fish.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez made the declaration in a conference call with governors and lawmakers from the two states. The move means that members of Congress can proceed with up to $80 million in aid that has been stymied for lack of a declaration.
Much of that aid could come as grants to more than 1,500 chinook salmon fishermen and the businesses that support them. Until now, the federal government has offered only low-interest loans, which haven't been very useful to fishermen already struggling with their debts, said Mike Stiller, president of the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen's Association.
"If they're talking grants, then now they're talking real disaster relief as far as I'm concerned," said Stiller, a commercial fisherman since 1979. "We have a lot of members who just got into the business that are hurting badly. I've never seen the prospects as bad as they are this year."
The disaster declaration affects 700 miles of coastline between Cape Falcon in Oregon and California's Point Sur. Commerce Department research in July showed this region had suffered direct losses of $16 million so far. It estimates salmon boats will land only 12 percent of the fish they have averaged over the past five years.
State officials have sought the declaration for months. On Thursday, they expressed relief that it has finally come.
"Despite this massive step forward, there is still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to help these families get back on their feet and restore one of Northern California's most important industries," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said in a statement.
In his declaration, Gutierrez said the disaster is "due primarily to natural causes," citing a Klamath basin drought between 2001 and 2005.
But many fishermen trace the disaster to 2002, when the Bush administration boosted farm-water diversions from the Klamath River against the advice of its own biologists. Critics say the resulting low river flows contributed to the death of more than 40,000 chinook trying to swim upriver that fall to spawn.
Salmon normally return to spawn within three to five years. By 2005 it became clear that returning Klamath fish would be sharply reduced. Catch limits were imposed that year, followed by much tighter limits this year.
The cutbacks have been frustrating for fishermen because salmon that originate in the Sacramento River are relatively abundant. But fish from both river systems mingle in the ocean, so the only way to protect Klamath chinook was to curtail all fishing.
"The tragedy is, this should have been one of those banner years because we have had such good production out of the Sacramento River," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
Without significant disaster relief, he said, "We're going to lose some fishermen, particularly the younger ones who have boat payments and house mortgages and young children."
The events of 2002 were just one of the Klamath River's problems. For starters, the river is blocked by dams owned by PacifiCorp that lack fish ladders. The reservoirs are a breeding ground for toxic algae and other parasites that threaten both fish and people.
The algae, called Microcystis aeruginosa, this week reached unprecedented concentrations, prompting a health warning by Siskiyou County.
Testing by the Karuk Tribe found algae concentrations nearly 4,000 times greater than what the World Health Organization considers a "moderate health risk," said tribal spokesman Craig Tucker.
"It's kind of unquestioned that the dams are creating this kind of perfect scenario for this algae to bloom," he said.
Tribes, fishermen and environmental groups want the dams removed, and last week they got a hopeful sign from PacifiCorp. The Portland-based utility is in the midst of a lengthy federal dam relicensing process. On Aug. 2, company President Bill Fehrman said PacifiCorp would not oppose dam removal "as long as our customers are not harmed."
An excerpt.
Salmon fishing disaster declared
Catch limits hit coast's economy
By Matt Weiser -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 11, 2006
Federal officials on Thursday declared a commercial salmon fishing disaster in California and Oregon, the result of severe catch limits imposed this year to preserve Klamath River fish.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez made the declaration in a conference call with governors and lawmakers from the two states. The move means that members of Congress can proceed with up to $80 million in aid that has been stymied for lack of a declaration.
Much of that aid could come as grants to more than 1,500 chinook salmon fishermen and the businesses that support them. Until now, the federal government has offered only low-interest loans, which haven't been very useful to fishermen already struggling with their debts, said Mike Stiller, president of the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen's Association.
"If they're talking grants, then now they're talking real disaster relief as far as I'm concerned," said Stiller, a commercial fisherman since 1979. "We have a lot of members who just got into the business that are hurting badly. I've never seen the prospects as bad as they are this year."
The disaster declaration affects 700 miles of coastline between Cape Falcon in Oregon and California's Point Sur. Commerce Department research in July showed this region had suffered direct losses of $16 million so far. It estimates salmon boats will land only 12 percent of the fish they have averaged over the past five years.
State officials have sought the declaration for months. On Thursday, they expressed relief that it has finally come.
"Despite this massive step forward, there is still a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to help these families get back on their feet and restore one of Northern California's most important industries," Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said in a statement.
In his declaration, Gutierrez said the disaster is "due primarily to natural causes," citing a Klamath basin drought between 2001 and 2005.
But many fishermen trace the disaster to 2002, when the Bush administration boosted farm-water diversions from the Klamath River against the advice of its own biologists. Critics say the resulting low river flows contributed to the death of more than 40,000 chinook trying to swim upriver that fall to spawn.
Salmon normally return to spawn within three to five years. By 2005 it became clear that returning Klamath fish would be sharply reduced. Catch limits were imposed that year, followed by much tighter limits this year.
The cutbacks have been frustrating for fishermen because salmon that originate in the Sacramento River are relatively abundant. But fish from both river systems mingle in the ocean, so the only way to protect Klamath chinook was to curtail all fishing.
"The tragedy is, this should have been one of those banner years because we have had such good production out of the Sacramento River," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
Without significant disaster relief, he said, "We're going to lose some fishermen, particularly the younger ones who have boat payments and house mortgages and young children."
The events of 2002 were just one of the Klamath River's problems. For starters, the river is blocked by dams owned by PacifiCorp that lack fish ladders. The reservoirs are a breeding ground for toxic algae and other parasites that threaten both fish and people.
The algae, called Microcystis aeruginosa, this week reached unprecedented concentrations, prompting a health warning by Siskiyou County.
Testing by the Karuk Tribe found algae concentrations nearly 4,000 times greater than what the World Health Organization considers a "moderate health risk," said tribal spokesman Craig Tucker.
"It's kind of unquestioned that the dams are creating this kind of perfect scenario for this algae to bloom," he said.
Tribes, fishermen and environmental groups want the dams removed, and last week they got a hopeful sign from PacifiCorp. The Portland-based utility is in the midst of a lengthy federal dam relicensing process. On Aug. 2, company President Bill Fehrman said PacifiCorp would not oppose dam removal "as long as our customers are not harmed."
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Parkway Booze Ban
Overlooked here is the impact on those family and group gatherings using alcohol responsibly, who will now become criminals if they bring a six pac or bottle of Merlot to the family picnic.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Less boozy holidays?
Supervisors prohibit parkway drinking
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 10, 2006
Sacramento County has only so many ways to prevent drunken rafters from ruining others' fun along the American River Parkway during cherished holiday weekends. A new resolution approved by county supervisors Tuesday is worth a try, even though it's not hard to imagine some unintended consequences that might pop up.
The new strategy is to ban alcohol consumption along the parkway and any open containers of alcohol. The ban would pertain to the primary rafting stretch of the river, between Hazel and Watt avenues. And it would apply only on certain holiday periods -- Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Those are the times the river seems more like an out-of-control fraternity party than a designated wild and scenic waterway.
Epic misbehavior during the last Fourth of July holiday prompted the ban. A drunken fight cut short Rancho Cordova's fireworks. Some intoxicated rafters decided to whack one another with oars, causing fairly serious injuries in a brawl that rangers had to break up. A binge drinker on a raft ended up in the UC Davis Medical Center with alcohol poisoning. They are all examples of the few ruining a good time for the many. Yet the problem got to the point the county needed to regain control of the river.
The challenge here is that there are two governments and two sets of laws at play. On the water, the state of California is in charge because the river is a state waterway. The state allows drinking on its waterways. A rafter, floating down the river, can legally crack open the beer can and guzzle away.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Less boozy holidays?
Supervisors prohibit parkway drinking
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 10, 2006
Sacramento County has only so many ways to prevent drunken rafters from ruining others' fun along the American River Parkway during cherished holiday weekends. A new resolution approved by county supervisors Tuesday is worth a try, even though it's not hard to imagine some unintended consequences that might pop up.
The new strategy is to ban alcohol consumption along the parkway and any open containers of alcohol. The ban would pertain to the primary rafting stretch of the river, between Hazel and Watt avenues. And it would apply only on certain holiday periods -- Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. Those are the times the river seems more like an out-of-control fraternity party than a designated wild and scenic waterway.
Epic misbehavior during the last Fourth of July holiday prompted the ban. A drunken fight cut short Rancho Cordova's fireworks. Some intoxicated rafters decided to whack one another with oars, causing fairly serious injuries in a brawl that rangers had to break up. A binge drinker on a raft ended up in the UC Davis Medical Center with alcohol poisoning. They are all examples of the few ruining a good time for the many. Yet the problem got to the point the county needed to regain control of the river.
The challenge here is that there are two governments and two sets of laws at play. On the water, the state of California is in charge because the river is a state waterway. The state allows drinking on its waterways. A rafter, floating down the river, can legally crack open the beer can and guzzle away.
SMUD’s Stewardship
Excellent analysis on what and why SMUD needs to get in congruence with its mission and use of public natural resources.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Bears, bucks and hydro
SMUD shouldn't short Sierra stewardship
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has a series of Sierra reservoirs and hydroelectric facilities known as the "Staircase of Power." It is the jewel of the SMUD system, given how it is both a cheap and precious source of peak power on hot summer days and how the reservoirs provide camping and boating for tens of thousands of visitors each year.
For SMUD, a regulatory moment has come along that happens only twice a century. At that time, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviews and renews the license to operate these facilities. SMUD is at a crucial juncture in this approval process, and if not careful, it may stray from its mission to balance all the public values of being a good steward of this resource.
A long list of governments, from the National Park Service to the state Water Resources Control Board to the state Department of Fish and Game, has a different vision from SMUD's in how to operate this system. Some of the differences are very complicated, such as how much water to release downstream for fish and how much to release into tunnels for electricity production.
But here is an example of how SMUD is negotiating on an issue that rests at the gut of stewardship: bears.
When SMUD built this system more than 40 years ago (Loon Lake, Icehouse Reservoir, etc.), it agreed to build campgrounds on surrounding land. The campgrounds sit on U.S. Forest Service land. At the time, the facilities were state of the art. At the moment, many violate federal regulations (the Americans with Disabilities Act) and an unwritten code of how to respect wildlife.
The bears are a case in point. Many of these campgrounds do not have bear lockers so that campers can safely store food and bears don't grow accustomed to a diet courtesy of Costco. An appetite for humans' food can be deadly for the bear. At state campgrounds, bear lockers in bear country have been in place for years. SMUD could have, but hasn't, done the same at the campgrounds.
To bring these campgrounds up to modern standards (picnic benches tall enough for wheelchairs to fit under, more flush toilets, more bear lockers, etc.) would cost an unknown amount of money, but a lot. The Forest Service and the other agencies are asking SMUD to make these changes in exchange for permission to keep producing the hydroelectric power. But SMUD isn't making the promise. Instead, it is proposing to maximize its capital expenditures on the campgrounds to approximately $250,000 a year. That remodeling budget isn't a prescription for getting much done quickly.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Bears, bucks and hydro
SMUD shouldn't short Sierra stewardship
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has a series of Sierra reservoirs and hydroelectric facilities known as the "Staircase of Power." It is the jewel of the SMUD system, given how it is both a cheap and precious source of peak power on hot summer days and how the reservoirs provide camping and boating for tens of thousands of visitors each year.
For SMUD, a regulatory moment has come along that happens only twice a century. At that time, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviews and renews the license to operate these facilities. SMUD is at a crucial juncture in this approval process, and if not careful, it may stray from its mission to balance all the public values of being a good steward of this resource.
A long list of governments, from the National Park Service to the state Water Resources Control Board to the state Department of Fish and Game, has a different vision from SMUD's in how to operate this system. Some of the differences are very complicated, such as how much water to release downstream for fish and how much to release into tunnels for electricity production.
But here is an example of how SMUD is negotiating on an issue that rests at the gut of stewardship: bears.
When SMUD built this system more than 40 years ago (Loon Lake, Icehouse Reservoir, etc.), it agreed to build campgrounds on surrounding land. The campgrounds sit on U.S. Forest Service land. At the time, the facilities were state of the art. At the moment, many violate federal regulations (the Americans with Disabilities Act) and an unwritten code of how to respect wildlife.
The bears are a case in point. Many of these campgrounds do not have bear lockers so that campers can safely store food and bears don't grow accustomed to a diet courtesy of Costco. An appetite for humans' food can be deadly for the bear. At state campgrounds, bear lockers in bear country have been in place for years. SMUD could have, but hasn't, done the same at the campgrounds.
To bring these campgrounds up to modern standards (picnic benches tall enough for wheelchairs to fit under, more flush toilets, more bear lockers, etc.) would cost an unknown amount of money, but a lot. The Forest Service and the other agencies are asking SMUD to make these changes in exchange for permission to keep producing the hydroelectric power. But SMUD isn't making the promise. Instead, it is proposing to maximize its capital expenditures on the campgrounds to approximately $250,000 a year. That remodeling budget isn't a prescription for getting much done quickly.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Tahoe Still Clear!
One of our area’s wonderful natural resources appears to be holding its own as far as its legendary clarity is concerned.
An excerpt.
Lake Tahoe Clarity Holds Steady in 2005
August 8, 2006
The waters of Lake Tahoe were clear to an average depth of 72.4 feet in 2005, according to UC Davis scientists who have monitored the lake since 1968. That keeps the clarity measurement in the range where it has been for the past five years -- and where it was for other multiyear periods in the 1990s.
When measurements began in 1968, a white "Secchi disk" lowered into the lake was visible at an average depth of 102.4 feet.
Lake Tahoe clarity varies from year to year because precipitation varies. That affects the amount of soil particles and pollutants that are washed into the lake, said John Reuter, associate director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC). And that makes it difficult to use data from any single year or even a small number of years to draw conclusions about whether the lake is improving overall or getting murkier....
Recently, UC Davis' TERC scientists, in cooperation with California and Nevada water quality protection agencies, developed another mathematical model for use in guiding Tahoe Basin restoration efforts. Called the Lake Clarity Model, it can simulate the lake's response to various combinations of pollution types and amounts.
The annual average Secchi measurements for the past several years were:
2005: 72.4 feet (22.1 meters)
2004: 73.6 feet (22.4 meters)
2003: 71 feet (21.6 meters)
2002: 78 feet (23.8 meters)
2001: 73.6 feet (22.4 meters)
2000: 67.3 feet (20.5 meters)
"While this year's clarity number is encouraging, the annual measurements remind us how crucial it is to stay the course in our efforts to restore Lake Tahoe and to preserve it for future generations," said Julie Regan, communications director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
An excerpt.
Lake Tahoe Clarity Holds Steady in 2005
August 8, 2006
The waters of Lake Tahoe were clear to an average depth of 72.4 feet in 2005, according to UC Davis scientists who have monitored the lake since 1968. That keeps the clarity measurement in the range where it has been for the past five years -- and where it was for other multiyear periods in the 1990s.
When measurements began in 1968, a white "Secchi disk" lowered into the lake was visible at an average depth of 102.4 feet.
Lake Tahoe clarity varies from year to year because precipitation varies. That affects the amount of soil particles and pollutants that are washed into the lake, said John Reuter, associate director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC). And that makes it difficult to use data from any single year or even a small number of years to draw conclusions about whether the lake is improving overall or getting murkier....
Recently, UC Davis' TERC scientists, in cooperation with California and Nevada water quality protection agencies, developed another mathematical model for use in guiding Tahoe Basin restoration efforts. Called the Lake Clarity Model, it can simulate the lake's response to various combinations of pollution types and amounts.
The annual average Secchi measurements for the past several years were:
2005: 72.4 feet (22.1 meters)
2004: 73.6 feet (22.4 meters)
2003: 71 feet (21.6 meters)
2002: 78 feet (23.8 meters)
2001: 73.6 feet (22.4 meters)
2000: 67.3 feet (20.5 meters)
"While this year's clarity number is encouraging, the annual measurements remind us how crucial it is to stay the course in our efforts to restore Lake Tahoe and to preserve it for future generations," said Julie Regan, communications director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Make Hetch Hetchy Bigger?
State hydrologists predict global warming will result in more run-off necessitating a larger dam at Hetch Hetchy, says water official.
An excerpt.
Call to expand Hetch Hetchy sparks howls of protest
By Paul Rogers Mercury News, August 9, 2006
San Francisco's top water official on Tuesday said that rather than tearing down the reservoir and dam at Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley, the city should consider building the dam higher and flooding more of the park.
Richard Sklar, president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and operates the Hetch Hetchy water system, made the suggestion during a global warming hearing that the PUC held at San Francisco City Hall.
If O'Shaughnessy Dam was raised taller, and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was expanded, Sklar said, it could store more water when global warming melts the Sierra Nevada snowpack earlier every spring, as state hydrologists are predicting.
Sklar, a 71-year-old Democrat, is a longtime and well-respected fixture in San Francisco politics. His bombshell idea -- one of several suggestions he made for dealing with global warming -- was met with howls of protest by environmentalists afterward.
``Further desecration of one of America's most treasured national parks is a bad idea,'' said Tom Graff, state director for Environmental Defense, in Oakland.
In recent years, some environmentalists have stepped up a campaign to drain the reservoir, tear down the dam and store its drinking water -- which serves 2.4 million residents from San Francisco to Santa Clara -- in other reservoirs. The idea gained momentum last month when a report from the state Department of Water Resources found it technically feasible to drain the reservoir and store its water elsewhere, but at a cost of $3 billion to $10 billion.
An excerpt.
Call to expand Hetch Hetchy sparks howls of protest
By Paul Rogers Mercury News, August 9, 2006
San Francisco's top water official on Tuesday said that rather than tearing down the reservoir and dam at Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley, the city should consider building the dam higher and flooding more of the park.
Richard Sklar, president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and operates the Hetch Hetchy water system, made the suggestion during a global warming hearing that the PUC held at San Francisco City Hall.
If O'Shaughnessy Dam was raised taller, and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was expanded, Sklar said, it could store more water when global warming melts the Sierra Nevada snowpack earlier every spring, as state hydrologists are predicting.
Sklar, a 71-year-old Democrat, is a longtime and well-respected fixture in San Francisco politics. His bombshell idea -- one of several suggestions he made for dealing with global warming -- was met with howls of protest by environmentalists afterward.
``Further desecration of one of America's most treasured national parks is a bad idea,'' said Tom Graff, state director for Environmental Defense, in Oakland.
In recent years, some environmentalists have stepped up a campaign to drain the reservoir, tear down the dam and store its drinking water -- which serves 2.4 million residents from San Francisco to Santa Clara -- in other reservoirs. The idea gained momentum last month when a report from the state Department of Water Resources found it technically feasible to drain the reservoir and store its water elsewhere, but at a cost of $3 billion to $10 billion.
Alcohol Banned on Parkway
What was made clear (once again) watching the deliberations on this issue yesterday is that problems on the Parkway have not been dealt with by the managing agency until they reach crisis level, and now the responsible Parkway users will suffer.
This is the same approach taken by the county with illegal camping by the homeless which was allowed to fester over the years until it drove all legitimate use from the Woodlake area, which finally precipitated a similar response though the area still is the most dangerous in the Parkway.
We have suggested that management of the Parkway be contracted out to an independent nonprofit organization, as is done for the Sacramento Zoo locally, and well-run parks nationally such as Central Park in New York.
The Parkway needs focused dedicated management that isn’t concerned with anything other than seeing it is run safely and efficiently, not something that can be said about it now.
The article.
Holiday drinking on river banned
By Ed Fletcher -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 9, 2006
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban alcohol beverages from the American River Parkway during three holiday periods.
Supervisors said they wanted to prevent young adults from around the state from turning a Sacramento tradition -- floating down the river -- into a "Spring Break" complete with public nudity, alcohol abuse and out-of-control behavior.
The increased efforts to get alcoholic beverages off the river come after back-to-back wild July Fourth weekends. This summer, a melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital, and 20 were arrested for drunken driving. In the same period a year earlier, more than 30 were arrested.
The county doesn't have authority to stop people from drinking on the water, but Dave Lydick, the county's head park ranger, said the goal is to prevent drinking onshore.
The proposal prohibits drinking alcoholic beverages or possessing an open alcoholic beverage container from Hazel Avenue to Watt Avenue during summertime's three major holidays:
Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day. The ban for Memorial and Labor days will stretch from Saturday to Monday. The parks director will set the number of days for Fourth of July each year.
This is the same approach taken by the county with illegal camping by the homeless which was allowed to fester over the years until it drove all legitimate use from the Woodlake area, which finally precipitated a similar response though the area still is the most dangerous in the Parkway.
We have suggested that management of the Parkway be contracted out to an independent nonprofit organization, as is done for the Sacramento Zoo locally, and well-run parks nationally such as Central Park in New York.
The Parkway needs focused dedicated management that isn’t concerned with anything other than seeing it is run safely and efficiently, not something that can be said about it now.
The article.
Holiday drinking on river banned
By Ed Fletcher -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 9, 2006
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban alcohol beverages from the American River Parkway during three holiday periods.
Supervisors said they wanted to prevent young adults from around the state from turning a Sacramento tradition -- floating down the river -- into a "Spring Break" complete with public nudity, alcohol abuse and out-of-control behavior.
The increased efforts to get alcoholic beverages off the river come after back-to-back wild July Fourth weekends. This summer, a melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital, and 20 were arrested for drunken driving. In the same period a year earlier, more than 30 were arrested.
The county doesn't have authority to stop people from drinking on the water, but Dave Lydick, the county's head park ranger, said the goal is to prevent drinking onshore.
The proposal prohibits drinking alcoholic beverages or possessing an open alcoholic beverage container from Hazel Avenue to Watt Avenue during summertime's three major holidays:
Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day. The ban for Memorial and Labor days will stretch from Saturday to Monday. The parks director will set the number of days for Fourth of July each year.
Environmental Lawsuits
While many are legitimate and have resulted in social benefit, many are not and are field primarily for money for the filing organization, which this report examines.
An excerpt.
Environmental Bounty-Hunting
How Earthjustice and other green groups abuse the legal system.
BY BRUCE L. BENSON Wednesday, August 9, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
Private prosecution of crimes has a long and sordid history, and that history isn't over. Bounty hunters no longer hound innocent people to death as some did in England in the mid-18th century, but environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council have modified the tactic. They use "citizen suits" to reap rich rewards for themselves with little positive impact on the environment.
Most federal environmental statutes allow citizens to sue individuals or companies for violating the laws. Indeed, from 1993 to 2002, more than 75% of all environmental federal court decisions started as citizen suits, reports James May. Writing the Widener Law Review, he concludes that citizen suits are "the engine that propels the field of environmental law."
But most of these suits are brought by environmental organizations, not individuals, and most of the filings don't end in a court decision; they end in settlements. From 1995-2002, there were 4,438 notices of intent to sue under four environmental statutes--6.6 times more than actual federal court decisions in citizen suits. Presumably most of the others were settled.
Why the settlements?
My research [at http://www.perc.org/ ] indicates a clear and compelling reason: settlements bring in money environmental groups can use to pursue other goals. Although statistics are hard to come by, most citizen suits appear to be filed under the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA). Provisions in these laws enable citizen prosecutors to craft settlements that compensate them generously for legal costs (amounts well above actual costs) and that channel funds into pet environmental projects (called "supplemental environmental projects.")
An excerpt.
Environmental Bounty-Hunting
How Earthjustice and other green groups abuse the legal system.
BY BRUCE L. BENSON Wednesday, August 9, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
Private prosecution of crimes has a long and sordid history, and that history isn't over. Bounty hunters no longer hound innocent people to death as some did in England in the mid-18th century, but environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council have modified the tactic. They use "citizen suits" to reap rich rewards for themselves with little positive impact on the environment.
Most federal environmental statutes allow citizens to sue individuals or companies for violating the laws. Indeed, from 1993 to 2002, more than 75% of all environmental federal court decisions started as citizen suits, reports James May. Writing the Widener Law Review, he concludes that citizen suits are "the engine that propels the field of environmental law."
But most of these suits are brought by environmental organizations, not individuals, and most of the filings don't end in a court decision; they end in settlements. From 1995-2002, there were 4,438 notices of intent to sue under four environmental statutes--6.6 times more than actual federal court decisions in citizen suits. Presumably most of the others were settled.
Why the settlements?
My research [at http://www.perc.org/ ] indicates a clear and compelling reason: settlements bring in money environmental groups can use to pursue other goals. Although statistics are hard to come by, most citizen suits appear to be filed under the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA). Provisions in these laws enable citizen prosecutors to craft settlements that compensate them generously for legal costs (amounts well above actual costs) and that channel funds into pet environmental projects (called "supplemental environmental projects.")
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Parkway Group Opposes Parkway Alcohol Ban
We sent this letter to the Board of Supervisors yesterday.
August 7, 2006
An Open Letter to the Board of Supervisors
Re: the Proposed Ban of Alcohol in the Parkway
Our organization [American River Parkway Preservation Society (ARPPS)] opposes the banning of alcohol in the Parkway during holiday periods, as it penalizes the many individuals, families, and group outings in which alcohol plays an enjoyable and responsible role in their recreation in the Parkway; to get at those few individuals who abuse alcohol.
The preferred method of dealing with alcohol abuse in the Parkway is through continued education about the dangers of over-drinking while around a river in which people drown regularly, and, most important, an increased police presence during holiday periods.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Rushford, President
Kristine Lea, Vice President
David H. Lukenbill, Treasurer/Senior Policy Director
Here is an excerpt from the article about the proposed ban.
New river alcohol ban weighed
County proposal targets 3 big holiday weekends on lower American River.
By Ed Fletcher -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Pick any summer weekend and you'll find hundreds of locals, young and old, floating, sunning, splashing -- and frequently boozing -- their way down the lower American River.
Most of these raft excursions end quietly enough. But after back-to-back July 4 weekends were punctuated by melees and police arrests, Sacramento County's Board of Supervisors is considering stepping up efforts to keep alcohol off the river on holiday weekends.
"It's become out of control," said board Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan. "It creates unsafe situations."
A July 4 melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital. That dangerous event followed an incident the previous year resulting in 30 arrests and a county ban on alcohol at several locations.
The new ban would try to stop booze from making it onto rafts in the first place.
The proposed ordinance -- set to be considered by the board at 2:15 p.m. today -- would prohibit drinking alcoholic beverages or possessing an open alcoholic beverage container from Hazel Avenue to Watt Avenue on the summer's three major holiday weekends: Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.
The parks director would have the authority to allow alcohol at some picnic areas.
The measure would direct the county legislative advocate to push for state authority to enforce the ban on water.
The county controls the shores, but the state rules the river. State law allows drinking alcoholic beverages on vessels, including rubber rafts.
August 7, 2006
An Open Letter to the Board of Supervisors
Re: the Proposed Ban of Alcohol in the Parkway
Our organization [American River Parkway Preservation Society (ARPPS)] opposes the banning of alcohol in the Parkway during holiday periods, as it penalizes the many individuals, families, and group outings in which alcohol plays an enjoyable and responsible role in their recreation in the Parkway; to get at those few individuals who abuse alcohol.
The preferred method of dealing with alcohol abuse in the Parkway is through continued education about the dangers of over-drinking while around a river in which people drown regularly, and, most important, an increased police presence during holiday periods.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Rushford, President
Kristine Lea, Vice President
David H. Lukenbill, Treasurer/Senior Policy Director
Here is an excerpt from the article about the proposed ban.
New river alcohol ban weighed
County proposal targets 3 big holiday weekends on lower American River.
By Ed Fletcher -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Pick any summer weekend and you'll find hundreds of locals, young and old, floating, sunning, splashing -- and frequently boozing -- their way down the lower American River.
Most of these raft excursions end quietly enough. But after back-to-back July 4 weekends were punctuated by melees and police arrests, Sacramento County's Board of Supervisors is considering stepping up efforts to keep alcohol off the river on holiday weekends.
"It's become out of control," said board Chairwoman Roberta MacGlashan. "It creates unsafe situations."
A July 4 melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital. That dangerous event followed an incident the previous year resulting in 30 arrests and a county ban on alcohol at several locations.
The new ban would try to stop booze from making it onto rafts in the first place.
The proposed ordinance -- set to be considered by the board at 2:15 p.m. today -- would prohibit drinking alcoholic beverages or possessing an open alcoholic beverage container from Hazel Avenue to Watt Avenue on the summer's three major holiday weekends: Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.
The parks director would have the authority to allow alcohol at some picnic areas.
The measure would direct the county legislative advocate to push for state authority to enforce the ban on water.
The county controls the shores, but the state rules the river. State law allows drinking alcoholic beverages on vessels, including rubber rafts.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Ecoregionalism
A good article about looking at conservation in a more systematic and larger way; for example, instead of only being concerned about the Parkway, extend our concern outwards, towards the entire American River Watershed; or instead of only looking at the value a Gold Rush Park has, consider its linking to a series of other parks, greenways, parkways, and trails to form a golden necklace from the confluence of the rivers to Coloma and back, as mentioned in the previous post.
An excerpt.
Green Pieces
States and localities are working with conservation groups to link existing preserves and the privately owned land between them.
By DENNIS FARNEY
Florida conservationists feared the worst when a real estate development firm entered into a contract to buy the 91,000-acre Babcock Ranch. They saw urban development spreading like a blob over an unspoiled area of cypress swamps and pinewoods, home to the endangered Florida panther and a host of other plant and animal species. But then the developer, Kitson and Partners, LLC, offered a deal. If Florida had the money, the developer would sell nearly 74,000 acres.
Florida had the money — and then some.
Back in 1999, the legislature had passed Florida Forever, a $3 billion, 10-year land acquisition program financed by bond issues. Florida Forever, which bills itself as “the largest land-buying initiative in the nation,” clinched the deal for $310 million, plus an additional $40 million from Lee County. The signing ceremony this June marked one of the largest land preservation purchases in state history. Governor Jeb Bush hailed the “massive endeavor” as a huge step toward establishing a southwest Florida conservation corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.
Significantly, the federal government contributed no money toward the acquisition. These days, that’s usually the case.
Congress is keeping Washington’s flagship land acquisition program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, on a short leash. Although the fund is authorized to spend $900 million per year, actual congressional appropriations have averaged only $100 million per year for the past decade. For fiscal years 1996 through 1999, Congress appropriated nothing at all.
The bottom line is clear: If environmentally sensitive land is to be saved and urban sprawl limited, the states are going to have to take the lead.
And they are doing just that. While Washington has been haggling over millions, states and localities have been spending billions. From 1994 to 2005, the states approved $12.1 billion in conservation spending and localities nearly $19 billion, according to the Trust for Public Land.
(The totals reflect both large projects and small ones, such as urban parks and bike paths.)
They, not Washington, have become the driving force in land preservation.
”States have kind of taken things into our own hands,” sums up Bridgett Luther, director of California’s Department of Conservation. Her boss, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, made the same point in blunter terms when he recently discussed a broad range of environmental issues. “We cannot wait for the United States government to get its act together on the environment,” he told Newsweek magazine. “We have to create our own leadership.”
This state and local activism is coinciding with a fundamental shift in conservation thinking. An emerging school of thought, often referred to as “ecoregionalism,” is increasingly influencing preservation projects across the nation. Ecoregionalism has conservationists thinking big.
The most spectacular example is Y2Y, which stands for “Yellowstone to Yukon.” Y2Y envisions nothing less than a “wildlife corridor” nearly 2,000 miles long. It would start in west-central Wyoming and end just below the Arctic Circle, preserving a whole ecosystem, still largely intact, across the backbone of North America. Audubon magazine has called the idea “North America’s environmental equivalent of the Great Wall of China.”
Y2Y is more than a pipe dream — it is generating serious discussions among government officials in both the United States and Canada — but still far short of realization. Actually completing it, or even part of it, might well take decades. But Y2Y illustrates the central principle of ecoregionalism: Simply establishing isolated parks and refuges, even huge ones such as Yellowstone National Park, won’t preserve biological diversity in the long run. Somehow, conservationists must find a way to stitch together existing parks and preserves with the privately owned connective tissue between them.
This means relying less on the traditional and sometimes controversial tool of outright acquisition. Conservationists can’t possibly afford to buy all that connective tissue and political realities wouldn’t allow it in any event. Thus, ecoregionalism relies more on such tools as easements and voluntary agreements with landowners. Identifying key tracts and protecting them, in turn, means working with state and local governments on an expanded scale.
An excerpt.
Green Pieces
States and localities are working with conservation groups to link existing preserves and the privately owned land between them.
By DENNIS FARNEY
Florida conservationists feared the worst when a real estate development firm entered into a contract to buy the 91,000-acre Babcock Ranch. They saw urban development spreading like a blob over an unspoiled area of cypress swamps and pinewoods, home to the endangered Florida panther and a host of other plant and animal species. But then the developer, Kitson and Partners, LLC, offered a deal. If Florida had the money, the developer would sell nearly 74,000 acres.
Florida had the money — and then some.
Back in 1999, the legislature had passed Florida Forever, a $3 billion, 10-year land acquisition program financed by bond issues. Florida Forever, which bills itself as “the largest land-buying initiative in the nation,” clinched the deal for $310 million, plus an additional $40 million from Lee County. The signing ceremony this June marked one of the largest land preservation purchases in state history. Governor Jeb Bush hailed the “massive endeavor” as a huge step toward establishing a southwest Florida conservation corridor stretching from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.
Significantly, the federal government contributed no money toward the acquisition. These days, that’s usually the case.
Congress is keeping Washington’s flagship land acquisition program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, on a short leash. Although the fund is authorized to spend $900 million per year, actual congressional appropriations have averaged only $100 million per year for the past decade. For fiscal years 1996 through 1999, Congress appropriated nothing at all.
The bottom line is clear: If environmentally sensitive land is to be saved and urban sprawl limited, the states are going to have to take the lead.
And they are doing just that. While Washington has been haggling over millions, states and localities have been spending billions. From 1994 to 2005, the states approved $12.1 billion in conservation spending and localities nearly $19 billion, according to the Trust for Public Land.
(The totals reflect both large projects and small ones, such as urban parks and bike paths.)
They, not Washington, have become the driving force in land preservation.
”States have kind of taken things into our own hands,” sums up Bridgett Luther, director of California’s Department of Conservation. Her boss, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, made the same point in blunter terms when he recently discussed a broad range of environmental issues. “We cannot wait for the United States government to get its act together on the environment,” he told Newsweek magazine. “We have to create our own leadership.”
This state and local activism is coinciding with a fundamental shift in conservation thinking. An emerging school of thought, often referred to as “ecoregionalism,” is increasingly influencing preservation projects across the nation. Ecoregionalism has conservationists thinking big.
The most spectacular example is Y2Y, which stands for “Yellowstone to Yukon.” Y2Y envisions nothing less than a “wildlife corridor” nearly 2,000 miles long. It would start in west-central Wyoming and end just below the Arctic Circle, preserving a whole ecosystem, still largely intact, across the backbone of North America. Audubon magazine has called the idea “North America’s environmental equivalent of the Great Wall of China.”
Y2Y is more than a pipe dream — it is generating serious discussions among government officials in both the United States and Canada — but still far short of realization. Actually completing it, or even part of it, might well take decades. But Y2Y illustrates the central principle of ecoregionalism: Simply establishing isolated parks and refuges, even huge ones such as Yellowstone National Park, won’t preserve biological diversity in the long run. Somehow, conservationists must find a way to stitch together existing parks and preserves with the privately owned connective tissue between them.
This means relying less on the traditional and sometimes controversial tool of outright acquisition. Conservationists can’t possibly afford to buy all that connective tissue and political realities wouldn’t allow it in any event. Thus, ecoregionalism relies more on such tools as easements and voluntary agreements with landowners. Identifying key tracts and protecting them, in turn, means working with state and local governments on an expanded scale.
Our Golden Necklace
This article was published in Inside Arden, August 2006, (pp. 36 & 41).
City Voices: Our Emerald Necklace
Why We Need Gold Rush Park
By David H. Lukenbill
Gold Rush Park is a planned 970 acre development at the confluence of the Sacramento and American River. It would replace the existing warehouse, business, and apartments with parks and open space, fine arts and performing arts venues, a zoo, botanical gardens and conservatories, and a canal district with boating and restaurants, housing and shops.
For virtually all of its history Sacramento’s two riverbanks have been our back alleys, where all the places we don’t want to look at wind up, while the two rivers have flooded so many times they have been leveed to the point of recreational and visual unusability.
In the suburbs the American River Parkway embraces the American River, creating sanctuary and delighting all who use it. In urban Sacramento there is nothing that embraces the rivers as beautifully, elegantly and completely as Gold Rush Park will, by fully bringing our two rivers into the marriage with the capital city which so many have long wished for.
Sacramento has the elements, as Joel Kotkin notes in his book The City, which form the foundation from which great cities are built, “the creation of sacred space, the provision of basic security, and host for a commercial market…”.
Here is what Gold Rush Park will do:
1. It will form the jeweled pendant in an emerging vision of greenways, riverways, parks, and trails that will eventually embrace our region like a golden necklace from Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, where gold was first discovered by James Marshall in 1848, to the confluence in Sacramento, the gateway to the gold fields. This will create one of the most spectacular linking of parks, history and water in the nation, rivaling Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace.
This golden necklace, with Gold Rush Park as its beginning, would stretch east along the American River Parkway up to Folsom and beyond, all the way to Sutter’s Mill, reaching back and then south along the Laguna Creek Trail System down into the Cosumnes River Preserve Corridor, then west flowing back to the Sacramento River, and heading north back up to the confluence.
2. Along with the California Indian Heritage Center planned just across the American River, the park will memorialize the greatest migration of peoples in the history of the western hemisphere and commemorate the tragedy that the migration inflicted on California Indians.
3. Pedestrian and bike bridges will connect the park with the American River Parkway to create the largest urban park in the nation (surpassing the 5,000 acre Forest Park in Portland) and serve as an appropriate setting of land and water for the capital of the largest, most beautiful state in our country.
4. The vision for Gold Rush Park is financially feasible, beginning to be embraced by local public leadership, and possible to accomplish. The assemblage of supporters is broad, with deep roots in the history, commerce and public service of our region. This visionary marriage of land, water, commerce, history, and people can happen here as it has happened elsewhere.
Portland, with its award winning Eastbank Esplanade and the River Renaissance project, continues to have success creating its river-front as a vibrant front porch for the city; Boston’s Emerald Necklace and San Antonio’s Riverwalk are legendary; and White River State Park in Indianapolis 20 years ago began replacing an urban industrial area, and now is home to the Indianapolis Zoo, a baseball stadium, IMAX theater, the Indiana State Museum, and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial, the NCAA Hall of Champions and The Lawn, an outdoor performance venue overlooking the White River with seating for 5,000.
5. Gold Rush Park will be the capstone project that will complete the long regeneration of the downtown, finally making Sacramento a world-class, destination city—where people come just to wander its parks, boat and fish its rivers, shop in its stores and explore its zoo, museums, galleries and historical sites.
Gold Rush Park has all of the elements to make Sacramento a truly great river city.
For more information visit www.sacramentovalleyconservancy.org or www.arconservancy.org
David H. Lukenbill is the Founding President and Senior Policy Director of the American River Parkway Preservation Society and chairs the American River Parkway Task Force of the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce.
City Voices: Our Emerald Necklace
Why We Need Gold Rush Park
By David H. Lukenbill
Gold Rush Park is a planned 970 acre development at the confluence of the Sacramento and American River. It would replace the existing warehouse, business, and apartments with parks and open space, fine arts and performing arts venues, a zoo, botanical gardens and conservatories, and a canal district with boating and restaurants, housing and shops.
For virtually all of its history Sacramento’s two riverbanks have been our back alleys, where all the places we don’t want to look at wind up, while the two rivers have flooded so many times they have been leveed to the point of recreational and visual unusability.
In the suburbs the American River Parkway embraces the American River, creating sanctuary and delighting all who use it. In urban Sacramento there is nothing that embraces the rivers as beautifully, elegantly and completely as Gold Rush Park will, by fully bringing our two rivers into the marriage with the capital city which so many have long wished for.
Sacramento has the elements, as Joel Kotkin notes in his book The City, which form the foundation from which great cities are built, “the creation of sacred space, the provision of basic security, and host for a commercial market…”.
Here is what Gold Rush Park will do:
1. It will form the jeweled pendant in an emerging vision of greenways, riverways, parks, and trails that will eventually embrace our region like a golden necklace from Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, where gold was first discovered by James Marshall in 1848, to the confluence in Sacramento, the gateway to the gold fields. This will create one of the most spectacular linking of parks, history and water in the nation, rivaling Boston’s famed Emerald Necklace.
This golden necklace, with Gold Rush Park as its beginning, would stretch east along the American River Parkway up to Folsom and beyond, all the way to Sutter’s Mill, reaching back and then south along the Laguna Creek Trail System down into the Cosumnes River Preserve Corridor, then west flowing back to the Sacramento River, and heading north back up to the confluence.
2. Along with the California Indian Heritage Center planned just across the American River, the park will memorialize the greatest migration of peoples in the history of the western hemisphere and commemorate the tragedy that the migration inflicted on California Indians.
3. Pedestrian and bike bridges will connect the park with the American River Parkway to create the largest urban park in the nation (surpassing the 5,000 acre Forest Park in Portland) and serve as an appropriate setting of land and water for the capital of the largest, most beautiful state in our country.
4. The vision for Gold Rush Park is financially feasible, beginning to be embraced by local public leadership, and possible to accomplish. The assemblage of supporters is broad, with deep roots in the history, commerce and public service of our region. This visionary marriage of land, water, commerce, history, and people can happen here as it has happened elsewhere.
Portland, with its award winning Eastbank Esplanade and the River Renaissance project, continues to have success creating its river-front as a vibrant front porch for the city; Boston’s Emerald Necklace and San Antonio’s Riverwalk are legendary; and White River State Park in Indianapolis 20 years ago began replacing an urban industrial area, and now is home to the Indianapolis Zoo, a baseball stadium, IMAX theater, the Indiana State Museum, and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial, the NCAA Hall of Champions and The Lawn, an outdoor performance venue overlooking the White River with seating for 5,000.
5. Gold Rush Park will be the capstone project that will complete the long regeneration of the downtown, finally making Sacramento a world-class, destination city—where people come just to wander its parks, boat and fish its rivers, shop in its stores and explore its zoo, museums, galleries and historical sites.
Gold Rush Park has all of the elements to make Sacramento a truly great river city.
For more information visit www.sacramentovalleyconservancy.org or www.arconservancy.org
David H. Lukenbill is the Founding President and Senior Policy Director of the American River Parkway Preservation Society and chairs the American River Parkway Task Force of the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce.
Delta Planning
In what could begin a vitally needed process involving flood protection in central California, public leadership is expressing the willingness to think abut it seriously, with what happened in New Orleans spurring them on.
An excerpt.
State's delta is at the core of safeguard strategy plan
By Michael Gardner COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
August 7, 2006
SACRAMENTO – For the first time, California has started to map an all-in-one strategy to safeguard an economically vital network of highways, railroads and energy supply lines crisscrossing the heart of the state.
This post-Hurricane Katrina response broadens the state's initial list of priorities beyond levees and aqueducts to target overlooked lifelines centered in the Sacramento Delta that are just as vital to the state's fiscal well-being, from San Diego to Silicon Valley.
A natural disaster in the delta could disrupt the delivery of goods and services along roads, rail lines and deep-water ports. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. facilities there bring energy supplies to millions.
“We have ignored the warnings too long,” said Lester Snow, California's Department of Water Resources director. “Now is the time to come up with a different vision.”
That vision could lead to an unprecedented push to relocate highways, railroad tracks and gas lines to safer ground – potentially costly and politically sensitive moves.
Costs could be spread out, officials say. Ideas include assuming more bond debt, imposing special water-connection fees or collecting tolls to drive on newly raised roads.
The price of inertia could be flooded homes, closed transportation routes and power outages, officials warn.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, recognizing that such an ambitious undertaking will meet with resistance from many quarters, is preparing an aggressive executive order that will put reluctant interests on notice that dramatic policy changes are on the way.
“We need a plan. We need leadership. We need someone who makes decisions,” said Banky Curtis, a longtime manager in the state Department of Fish and Game. “We need to do what's real. We can't meet everybody's needs.”
Schwarzenegger also is weighing a proposal to appoint a panel of experts from across the country to help brace the delta for what may lie ahead. The proposal has been endorsed by some insiders who recognize a fresh perspective is necessary.
An excerpt.
State's delta is at the core of safeguard strategy plan
By Michael Gardner COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
August 7, 2006
SACRAMENTO – For the first time, California has started to map an all-in-one strategy to safeguard an economically vital network of highways, railroads and energy supply lines crisscrossing the heart of the state.
This post-Hurricane Katrina response broadens the state's initial list of priorities beyond levees and aqueducts to target overlooked lifelines centered in the Sacramento Delta that are just as vital to the state's fiscal well-being, from San Diego to Silicon Valley.
A natural disaster in the delta could disrupt the delivery of goods and services along roads, rail lines and deep-water ports. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. facilities there bring energy supplies to millions.
“We have ignored the warnings too long,” said Lester Snow, California's Department of Water Resources director. “Now is the time to come up with a different vision.”
That vision could lead to an unprecedented push to relocate highways, railroad tracks and gas lines to safer ground – potentially costly and politically sensitive moves.
Costs could be spread out, officials say. Ideas include assuming more bond debt, imposing special water-connection fees or collecting tolls to drive on newly raised roads.
The price of inertia could be flooded homes, closed transportation routes and power outages, officials warn.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, recognizing that such an ambitious undertaking will meet with resistance from many quarters, is preparing an aggressive executive order that will put reluctant interests on notice that dramatic policy changes are on the way.
“We need a plan. We need leadership. We need someone who makes decisions,” said Banky Curtis, a longtime manager in the state Department of Fish and Game. “We need to do what's real. We can't meet everybody's needs.”
Schwarzenegger also is weighing a proposal to appoint a panel of experts from across the country to help brace the delta for what may lie ahead. The proposal has been endorsed by some insiders who recognize a fresh perspective is necessary.
Technology Works, Part One
Here is an example of technology solving our air pollution that isn’t working as well as it could, yet.
An excerpt.
Hybrid buses lose steam in Elk Grove
They sputter on freeways, and A/C systems have quit
By Loretta Kalb -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Monday, August 7, 2006
When Elk Grove established its own transit system 19 months ago, it was hailed as another first for a city that prides itself on maverick moves.
A hybrid-powered commuter bus fleet -- the cleanest in the nation -- would be the heart of what's called the e-tran.
But now, Elk Grove's path to clean-air mass transit has taken a detour. Diesel buses, both chartered and purchased, currently make up nearly half of e-tran's 42-vehicle fleet and most of the daily commute buses to downtown Sacramento.
Instead of cruising into the nation's history books, the hybrid fleet has had trouble accelerating into the fast lanes of the freeways. Instead of comfortable rides, hybrid bus air conditioners have quit in triple-digit temperatures, leaving passengers sweating in ovenlike heat.
Now, only five of the city's 21 hybrids are used on freeways.
"In the quest to be leading edge, you have to take chances at times on new technology," Mayor Rick Soares said. "We took that chance."
An excerpt.
Hybrid buses lose steam in Elk Grove
They sputter on freeways, and A/C systems have quit
By Loretta Kalb -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Monday, August 7, 2006
When Elk Grove established its own transit system 19 months ago, it was hailed as another first for a city that prides itself on maverick moves.
A hybrid-powered commuter bus fleet -- the cleanest in the nation -- would be the heart of what's called the e-tran.
But now, Elk Grove's path to clean-air mass transit has taken a detour. Diesel buses, both chartered and purchased, currently make up nearly half of e-tran's 42-vehicle fleet and most of the daily commute buses to downtown Sacramento.
Instead of cruising into the nation's history books, the hybrid fleet has had trouble accelerating into the fast lanes of the freeways. Instead of comfortable rides, hybrid bus air conditioners have quit in triple-digit temperatures, leaving passengers sweating in ovenlike heat.
Now, only five of the city's 21 hybrids are used on freeways.
"In the quest to be leading edge, you have to take chances at times on new technology," Mayor Rick Soares said. "We took that chance."
Technology Works, Part Two
Here is an example of technology used to clean our air (from rice straw burning) which seems promising.
An Excerpt.
Research may spin rice straw into gold
New uses could turn field waste into ethanol or fast-food packaging.
By Herbert A. Sample -- Bee San Francisco BureauPublished 12:01 am PDT Monday, August 7, 2006
ALBANY -- Since 1991, state law has forced Sacramento Valley rice growers to drastically cut the amount of straw they burn, obliging them to leave most of it in the fields after harvest or pay someone to cart the stuff away.
But far from the rice paddies, in this urbanized Bay Area town, research is finding new uses for material left behind after kernels are removed from the plant.
Workers at the federal Agricultural Research Service are looking into ways of converting rice straw, wheat straw and other "biomass" material into ethanol, or packaging material and fast-food containers.
All this work comes at a judicious time as gasoline prices continue their upward spike -- making ethanol an attractive option. And, more cities are considering following examples set by Berkeley, Portland and Oakland, which have prohibited Styrofoam food containers. San Francisco will consider a similar ban this summer.
An Excerpt.
Research may spin rice straw into gold
New uses could turn field waste into ethanol or fast-food packaging.
By Herbert A. Sample -- Bee San Francisco BureauPublished 12:01 am PDT Monday, August 7, 2006
ALBANY -- Since 1991, state law has forced Sacramento Valley rice growers to drastically cut the amount of straw they burn, obliging them to leave most of it in the fields after harvest or pay someone to cart the stuff away.
But far from the rice paddies, in this urbanized Bay Area town, research is finding new uses for material left behind after kernels are removed from the plant.
Workers at the federal Agricultural Research Service are looking into ways of converting rice straw, wheat straw and other "biomass" material into ethanol, or packaging material and fast-food containers.
All this work comes at a judicious time as gasoline prices continue their upward spike -- making ethanol an attractive option. And, more cities are considering following examples set by Berkeley, Portland and Oakland, which have prohibited Styrofoam food containers. San Francisco will consider a similar ban this summer.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Auburn Dam Council
Story about the meeting (which your blogger and the ARPPS president also attended) of the Council with Congressman Doolittle briefing us on the progress of the Auburn Dam.
The meeting was packed (standing room only) with dam supporters who generally agreed that finally after many years of work, the dam was really going to be built this time. There were a few protesters on the sidewalk who seem to follow the issue and Congressman Doolittle around these days.
An excerpt.
Doolittle makes case for Auburn dam
By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer
FAIR OAKS - U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, delivered a buoyant pep talk Friday to the Auburn Dam Council on the latest prospects in Washington, D.C. for a multipurpose dam on the American River at Auburn.
But he also warned that costs are going up for the multi-billion-dollar project, and a local partner to share the costs of a $30 million feasibility study on the dam has yet to come forward.
Outside the Fair Oaks restaurant, a group of demonstrators served notice that continued opposition to the dam is as strong as ever. They say the dam would destroy an already-established recreational resource and river eco-system.
First conceived in the mid-1950s and partially built in the 1970s until earthquake, cost and environmental questions stalled work at the site indefinitely, the Auburn dam plan has been given new life after Gulf Coast flooding caused renewed concerns over the threat of a similar disaster in the Sacramento area.
Doolittle said that levee and Folsom dam improvements now taking place aren't enough for flood protection.
The 400-year flood protection a multipurpose dam would offer is essential for the safety of the region, Doolittle said. Speaking before an audience of about 40 people at the dam booster group's monthly meeting, Doolittle said that one of the factors moving the dam forward in Washington is the support it is now receiving from both Jerry Lewis, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and David Hobson, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
Doolittle said the support on the dam from Lewis has been "phenomenal," noting the California Republican spent time living in Sacramento while serving in the state Legislature and knows the flooding concerns firsthand.
"They're both personally committed to making this happen," Doolittle said. "We've never had support from those two positions before.
"Doolittle added that he's attempting to convince U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to back the dam and help create a climate of cooperation that will move the project forward.
Doolittle was the prime mover behind freeing $1 million in federal funding for a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cost-benefit analysis on the dam. That report is expected by the end of the month.
Doolittle said that dam opponents have used inflated cost figures in the past on the dam and the study will provide updated numbers. But he warned that construction cost increases in recent years have meant the dam's price tag is rising.
"Unfortunately construction costs are rising 20 percent annually and it's making any project - anything with concrete and steel - extremely unpredictable and expensive," Doolittle said. "The dam I'm supporting is 70 stories high and involves a lot of concrete.
"Doolittle has also been moving funding through Congress that would provide $3 million in the Energy and Water Bill for an Auburn dam feasibility study. Doolittle said the feasibility study is required by law and needs a local partner.
"I'm looking for a non-federal cost-sharing partner and they'll need about $15 million," Doolittle said. "When we identify that, we're really going to start moving."
One possible partner is the state.
The meeting was packed (standing room only) with dam supporters who generally agreed that finally after many years of work, the dam was really going to be built this time. There were a few protesters on the sidewalk who seem to follow the issue and Congressman Doolittle around these days.
An excerpt.
Doolittle makes case for Auburn dam
By: Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer
FAIR OAKS - U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, delivered a buoyant pep talk Friday to the Auburn Dam Council on the latest prospects in Washington, D.C. for a multipurpose dam on the American River at Auburn.
But he also warned that costs are going up for the multi-billion-dollar project, and a local partner to share the costs of a $30 million feasibility study on the dam has yet to come forward.
Outside the Fair Oaks restaurant, a group of demonstrators served notice that continued opposition to the dam is as strong as ever. They say the dam would destroy an already-established recreational resource and river eco-system.
First conceived in the mid-1950s and partially built in the 1970s until earthquake, cost and environmental questions stalled work at the site indefinitely, the Auburn dam plan has been given new life after Gulf Coast flooding caused renewed concerns over the threat of a similar disaster in the Sacramento area.
Doolittle said that levee and Folsom dam improvements now taking place aren't enough for flood protection.
The 400-year flood protection a multipurpose dam would offer is essential for the safety of the region, Doolittle said. Speaking before an audience of about 40 people at the dam booster group's monthly meeting, Doolittle said that one of the factors moving the dam forward in Washington is the support it is now receiving from both Jerry Lewis, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and David Hobson, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
Doolittle said the support on the dam from Lewis has been "phenomenal," noting the California Republican spent time living in Sacramento while serving in the state Legislature and knows the flooding concerns firsthand.
"They're both personally committed to making this happen," Doolittle said. "We've never had support from those two positions before.
"Doolittle added that he's attempting to convince U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to back the dam and help create a climate of cooperation that will move the project forward.
Doolittle was the prime mover behind freeing $1 million in federal funding for a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation cost-benefit analysis on the dam. That report is expected by the end of the month.
Doolittle said that dam opponents have used inflated cost figures in the past on the dam and the study will provide updated numbers. But he warned that construction cost increases in recent years have meant the dam's price tag is rising.
"Unfortunately construction costs are rising 20 percent annually and it's making any project - anything with concrete and steel - extremely unpredictable and expensive," Doolittle said. "The dam I'm supporting is 70 stories high and involves a lot of concrete.
"Doolittle has also been moving funding through Congress that would provide $3 million in the Energy and Water Bill for an Auburn dam feasibility study. Doolittle said the feasibility study is required by law and needs a local partner.
"I'm looking for a non-federal cost-sharing partner and they'll need about $15 million," Doolittle said. "When we identify that, we're really going to start moving."
One possible partner is the state.
Water Portrait
A wonderful story about a man and his family who have moved from half way around the world to Sacramento to help us solve our water problems.
An excerpt.
Portrait: Testing the waters
Shyamal Chowdhury wants others to understand the area's flood risks
By Bob Sylva -- Bee Columnist Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
Shyamal Chowdhury is Bangladeshi. As a boy, thirsting for knowledge of the West, he read Time and Life magazines by the glow of a hurricane lamp. No doubt a common faucet would have left him spellbound.
Then, and now, water flows in his veins.
Chowdhury's destiny was to be a water engineer. Every day, he sits in front of a computer terminal. He stages flood models, enacts disaster scenarios -- a breached levee, a tidal wave -- and calculates flood- risk assessments. His is a perilous hypothetical.
"People have a false sense of security," says Chowdhury of current flood safety measures. "These levees can break. These dams can fail. We need to build and reconstruct in such a way that we can avert future disasters." Not a drop of this is academic to him.
Bangladesh is at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal. It has one of the world's largest deltas, which is fed by two of the subcontinent's most powerful and sacred rivers, the Ganges, which carries a dirgeful stream of human ash, and the Brahmaputra, which is invigorated by snowmelt from the Himalayas.
This is the monsoon season. A time when the parched soil of Bangladesh is refreshed and innundated by torrential rains. In 1970, a cyclone drowned 500,000 people in what was then East Pakistan. In 1991, another cyclone killed 140,000 people, leaving 10 million more homeless. To be Bangladeshi is to know in your heart the creative- destructive paradox of water.
Now, on a late afternoon, Shyamal Chowdhury is sitting in a conference room at his office. He works for Wood Rogers, an engineering firm located in Cannery Park off C Street. Much of this city, like all of Bangladesh, is just a bump above sea level.
An excerpt.
Portrait: Testing the waters
Shyamal Chowdhury wants others to understand the area's flood risks
By Bob Sylva -- Bee Columnist Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
Shyamal Chowdhury is Bangladeshi. As a boy, thirsting for knowledge of the West, he read Time and Life magazines by the glow of a hurricane lamp. No doubt a common faucet would have left him spellbound.
Then, and now, water flows in his veins.
Chowdhury's destiny was to be a water engineer. Every day, he sits in front of a computer terminal. He stages flood models, enacts disaster scenarios -- a breached levee, a tidal wave -- and calculates flood- risk assessments. His is a perilous hypothetical.
"People have a false sense of security," says Chowdhury of current flood safety measures. "These levees can break. These dams can fail. We need to build and reconstruct in such a way that we can avert future disasters." Not a drop of this is academic to him.
Bangladesh is at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal. It has one of the world's largest deltas, which is fed by two of the subcontinent's most powerful and sacred rivers, the Ganges, which carries a dirgeful stream of human ash, and the Brahmaputra, which is invigorated by snowmelt from the Himalayas.
This is the monsoon season. A time when the parched soil of Bangladesh is refreshed and innundated by torrential rains. In 1970, a cyclone drowned 500,000 people in what was then East Pakistan. In 1991, another cyclone killed 140,000 people, leaving 10 million more homeless. To be Bangladeshi is to know in your heart the creative- destructive paradox of water.
Now, on a late afternoon, Shyamal Chowdhury is sitting in a conference room at his office. He works for Wood Rogers, an engineering firm located in Cannery Park off C Street. Much of this city, like all of Bangladesh, is just a bump above sea level.
Technology Works
Years ago air pollution was considered California’s bane, a result of development and the cars it brought; but a couple of technologies, the catalytic converter and better additives for the gasoline the cars used, has worked wonders, though ideologues still deny it.
An excerpt.
Daniel Weintraub: Clearing air on California's success in pollution fight
By Daniel Weintraub -- Bee Columnist Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
One of the biggest successes of government regulation over the past generation has been the project to clean California's air. But most of the state's residents have no idea how things have changed, or why.
In a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, half the adults surveyed said they believed the air quality in their region was worse today than it was 10 years ago, and another 13 percent said it was the same. Only 21 percent said it was better.
But by almost any measure, the air is cleaner today in just about every corner of California than it was a decade ago. And the progress over the longer term has been even more dramatic.
The change is all the more impressive because it has come amid the state's relentless growth. California's population of 37 million has nearly doubled since 1970, when the effort to clear the air began in earnest. Over the past 10 years, we've added 5 million people. But still the air gets cleaner.
Twenty years ago, smog alerts were fairly common, especially in the Los Angeles region. In a first-stage alert, school districts were warned to use caution when allowing children to play outside. In a second-stage alert, businesses that produced a lot of ozone, a major ingredient in smog, were told to cut back their operations or switch to cleaner burning fuels. Now those warnings are relatively rare.
The transformation began in the mid-1970s, with the federal Clean Air Act and the phasing out of leaded gasoline. The lead in fuel caused many problems, but one was crucial: It prevented the use of catalytic converters to clean the exhaust, because the lead poisoned the devices.
Catalytic converters are filters that reduce an engine's emission of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide, which come from burning fuel and are the major ingredients of smog. The introduction and development of the catalytic converter and the invention of cleaner burning fuels greatly reduced the amount of pollution produced by cars and trucks.
The other big change, especially in the past 10 years, has been the reduction in pollution from diesel engines.
Before 1993, the average sulfur content of diesel fuel was around 3,000 parts per million, according to the California Air Resources Board. Cleaner-burning fuel introduced in the early 1990s reduced that to 500 parts per million. Soon, it will be 15 parts per million.
An excerpt.
Daniel Weintraub: Clearing air on California's success in pollution fight
By Daniel Weintraub -- Bee Columnist Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
One of the biggest successes of government regulation over the past generation has been the project to clean California's air. But most of the state's residents have no idea how things have changed, or why.
In a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, half the adults surveyed said they believed the air quality in their region was worse today than it was 10 years ago, and another 13 percent said it was the same. Only 21 percent said it was better.
But by almost any measure, the air is cleaner today in just about every corner of California than it was a decade ago. And the progress over the longer term has been even more dramatic.
The change is all the more impressive because it has come amid the state's relentless growth. California's population of 37 million has nearly doubled since 1970, when the effort to clear the air began in earnest. Over the past 10 years, we've added 5 million people. But still the air gets cleaner.
Twenty years ago, smog alerts were fairly common, especially in the Los Angeles region. In a first-stage alert, school districts were warned to use caution when allowing children to play outside. In a second-stage alert, businesses that produced a lot of ozone, a major ingredient in smog, were told to cut back their operations or switch to cleaner burning fuels. Now those warnings are relatively rare.
The transformation began in the mid-1970s, with the federal Clean Air Act and the phasing out of leaded gasoline. The lead in fuel caused many problems, but one was crucial: It prevented the use of catalytic converters to clean the exhaust, because the lead poisoned the devices.
Catalytic converters are filters that reduce an engine's emission of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide, which come from burning fuel and are the major ingredients of smog. The introduction and development of the catalytic converter and the invention of cleaner burning fuels greatly reduced the amount of pollution produced by cars and trucks.
The other big change, especially in the past 10 years, has been the reduction in pollution from diesel engines.
Before 1993, the average sulfur content of diesel fuel was around 3,000 parts per million, according to the California Air Resources Board. Cleaner-burning fuel introduced in the early 1990s reduced that to 500 parts per million. Soon, it will be 15 parts per million.
Development Continues
A major reason the Auburn Dam is needed, in addition to providing flood protection for Sacramento at the appropriate 500 year level, and protecting the integrity of the Parkway by not having to constantly use it as a flood waters conveyance system; is to provide water and power to the thousands moving here to fill these new homes being built in our area.
An excerpt.
Hot ... or not: Nearly 8,000 more homes on drawing board
One Elk Grove tract saw a boom of thousands of new houses; the timing for an adjacent tract is less certain
By Jim Wasserman -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
This tale of two vast land developments -- and what it says about the fickle fate of timing and changing fortunes of the capital region's home building industry -- begins with Vanjay Lee's $224,000 house in Elk Grove.
In December 2001, Lee signed a deal for a two-story, four-bedroom home to be built -- at an amazing price by today's standards -- in an empty area of Elk Grove known as the East Franklin Specific Plan. Five months later, the Sacramento resident and his family moved in and became suburban pioneers on 2,470 acres that were once home to dairy cows and jack rabbits. Lee hardly guessed he would soon see one of the most astounding housing booms in the capital region's history.
As hordes of construction workers carved out streets and poured concrete foundations around him on the land south of Elk Grove Boulevard, he could look across a landscape that developers predicted would take 10 years -- or maybe even 20 -- to fill up with homes.
It took a little more than three.
"Since I moved here, I have seen houses grow like a mushroom coming from the ground," said Lee, who can count about 10,000 new homes and two Starbucks stores within an easy drive. His own house has more than doubled in value.
Now, after the blinding speed that built East Franklin, developers are preparing a parallel suburban universe -- the Laguna Ridge Specific Plan -- just across the street.
On 1,900 wide-open acres, where valley oaks and grasslands make a spectacular setting during winter fog and summer sunsets, developers plan nearly 8,000 more homes, a civic center and five schools for one of California's fastest-growing cities.
An excerpt.
Hot ... or not: Nearly 8,000 more homes on drawing board
One Elk Grove tract saw a boom of thousands of new houses; the timing for an adjacent tract is less certain
By Jim Wasserman -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
This tale of two vast land developments -- and what it says about the fickle fate of timing and changing fortunes of the capital region's home building industry -- begins with Vanjay Lee's $224,000 house in Elk Grove.
In December 2001, Lee signed a deal for a two-story, four-bedroom home to be built -- at an amazing price by today's standards -- in an empty area of Elk Grove known as the East Franklin Specific Plan. Five months later, the Sacramento resident and his family moved in and became suburban pioneers on 2,470 acres that were once home to dairy cows and jack rabbits. Lee hardly guessed he would soon see one of the most astounding housing booms in the capital region's history.
As hordes of construction workers carved out streets and poured concrete foundations around him on the land south of Elk Grove Boulevard, he could look across a landscape that developers predicted would take 10 years -- or maybe even 20 -- to fill up with homes.
It took a little more than three.
"Since I moved here, I have seen houses grow like a mushroom coming from the ground," said Lee, who can count about 10,000 new homes and two Starbucks stores within an easy drive. His own house has more than doubled in value.
Now, after the blinding speed that built East Franklin, developers are preparing a parallel suburban universe -- the Laguna Ridge Specific Plan -- just across the street.
On 1,900 wide-open acres, where valley oaks and grasslands make a spectacular setting during winter fog and summer sunsets, developers plan nearly 8,000 more homes, a civic center and five schools for one of California's fastest-growing cities.
Supervisors to Vote on Parkway Beer Ban
Follow up notice to the holiday troubles with drinkers that could have been handled with adequate police presence, something the county hasn’t been able to afford for quite awhile.
The notice.
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider measures to curb the kind of raucous activities that have turned stretches of the American River into scenes reminiscent of a Jerry Springer episode.
Back-to-back years of drunken holiday brawling by rafters and others has prompted supervisors to look at tougher restrictions on the consumption and possession of alcohol.
A July 4 melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital. That dangerous event followed an incident the previous year resulting in 30 arrests and a county ban on alcohol at several down-river locations.
Ron Suter, director of Sacramento County's Regional Parks, Recreation and Open Space, said if the new ordinance is approved, officers will stop rafters from entering the parkway with booze on holiday weekends.
The ordinance would prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages or the possession of an open container along the American River Parkway between Hazel Avenue and Watt Avenue on Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend and Labor Day weekend.
Supervisors are scheduled to consider the issue at 2:15 p.m. The board meets at 700 H St.
The notice.
Sacramento County Board of Supervisors
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider measures to curb the kind of raucous activities that have turned stretches of the American River into scenes reminiscent of a Jerry Springer episode.
Back-to-back years of drunken holiday brawling by rafters and others has prompted supervisors to look at tougher restrictions on the consumption and possession of alcohol.
A July 4 melee involving more than three dozen oar-wielding drunken rafters sent one man to the hospital. That dangerous event followed an incident the previous year resulting in 30 arrests and a county ban on alcohol at several down-river locations.
Ron Suter, director of Sacramento County's Regional Parks, Recreation and Open Space, said if the new ordinance is approved, officers will stop rafters from entering the parkway with booze on holiday weekends.
The ordinance would prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages or the possession of an open container along the American River Parkway between Hazel Avenue and Watt Avenue on Memorial Day weekend, Fourth of July weekend and Labor Day weekend.
Supervisors are scheduled to consider the issue at 2:15 p.m. The board meets at 700 H St.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Using the Parkway
What a great way to use the Parkway, helping people!
A wonderful story!
An excerpt.
Disease is bump in road for rider
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, August 5, 2006
Time was, John Crews could command his body to soar on a bicycle, twisting and turning, making mouths drop open -- on several continents.
He was paid handsomely then to compete in biking motocross, riding on the cutting edge of an emerging sport born on dusty tracks in California.
So when the ever-so-slight tremors began to quiver his fingers, he closed off thoughts of disease, disability.
Tests, doctors, more tests. No more denials: Not even 40 yet, Crews had Parkinson's disease, a degeneration of nerve cells that robs the body of muscular control.
There is no cure.
"The first thing you say is 'Why me?' " said Crews, now 43.
A pioneering pro on the BMX circuit during the 1970s and 1980s, Crews didn't take long to leave self-pity behind in the dust.
He looked to biking cousins like road-racing Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor.
"Everybody's got some issue," said Crews, now owner of Bicycles Plus, a Folsom shop perched near the bike trail on the American River Parkway.
Crews and two other biking friends have joined forces to combine their passions for cycling and their causes.
The first annual Ride for a Reason, unlike other charity bike rides, is designed for families and casual riders unwilling to slice through traffic for upward of 100 miles.
Ride for a Reason's entire course is protected from motor vehicle traffic on the American River Parkway bike trail over a 13-mile loop around Lake Natoma. Riders have three hours to complete as many loops or as many miles as possible. And, unlike other rides, there will be at least $30,000 in prizes, from high-performance bicycles to high-end barbecue grills.
The Aug. 19 ride will benefit three charities, including the Davis Phinney Foundation, named for the Colorado man who collected more wins than any other U.S. cyclist and, like Crews, has Parkinson's. The foundation funds research toward a cure and therapy.
A wonderful story!
An excerpt.
Disease is bump in road for rider
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, August 5, 2006
Time was, John Crews could command his body to soar on a bicycle, twisting and turning, making mouths drop open -- on several continents.
He was paid handsomely then to compete in biking motocross, riding on the cutting edge of an emerging sport born on dusty tracks in California.
So when the ever-so-slight tremors began to quiver his fingers, he closed off thoughts of disease, disability.
Tests, doctors, more tests. No more denials: Not even 40 yet, Crews had Parkinson's disease, a degeneration of nerve cells that robs the body of muscular control.
There is no cure.
"The first thing you say is 'Why me?' " said Crews, now 43.
A pioneering pro on the BMX circuit during the 1970s and 1980s, Crews didn't take long to leave self-pity behind in the dust.
He looked to biking cousins like road-racing Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor.
"Everybody's got some issue," said Crews, now owner of Bicycles Plus, a Folsom shop perched near the bike trail on the American River Parkway.
Crews and two other biking friends have joined forces to combine their passions for cycling and their causes.
The first annual Ride for a Reason, unlike other charity bike rides, is designed for families and casual riders unwilling to slice through traffic for upward of 100 miles.
Ride for a Reason's entire course is protected from motor vehicle traffic on the American River Parkway bike trail over a 13-mile loop around Lake Natoma. Riders have three hours to complete as many loops or as many miles as possible. And, unlike other rides, there will be at least $30,000 in prizes, from high-performance bicycles to high-end barbecue grills.
The Aug. 19 ride will benefit three charities, including the Davis Phinney Foundation, named for the Colorado man who collected more wins than any other U.S. cyclist and, like Crews, has Parkinson's. The foundation funds research toward a cure and therapy.
Homeless Beating Follow Up
A really sad story all the way around, but it appears resolution has been reached, as much as it can in these type of cases.
An excerpt.
Homeless crime victim finds his voice in court
By Jocelyn Wiener -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, August 5, 2006
For one last time Friday morning, John Jewett prepared to share a courtroom with a young man accused of attacking him twice in the midtown shed where he slept.
Jewett already knew Clinton Garrett, 22, would be sentenced to five years in state prison for beating him with a tree branch and a pipe on two occasions in December and January, scratching one of his corneas and splitting one nostril. That had been agreed upon in a plea bargain last month.
Another assailant, who is not being identified by authorities because he is a juvenile, already had been sentenced to four years.
Soon, Jewett knew, it would all be over. But first he had something to say.
While Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Morris handled a string of other cases, Jewett unfolded a piece of paper and began practicing his speech.
Jewett, 53, is homeless. During three, four, even five days at the library, he had typed and deleted, rewritten and checked for typos. He wanted the statement he read at Garrett's sentencing to be perfect.
Others had come to the courtroom in the Sacramento County Main Jail to offer Jewett their support. The Rev. Linda Kelly, spiritual director at the Loaves & Fishes homeless services complex, was there, along with Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brown and victim's advocate Mailyn Chuong, who had worked with him for months. Chuong had volunteered to read Jewett's statement for him. But he wanted to try.
Across the aisle, Garrett's mother, Laura, sat alone. When the judge called a recess, she headed outside to smoke.
She said her older children -- she has eight total -- tell her she is naive for not believing that her son would do such horrible things. Four of her eight children have done time, she said.
Clinton, she said, had just gotten out after serving a lengthy sentence for arson. She doesn't believe he committed that crime. In her heart, she can't believe he attacked Jewett, either. Not the way they said.
She and Garrett's father had been homeless a long time, she said. Their children were taken into Child Protective Services' custody. She and her husband have strong beliefs about not hurting people, she added. Besides, Clinton had been attending church with her.
"It just doesn't make no sense to me," she said. "Do you understand why my heart is so confused?"
But whether or not her son was guilty, she wanted him to know she loved him unconditionally. So she attended every court appearance.
An excerpt.
Homeless crime victim finds his voice in court
By Jocelyn Wiener -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, August 5, 2006
For one last time Friday morning, John Jewett prepared to share a courtroom with a young man accused of attacking him twice in the midtown shed where he slept.
Jewett already knew Clinton Garrett, 22, would be sentenced to five years in state prison for beating him with a tree branch and a pipe on two occasions in December and January, scratching one of his corneas and splitting one nostril. That had been agreed upon in a plea bargain last month.
Another assailant, who is not being identified by authorities because he is a juvenile, already had been sentenced to four years.
Soon, Jewett knew, it would all be over. But first he had something to say.
While Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Morris handled a string of other cases, Jewett unfolded a piece of paper and began practicing his speech.
Jewett, 53, is homeless. During three, four, even five days at the library, he had typed and deleted, rewritten and checked for typos. He wanted the statement he read at Garrett's sentencing to be perfect.
Others had come to the courtroom in the Sacramento County Main Jail to offer Jewett their support. The Rev. Linda Kelly, spiritual director at the Loaves & Fishes homeless services complex, was there, along with Deputy District Attorney Valerie Brown and victim's advocate Mailyn Chuong, who had worked with him for months. Chuong had volunteered to read Jewett's statement for him. But he wanted to try.
Across the aisle, Garrett's mother, Laura, sat alone. When the judge called a recess, she headed outside to smoke.
She said her older children -- she has eight total -- tell her she is naive for not believing that her son would do such horrible things. Four of her eight children have done time, she said.
Clinton, she said, had just gotten out after serving a lengthy sentence for arson. She doesn't believe he committed that crime. In her heart, she can't believe he attacked Jewett, either. Not the way they said.
She and Garrett's father had been homeless a long time, she said. Their children were taken into Child Protective Services' custody. She and her husband have strong beliefs about not hurting people, she added. Besides, Clinton had been attending church with her.
"It just doesn't make no sense to me," she said. "Do you understand why my heart is so confused?"
But whether or not her son was guilty, she wanted him to know she loved him unconditionally. So she attended every court appearance.
Salmon Fishing
A very nice article from a pro about salmon fishing.
An excerpt.
It's August, and that means jigging for kokanee salmon
Outdoors
By: J.D. Richey Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:45 PM PDT
In August, kokanee salmon in Northern California reservoirs start to get edgy. With spawning season not too far off, the fish get all bunched up into tightly-packed schools, and in those close quarters, the salmon become aggressive.
And, that, my friends makes them particularly susceptible to one of my favorite koke techniques: jigging.
While trolling is, bar-none, the most popular way to catch kokanee, there are times when jigging is the way to go - especially in late summer. To jig kokes, I like to rig up with a light jigging stick and conventional reel spooled up with 8-pound braided line. With two Triple Surgeon's Loops, I'll attach a 6-foot section of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader to the end of the braid and then a jig to the end.
As far as lures go, I'll drop ½- to 2-ounce spoons like Crippled Herring, Buzz Bombs, Revenge Spoons, Bomber Slabs and Hopkins Smoothies.
Fluorescent colors like flame red, orange, chartreuse and chartreuse/lime green seem to be best but I'll also carry some silver/orange and silver/chartreuse as well.
The trick to this whole game is to locate the big schools of fish. Good places to begin your quest are the faces of dams, river channels and major points.
The fish will be suspended - usually 40 to 100 feet down this time of year - depending on the lake and time of day. Sometimes an armada of boats will gather in areas where the fish are concentrated and you can also find salmon schools that way.
Once you've found a big pod of salmon, get on top of them and try to stay there. Electric motors are handy for this and so is a GPS unit.
An excerpt.
It's August, and that means jigging for kokanee salmon
Outdoors
By: J.D. Richey Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:45 PM PDT
In August, kokanee salmon in Northern California reservoirs start to get edgy. With spawning season not too far off, the fish get all bunched up into tightly-packed schools, and in those close quarters, the salmon become aggressive.
And, that, my friends makes them particularly susceptible to one of my favorite koke techniques: jigging.
While trolling is, bar-none, the most popular way to catch kokanee, there are times when jigging is the way to go - especially in late summer. To jig kokes, I like to rig up with a light jigging stick and conventional reel spooled up with 8-pound braided line. With two Triple Surgeon's Loops, I'll attach a 6-foot section of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader to the end of the braid and then a jig to the end.
As far as lures go, I'll drop ½- to 2-ounce spoons like Crippled Herring, Buzz Bombs, Revenge Spoons, Bomber Slabs and Hopkins Smoothies.
Fluorescent colors like flame red, orange, chartreuse and chartreuse/lime green seem to be best but I'll also carry some silver/orange and silver/chartreuse as well.
The trick to this whole game is to locate the big schools of fish. Good places to begin your quest are the faces of dams, river channels and major points.
The fish will be suspended - usually 40 to 100 feet down this time of year - depending on the lake and time of day. Sometimes an armada of boats will gather in areas where the fish are concentrated and you can also find salmon schools that way.
Once you've found a big pod of salmon, get on top of them and try to stay there. Electric motors are handy for this and so is a GPS unit.
Friday, August 04, 2006
Leeches in the American River!
Yuk, this has to be a first, and let's hope it's the last.
An excerpt.
Leeches give teens a scare
Day of fun on North Fork reveals pool of surprises
By: Michelle Miller, Journal Staff Writer Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:45 PM PDT
A group of Auburn teens swimming in the North Fork of the American River last week didn't know they weren't alone in the water.
The swimmers encountered leeches in the water-filled bowls on granite rocks they swam to in the river.
While we're not talking giant bloodsuckers, the one-inch long sinewy creatures caught Andy Zehm, 17, of Auburn, and his friends off guard.
"You hear about it in swamps or stuff like that, but not here," he said Tuesday.
He and his friends were swimming in a wide part of the river near Ponderosa Bridge last Wednesday where the waters were still.
"It was so hot that day, it was good to go swimming," he said. "We were up there a couple of hours swimming and went to hang out on these rocks. My friend stuck her arm down in the water in the crevices between the rocks and pulled it up and there were 10 or 15 leeches all over her arm.
"The largest leeches were about the size of a tooth of a comb, he said, about an inch and a half long and 1/8-of-an-inch thick.
Andy said he and his friends jumped out of the river and pulled off the leeches. They found a few leeches on each swimmer.
"We don't know if they bit us, but it was easy to wipe them off," he said. "You'd just brush them and they'd fall off. But you could tell if you left them on, they'd start to suck on your skin.
"His mother, Lavonne Zehm, said she'd never heard of leeches in this area.
An excerpt.
Leeches give teens a scare
Day of fun on North Fork reveals pool of surprises
By: Michelle Miller, Journal Staff Writer Thursday, August 3, 2006 11:45 PM PDT
A group of Auburn teens swimming in the North Fork of the American River last week didn't know they weren't alone in the water.
The swimmers encountered leeches in the water-filled bowls on granite rocks they swam to in the river.
While we're not talking giant bloodsuckers, the one-inch long sinewy creatures caught Andy Zehm, 17, of Auburn, and his friends off guard.
"You hear about it in swamps or stuff like that, but not here," he said Tuesday.
He and his friends were swimming in a wide part of the river near Ponderosa Bridge last Wednesday where the waters were still.
"It was so hot that day, it was good to go swimming," he said. "We were up there a couple of hours swimming and went to hang out on these rocks. My friend stuck her arm down in the water in the crevices between the rocks and pulled it up and there were 10 or 15 leeches all over her arm.
"The largest leeches were about the size of a tooth of a comb, he said, about an inch and a half long and 1/8-of-an-inch thick.
Andy said he and his friends jumped out of the river and pulled off the leeches. They found a few leeches on each swimmer.
"We don't know if they bit us, but it was easy to wipe them off," he said. "You'd just brush them and they'd fall off. But you could tell if you left them on, they'd start to suck on your skin.
"His mother, Lavonne Zehm, said she'd never heard of leeches in this area.
Philanthropy Grows in Sacramento
The large donations over the past few years to help build important social or cultural assets is a wonderful sign of a region maturing, and will ultimately impact all community causes, including those around the Parkway, as the importance of our natural resources begins to resonate with donors and as donor-friendly vehicles are created.
An excerpt.
Charity hits new heights
Sutter hails Oses' $10 million, other big gifts for expansion
By Todd Milbourn -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 4, 2006
The family of a Sacramento developer is donating $10 million for Sutter Medical Center's massive expansion project in midtown, hospital officials said Thursday.
The donation, by Enlow Ose and Melena Adams Ose, is one of the largest charitable gifts in Sacramento history and, viewed alongside other recent multimillion-dollar gifts, has some observers wondering if philanthropy in Sacramento is rising to a new level.
"These gifts mark the beginning of a new era in philanthropy in Sacramento," said Ralph Andersen, chairman of Sutter's capital campaign, which received a separate $18 million pledge last year from the family of building industry executive Fred Anderson. "I'm hoping these donations will serve as inspiration to our community and those who would like to step forward."
Sutter officials announced the Ose gift, and four other donations of $1 million each, at a Thursday press conference in the hospital's lobby. They said the main hospital at 28th and L streets will be renamed the Ose Adams Medical Pavilion once the renovation is finished, which they expect in 2011.
Enlow Ose, 82, told the crowd of hospital workers, television crews and local politicians that he felt inspired to give because of the "tradition of quality care provided by Sutter," which over the years has served many members of his family.
"It's a great way to reach a great many people in the community," said Ose, a longtime Sacramento philanthropist who's also given to the Crocker Art Center, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and his alma mater, Iowa State University.
An excerpt.
Charity hits new heights
Sutter hails Oses' $10 million, other big gifts for expansion
By Todd Milbourn -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, August 4, 2006
The family of a Sacramento developer is donating $10 million for Sutter Medical Center's massive expansion project in midtown, hospital officials said Thursday.
The donation, by Enlow Ose and Melena Adams Ose, is one of the largest charitable gifts in Sacramento history and, viewed alongside other recent multimillion-dollar gifts, has some observers wondering if philanthropy in Sacramento is rising to a new level.
"These gifts mark the beginning of a new era in philanthropy in Sacramento," said Ralph Andersen, chairman of Sutter's capital campaign, which received a separate $18 million pledge last year from the family of building industry executive Fred Anderson. "I'm hoping these donations will serve as inspiration to our community and those who would like to step forward."
Sutter officials announced the Ose gift, and four other donations of $1 million each, at a Thursday press conference in the hospital's lobby. They said the main hospital at 28th and L streets will be renamed the Ose Adams Medical Pavilion once the renovation is finished, which they expect in 2011.
Enlow Ose, 82, told the crowd of hospital workers, television crews and local politicians that he felt inspired to give because of the "tradition of quality care provided by Sutter," which over the years has served many members of his family.
"It's a great way to reach a great many people in the community," said Ose, a longtime Sacramento philanthropist who's also given to the Crocker Art Center, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and his alma mater, Iowa State University.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
The Lost World of the Scientists
An excellent article in the Columbia Journalism Review illuminating the challenge of writing about a field where being confused is a prerequisite and living with ambiguity a way of life.
An excerpt.
Weird Science
Why editors must dare to be dumb
By K.C. Cole
Like many beat reporters, science journalists spend a great deal of time educating their editors about the peculiarities of their fields, and by and large those exchanges are not only illuminating but ultimately lead to better stories. But there’s one place we hit a wall.
No, it’s not that editors aren’t smart enough to understand science. Actually, it’s the opposite: they’re too accustomed to being smart, and thus can’t deal with the fact that they don’t understand it. And because they’re uncomfortable feeling confused, readers are left in the dark about a universe of research that eludes easy explanation.
I was discussing this problem recently with a colleague who had been beating his head against the wall for months trying to get a story about a mysterious “dark force” in cosmology past editors at The New Yorker: “They kept saying they didn’t understand it!” he complained. Well, of course they didn’t understand it. Nobody understands it. That’s precisely what makes it so interesting.
In science, feeling confused is essential to progress. An unwillingness to feel lost, in fact, can stop creativity dead in its tracks. A mathematician once told me he thought this was the reason young mathematicians make the big discoveries. Math can be hard, he said, even for the biggest brains around.
Mathematicians may spend hours just trying to figure out a line of equations. All the while, they feel dumb and inadequate. Then one day, these young mathematicians become established, become professors, acquire secretaries and offices. They don’t want to feel stupid anymore. And they stop doing great work.
In a way, you can’t really blame either scientists or editors for backing off. Stumbling around in the dark can be dangerous. “By its very nature, the edge of knowledge is at the same time the edge of ignorance,” is how one cosmologist put it. “Many who have visited it have been cut and bloodied by the experience.”
An excerpt.
Weird Science
Why editors must dare to be dumb
By K.C. Cole
Like many beat reporters, science journalists spend a great deal of time educating their editors about the peculiarities of their fields, and by and large those exchanges are not only illuminating but ultimately lead to better stories. But there’s one place we hit a wall.
No, it’s not that editors aren’t smart enough to understand science. Actually, it’s the opposite: they’re too accustomed to being smart, and thus can’t deal with the fact that they don’t understand it. And because they’re uncomfortable feeling confused, readers are left in the dark about a universe of research that eludes easy explanation.
I was discussing this problem recently with a colleague who had been beating his head against the wall for months trying to get a story about a mysterious “dark force” in cosmology past editors at The New Yorker: “They kept saying they didn’t understand it!” he complained. Well, of course they didn’t understand it. Nobody understands it. That’s precisely what makes it so interesting.
In science, feeling confused is essential to progress. An unwillingness to feel lost, in fact, can stop creativity dead in its tracks. A mathematician once told me he thought this was the reason young mathematicians make the big discoveries. Math can be hard, he said, even for the biggest brains around.
Mathematicians may spend hours just trying to figure out a line of equations. All the while, they feel dumb and inadequate. Then one day, these young mathematicians become established, become professors, acquire secretaries and offices. They don’t want to feel stupid anymore. And they stop doing great work.
In a way, you can’t really blame either scientists or editors for backing off. Stumbling around in the dark can be dangerous. “By its very nature, the edge of knowledge is at the same time the edge of ignorance,” is how one cosmologist put it. “Many who have visited it have been cut and bloodied by the experience.”
County Continues to Lose Money
When we started this organization in 2003 and called for management of the Parkway by an independent nonprofit organization contracting with the county, like other major public resources are managed locally (Sacramento Zoo) and in other major cities (Central Park in New York) we did so because of the inexorable reduction of funding that the county was experiencing causing it to continue to have difficulty funding even the most basic maintenance the Parkway needs, which was made crystal clear when the county threatened to close the Parkway two years ago.
This report documents their funding difficulty…and it’s worse than we thought…and this report only goes up to 2004.
An excerpt.
Retail growth outruns populace
Businesses follow residents into the suburbs and foothills, leaving the county to reap less sales tax and less of region's disposable income
By Cathy Locke -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
The city of Sacramento remains a hub of commercial activity, but businesses are following population into the suburbs and foothills, according to a study of records.
State Board of Equalization figures for 2000-04 show taxable sales rising at rates that generally far exceed population growth in cities and the unincorporated areas of Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties.
"The thing that probably shocks anyone who comes back to Sacramento after having been away for some time is the amount of retail in Folsom and Roseville," Terri Sexton said.
Sexton is associate director of the UC Davis Center for State and Local Taxation and an economics professor at California State University, Sacramento. Though she keeps an eye on growth in the region, Sexton said she was amazed recently to see the new retail development along Highway 49 in the north Auburn area.
The growth in taxable sales distinguishes the three counties within the six-county region represented by the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization. Among the larger economic region that also encompasses Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties, growth in taxable sales is closer to population growth, said Bob Burris, deputy director of SACTO. The organization works to recruit businesses and bring jobs to the region.
The importance of business, and especially retail growth, was spotlighted as cities and counties began the new fiscal year. Particularly in cities, sales tax revenue makes up a big portion of the general fund -- money that city councils and county boards of supervisors can use as they see fit. Those dollars typically pay for such basic services as police, public works, and parks and recreation. ...
As a portion of general fund revenue, sales tax accounts for nearly 36 percent in Folsom, 38 percent in Citrus Heights, 25 percent in Rancho Cordova and 48 percent in Placerville. ...
Sacramento County lost both population and tax dollars,...
This report documents their funding difficulty…and it’s worse than we thought…and this report only goes up to 2004.
An excerpt.
Retail growth outruns populace
Businesses follow residents into the suburbs and foothills, leaving the county to reap less sales tax and less of region's disposable income
By Cathy Locke -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
The city of Sacramento remains a hub of commercial activity, but businesses are following population into the suburbs and foothills, according to a study of records.
State Board of Equalization figures for 2000-04 show taxable sales rising at rates that generally far exceed population growth in cities and the unincorporated areas of Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties.
"The thing that probably shocks anyone who comes back to Sacramento after having been away for some time is the amount of retail in Folsom and Roseville," Terri Sexton said.
Sexton is associate director of the UC Davis Center for State and Local Taxation and an economics professor at California State University, Sacramento. Though she keeps an eye on growth in the region, Sexton said she was amazed recently to see the new retail development along Highway 49 in the north Auburn area.
The growth in taxable sales distinguishes the three counties within the six-county region represented by the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization. Among the larger economic region that also encompasses Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties, growth in taxable sales is closer to population growth, said Bob Burris, deputy director of SACTO. The organization works to recruit businesses and bring jobs to the region.
The importance of business, and especially retail growth, was spotlighted as cities and counties began the new fiscal year. Particularly in cities, sales tax revenue makes up a big portion of the general fund -- money that city councils and county boards of supervisors can use as they see fit. Those dollars typically pay for such basic services as police, public works, and parks and recreation. ...
As a portion of general fund revenue, sales tax accounts for nearly 36 percent in Folsom, 38 percent in Citrus Heights, 25 percent in Rancho Cordova and 48 percent in Placerville. ...
Sacramento County lost both population and tax dollars,...
Endless Summers?
It appears that no matter what we do, according to this report, we will see a minimum of 40 more days a year over 95 degrees, or 124 days a year versus the 84 that is now the average.
Let’s hope this report is as inaccurate as most of the others have been because they have failed to take into account technological innovations such as the train engine bonnet noted on the following post.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Endless sizzling summer?
Capital in 2100: Maybe 100 more hot days
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
The latest report on climate change in California would send shivers down the spine, if there were anything chilly about its predictions. Imagine Sacramento with 100 more days each year with temperatures of 95 degrees or higher. Yes, 100 more days. If the world gets serious about reducing global warming, future Sacramentans may face "only" 40 more days over a year of more than 95 degrees.
These predictions aren't coming from some alarmist fringe group. A scientific body established by the California Environmental Protection Agency produced this report at the request of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Read it at http://www.energy.ca.gov/. Click on the California Climate Change Center Biennial Report.)
According to the U.S. Weather Service, Sacramento historically has had an average of 84 days over 90 degrees. July is the warmest month (an average of 23 days over 90) followed by August (20). Imagine a Sacramento with twice as many hot days. Our normal cycles of heat and cooling Delta breezes would no longer exist.
Let’s hope this report is as inaccurate as most of the others have been because they have failed to take into account technological innovations such as the train engine bonnet noted on the following post.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Endless sizzling summer?
Capital in 2100: Maybe 100 more hot days
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
The latest report on climate change in California would send shivers down the spine, if there were anything chilly about its predictions. Imagine Sacramento with 100 more days each year with temperatures of 95 degrees or higher. Yes, 100 more days. If the world gets serious about reducing global warming, future Sacramentans may face "only" 40 more days over a year of more than 95 degrees.
These predictions aren't coming from some alarmist fringe group. A scientific body established by the California Environmental Protection Agency produced this report at the request of the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Read it at http://www.energy.ca.gov/. Click on the California Climate Change Center Biennial Report.)
According to the U.S. Weather Service, Sacramento historically has had an average of 84 days over 90 degrees. July is the warmest month (an average of 23 days over 90) followed by August (20). Imagine a Sacramento with twice as many hot days. Our normal cycles of heat and cooling Delta breezes would no longer exist.
Train Bonnet
This is the type of technological innovation we look for to continue to solve the problems earlier innovations created, as it has been since civilization began.
An excerpt.
Anti-smog 'bonnet' lays track for clean air
Union Pacific helps demonstrate new device that scrubs air-polluting soot from locomotive smokestacks
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff WriterPublished 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
Smog fighters on Wednesday demonstrated a new, supersized weapon to subdue one of the biggest and dirtiest offenders left standing on the battlefield: the idling locomotive.
Politicians and smog regulators with earplugs gathered in Roseville alongside a rumbling Union Pacific locomotive as a giant mechanical "bonnet" descended on the engine's smokestack and suctioned the dark brown exhaust through treatments that rendered the gases visibly clean.
"What you witnessed was the first demonstration of its kind in the country," said Tom Christofk, Placer County's air pollution control officer, who is credited as the brainchild of the apparatus.
The Advanced Locomotive Emission Control System scrubs the diesel exhaust clean of all but 1 percent of the hazardous sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, or soot, according to its developer, Advanced Cleanup Technologies Inc. of Colton.
The emission control system also removes nearly as much of the nitrogen oxides, the smog-forming gas that chronically drifts from the Sacramento area in violation of national clean-air standards, according to the company.
The train yard is the single largest generator of diesel exhaust in the six-county Sacramento region, according to a groundbreaking state Air Resources Board study released in 2004.
An excerpt.
Anti-smog 'bonnet' lays track for clean air
Union Pacific helps demonstrate new device that scrubs air-polluting soot from locomotive smokestacks
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff WriterPublished 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 3, 2006
Smog fighters on Wednesday demonstrated a new, supersized weapon to subdue one of the biggest and dirtiest offenders left standing on the battlefield: the idling locomotive.
Politicians and smog regulators with earplugs gathered in Roseville alongside a rumbling Union Pacific locomotive as a giant mechanical "bonnet" descended on the engine's smokestack and suctioned the dark brown exhaust through treatments that rendered the gases visibly clean.
"What you witnessed was the first demonstration of its kind in the country," said Tom Christofk, Placer County's air pollution control officer, who is credited as the brainchild of the apparatus.
The Advanced Locomotive Emission Control System scrubs the diesel exhaust clean of all but 1 percent of the hazardous sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, or soot, according to its developer, Advanced Cleanup Technologies Inc. of Colton.
The emission control system also removes nearly as much of the nitrogen oxides, the smog-forming gas that chronically drifts from the Sacramento area in violation of national clean-air standards, according to the company.
The train yard is the single largest generator of diesel exhaust in the six-county Sacramento region, according to a groundbreaking state Air Resources Board study released in 2004.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Habitat Plans
Thoughtful editorial about how habitat plans are working in Southern California.
The editorial.
Wildlife habitat plans are working reasonably well
Perfect protection for every species is impossible and will thwart reasonable, necessary development.
Daily Breeze editorial: Published Wednesday, August 02, 2006
In an ideal world, a new study on conservation plans to protect declining wildlife might make sense. But not in this world.
Environmental law requires a permit for property development that will disturb the habitat of wildlife threatened by dwindling numbers. The permit often requires the landowner to preserve such habitats in a conservation area. To facilitate wildlife conservation without continually impeding human activity, localities and individual landowners draw up regional multispecies habitat conservation plans.
Among those in existence is the 428-acre Ocean Trails conservation plan on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
These plans cover protected species present in the area or likely to take up residence there, and species potentially on a protected list. Though amended as needed, the plans provide federal regulators, local governments, developers and landowners reasonable certainty in their planning and permitting processes.
In "Species Coverage in Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plans: Where's the Science?" two Southern California researchers and an Illinois colleague assert the conservation plans lack adequate scientific data on species that aren't yet present in the area or aren't yet on a protected list. They do not, the study concludes, "account for the individual conservation needs" of every species they cover.
Of the 22 plans studied, only Ocean Trails confirmed the existence of all the protected species the plan is intended to cover.
But requiring every plan to meet every possible need of every possible species simply isn't workable. It would not only bust public and private budgets but stall residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural development. Current multispecies habitat conservation plans offer scientists labs of wildlife and humans a necessary degree of certainty. Ideal, no. Reasonable, yes.
The editorial.
Wildlife habitat plans are working reasonably well
Perfect protection for every species is impossible and will thwart reasonable, necessary development.
Daily Breeze editorial: Published Wednesday, August 02, 2006
In an ideal world, a new study on conservation plans to protect declining wildlife might make sense. But not in this world.
Environmental law requires a permit for property development that will disturb the habitat of wildlife threatened by dwindling numbers. The permit often requires the landowner to preserve such habitats in a conservation area. To facilitate wildlife conservation without continually impeding human activity, localities and individual landowners draw up regional multispecies habitat conservation plans.
Among those in existence is the 428-acre Ocean Trails conservation plan on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
These plans cover protected species present in the area or likely to take up residence there, and species potentially on a protected list. Though amended as needed, the plans provide federal regulators, local governments, developers and landowners reasonable certainty in their planning and permitting processes.
In "Species Coverage in Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plans: Where's the Science?" two Southern California researchers and an Illinois colleague assert the conservation plans lack adequate scientific data on species that aren't yet present in the area or aren't yet on a protected list. They do not, the study concludes, "account for the individual conservation needs" of every species they cover.
Of the 22 plans studied, only Ocean Trails confirmed the existence of all the protected species the plan is intended to cover.
But requiring every plan to meet every possible need of every possible species simply isn't workable. It would not only bust public and private budgets but stall residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural development. Current multispecies habitat conservation plans offer scientists labs of wildlife and humans a necessary degree of certainty. Ideal, no. Reasonable, yes.
The Aerotropolis
Fascinating article about a powerful new urban trend tied to globalization and the shrinking world, but one in which California doesn’t really seemed to have caught on to yet...see the map at the end of the online article.
An excerpt.
Rise of the Aerotropolis
As competition shrinks the globe, the world is building giant airport-cities. They look monstrous to American eyes--and that could be a problem
From: Issue 107 July 2006 Page 76 By: Greg Lindsay
The name wasn't terribly auspicious: Nong Ngu Hao, the "Cobra Swamp." But the location, a mammoth piece of ground in the sparsely settled landscape between Bangkok and the southern coast, was nearly perfect. Thailand's leader at the time, the visionary-if-dictatorial field marshal Sarit Thanarat, had chosen this spot to build his country's bridge to the 21st century, in the form of a gleaming international airport. It would be a long time coming.
The field marshal died suddenly in 1963, and the airport was postponed for decades; meanwhile, Thailand's neighbors either eviscerated themselves or else offered up their cities as the First World's factories. By the time the 21st century actually came into view, the field marshal's democratically elected heirs watched enviously as the Dells, Seagates, and Motorolas of the world parceled out pieces of their sprawling supply chains across Indochina, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for lottery-winning cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
But before the end of this year, on a still-soggy tract that now lies at the creeping border of Bangkok's suburbs, a new $4 billion mega-airport will finally open, forming the heart of a nascent city. When it's finished, the erstwhile Cobra Swamp, now Suvarnabhumi (the "Golden Land"), will pump more than 100 million passengers a year through its glass portals, about as many as JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark aiports combined. Within 30 years, a city of 3.3 million citizens--larger than Chicago now--will have emerged from the swampland.
To the jaundiced American eye, such a project might appear to be the terminal metastasis of the sprawl represented by O'Hare, LAX, or JFK. But to dismiss it as the product of Asia's infatuation with all things mega would be to miss the carefully calibrated machinery underneath. It's a machine U.S. companies ignore at their peril at this time of escalating global trade and frictionless competition. It even has a name, the "aerotropolis," and a creator, John Kasarda.
In the relatively obscure world of urban planning, Kasarda, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, has made a name for himself over the past decade with his radical (some might say bone-chilling) vision of the future: Rather than banish airports to the edges of cities and then do our best to avoid them, he argues, we should move them to the center and build our cities around them. Kasarda's research has laid bare the invisible plexus of air-cargo networks that have shrunk the globe (much as railroads did for the American West). And his conclusions are expressible as a series of simple numbers: Over the past 30 years, Kasarda will tell you, global GDP has risen 154%, and the value of world trade has grown 355%. But the value of air cargo has climbed an astonishing 1,395%. Today, 40% of the total economic value of all goods produced in the world, barely comprising 1% of the total weight, is shipped by air (and that goes for more than 50% of total U.S. exports, which are valued at $554 billion). Raw materials and bulkier stuff still take the slow boats, but virtually everything we associate with our postindustrial, value-added economy--microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, Louis Vuitton handbags, sushi-grade tuna--travels via jumbo jet. We may think of the 1960s as the jet-set era, but the supremacy of (soft) airpower has only now begun to reshape our ideas about how cities should look, how they should function. "They're now effectively a part of global production systems," Kasarda says, "and without that connectivity, you're out of the game."
An excerpt.
Rise of the Aerotropolis
As competition shrinks the globe, the world is building giant airport-cities. They look monstrous to American eyes--and that could be a problem
From: Issue 107 July 2006 Page 76 By: Greg Lindsay
The name wasn't terribly auspicious: Nong Ngu Hao, the "Cobra Swamp." But the location, a mammoth piece of ground in the sparsely settled landscape between Bangkok and the southern coast, was nearly perfect. Thailand's leader at the time, the visionary-if-dictatorial field marshal Sarit Thanarat, had chosen this spot to build his country's bridge to the 21st century, in the form of a gleaming international airport. It would be a long time coming.
The field marshal died suddenly in 1963, and the airport was postponed for decades; meanwhile, Thailand's neighbors either eviscerated themselves or else offered up their cities as the First World's factories. By the time the 21st century actually came into view, the field marshal's democratically elected heirs watched enviously as the Dells, Seagates, and Motorolas of the world parceled out pieces of their sprawling supply chains across Indochina, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for lottery-winning cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
But before the end of this year, on a still-soggy tract that now lies at the creeping border of Bangkok's suburbs, a new $4 billion mega-airport will finally open, forming the heart of a nascent city. When it's finished, the erstwhile Cobra Swamp, now Suvarnabhumi (the "Golden Land"), will pump more than 100 million passengers a year through its glass portals, about as many as JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark aiports combined. Within 30 years, a city of 3.3 million citizens--larger than Chicago now--will have emerged from the swampland.
To the jaundiced American eye, such a project might appear to be the terminal metastasis of the sprawl represented by O'Hare, LAX, or JFK. But to dismiss it as the product of Asia's infatuation with all things mega would be to miss the carefully calibrated machinery underneath. It's a machine U.S. companies ignore at their peril at this time of escalating global trade and frictionless competition. It even has a name, the "aerotropolis," and a creator, John Kasarda.
In the relatively obscure world of urban planning, Kasarda, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, has made a name for himself over the past decade with his radical (some might say bone-chilling) vision of the future: Rather than banish airports to the edges of cities and then do our best to avoid them, he argues, we should move them to the center and build our cities around them. Kasarda's research has laid bare the invisible plexus of air-cargo networks that have shrunk the globe (much as railroads did for the American West). And his conclusions are expressible as a series of simple numbers: Over the past 30 years, Kasarda will tell you, global GDP has risen 154%, and the value of world trade has grown 355%. But the value of air cargo has climbed an astonishing 1,395%. Today, 40% of the total economic value of all goods produced in the world, barely comprising 1% of the total weight, is shipped by air (and that goes for more than 50% of total U.S. exports, which are valued at $554 billion). Raw materials and bulkier stuff still take the slow boats, but virtually everything we associate with our postindustrial, value-added economy--microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, Louis Vuitton handbags, sushi-grade tuna--travels via jumbo jet. We may think of the 1960s as the jet-set era, but the supremacy of (soft) airpower has only now begun to reshape our ideas about how cities should look, how they should function. "They're now effectively a part of global production systems," Kasarda says, "and without that connectivity, you're out of the game."
Ideas Matter
A well-put reminder that knowledge (and the education necessary to attain it) truly matters, so important to remember in this time of social, political, and environmental problems that often seem overwhelming.
Some one out there is thinking about each of them, and more often than not, will come up with an idea that can solve them.
An excerpt.
More Comes From Knowing More
Ideas have consequences, which Malthus never quite understood.
BY NICK SCHULZ Wednesday, August 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
For a long time, economists believed that much of their job was to analyze a world of scarcity, the grim business of harvesting limited resources and distributing too few goods to too many people. And then there was the matter of decreasing returns to additional investment. Such returns were once "a familiar topic in economics," David Warsh tells us in "Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations." After all, "even the richest coal vein plays out."
Decreasing returns and scarcity animated the doomster wing of economics, of which Thomas Malthus was the principal architect. It was he who lamented overpopulation so famously, even ahead of Paul Ehrlich, and predicted bouts of "periodical misery" to adjust human numbers downward, putting them, at least now and then, in equilibrium with the world's limited riches.
Mr. Warsh, a former economics reporter for the Boston Globe, does not intend to mock earlier theories of political economy but to tell the story of their gradual refinement over time--especially as "one system of thought replaces another." He notes, for instance, that anti-Malthusian concepts central to the understanding of modern economic growth--abundance and the notion of "increasing returns"--came to compete with the scarcity school of thought. It is axiomatic to us, not least because of technology's marvelous effects, that "the same amount of work or sacrifice produces an increasing quantity of goods." But it was an idea that required special attention when it was first considered plausible.
The worry at first was that, in theory, increasing returns--where they proved possible--would create monopoly power. In Adam Smith's famous pin factory, division of labor and specialization yielded increasing returns. But why wouldn't the pin factory, or any other enterprise generating increasing returns, increase itself (so to speak) at the expense of every other enterprise of lesser aptitude and slower growth? Monopoly power would then undermine the competition that, in Smith's view, put markets on their virtuous path.
It remained a worry--and a conceptual conundrum--for a long time to come. Fifty years ago, the economist George Stigler framed the problem this way: "Either the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market, and, characteristically, industries are monopolized; or, industries are characteristically competitive." If they are indeed characteristically competitive, then the monopoly-threatening aspect of Adam Smith's view is, as Mr. Stigler noted, either "false or of little significance." Like many modern economists, he sided with the reliably competitive nature of industrial growth, and the fate of modern economies has borne him out.
But what about growth itself--especially the sustained economic growth that we now take for granted (however sluggish it may be at times)? At an informal academic conference in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1988--assembled by Jack Kemp, then a member of the House--the Stanford economist Paul Romer presented a paper that ultimately turned the economic thinking on its ear. In Mr. Romer's work, as Mr. Warsh puts it, "the concept of intellectual property was, if not exactly 'discovered,' then formally characterized for the first time in the context of growth." Mr. Romer saw that knowledge was "both an input and output of production."
Thus instead of land, labor and capital--the traditional inputs of economic theory--it was "people, ideas and things" that mattered, driving technological change and entrepreneurial creativity. "No longer were the advantages of technical superiority to be understood as a case of 'market failure,'" Mr. Warsh writes. "They were part of the rules of the game." Such superiority was by its nature temporary--i.e., nonmonopolistic. New knowledge constantly trumped old, and the law (rightly) gave ideas only limited property-protection.
More and more, economists came to see that it was knowledge that made the difference in modern societies--e.g., in software, drugs, industrial processes, biotechnology and other parts of the economy where the upfront costs were large, the payoffs enormous and the benefits widespread. Economists inevitably turned their attention to the institutions or invisible structures--constitutions, customs, property rights, cultural sentiments (like trust)--that help to generate knowledge and sustain its effects.
Some one out there is thinking about each of them, and more often than not, will come up with an idea that can solve them.
An excerpt.
More Comes From Knowing More
Ideas have consequences, which Malthus never quite understood.
BY NICK SCHULZ Wednesday, August 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
For a long time, economists believed that much of their job was to analyze a world of scarcity, the grim business of harvesting limited resources and distributing too few goods to too many people. And then there was the matter of decreasing returns to additional investment. Such returns were once "a familiar topic in economics," David Warsh tells us in "Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations." After all, "even the richest coal vein plays out."
Decreasing returns and scarcity animated the doomster wing of economics, of which Thomas Malthus was the principal architect. It was he who lamented overpopulation so famously, even ahead of Paul Ehrlich, and predicted bouts of "periodical misery" to adjust human numbers downward, putting them, at least now and then, in equilibrium with the world's limited riches.
Mr. Warsh, a former economics reporter for the Boston Globe, does not intend to mock earlier theories of political economy but to tell the story of their gradual refinement over time--especially as "one system of thought replaces another." He notes, for instance, that anti-Malthusian concepts central to the understanding of modern economic growth--abundance and the notion of "increasing returns"--came to compete with the scarcity school of thought. It is axiomatic to us, not least because of technology's marvelous effects, that "the same amount of work or sacrifice produces an increasing quantity of goods." But it was an idea that required special attention when it was first considered plausible.
The worry at first was that, in theory, increasing returns--where they proved possible--would create monopoly power. In Adam Smith's famous pin factory, division of labor and specialization yielded increasing returns. But why wouldn't the pin factory, or any other enterprise generating increasing returns, increase itself (so to speak) at the expense of every other enterprise of lesser aptitude and slower growth? Monopoly power would then undermine the competition that, in Smith's view, put markets on their virtuous path.
It remained a worry--and a conceptual conundrum--for a long time to come. Fifty years ago, the economist George Stigler framed the problem this way: "Either the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market, and, characteristically, industries are monopolized; or, industries are characteristically competitive." If they are indeed characteristically competitive, then the monopoly-threatening aspect of Adam Smith's view is, as Mr. Stigler noted, either "false or of little significance." Like many modern economists, he sided with the reliably competitive nature of industrial growth, and the fate of modern economies has borne him out.
But what about growth itself--especially the sustained economic growth that we now take for granted (however sluggish it may be at times)? At an informal academic conference in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1988--assembled by Jack Kemp, then a member of the House--the Stanford economist Paul Romer presented a paper that ultimately turned the economic thinking on its ear. In Mr. Romer's work, as Mr. Warsh puts it, "the concept of intellectual property was, if not exactly 'discovered,' then formally characterized for the first time in the context of growth." Mr. Romer saw that knowledge was "both an input and output of production."
Thus instead of land, labor and capital--the traditional inputs of economic theory--it was "people, ideas and things" that mattered, driving technological change and entrepreneurial creativity. "No longer were the advantages of technical superiority to be understood as a case of 'market failure,'" Mr. Warsh writes. "They were part of the rules of the game." Such superiority was by its nature temporary--i.e., nonmonopolistic. New knowledge constantly trumped old, and the law (rightly) gave ideas only limited property-protection.
More and more, economists came to see that it was knowledge that made the difference in modern societies--e.g., in software, drugs, industrial processes, biotechnology and other parts of the economy where the upfront costs were large, the payoffs enormous and the benefits widespread. Economists inevitably turned their attention to the institutions or invisible structures--constitutions, customs, property rights, cultural sentiments (like trust)--that help to generate knowledge and sustain its effects.
An (Unnamed) Deal for Sacramento
It is difficult to envision a more troublesome public venture than trying to convince someone to do something you won’t name. Imagine if this was a bill to provide funding to the Parkway yet the Parkway wasn’t named.
A strange way to take care of the public’s business.
An excerpt.
'Arena' missing in arena measure
If voters OK tax hike, the ballot language may spark a test case.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga and Terri Hardy -- Bee Staff Writers Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Sacramento city and county leaders are racing to nail down final details on an agreement with the Sacramento Kings for public financing of a new arena.
But the questions they put before voters in November will offer none of those myriad specifics. The ballot measure calling for a quarter-cent sales tax boost won't mention an arena. A companion advisory measure will ask in vague terms whether voters want to spend the money on an arena and various community projects.
Indeed, the county's entire strategy hinges on being as nonspecific on the ballot as possible. By design, the county is trying to make promises without specific language on the ballot to enforce them, thus avoiding a requirement that taxes destined for clear-cut purposes pass by a two-thirds rather than majority vote.
Is the approach legal? If voters approve the arena funding plan in November, it will likely emerge as a test case.
Opponents say the strategy is an attempt to dodge the two-thirds requirement. They promise a court challenge.
"It is very likely that if this moves forward, we will be filing suits," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the statewide Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Even proponents acknowledge that the county may be venturing onto unknown legal territory.
"I believe we're on solid legal ground here, but it hasn't been tested," said Sacramento County Counsel Bob Ryan.
Supervisors today are expected to vote to place the complicated "A-plus-B" financing plan for the arena on the November ballot. It was carefully crafted to avoid California's requirement that taxes for specific purposes win by a two-thirds margin.
A strange way to take care of the public’s business.
An excerpt.
'Arena' missing in arena measure
If voters OK tax hike, the ballot language may spark a test case.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga and Terri Hardy -- Bee Staff Writers Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Sacramento city and county leaders are racing to nail down final details on an agreement with the Sacramento Kings for public financing of a new arena.
But the questions they put before voters in November will offer none of those myriad specifics. The ballot measure calling for a quarter-cent sales tax boost won't mention an arena. A companion advisory measure will ask in vague terms whether voters want to spend the money on an arena and various community projects.
Indeed, the county's entire strategy hinges on being as nonspecific on the ballot as possible. By design, the county is trying to make promises without specific language on the ballot to enforce them, thus avoiding a requirement that taxes destined for clear-cut purposes pass by a two-thirds rather than majority vote.
Is the approach legal? If voters approve the arena funding plan in November, it will likely emerge as a test case.
Opponents say the strategy is an attempt to dodge the two-thirds requirement. They promise a court challenge.
"It is very likely that if this moves forward, we will be filing suits," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the statewide Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Even proponents acknowledge that the county may be venturing onto unknown legal territory.
"I believe we're on solid legal ground here, but it hasn't been tested," said Sacramento County Counsel Bob Ryan.
Supervisors today are expected to vote to place the complicated "A-plus-B" financing plan for the arena on the November ballot. It was carefully crafted to avoid California's requirement that taxes for specific purposes win by a two-thirds margin.
Tragedy & Public Policy
Human tragedy often drives public policy, as we see from this story and New Orleans after Katrina, and that in itself is a tragic commentary on public leadership struggling to make sense of what they see, what they are being told, and what options appear.
An excerpt.
Tragedy looms over wildland debate
Amid the grasslands of the Carrizo Plain, a suicide heightens the drama of a battle over cattle grazing in a national monument
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 2, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 15 months after the manager of the Carrizo Plain National Monument killed herself after months of frustration on the job, the federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving the process of creating a management plan for the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve that will be forever associated with Marlene Braun's tragic death.
Braun committed suicide on May 2, 2005, capping a months-long dispute with her BLM bosses over how the preserve should be managed, and in the process earning reprimands and suspensions for what her superiors concluded were intemperate acts of insubordination.
The backdrop for the battles was more political than personal. Created by presidential proclamation just hours before President Clinton left office in 2001, the Carrizo Plain had become a battleground over cattle grazing on public lands -- an issue on which the BLM typically found itself siding with cattlemen.
It just so happened that these public lands, on the border between Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, are the last big patch of wild grasslands left in California and the home of the largest concentration of endangered species in the state. Some, like the giant kangaroo rat, are in direct competition with cattle.
Braun had openly complained that she felt efforts to curtail grazing were being resisted at higher pay grades in the agency, and that she was suffering the fallout.
An excerpt.
Tragedy looms over wildland debate
Amid the grasslands of the Carrizo Plain, a suicide heightens the drama of a battle over cattle grazing in a national monument
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Wednesday, August 2, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Nearly 15 months after the manager of the Carrizo Plain National Monument killed herself after months of frustration on the job, the federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving the process of creating a management plan for the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve that will be forever associated with Marlene Braun's tragic death.
Braun committed suicide on May 2, 2005, capping a months-long dispute with her BLM bosses over how the preserve should be managed, and in the process earning reprimands and suspensions for what her superiors concluded were intemperate acts of insubordination.
The backdrop for the battles was more political than personal. Created by presidential proclamation just hours before President Clinton left office in 2001, the Carrizo Plain had become a battleground over cattle grazing on public lands -- an issue on which the BLM typically found itself siding with cattlemen.
It just so happened that these public lands, on the border between Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, are the last big patch of wild grasslands left in California and the home of the largest concentration of endangered species in the state. Some, like the giant kangaroo rat, are in direct competition with cattle.
Braun had openly complained that she felt efforts to curtail grazing were being resisted at higher pay grades in the agency, and that she was suffering the fallout.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Science and Metaphor
An interesting peek at how scientists think, and communicate, which helps the non-scientist in trying to decipher the often contradictory conclusions they reach.
An excerpt.
It's like this, you see
The ability to think metaphorically isn't reserved for poets. Scientists do it, too, using everyday analogies to expand their understanding of the physical world and share their knowledge with peers
Jul. 30, 2006. 01:00 AM
SIOBHAN ROBERTS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
The poet Jan Zwicky once wrote, "Those who think metaphorically are enabled to think truly because the shape of their thinking echoes the shape of the world."
Zwicky, whose day job includes teaching philosophy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and authoring books of lyric philosophy such as Metaphor & Wisdom, from which the above quotation was taken, has lately directed considerable attention to contemplating the intersection of "Mathematical Analogy and Metaphorical Insight," giving numerous talks on the subject, including one scheduled at the European Graduate School in Switzerland next week.
Casual inquiry reveals that metaphor, and its more common cousin analogy, are tools that are just as important to scientists investigating truths of the physical world as they are to poets explaining existential conundrums through verse. A scientist, one might liken, is an empirical poet; and reciprocally, a poet is a scientist of more imaginative and creative hypotheses.
Both are seeking "the truth of the matter," says Zwicky. "As a species we are attempting to articulate how our lives go and what our environment is like, and mathematics is one part of that and poetry is another."
Analogies, whether in science or poetry, she says, are not arbitrary and meaningless, not merely "airy nothings, loose types of things, fond and idle names."
To bolster her thesis, Zwicky cites Austrian ethologist and evolutionary epistemologist Konrad Lorenz: "(Lorenz) has argued that, ok, yeah, we are subject to evolutionary pressure, selection of the fittest, but that means what we perceive about the truth of the world has to be pretty damn close to what the truth of the world actually is, or the world would have eliminated us. There are selection pressures on our epistemological choices." ...
Brian Greene, a Columbia University professor cum pop-culture physicist, has successfully translated the foreign realm of string theory for the general public with his best-selling book The Elegant Universe (1999) and an accompanying NOVA documentary, both replete with analogies to garden hoses, string symphonies, and sliced loaves of bread. As one profile of Greene observed, "analogies roll off his tongue with the effortless precision of a Michael Jordan lay-up."
Yet at a public lecture at the Strings05 conference in Toronto, an audience member politely berated physicists for their bewildering smorgasbord of analogies, asking why the scientists couldn't reach consensus on a few key analogies so as to convey a more coherent and unified message to the public.
The answer came as a disappointment. Robbert Dijkgraaf, a mathematical physicist at the University of Amsterdam, bluntly stated that the plethora of analogies is an indication that string theorists themselves are grappling with the mysteries of their work; they are groping in the dark and thus need every glimmering of analogical input they can get.
An excerpt.
It's like this, you see
The ability to think metaphorically isn't reserved for poets. Scientists do it, too, using everyday analogies to expand their understanding of the physical world and share their knowledge with peers
Jul. 30, 2006. 01:00 AM
SIOBHAN ROBERTS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
The poet Jan Zwicky once wrote, "Those who think metaphorically are enabled to think truly because the shape of their thinking echoes the shape of the world."
Zwicky, whose day job includes teaching philosophy at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and authoring books of lyric philosophy such as Metaphor & Wisdom, from which the above quotation was taken, has lately directed considerable attention to contemplating the intersection of "Mathematical Analogy and Metaphorical Insight," giving numerous talks on the subject, including one scheduled at the European Graduate School in Switzerland next week.
Casual inquiry reveals that metaphor, and its more common cousin analogy, are tools that are just as important to scientists investigating truths of the physical world as they are to poets explaining existential conundrums through verse. A scientist, one might liken, is an empirical poet; and reciprocally, a poet is a scientist of more imaginative and creative hypotheses.
Both are seeking "the truth of the matter," says Zwicky. "As a species we are attempting to articulate how our lives go and what our environment is like, and mathematics is one part of that and poetry is another."
Analogies, whether in science or poetry, she says, are not arbitrary and meaningless, not merely "airy nothings, loose types of things, fond and idle names."
To bolster her thesis, Zwicky cites Austrian ethologist and evolutionary epistemologist Konrad Lorenz: "(Lorenz) has argued that, ok, yeah, we are subject to evolutionary pressure, selection of the fittest, but that means what we perceive about the truth of the world has to be pretty damn close to what the truth of the world actually is, or the world would have eliminated us. There are selection pressures on our epistemological choices." ...
Brian Greene, a Columbia University professor cum pop-culture physicist, has successfully translated the foreign realm of string theory for the general public with his best-selling book The Elegant Universe (1999) and an accompanying NOVA documentary, both replete with analogies to garden hoses, string symphonies, and sliced loaves of bread. As one profile of Greene observed, "analogies roll off his tongue with the effortless precision of a Michael Jordan lay-up."
Yet at a public lecture at the Strings05 conference in Toronto, an audience member politely berated physicists for their bewildering smorgasbord of analogies, asking why the scientists couldn't reach consensus on a few key analogies so as to convey a more coherent and unified message to the public.
The answer came as a disappointment. Robbert Dijkgraaf, a mathematical physicist at the University of Amsterdam, bluntly stated that the plethora of analogies is an indication that string theorists themselves are grappling with the mysteries of their work; they are groping in the dark and thus need every glimmering of analogical input they can get.
Environmental Study, Bleak Picture
A new study creates a bleak picture (even the good news is bad), which, hopefully, creative technology will alleviate.
An excerpt.
Study predicts a much hotter, drier California
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
California will become significantly hotter and drier by the end of the century, causing severe air pollution, a drop in the water supply, melting of 90 percent of the Sierra snowpack and up to six times more heat-related deaths in major urban centers, according to a sweeping study compiled with help from respected scientists from around the country.
The weather -- up to 10.5 degrees warmer by 2100 -- would make last month's heat wave look average. If industrial and vehicle emissions continue unabated, there could be up to 100 more days a year when temperatures hit 90 degrees or above in Los Angeles and 95 degrees or above in Sacramento. Both cities have about 20 days of such extreme heat now.
The good news: If emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are significantly curtailed, according to the report released Tuesday, the number of extremely hot days might only increase by half that amount.
The report, released by the California Environmental Protection Agency, comes from the California Climate Change Center, established three years ago by the California Energy Commission. Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC Berkeley are responsible for the core research and about 75 scientists from universities, government agencies and nonprofit groups contributed to the report, which has been billed as a layperson's guide to technical documents prepared in support of initiatives to address global warming by Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislators.
An excerpt.
Study predicts a much hotter, drier California
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
California will become significantly hotter and drier by the end of the century, causing severe air pollution, a drop in the water supply, melting of 90 percent of the Sierra snowpack and up to six times more heat-related deaths in major urban centers, according to a sweeping study compiled with help from respected scientists from around the country.
The weather -- up to 10.5 degrees warmer by 2100 -- would make last month's heat wave look average. If industrial and vehicle emissions continue unabated, there could be up to 100 more days a year when temperatures hit 90 degrees or above in Los Angeles and 95 degrees or above in Sacramento. Both cities have about 20 days of such extreme heat now.
The good news: If emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are significantly curtailed, according to the report released Tuesday, the number of extremely hot days might only increase by half that amount.
The report, released by the California Environmental Protection Agency, comes from the California Climate Change Center, established three years ago by the California Energy Commission. Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC Berkeley are responsible for the core research and about 75 scientists from universities, government agencies and nonprofit groups contributed to the report, which has been billed as a layperson's guide to technical documents prepared in support of initiatives to address global warming by Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislators.
England & California Make a Deal
A report that the governor of California and the British Prime Minister have agreed to work together on global warming is welcome news, coming just after a California heat wave that set a record.
An excerpt.
Governor, Blair sign climate deal
They pledge 'urgent action' to fight global warming.
By Peter Hecht -- Bee Capitol Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, August 1, 2006
LONG BEACH -- Declaring California and the United Kingdom partners in an international fight against climate change, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a unique accord Monday to develop plans to curb pollution and avert global warming.
The unusual summit, between the British leader and the governor of a state accounting for the world's sixth-largest economy, was hailed in a joint mission statement as a commitment to "urgent action to reduce greenhouse gases" and promote cleaner technologies.
"I think the evidence of climate change and its danger is overwhelming," Blair said, appearing with Schwarzenegger at the Port of Long Beach. "I think it is now very hard for anyone to dispute it."
Officially, California has no authority to enter into treaties with foreign governments, and the agreement announced by Blair and Schwarzenegger includes no binding requirements to reduce pollution. Instead, it is a joint pledge by Britain and California to share expertise, ideas and business strategies to respond to climate change.
An excerpt.
Governor, Blair sign climate deal
They pledge 'urgent action' to fight global warming.
By Peter Hecht -- Bee Capitol Bureau Published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, August 1, 2006
LONG BEACH -- Declaring California and the United Kingdom partners in an international fight against climate change, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a unique accord Monday to develop plans to curb pollution and avert global warming.
The unusual summit, between the British leader and the governor of a state accounting for the world's sixth-largest economy, was hailed in a joint mission statement as a commitment to "urgent action to reduce greenhouse gases" and promote cleaner technologies.
"I think the evidence of climate change and its danger is overwhelming," Blair said, appearing with Schwarzenegger at the Port of Long Beach. "I think it is now very hard for anyone to dispute it."
Officially, California has no authority to enter into treaties with foreign governments, and the agreement announced by Blair and Schwarzenegger includes no binding requirements to reduce pollution. Instead, it is a joint pledge by Britain and California to share expertise, ideas and business strategies to respond to climate change.
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