Governor Brown warns about Global Warning in Sausalito, Lightning hits Tree and the Great Global Warming Swindle

Call me superstitious or a "global warming denier",  I just find it funny that our Governor Brown was in Sausalito making predictions of gloom and doom from global warming when lightning struck nearby.  The Marin IJ covered both stories about Global Warming and the Lightning today.   I also received an excellent BBC documentary counterpoint to the alarmist politics and anti-science of global warming theory below.

Maybe it is a sign from Gaia.  

What is Social Justice?

Plan Bay Area and the Board of Supervisors want to create more "social justice" by building thousands of taxpayer subsidized "workforce housing" units in "Smart Growth Cities" along the 101 Corridor.

VIDEO: The nations oldest indoor farmers market- an inspiration for the Farm to Table markets everywhere

Central Market Lancaster

The historic Central Market in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a wonderful place full of smells, conversation and great food.  It serves as an inspiration for indoor markets everywhere from Seattle's Pike's Place to the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace.  Check out this short video

A Farm to Table Marketplace at Marinwood Plaza can be a success.  We can have access to great food and a place to meet our neighbors.  The taxes will help pay for local services and yes...even affordable housing.   It would be far better addition to the community.  Everyone needs to eat.

A positive view of development at Marinwood Plaza.

Oxbow Public Market in Napa, CA could be a model for a "Farm to Table Market" at Marinwood Plaza.

Marinwood Plaza does not have to be a "down in the heels" strip mall hidden by trees and broken glass.  It also doesn't have to be a high density low income development that pays little taxes, burdens our schools, police and fire services.  

The location is Marinwood-Lucas valley's ONLY COMMERCIALLY VIABLE site for a successful retail market to serve the vital needs of our community.  It is located along the 101 freeway with easy access.  It is minutes by car from anywhere in Marin AND is on the main tourist artery to Sonoma and Napa County popular tourist spots.  Lucas Valley road is the best way to reach West Marin cheese road, Point Reyes, farms and wineries.  A market promoting local produce will stimulate West Marin and local tourism and serve all of Marin every day of the week..

With improvements to parking and freeway visability, Marinwood Plaza could come back to life as successful retail center bringing us quality food, jobs and a place to meet our neighbors.  Marinwood Market could serve as an anchor tenant other tenants may include wineries, local cheese makers, wineries, restaurants.  Associated  retail could include a regional bicycle shop, tourist information, cooking supply, etc. 

Here is how they describe the Oxbow Public Market in Napa:

Showcasing an impressive mix of aesthetics, functional layout, natural lighting and ventilation is the Oxbow Public Market - a locally-owned specialty food and wine store located in the heart of downtown Napa, California. In addition to offering many fine wines and cuisine, the market also hosts events featuring music and dancing.

See more at : Oxbow Public Market


We can have the community we want.  We can save our Marinwood-Lucas Valley future. Help us bring our community to life by endorsing positive retail development at Marinwood Plaza.

Marinwood Village Environmental Review Scoping Session

On Saturday, March 29, 2014 the Marin County Community Development Planning department conducted an Environmental Review scoping session of the Marinwood Village project. The meeting purpose was to solicit issues of concern that will become part of the scope of the project.

Residents want studies on traffic, pollution from the highway, THOROUGH remediation of the soil from the toxic waste spill from the dry cleaners, water drainage studies, effects on schools,  cumulative impacts from the eight proposed affordable housing sites (including 150 from neighboring Oakview).  Housing activists wanted studies comparing environmental costs of building 82 single family homes elsewhere or spread throughout Marin.  A group of supporters calling themselves "Friends of Marinwood Village" led by Supervisor Susan Adams had all of their comments at the beginning of the meeting. They came from all over Marin and gave speeches on why the community should support the project despite the instructions from the facilitator that comments should be narrowed to the scope of the EIR.

The first half hour of this presentation is opening remarks and an overview of the project. The next half hour or so is remarks from the supporters of Susan Adams an Marinwood Village.  The final hour is where you will hear substantive concerns about the Marinwood Village project and scoping remarks from the community.

Sneaky Funding Mechanism to Urbanize Marin

11 Things You Need to Know About the Dangers of the New Redevelopment Agencies for Marin.

11 Things You Need to Know About...

Redevelopment and the California Jobs and Education Development Initiative (JEDI) Act

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Download the report: Return of the Empire: How California's J.E.D.I. Act Would Bring Back Destructive Redevelopment Agencies

1. BRINGING BACK REDEVELOPMENT:
   Governor Jerry Brown and the California legislature abolished redevelopment agencies in 2011. The agencies were infamous for abusing eminent domain, engaging in corruption and steering vital public funds away from schools and fire departments. The JEDI Act seeks to revive redevelopment agencies.
    
2. EXPANDS AGENCIES’ POWERS:
   If passed, the JEDI Act would be one of the most significant expansions of government power in decades. Not only would it resurrect redevelopment agencies, it would grant them more power than they previously had.
    
3. ONE OF THE WORST FOR ABUSE:
   Redevelopment made California one of the worst states in the nation for eminent domain abuse. It enabled the government to replace existing property owners with wealthier ones.
    
4. EXPANDING BLIGHT:
   The JEDI Act would create an even more expansive definition of “blight” to condemn private property and give it to politically-connected developers and corporations. For instance, an area would show signs of blight if unemployment rates in the area exceed the national average. Under this definition, the entire state shows signs of “blight.”
    
5. UNELECTED AND UNACCOUNTABLE:
   Redevelopment agencies are unelected and unaccountable governmental bodies that have very few restrictions on their power.
    
6. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ACRES:
   By 2011, there were 425 redevelopment agencies in California administering 750 project areas, 34 of which were over 6,000 acres. In one example, the entire city of Westminster, south of Los Angeles, was declared a redevelopment zone.
    
7. REDEVELOPMENT HURT LOW INCOME AREAS:
   Those displaced by redevelopment were often low-income minorities or the elderly, whose property was bulldozed to make way for big box retailers, professional sports teams and auto retailers.
    
8. JOBS? WHAT JOBS?:
   Redevelopment did nothing to increase the overall number of jobs in California. In 2011, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office actually found that “there is no reliable evidence that [redevelopment] attracts business to the state or increases overall regional economic development.”
    
9. DEBT —LOADS OF IT:
   A redevelopment agency can only receive property tax revenue from its redevelopment area if it goes into debt. By 2011, the long-term debt of the agencies stood at $29.8 billion and their share of total statewide property taxes grew to 12 percent.
    
10. BLIGHTED FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE:
    The JEDI Act allows redevelopment plans to last forty years into the future and removes a time limit on when redevelopment agencies have to repay their debt.
     
11. REDEVELOPMENT OFTEN DIDN’T REDEVELOP:
    Redevelopment agencies spent just 13 percent of their funds on project improvements and construction costs, while most of their funds went to debt repayments or paying municipal bills in towns where elected city officials often doubled as redevelopment agency personnel.

Light Rail and Solar farms fails to deliver "Paradise" in Hawaii

Washington Post: Use of Public Transit Isn’t Surging

Panos Prevedouros, PHD, professor of Engineering at the University of Hawaii

BY PANOS PREVEDOUROS PHD - 

Three professors from Columbia, Cornell and Rutgers take the deceitful data of the American Public Transit Association to task and while at it, they also reveal the expensive nothingness that public transit is in the U.S., excluding a few mega-cities.

APTA

Transit users took 10.65 billion trips in 2013, topping the previous record of 10.59 billion trips in 2008.
There is a fundamental change in American travel behavior: a nation moving away from driving and toward more efficient and sustainable public transit.

3 Professors

APTA’s numbers are deceptive, and this interpretation is wrong. Transit is a small and stagnant part of the transportation system.
Transit receives about 20% of U.S. surface transportation funding but accounts for 2% to 3 % of all U.S. passenger trips. In fact, use of mass transportation has remained remarkably steady, and low, since about 1970. There is nothing exceptional about 2013 numbers; they represent a depressing norm.
New York alone accounts for a third of all transit travel. Transit use outside New York declined in absolute terms last year. No one should pretend [that congestion and pollution] problems are spontaneously solving themselves because Americans have decided en masse to ride transit instead of driving.
Building transit systems is not the same as having people ride them, and people riding transit more is not the same as people driving less (plenty of transit riders are people who used to walk). Additionally, transit is not the only viable alternative to using a car. The environment is helped when drivers switch to buses but also when drivers switch to bikes.

What is Honolulu Rail Really About?

During the proceedings at the 9th Circuit Court in HonoluluTraffic.com v. Federal Transit Administration, the City's lawyer asserted that the purpose of the rail is to "reduce reliance on the private automobile," "promote smart growth land use policies," and "provide an equitable alternative for low-income populations and transit-dependent communities."
The quick summary of these purposes is that Honolulu rail is about land development, and land and transportation controls for “sustainability.”  Yes but what does this really mean?  It means that the core outcome of the promotion of rail is the promotion of poverty:

(1) "Reduce reliance on the private automobile" –people will continue to be dependent on cars but they will have to also pay for a much larger transit system.
(2)  "Promote smart growth land use policies" –all of these policies will lead to high rents and far more expensive land parcels. While lenders and developers will prosper (often with tax credits and breaks), the people will suffer from higher prices and taxes.
(3)  "Provide an equitable alternative…” –social science research indicates that the provision of private transportation is the quickest tool out of unemployment because a person can reach many more places to find a job compared to public transportation. Transit goes to fewer places; lower mobility means more unemployment and underemployment.
(4)  Entirely absent is the purpose of reducing traffic congestion. Rail won’t reduce congestion. Traffic congestion in 2020 with rail will be far worse than it is now: Worse congestion, lower mobility, worse quality of life, and worse off economy.
Also entirely absent is the public’s ability to pay for the rail vis-a-vis mounting local liabilities for infrastructure and social programs. San Juan, PR is leading the way (currently in economic collapse) and Honolulu is following in the same path.

HECO Solar?

Poncho Solar, Haleakala Solar, Kumu Kit Solar and now HECO Solar?
HECO proposed for example a large PV deployment on pristine land next to the power plant at Kahe point.
I have a slogan for HECO’s solar farm proposals: “We get the savings, you get the bills.”
The PUC must not approve any of these proposals.
Instead the PUC should direct the power monopoly to expedite private property rooftop PV deployment.

Also see The Public and Private Versions of Solar Power and Hawaii Energy Policy Has Driven up Electric Bills as HECO Maintains Profits.

Friday Night Music-Living in America James Brown and Funk mix

Senator Rand Paul speaks on Domestic Surveillance at Berkeley

Senator Rand Paul speaks on domestic surveillance at Berkeley and receives a standing ovation.

Bruce Anderson letter to the Marin IJ: "Much Ado about Nothing"

Letter to the Editor from Bruce Anderson on March 23, 2014

Much ado about nothing!

Bruce Anderson

They say they yelled because they were not heard. But their yelling didn't allow them to hear the truth.

The county housing element was just a planning exercise and did not lock in massive affordable housing development in Marinwood or Lucas Valley. We know that now because the county Community Development Agency just announced the process for the next housing element — an inventory of available building sites.

The new housing element will have to account for 185 potential housing units in the same 16 locations across the county. No, this is not an additional 185 units.It is a replacement for the 773 units in the previous element.

Poof. The just-accepted housing element goes away. [Editor's Note: This is not entirely accurate, the housing overlay district zoning was made 30 units per acre on 7 properties. The new housing element adds MORE affordable housing units.  If approved, we may have an additional 185 units. What this means is the property all over Marinwood-Lucas Valley has become a potential building site for affordable housing with the help of Bruce Anderson, Cyane Dandridge and the rest of the old Marinwood CSD Directors and of course all were led by Supervisor Susan Adams. ]

One has to wonder — why all the fuss about something that lasted all of six months?
[Editor's Note: It may effect us for decades saddling us with non profit housing that pays little taxes.  If all units are built, then 1 and 4 housing units in Marinwood-Lucas Valley will be low income housing. It is crazy. We objected yet Susan Adams and the rest of the Board of Supervisors approved of this Housing Element.  It will fundamentally change our community from a quiet suburb to community dominated by non profit housing that pays virtually no taxes.  How will we pay for our schools?  Where will these new people work and shop?  Will they all take public transit or will our traffic increase?  What about crime? No other community in Marin,  perhaps the entire Bay Area has been given such a proportionally high amount of affordable housing.  How can ANYONE justify so much low income housing in our community?]

Some may say they were trying to save Marinwood with what they thought was reliable information. Remember those pleas of up to 500 new units in Marinwood and Lucas Valley (70 percent of Marin's affordable housing to be located in Marinwood and Lucas Valley)?    [We sourced the housing element and plan bay area documents for our information. Although Bruce Anderson formerly served for over a decade, he produces no facts or documents supporting his position.]

Remember those flyers with massive buildings built? Remember the failed recall of Supervisor Adams and complaints that she was not listening to the concerns about the housing element?

Remember those of us trying to tell you that indeed it was just a planning exercise? Probably not, the others were a lot louder. 

Here is something else to remember — that lawsuit by Marin Community Alliance. What is its purpose now that we know the housing element was just a planning exercise? How embarrassing would it be now if the Marinwood Community Services District had given either money or support to that effort? [ We have Bruce Anderson, on tape as Marinwood CSD Director and "vice president of Marinwood Association admitting giving the Marinwood Plaza Vision a sizable "donation"  We now learn the total amount was $5000.  Can he explain this public gift?  Where did the money come from?]

Many residents of Marinwood and Lucas Valley were upset by the "controversial issue" of the housing element. Now that we know there was no "controversial issue" in the first place, my hope is that we all take a breath and try to hear all sides of a discussion not just those the yell the loudest. 

Bruce Anderson, Marinwood

[The current CSD Directors have a big job ahead of them, cleaning up the $1.2 million dollar deficit left in 2013 and 2014 while Bruce Anderson was CSD president.]

Dry Cleaning Fluid Toxic Waste is found at 2000 times above safe levels. It has been acknowledged since 2007 yet no political representative has spoken out for it's clean up.  The above are the known risks.

We hope Bruce Anderson, has an explanation why the Toxic Waste spill  from Prosperity Cleaners at Marinwood Plaza was allowed to spread since its discovery in 2007 while he served as CSD President.

Just find ONE COMMUNITY in the Bay Area that has been burdened such a high number and
71% percent of all affordable housing in their county's housing element.  Just one.

For more information about the dangers of locating housing next to the freeway HERE

VIDEO: Oakland Mayor says a concentration of high density projects lead to crime

Editor's Note: This meeting of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) on March 7, 2013 discusses the criteria for selecting a Priority Development Areas (PDA) like the Marinwood Priority Development Area.

0:00:00  Top Executives refuse the pledge of allegience.  Ezra Rapport , ABAG Executive Director in cap (salary $322,581) and Ken Moy, chief Counsel (salary $279,418).  Each of these executives are among the highest paid public servants in the State of California. They are part of a regional government that is radically changing our communities and local property rights. It would be nice if they can show the respect for flag and the freedoms it represents.


0:12:10-Among the most important reasons for selecting an area for development is the "lack of community opposition" If there is a history of organized opposition to development, it will be less likely to be named a PDA In other words if we don't object we are targets for development. We were selected for a Priority Development Area in 2007 .  Did any local politician tell us?  Wasn't Susan Adams serving on ABAG at the time?

Ezra Rapport and Ken Moy

1:19:30 Ezra Rapport, ABAG Director explains that living next to the freeway will be healthier in the future because we use cleaner fuels. Old health data is based on dirtier fuels.

1:42:00 Oakland Mayor Jean Quan explains that concentration of high density affordable housing in a single neighborhood leads to "ghetto"ization and high crime. She believes low income housing should be spread throughout the jurisdiction.

ABAG's motto is "Sharing Resources" 

Have you ever had a friend who wants to "share" by always taking from you?

ABAG is taking our communities by forcing unwanted development and

"giving" a portion of our tax dollars back in exchange.

Here is what we pay our ABAG employees