Things are improving at the airport! California Shock Trauma Air Rescue (CALSTAR) has a rental agreement, the council has a diversified development proposal and they are finally getting around to the Cal Fire lease - years too late. Additionally, deficiencies were eliminated and there is less infighting between the various factions. Much of the credit goes to the acting manager, Mike Chambless. Mike is also the code enforcement officer; anyone who can hand out citations and still get cooperation from the users must be doing something right.
AMBAG's briefing that was the perfect example of Buzzword-Bingo; my card was full card in the first two minutes. It was all about process, I guess they never read my column about goal-oriented thinking. They explained how they will run workshops and use all their fancy computer "tools" - they just never mentioned what they are trying to accomplish; I'm not at all sure they know.
The Gang Task Force finally faced the fact that they have been ineffective and recommended reorganization. What took them so long? Mayor Doug Emerson keeps pointing out that San Jose and other communities have comprehensive programs we can use. Is anyone listening? This is not an extra duty - it's part of every job and until everyone treats it that way we're doomed to failure. Not to worry, the next time a tax increase is in the offing the supporters will drag out the gang problems for justification.
The traffic impact fee for a new single-family residence was set at more than $23,000. Add more than $13,000 for the sewer connection and then all the other fees and you can see why housing is so expensive. It amuses me to see politicians stomping against expensive housing on Tuesdays when they were busy approving huge fees increases on Mondays. Might there be a relationship?
The high cost of housing and foreclosures are likely to increase the number of illegal garage conversions. The city must find and eliminate these aggressively, not only are they violations of the health and safety codes, they also cheat the sewer and water rate-payers. Information flyers should be going out with the sewer and water bills explaining the rules and the possible penalties.
Speaking of the sewer bills, get ready for another big jump in sewer rates. As a whole, the project has been well managed and should come in under budget. It's vital that the City Council start to return the extra funds to the ratepayers as soon as possible. The history of government is that once they have your money they don't want to give it back; there is going to be a temptation to find excuses to keep these funds; we can only hope they resist. The fact that an election is coming up might help.
The trenching is in progress at the old Fremont School site to determine if it meets the seismic requirements for the new $32-million County Courthouse, keep your fingers crossed.
Downtown remains a forest of "for rent" and "to lease" and "available" signs, and I cannot figure out the city's overall strategy for changing things. Sure, the bypass will help a little as will the end of the wastewater moratorium, but previous high rates of development did not save the day, why should this round be different? We cannot be passive on these key economic issues; we must be aggressive to succeed. The citizens' proposal to exempt parts of downtown from Measure U will help, but we need to do something attractive at the 400-block and, most of all, put some consumers on their feet inside the downtown area.
All in all it's a mixed bag; some good, some bad, but a city government that has yet to prove it can do more than one thing at a time and it's rarely, if ever, ready to do anything expeditiously; that does not bode well for the future.
Marty Richman Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
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Highlights from the Prune Bowl now available
