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Filed under: Marin, Railroad, SMART, Sonoma, transit | Tags: big brother, freedom, RFID, small business
That’s right put RFID chips on all Sonoma persons, force them to take any public transit but trains, force them to live in the city, and eliminate all small businesses.
Never mind the big brother aspect, what about the money needed? What about all the hacking of all the RFID?
Vote for freedom, vote for SMART!
Ricardo Charducci wrote:
I have a plan that would reduce traffic on 101.
First it would require that all residents of Sonoma county be fitted with RFID chips. All independent business owners will be forced to shut down their business and must take a job working for a big corporation or public agency. The workers will be forbidden from using their own tools and equipment to earn a living, and mandatory use of existing public transportation will be required (busses,ferries and commercial air lines). All residents that live far away from public transit will be relocated to highrise transportation communes down in the flats next to the freeway, no more people will be allowed to live up in the hills and out on the coast. Homeland Security will wire up the public transit systems, the apartments and the city streets with surveillance cameras, parabolic microphones and smoke detectors to monitor the subjects (people).
Sonoma county will become a new world order county, there will be no more free individuals taking control of their life, they will all be under strict control and forbidden from owning their own single family houses and personal transportation.
Then they will fire up the Port of Sonoma ferry to take all the wage slaves to their assignments in the east bay, San Francisco and beyond. Getting all the small business owners and employees into the the new program will definately reduce some traffic off of 101, and will surely lower the quality of life for all men , women and children in Sonoma county. It will also provide a little bit of relief for the Novato commuters, they can use the Sonoma ferry too. Then in Marin, WE PARTY-NO PROBLEM !
This is more happenings on the NWP! Allowed by SMART and the Handcar Regatta supports SMART, considers them an “Auspicious Allies”. If you hurry, you may make it down there in time to see the finish at 5pm.
Handcar Regatta looks like a sculpture race on the rails. I never knew it existed. Thanks to Make mag, I now do. There is one scheduled for 2009. Be sure and check out the photo’s and video. There is even plans!
handcar that is going to be used at the 2008 Santa Rosa, CA Handcar Regatta
I love the comment, that the author of this article must have been offered a job at SMART. Does this mean most newspapers in Marin and Sonoma have journalists that are promised jobs at SMART. Not likely. Notice Sprinter is expected to have a cost per mile, less than half of Sprinter.
Update: I added the link, sorry.
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRATPublished: Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 4:44 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 4:44 a.m.Brian Gaynor steps aboard a commuter train in San Marcos in San Diego County with a 7-foot surfboard tucked under one arm.
Photos by KENT PORTER / The Press Democrat
Brian Gaynor, 51, of San Marcos uses the Sprinter to get to and from the beach in Oceanside. The Sprinter, located in northern San Diego County, ferries students, seniors, business professionals and others from Oceanside to Escondido, a 22-mile route through the Highway 78 corridor.Gaynor, 51, settles into the contoured, cushioned seat of a streamlined Sprinter car, California’s newest mass transit system and only the second of its kind in the United States.
Forty minutes later, Gaynor gets off at the western end of the 22-mile line through northern San Diego County, just a block from the sand and surf at Ocean-side.
“I haven’t been driving for a while,” says Gaynor, who’s been riding the rail line almost daily — on a $59 monthly pass — since it started running March 9.
The Sprinter, a tax-subsidized light-rail system, offers a preview of what Sonoma and Marin counties will get — minus the beachfront station — by approving a quarter-cent sales tax, called Measure Q, on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The tax measure requires two-thirds voter approval to help pay for the 70-mile commuter train between Cloverdale and Larkspur proposed by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Agency, known as SMART.
Narrowly rejected by voters in 2006, the SMART tax sequel would help underwrite a $450 million train intended to carry 5,300 people a day along the Highway 101 corridor in the two North Bay counties.
A quarter-cent sales tax for billions of dollars in transportation projects, including the Sprinter, was approved by San Diego County voters in 1987 and renewed in 2004.
There are differences in scale and geography between SMART and the Sprinter, which is now ferrying 8,650 people a day — students, commuters, surfers, seniors, disabled and homeless — along the Highway 78 corridor from Oceanside to Escondido.
But they are both suburban rail systems, serving roughly equal populations at a similar price tag. Both lines parallel a major highway, running on rebuilt freight tracks.
The 135-foot-long, aluminum-hulled Sprinter cars, each one propelled by a pair of 420-horsepower diesel engines, are similar to the cars SMART would operate. Only one other U.S. transit system, the River LINE running 34 miles between Trenton and Camden, N.J., since 2004, uses the same type of cars.
SMART advocates say the proposed train will ease congestion on Highway 101, reduce carbon emissions and boost economic development in Santa Rosa and other cities on the line.
Critics say it costs too much, the tax will be a burden and the train won’t make the home-to-work connections needed by a suburban population.
‘Train to nowhere’
While the Sprinter links in Oceanside with a commuter train to San Diego and the Amtrak system, SMART dead-ends at Larkspur. Critics call it a “train to nowhere”; backers say there will be a free shuttle to the Larkspur ferry terminal.
The Sprinter paid $52 million for a dozen German-made cars, which hum along continuous, welded-steel rails at a top speed of 55 mph, covering the 22-mile route, with 15 stops, in 53 minutes. The trains run every half-hour from about 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, with a shortened schedule on weekends. The basic one-way fare is $2. Oversized windows afford passengers a view of the rolling hills, back yards and commercial areas along the line.
The SMART system, which does not yet have a specific time schedule, would have 14 trips a day running every 30 minutes, concentrated during the morning and evening commute hours along with a midday run. It also would have four round trips on Saturdays and Sundays. The 14-station route from Cloverdale to Larkspur would take about 90 minutes, while the trip from Santa Rosa to Larkspur would be about 58 minutes. The average fare would be $4.50, depending on the length of the trip.
Out of the traffic
Jeanne Whitworth, wearing a dark blue jacket and skirt, settles into a Sprinter car at the Oceanside Transit Center, awaiting the four-stop ride to Rancho del Oro, where she lives. Whitworth, who works in downtown San Diego, commutes weekdays on both the Sprinter and the Coaster, a conventional Amtrak-style train, which intersect at Oceanside.
The two trains take an hour and a half. Whitworth, 42, could be home 15 minutes earlier if she drove there from Oceanside. “But I don’t have to fight the traffic,” she says, and she’s saving a tank of gas every month. “It’s like getting a raise.”
Whitworth’s only complaints: you can eat and drink on the Coaster, but not on the spotless new Sprinter cars. “They’re cold, too,” she says.
A cool ride
The Sprinter needs robust air-conditioning because there’s as much as a 25-degree temperature difference between coastal and often-cloudy Oceanside and sunny, often-hot inland Escondido, said Tom Kelleher, spokesman for the North County Transit District, which operates the Sprinter.
The new train serves a suburban corridor that includes four cities — Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido — where more than half a million people live. In operation for six months, the Sprinter is moving toward the forecast of 11,600 passengers a day by the end of its first year, Kelleher said.
Building the SMART line and buying 14 diesel-powered cars is expected to cost about $450 million, plus $90 million more for a bike path along the 70-mile route. The Sprinter cost $484 million, not counting bike paths that are separately funded and being built in segments. The Sprinter’s $22 million-per-mile cost is the lowest of 10 Southern California transit projects developed in the past 20 years. (SMART is expected to cost less than $6.5 million per mile, not counting the bike path.)
“I think we really got our money’s worth,” Kelleher said.
‘A poor investment’
Not everyone agrees.
“It’s a poor investment, a continuing drain on the budget,” says Dick Cooke, a former Vista city councilman. From the time the Sprinter was pitched to Vista in 1996, Cooke said he spotted a fiscal albatross.
“People weren’t going to get out of their cars,” Cooke says at a restaurant around the corner from the Sprinter’s Vista Transit Center. “I could see that was not going to happen.”
Cooke, a retired Marine Corps major-general, contends that $500 million would have been better spent adding two more lanes to six-lane Highway 78. He’s also critical of the train’s taxpayer subsidy, saying that everyone riding the Sprinter “is getting a free ticket to some degree.”
San Diego regional planners, with help from Caltrans, estimated the cost of adding another lane in each direction on Highway 78 at $650 million, one-third more than the Sprinter system.
Cooke said he never has and never will ride the Sprinter, and he advises North Bay voters to reject the SMART tax. “I would say fight it like hell.”
Uses rebuilt line
The Sprinter rolls smoothly, without the familiar “clickety-clack” of regular trains, on new rails made of 1,240-foot segments, seamlessly welded together. For the Sprinter, the transit district rebuilt a deteriorating freight line, dating from the 1880s, installing concrete railroad ties.
SMART will make the same improvements along the former Northwestern Pacific Railroad track, now owned by the public agency and already including some welded rail segments.
Genentech, the biotechnology firm, provides free shuttle service for employees from its Oceanside manufacturing plant to a Sprinter station. The company also contributes up to $115 for employees’ monthly transit passes.
By making it easier for employees to get to and from work, Genentech “can help them reduce some of the stress in their lives,” company spokeswoman Caroline Pecquet said.
Packed parking lots at Sprinter stations are proof the new train is taking cars off Highway 78, said Ted Owen, president of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. He also expects the stations to become hubs for new commuter-catering businesses, such as gift and coffee shops, dry cleaners and bookstores.
“They will do well,” he said.
At the North County Transit District office in Oceanside, Kelleher notes that the Highway 78 corridor is underdeveloped. “We think the Sprinter is going to be a catalyst for future development,” he said.
Other cities are considering similar trains, and BART plans to build a 10-mile extension along the Highway 4 median between Pittsburg and Antioch, also using self-propelled diesel cars.
‘I don’t even use my car’
Brian Gaynor’s surfboard is a foot longer than the Sprinter allows, but the ticket agents and transit guards don’t mind. He stows the board in the overhead luggage rack, leaving him free to read and write letters as the train rolls toward the sea.
Sometimes he brings his bike aboard, too, and runs his errands on two wheels. “Now I don’t even use my car,” he says.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.
Filed under: Electronics and Computers
Wine giant accuses anonymous critics of defamation; case could test free speech on Internet
By STEVE HART
THE PRESS DEMOCRATPublished: Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 4:44 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 4:44 a.m.In a case that could test the limits of free speech on the Internet, Sonoma County’s Korbel Champagne Cellars is suing anonymous critics on a Craigslist message board, saying their false statements are hurting the century-old company’s reputation.
The postings accuse Korbel of punishing employees who reported sexual harassment. They also contend the winery is plotting to cut down redwood forests on its Guerneville property.
“They are completely and absolutely false,” said Terry Fahn, a Korbel spokesman.
Korbel is seeking damages and an injunction barring the unidentified writers from posting libelous comments on the popular Web site. The company will not say if it has obtained the names from Craigslist.
Defamation has become a hot issue with the explosive growth of the Internet, which gives ordinary people a chance to post comments anonymously to a worldwide audience.
Craigslist, founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark as an e-mail list of events in San Francisco, has grown into one of the busiest sites on the Internet. It hosts online forums and classified ads for more than 550 cities around the world. More than 50 million people use Craigslist every month to discuss events in their communities and browse its classifieds, where you can find everything from jobs and housing to sex services.
Like many online forums, Craigslist allows users to post comments anonymously and doesn’t screen postings in advance, creating a free-for-all atmosphere that tolerates insults and slurs.
Craigslist retains the right to remove objectionable material, but also warns users that it is not responsible for the content in its forums and classified ads.
“You may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading or otherwise objectionable,” according to its terms of use.
Korbel has worked with Craigslist to remove the offensive comments, Fahn said. He wouldn’t say whether the champagne maker has asked Craigslist to reveal the names of the posters.
Company attorney Steven Bledsoe said in the court filing that, “Korbel’s reputation is of vital importance and any material impairment of that reputation directly and irreparably diminishes Korbel’s ability to conduct business.”
But Korbel’s effort to stop online comments could run afoul of the Constitution, according to an Internet speech expert.
“You can’t get an injunction to prevent damaging speech,” said Matt Zimmerman, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit group that defends free speech on the Internet.
But he noted that Korbel’s lawsuit is a step toward gaining access to anonymous posters. Services such as Craigslist have no legal obligation to protect the identities of users who post potentially libelous comments, Zimmerman said.
When presented with subpoenas seeking a poster’s identity, Web sites “may find it’s not cost-effective to fight,” Zimmerman said.
Some cases of Internet defamation have resulted in large damage awards. In 2006, a Florida woman, Sue Scheff, was awarded $11.3 million after a Louisiana woman posted online comments calling her a “con artist” and “fraud.” A jury found the statements false.
Craigslist does not comment on litigation, CEO Jim Buckmaster said in an e-mail.
But the service’s Web site says it prohibits libelous statements and may disclose user information if it’s required by law, including e-mail addresses, IP addresses, time stamps and other personal data.
The Korbel lawsuit was filed Aug. 29 in Sonoma County Superior Court. It names 10 “John Doe” defendants, but says the real names will be added when they are discovered.
In June, an anonymous poster said she was fired from her job at Korbel after she reported being sexually harassed by a superior. In July, several posts accused Korbel of planning to cut down ancient redwoods on its property to make room for more vineyards, according to the lawsuit.
Other posts said Korbel bribed law enforcement and court officials to keep the business out of trouble.
Some of the postings cited in the lawsuit make veiled references to Richie Ann Samii, estranged daughter of Korbel owner Gary B. Heck.
Samii and her husband are named in a lawsuit filed by two former Korbel employees accusing the couple of sexually assaulting them at the winery in 2006. The wine company has not been named in the suit, and the couple deny the charges.
Samii also has fought with Heck over a family trust fund and rights to a company-owned ranch where she raised horses and zebras. Samii moved from the Guerneville ranch in April following a partial settlement of the dispute.
Some of the Craigslist posts allege the winery has prevented Samii from retrieving her animals since she left the property.
That’s not true, Korbel said.
Samii’s attorney, Guy Calladine, could not be reached for comment.
Korbel’s lawsuit says the Internet postings are part of a conspiracy to defame the winemaker. “Korbel does not and has not cut down redwood trees and has no plans to do so,” Fahn said.
Korbel “has no knowledge” of company retaliation against employees who reported sex harassment, he said.
Korbel was founded by Bohemian immigrant Francis Korbel and his brothers in 1882. It was incorporated in 1903 and grew into one of Sonoma County’s largest wineries. The Heck family acquired the business in 1954 and has expanded it to include Kenwood Vineyards, Valley of the Moon Winery and Lake Sonoma Winery.
Korbel is now the 12th-largest U.S. wine company with reported sales of $159 million in 2007.
You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or steve.hart@pressdemocrat.com.
We regret to inform you that the man known as Anon.R.mous died a hero while fighting a blaze in southern California. His name is being witheld at the request of family, nontheless I will say that he was a firefighter often sent to many places in the country both to fight fires and train others to fight fires. He died a hero, and will be fondly remembered by those who knew him.
I don’t believe he died. Looking at a database of firefighter deaths, I don’t see any for southern California, since his last post. 2008 Firefighter deaths here.
Still he lived as a pain in the butt for others. Good series on trucking, post on the ranch issue.
People want to be like Europe, but Europe has it’s own problems as he pointed out.
Violence erupted after the protesters tried to halt an “anti-Islamification” rally, which police eventually banned.
The extreme-right Pro-Koeln group had sought to protest against plans to build one of Europe’s biggest mosques.
The police said the decision to ban the rally was a matter of public safety.
‘Immigrant invasion’
Some 3,000 police had been drafted in and part of the old city was sealed off as authorities appealed for peaceful protests against a two-day congress called by the Pro-Koeln (Pro-Cologne) group.
Anti-right-wing demonstrators in Cologne 19/9/08
The mosque is not due to be completed until 2009Pro-Koeln had hoped 1,500 people would attend the rally in the city centre to oppose the mosque and what they say is an “immigrant invasion” of Europe.
The municipal council has approved the building of the domed mosque, which will have two 55m (177ft) minarets, in the city’s heavily immigrant Ehrenfeld district.
Far-right leaders from Belgium, Austria and Italy had come to the city for the congress.
Filed under: Humboldt
You all seemed to miss it.
“All of my campaign contributions have come from individuals and small local businesses,” Fennell stated. “I have not accepted any campaign contributions from non-local corporations nor do I intend to in the future. I support Measure T, I voted for it and I honor the wishes of the voters who passed it into law two years ago.”
She supports money losing lawsuits, the measure will have to endure. I didn’t vote for it. Don’t vote for her.
What do I get out of SMART? Not money, not development, just simply the chance to ride and watch trains.
The anti-SMART people’s letter’s are simply not worth it to print. It’s like watching a prize fighter, get in to a ring, and violently beat themselves up. Development is going to happen, just because of the increasing population. Those who are that way simply because it isn’t good enough, guess what. It takes time to do the planning for your studies, etc. In the meantime costs rise.
There is little doubt that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train will benefit our exploding senior population.
The challenge of caregiving (of all sorts – from food service, dishwashing and bathing to gardening, etc.) in the Marin of the future will depend on transportation.
As we “age in place,” we may be living longer, but that brings more frailty, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The demographics are huge and the caregivers will have to come from outside Marin – they can’t afford to live here. Sonoma and the SMART route are where many can afford housing.
We will go from 17 percent over 65 currently, to 26 percent by 2030, according to California Department of Finance projections. That is an increase from 40,000 to 70,000 aged 65 and over.
Out of 10,000 to 12,000 additional workers (new service jobs) to assist the baby boomers in their later years, some 3,000 to 5,000 can come from Sonoma County and the SMART route.
Can’t they be free of their cars and ride SMART and the shuttle buses to their jobs?
In their pronouncements, some environmental organizations never seem to consider the changing Marin demographics. The Marin Board of Supervisors, however, did not ignore the county’s aging population when it listened to the 2006-07 civil grand jury’s describing a “silver tsunami” and approved the new countywide plan and its accommodation for senior housing.
Allan Bortel, Tiburon
Justice served in SMART ruling
Justice has been served. Thank you to the Marin County Superior Courts for recognizing the clearly false or misleading statements that SMART opponents tried to put in their ballot language.
Unfortunately, courts cannot stop people from making false claims in their mailers and fliers. We can only hope SMART opponents have the integrity to clean up their act on their own accord. Voters should be able to decide if they want a passenger train and bicycle pathway based on the facts, not overblown fears with no basis in reality.
The SMART proposal in Measure Q has been studied and endorsed by the League of Women Voters, Climate Protection Campaign, Transportation Authority of Marin, Greenbelt Alliance, Sustainable Novato, Sustainable San Rafael, Novato and San Rafael Chambers of Commerce, Fireman’s Fund, Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey, State Senator candidate Mark Leno, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, and many other officials and organizations.
Please join them and vote yes on Measure Q, SMART passenger train and pathway for a more sustainable future for our transportation needs.
Valerie Taylor
Alezz Laielen’s Saturday letter leads off with the standard imagined villain used by every naysayer in Marin over the last 30 years I’ve been here: The “evil” developers; behind the new jail, senior housing at St. Isabella’s, San Clemente housing, etc. – what disasters those turned out to be!
Now it’s the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train and pathway, which in fact, also will turn out to be a tremendous opportunity for our county just as all the other sure “disasters” claimed by the “No
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on Everything” crowd turned out to do so much good for all of us.She questions the temerity of a lawsuit against the “truth about an ill-conceived plan.” Excuse me, but a judge with a sterling reputation in this county found these “truths” to be outrageous blatant lies after a fair hearing. In fact the letters author’s own words betray her when she claims this “train will destroy the delicate eco-lifeÉ with tracks.”
What? SMART won’t lay tracks. The tracks have been there for 50 some years and destroyed nothing.
It’s just another of the lies we have come to expect and assuredly will keep coming from those that oppose transportation solutions for our county.
Voters, please examine carefully the smears the anti-SMART crowd will recycle in the Measure Q election this November.
Greg Knell, San Rafael
A ‘healthy choice’ for Marin
I’m thrilled that so many commuters are choosing to ride the Larkspur ferry, but disappointed that the IJ’s story overlooked one simple remedy to the parking shortage (“Ferry popularity brings problems,” Sept. 15). The solution is within sight: It’s called the SMART train.
By voting yes on Measure Q, commuters will have two choices. They can ride the train, and walk to the ferry, gleefully passing all those cars circling for spots. Or they can ride their bicycles along the pathway right to the ferry terminal.
Here’s a great idea: Instead of spending $20 million for a last-century parking garage, let’s invest in lockers, secure bike racks, and a pedestrian bridge to the ferry.
Driving solo is pass . The new way to commute is riding together, walking and biking. It’s the healthy choice for people and the planet, too.
Nathan Johnson, San RafaeL,Field Representative,
Greenbelt Alliance
Opponents continue to fabricate “reasons” to oppose SMART. It was not enough that they include out-and-out lies in their argument for the voters’ handbook.
Those untruths were so blatant that SMART was forced to go to court over the matter. Predictably, the court agreed with SMART on most issues.
Now the opponents have stooped to a new low. Alezz Laielen (Saturday Soapbox, Sept. 13) blasts “self-serving bureaucrats and developers” for having “file[d] a lawsuit at the last minute in order to block the truth about their ill-conceived plan …”
The truth? Since when did “truth” become a synonym for “falsehood?”
Who are those “self-serving bureaucrats?” Supervisor McGlashan, who brought the case on behalf of SMART? Judge Terrence Boren, who heard the case?
I find it hard to believe that anyone would stoop to such name-calling, but nothing should surprise us about the opponents of SMART. How about developers?
In order to prevent development of unincorporated areas, SMART is prohibited from establishing stations outside incorporated cities.
Ms. Laielen concludes by alleging, “This type of suppressive manipulation by people who are supposed to safeguard our democratic rights must not be tolerated.”
I have never before heard anyone suggest that there is a democratic right to lie. But again, nothing should surprise us about the opponents of SMART.
Carroll D. Smith, San Anselmo
‘Fast and reliable’ alternative
As more lanes are constructed, more cars will come, filling up the new lanes.
In the East Bay, BART trains run full, yet the freeways are jammed.
In the long run, we will never significantly reduce freeway congestion.
What we can do is provide alternatives for people. This is what Measure Q on this November’s ballot will do. By passing Q, we will get the fastest and most reliable alternative there is: a train.
Known as SMART, this commuter train will run 70 miles along the Sonoma/Marin Highway 101 corridor.
Not only will train commuters bypass 101 traffic, their carbon-intensive automobiles will be off the road. SMART will have a significant impact on greenhouse gas reduction.
Bicycle commuting will be promoted with SMART, as it will include a bike and pedestrian pathway running the full 70 miles.
And once passed, SMART will work to implement “quiet zones,” for areas that do not want trains to sound their horns when approaching crossings.
For localities concerned about horn noise due to freight trains, quiet zones are the remedy. SMART’s financial contribution to this will be substantial.
Finally, please remember the many teachers, senior care and health-care workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and maintenance workers who commute into Marin from Sonoma, and on whom our community critically depends.
We will all benefit from SMART.
Veronica Valero, Novato MARIN GENERAL
We hear a lot about change from the presidential candidates. I wish we could hear more about the need for change right here at home.
How about the need for change in our transportation system? What system you ask? That is a good question. Until we have passenger train service available, we won’t have a system.
Without the rail component, we have a missing link in connecting the modes and providing the needed alternatives to truly have a workable system.
So let’s have change we can believe in for our transportation system in Marin and Sonoma. We need to invest in the future and create a transportation system that meets the needs of our residents and workers.
We can vote SMART, vote “yes” on Measure Q.
Michael Di Giorgio, Novato
City of Novato lawyer submitted a letter to the court to delay. Next court date 7 Oct 2008.
Humboldt Hoedown and Irie Boogie!!!!! Give them all a hand folks! Though this isn’t a full list, just the ones coming up. I didn’t realize it but Eric with the SoHum blog wins!
According to Ire Boogie website, they are limiting attendance to five hundred, to get under the requirements of a permit.
Reggie Rising was a permitted event that required an EIR. The reason it required an EIR is that it had an impact that couldn’t be mitigated below significant. In this case transportation.
Takes about two months for planning to process a permit. Cost is two to three thousand for a use permit. Needing an EIR is an additional thousand dollars. Enforcement is generally complaint driven.
The fine for not getting one is equal to the user permit. IE 2 to 3K. Plus County Code Enforcement fines.
So we have Humboldt Hoedown. Permit not yet, as of today applied for. They are expected to apply for a permit next week. Or after the event is held.
From Eric’s blog,
Community Park was surprised early this week by a notification from the County Planning Division stating that two events scheduled to take place at the Community Park in the immediate future (the Humboldt Hoedown and the Irie Boogie) required special permits, as they went beyond activities allowable under the applicable zoning regulations.
From what I hear The Humboldt Hoedown or the Park were last in communication about the event back in February, and prior to that they submitted for a permit, for the prior year prior to that. The permit was rejected due to a lack of information.
So why is the cost so big? Because of all the lawyers and environmental groups wanting all these laws, etc. So you have people like Pete Nichols of Humboldt Baykeeper to thank.
For the the person who disputed my view of Ammonia as being efficient. Your only half right. Your talking the efficiency of the pumps, I’m talking the efficiency of the medium. Yes by updating the pumps you will make a more efficient system, but that doesn’t take away the efficiency of the medium. Electric motors are still very efficient, even if old. There is a reason ammonia is used as a heat transfer medium.
So on to the article, by a person who is sue happy. The reason places get closed down.
Notice the irony, when he wants Commissioner Hunter to work day and night to ensure and fund a contingency plan. The same person who would sue if Eureka Ice would continue on. The same person in favor of increased regulations, making it harder, and more expensive for these fishermen and others to survive. How do you survive servicing an industry that the product maybe unavailable to harvest? Do you upgrade or let it go?
Except he has another job, plus the Harbor District, plus volunteering. Lets drop everything to work on this. He didn’t want another thing on his plate. There is a point of overload. Commissioner Hunter has only been involved for about five months now, so the January plan isn’t his fault. Word is that he didn’t go to the 1st meeting with environmental health, because his brother said it wasn’t necessary.
The boat that sunk. Dirty diesel Pete Nichols says it should of been Commissioner Hunter’s fines. It doesn’t work that way, the current owner should of been aware of it’s condition, and put it on land. Remember diesel is only bad when your opponent uses it, not when you use it.
In short this was a speech to assign blame, and a political speech on the misfortunes of others. Pete says says he wants to help out, yet never does support any job opportunity.
These environmental types keep saying we will get more jobs by increasing the parks, by the intrinsic value. Yet, we keep suffering. Maybe it is time for a revolution.
Pete Nichols/My Word/For the Times-Standard
Article Launched: 09/25/2008 02:15:49 AM PDTIn 2005, Humboldt County Environmental Health informed Eureka Ice of issues related to the safety of the operation, stating that failure to address these problems would pose a significant risk to public health and the environment. No action was taken at that time by Eureka Ice to remedy these serious issues. In January of this year, the county laid out a plan for Eureka Ice to come into compliance and to avoid, as noted by an EPA official, “… a threat to the surrounding community” from the release of anhydrous ammonia gas into the Old Town area. The response from Eureka Ice was a five-year plan that failed to address any of the issues raised by the county or the EPA.
Now, due to the blatant negligence of Hunter Enterprises, led by Dennis Hunter — president of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District — the community, and the fishing community in particular, are left to fend for themselves for cold storage and a steady supply of ice to support their already economically-challenged fishery. How could a representative of the governing body charged with maintaining the health and viability of the commercial fishery here around Humboldt Bay be so negligent in managing the most basic of his duties and responsibilities as a business owner, employer, and public official?
Worse yet, with crab season on the horizon, Mr. Hunter has offered no solution to the problem. One would think that he would be working day and night to ensure, and fund, a contingency plan to be enacted until a more permanent solution is put in place. To date, we have heard nothing beyond that another former Hunter Enterprises decrepit fishing vessel has sunk at the dock, spilling diesel and its associated toxic stew into Humboldt Bay, and that Hunter Enterprises has dodged the massive fines that could/should have been his fate.
So, once again, the onus falls upon the fishermen to seek a solution. Many local fishing representatives have approached the city of Eureka to act as the savior for this impending crisis. While the city may be well intentioned, I believe that their efforts will fall short of meeting the needs of the fishing community over the long-term. It is time for the fishing community (the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association, in particular) to follow the lead of many of their colleagues throughout the Pacific Northwest to pursue operating and maintaining a cold storage facility — for the fishing industry, by the fishing industry.
There are many successful examples of cooperative cold storage and ice facilities from Seattle to Sitka, and there is no reason why our local fishing leaders should not take this opportunity to free themselves from the reliance on third parties to support and market their product. Creating and maintaining their own facilities will empower the fishing industry, create a sense of ownership and pride surrounding their product, and produce some of those ever-illusive jobs that the Harbor District keeps promising to deliver.
In many a crisis lays opportunity, and I believe this is one opportunity that the fishing community should seize upon. There are existing models to bring cooperative cold storage to ailing fishing communities. Most of these ventures are not so fortunate as to have institutions in place that could provide financial support to 1) provide immediate relief for the current crisis; and 2) secure funds to implement the long-term vision of a modern, fishermen-run community cold-storage facility.
The Headwaters Fund was designed, and is uniquely situated, to accomplish both of these tasks. In the wake of funding the boondoggle of the Redwood Marine Terminal feasibility study and business plan, one would think that they would see the development of a cooperative cold storage facility as both a refreshing and realistic opportunity to fulfill the Headwaters Fund’s mission.
The Humboldt Bay community is best served by maintaining and supporting a strong fishing fleet. Not only is it our heritage, but it is one of the best suited industries for this region. Commercial fishermen are famously independent and self-reliant, and once again it has fallen to them to control their own fate. This may be a blessing in disguise, since the last place their fate should lay is in the hands of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District.
Pete Nichols is the executive director of Humboldt Baykeeper and the Pacific Northwest representative to the board of directors of the International Waterkeeper Alliance. He resides in Eureka.
