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It’s been refreshing in recent weeks to see elected officials from around the Bay Area stand up for their constituents in the debate about raising taxes for public transportation.
Despite an approaching deadline to get a measure through the Legislature to qualify for the next statewide ballot, the best they could do was pass along several potential measures for further evaluation by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s staff. The deadlock is good news for taxpayers in many counties.
It’s San Francisco politicians that are driving this because BART’s finances look dire after the huge federal bailouts go away. That’s also true for the local bus and light rail systems.
For Marin County, it’s less dire as it also is for the South Bay. It’s absurd that South Bay officials are pushing ahead with the obscenely expensive tunnel to connect the final segment of the BART system. Left unanswered is the serious question of who will ride it.
The same is true for BART with downtown San Francisco office towers standing empty with the highest vacancy rate and the slowest return to work rate in the country. The fundamental business model for BART to deliver thousands of commuters to downtown office buildings Monday-Friday may have passed.
The San Francisco politicians and the BART staff and board seem determined to preserve what used to be instead of re-evaluating in today’s reality and reducing staff and service to meet the current demand.
For Tri-Valley voters, a solid ACE system and a completed Valley Link, with or without a BART connection, is far more important to our transportation future.
So, what’s going on with high school principals? The sudden resignation of Emerald High’s opening principal Francis Rojas after two years on the job preparing to open the first new comprehensive high school in the county in 50 years.
In August, Amador Valley’s new principal Jonathan Fey went on indefinite leave after just two weeks ago school. The district now has appointed an interim principal to provide stability at the school after using a few veteran administrators to fill in.
We saw the movie “Average Joe” last week that told the story about the Washington football coach who was fired for praying after games at mid-field. His case went to the Supreme Court twice before the justices voted 6-3 to uphold it and overturn an ill-advised 1971 decision that banned any religious displays in public spaces.
The filmmakers did a good job of story telling, spending enough time on the coach’s background to help viewers understand his fierce fighting nature that was physical growing up but refined in the Marine Corps. where he retired as a drill sergeant. There’s also a love story over decades knitting it together.
That was not specific to Christians — it includes any religion. It’s interesting in progressive San Francisco that there’s been no complaints that I’m aware of about the menorah in Union Square that is lit during Hanukkah.
The good news is that the justices have upheld the First Amendment and overturned a bad precedent.
In the early 1970s, San Jose and Santa Clara County turned down the Bart extension for their cities. The Bart board should have left it that way. Now, it is a mess, and the Bart board is incapable of resolving the mess they created.