Archive By Section - OPINION
Del Webb offers a lesson in how to fight blight
It is a never ending story. Neighborhoods are built. Years go by. Homeowners - or landlords - start letting maintenance slip. Undesirables move into neighborhoods. A house becomes rundown. A yard is turned into a trash heap. Graffiti appears and gangs expand. Things start going downhill. Blight sets in. Crime goes up as do taxpayer costs. What is the best way to prevent neighborhoods built today from slipping into blight 20 or so years from ...
Fiddling over Maple Avenue while downtown burns
It's time to lay all of the cards on the table. There are really two different issues when it comes to downtown – traffic and trying to get people to patronize businesses there. Unfortunately Round VI of the Maple Avenue debate – and every clash over traffic patterns from the first proposal to put in one-way streets on Center and Yosemite back in the 1970s to the landscaping bulbs that some compare to anti-tank devices ...
Massive tax breaks go to biggest takers of bailout money
You have a lot at stake on what Congress does in the next few days regarding tax rates. If the current federal tax rates are allowed to expire, independent private sector tax watchdog organizations - as well as the IRS - say a typical household with a net income of $62,500 after deductions will see their tax liability jump $2,200 a year. The entire debate is being debated in terms of the middle class versus ...
Lighting up the season in In Manteca
Like gnats to a porch light on a hot summer night people can't resist Christmas lights.
Small communities show they have big hearts
The letter was simply addressed to the Manteca Bulletin with a hand-written note that it was mailed attention to my name.
Prop. 19: A bad trip for California
I have just one question after reading the voters pamphlet for the Nov. 2 election - what were they smoking when they wrote Proposition 19?
To privatize or not shouldn’t be only question
It's time to write a new chapter for the Stockton-San Joaquin County Library System. And it shouldn't be just about privatization. While some of the points in the privatization proposal solicited from Library Systems & Services (LSSI) have been misconstrued, there is one point that everyone is overlooking from the folks on the seventh story of the San Joaquin County courthouse in Stockton to the various community groups known as Friends of the Library that ...
Robo signers: The latest sign of mega-corporate greed run amok
I apologize. A few years back when the foreclosure crisis started, I lambasted people who openly admitted they never bothered to read the details of mortgage loan documents or think interest rates and payment schedules through when they bought houses they obviously couldn't afford. I still believe that is irresponsible. However, given the now daily revelation by banks and mortgage firms that they apparently don't bother to read foreclosure documents and have robo signers putting ...
Unhappy Meal: Tyranny by government
Ronald McDonald is about as popular in San Francisco as a 9.1 earthquake. For years the bastion of political correctness has tried to make it hard for any chain - including McDonald's - to open for business in The City. They did so for multiple reasons ranging from a belief they were protecting mom and pop businesses as well as not polluting San Francisco with crass commercialism to a general dislike for what McDonald's serves. ...
Roof rats, power lines & glove compartments
I did a double take. I thought I had just seen a scurrying rat using a power line as a high wire act across Yosemite Avenue. It was at the cusp of dusk back in 1991. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I looked again and watched as the rat made its way to the building next door that once housed Contel's business offices. I mentioned what I had witnessed to a ...
Some questions for Queen Meg & Gov. Moonbeam
Sitting on a sofa On a Sunday afternoon, Going to the candidates' debate, Laugh about it, Shout about it, When you've got to choose, Every way you look at it, you lose. Lyrics from Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson" It's time for the rumble. On one side there is Meg Whitman - Queen Meg to many nurses. On the other is Jerry Brown - former Gov. Moonbeam to his detractors. Whitman is posed to spend upwards ...
High speed rail: California’s fast track to ruin?
So does who does California high speed rail benefit? Sure there are the train builders in Europe and the construction workers who hopefully won't be here on specialized visas or in the United States illegally. But when the system is up and running after spending a bare minimum of at least $50 billion who will really benefit and who will really use it? It is true that the Altamont Commuter Express corridor version would make ...
Concrete from hell, roof rats & the Winchester Mystery yard
Cement apparently flowed freely in the 1950s. If you doubt that just ask the crew from Vince's Hauling that spent the good part of Monday morning trying to remove what appears to have been twin five-foot or so solid pours in my backyard. They had broken up most of the two main concrete pads with ease before running into a slight hiccup. First, after digging around the concrete in question it appeared it was poured ...
Do you trust motives of big oil companies?
Take a trip south on Highway 99 toward the Grapevine on a stagnant summer day. As you approach Bakersfield you will be astounded by what you don't see – the Sierra foothills – as you roll down the pavement dubbed "California's Main Street." It's not because the foothills are too far away, as they are just 10 miles or so to the east. It is because of the thick haze primarily from greenhouse gas emissions. ...
Firework sales proceeds a bit baffling for Lathrop non-profits
I'm probably being naïve, but after seeing the final numbers in the first Safe and Sane Fireworks fund-raising in Lathrop, I can't help being baffled by the scant net amounts received by the five nonprofit groups whose dedicated volunteers toiled hard for seven days in the sizzling summer heat to earn money for their pet community projects.
Articles by Section - OPINION
Larry Page and his goog- goog- googley eyes
Get ready for the invasion of the Barneys.
‘TV will be a lot less gay’
The annual network list of canceled primetime shows cannot be pleasing to the progressives who measure shows based on their cultural and political usefulness. "TV Will Be a Lot Less Gay Next Year," the commissars complained at Slate.com. They counted 11 canceled shows that featured regular gay characters.
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