By Richard S. Lindzen According to Al Gore’s new film "An Inconvenient Truth," we’re in for "a planetary emergency": melting ice sheets, huge increases in sea levels, more and stronger hurricanes and invasions of tropical disease, among other cataclysms — unless we change the way we live now.
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Some of California’s most significant benefits from the proposed high-speed railway between San Francisco and Los Angeles are not immediately apparent. That was the thrust of a Friday
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Back in 1947, San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham tried to scrap the cable car lines, arguing that buses would be more efficient transit. A grass-roots movement saved the cable cars, collecting 50,000 signatures to force a ballot measure that passed with 77 percent approval.Today, it seems almost incomprehensible that serious consideration could have ever been given to demolishing one of San Francisco’s signature visitor attractions and a uniquepiece of local history. But the works of mankind do weaken with age, and the Bay Area has a lengthy roster of lost or endangered landmarks.
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It’s not often a new public library branch opens in San Francisco — it’s been 40 years, in fact. But by all accounts, San Francisco residents will find the new library in Mission Bay worth the wait.
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The beginning of summer is a time for vacations and relaxation for many. But for law-enforcement officials, it’s a time of anxiety. Better weather, more free time for youths and longer days are an annual recipe for an increase in violent crime in San Francisco. This year, it didn’t take long for the examples to begin to pile up. Last week, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the back at a bus stop at 16th and Church streets minutes after he got out of summer school at Mission High, and recent days have brought news of more shootings and slayings.
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The $131.4 billion state budget signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was cause for satisfaction across the state, as state revenue windfalls virtually eliminated the traditionally painful process of trimming needed programs and services. But Bay Area transit officials were especially pleased, as a huge boon in gasoline tax revenues promised millions more in funding than expected for local transportation agencies.
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The odds worsened considerably last week for California to become the first state in which the Legislature voluntarily relinquished its power to redraw district boundaries after every 10-year U.S. census. A proposed constitutional amendment to transfer this authority to a nonpartisan 11-member commission stalled in the Senate as its five-week summer recess began.
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A broad bipartisan coalition of 75 eminent education and government leaders representing the entire political spectrum, including the former U.S. secretaries of education from both Republican and Democratic administrations, have signed on as supporters of a new report calling for a dramatic overhaul of how public school funding is distributed.
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After operating in relative secrecy, the Taxi Commission this week made a big noise when it fired its executive director in the middle of the night. The reverbations of that ouster should persuade city officials to keep a much closer eye on the way The City regulates a key industry that affects tourists and locals alike.
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The new spending plan for California, approved late Tuesday night by both chambers of the state Legislature, accomplishes many things, but its main achievement may be that it gives state residents a reason to believe their government is firmly on the right track.Throughout the second half of the 1990s and into the new century, Sacramento was riven by bitter disputes among its top office-holders. Seemingly endless partisan fighting made it almost impossible for elected officials to address the real and growing problems facing California.
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