Library is not worth saving

It would only take about a 10 second view to reach the conclusion that there was nothing historic nor anything particularly worth preserving of the little 1950s-era rectangular box known as the Ortega Branch Library in the Sunset district. But would that stop someone in San Francisco from lying on a cross in a valiant effort to save it from a date with the wrecking ball?

Not if you’re familiar with The City’s regressive neighborhood politics.

A former city planner named Inge Horton took it upon herself to save the shed-like structure rather than have it demolished in favor of a bigger, more modern building that a vast majority of the nearby residents preferred. And while I applaud even the most quixotic of preservation campaigns (hey, I spent about a year trying to save the Doggie Diner sign on Sloat Boulevard before that bandwagon took off) at least the smiling wiener symbol had some style.

That wouldn’t apply to the Ortega Library, even if it happened to be the place where you borrowed your first book. Or as one of my many anonymous callers said, “You could make a case for preserving many things in San Francisco, but the Ortega Library would not be one of them.”

Horton previously told The Examiner that the reason she decided to appeal the plan to remove the aging library was because it added to the neighborhood’s character. She said it had more of a “clubhouse feeling.”

And I’m with her there, because I’ve been in caddy shacks that had that feeling — the kind of place that was a perfect spot to burn a tired, old cigar and look around at grizzled longshoremen named “Spud.”

Horton recently took her plea to The City’s Board of Appeals, which rejected her petition. To her credit she did manage to get a few more people to side with her, proving that some people will sign up for just about any campaign, San Francisco’s form of social networking.

This will partly explain how anti-anything groups can also form impressive crowds of resistance even when protesting things that are outside their neighborhood. That is the reason Don Fisher is still looking for a site after the forces-that-be conspired to kill his proposed museum for his $1 billion modern art collection.

Come to think of it, maybe he should have put it at the site of the Ortega Library. There’s still time.

Union’s ‘tough vote’ a real no-brainer

Leaders of the train operators union said this week that it was “a tough vote” to ratify the contract that allowed the transit system to remain in operation and avoid a protracted strike.

Really? You mean with 99 percent of the public against you to the point of calling for you to be fired from your jobs?

Jesse Hunt, chief of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 said that unit members had accepted the “cuts and sacrifices,” asked of it by management. And that’s a good thing, considering they were being held up for a public sacrifice.

Rarely has any labor group garnered such ill will, or worked so hard to receive it. The train operators and station agents were the lone holdout among the unions, and were ready to jeopardize the commute of nearly 350,000 people each day because they didn’t want to give in to any contract concessions.

As it is, the union members will now have to pay for premium health benefits — as so many employees already do — and will have less say over work assignments. But they will not take a pay cut.

Thankfully, we won’t have to hear about their gripes for another four years.

Only legal pot farms can prevent forest fires

Here’s a thought for advocates of legalized marijuana to stick in their pipes — instead of just saying that taxing pot will save California’s economy, there’s a case to be made that it may help reduce forest fires.

How’s that, you ask? Narcotics agents and wildlife officials say that some recent fires, including a 100,000-acre blaze in the Santa Barbara Mountains, were started by drug traffickers who’ve been harvesting their plants secretly while camping in state forests.

Firefighters in the La Brea blaze discovered 30,000 top-grade cannabis plants as well as a number of propane tanks and a torched cooking stove that they believe may have ignited the fire.

U.S. Forest Service officials say that the isolated camps have become a “trend.” But if pot becomes legal, there’s no reason for our industrious leaf farmers to hide. Or have to wonder if anyone forgot to turn off the propane tank.

City should learn from Los Angeles

Some cities like to do things in a big way and this week Los Angeles showed that San Francisco is not one of those cities.

That point was brought home when Los Angeles’ school board voted to allow up to 250 schools to be operated by charters or private entities, as a way to help shore up the city’s worst-performing schools.

The move brings back memories of San Francisco’s own painful experiment in having a private company take over a failing public school, when it allowed the Edison company to try and turn around one faltering Noe Valley school. Edison actually managed to bring up test scores at the school quickly and won overwhelming support from the parents — but the school board got caught up in the “privatization” fight and spent three years in a battle to shut the school down.

Three years, one school — it’s so JROTC.

Los Angeles school district trustees gave Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run its underperforming schools, including 50 new multimillion-

dollar facilities. Supporters praised the plan as a necessary step, and opponents, including the teachers unions, said it was improper and possibly illegal.

The school district in Los Angeles is in far worse shape than our own, but it does show that its officials are willing to take dramatic steps to boost student achievement. It also underscores that only losing baseball managers are recycled more often than school superintendents — Cortines headed San Francisco’s school district for years.