Morning News Round-Up -- 7.30.09: Public Transit (News) Day

It is public transit news day around the County...

It’s taken four months and four State mediators to oversee negotiations between BART and its union. Carlos Rivera, the spokesman for the transit agency’s largest union, remained uncommitted when discussing the likelihood of a deal this week. He told the Daily Journal that the union is seeing the endgame. He then backpedaled a bit, saying “We’ve been here before..." and "...it’s hard to predict what will happen.”

Chalk this up to "unintended consequences"... People are happy about the twitter.com/ Caltrain feed launched in May 2008. The County Times reports that more than 2,000 Caltrain followers are now tweeting about delayed trains, slow service, etc., etc., etc.

Looks like you will need to buy a car if you live on the coast. Coastsider Barry Parr reports that SamTrans is proposing to cut the only coastside bus route. There will be a public meeting on August 6th for all you folks would like to have their voices heard...

Speaking of unresolved labor disputes, bad budget times, and difficult local government decisions... firefighters with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District are getting burned on the salary front.

Meanwhile, in SSF (where there is better bus service and a BART stop) Police have put the smack down on drunk drivers, arresting 15 drivers under the influence in the last year through a year-long grant from the State.

(Remember this?) Unemployment has certainly taken its toll. Authorities say it’s part of what drove Rosendo Cazares Abarca, the former President of the Fair Oaks Elementary School Parents Association, to pilfer money from school fundraisers, including a picture day with Santa Claus.

The Almanac reports that Menlo Park Councilman Andy Cohen was the lone and stoic dissenter on a vote to approve a new gym in Menlo Park’s Civic Center.

According to the County Times, Foster City Mayor John Kiramis persuaded Herb Perez, the owner of Gold Medal Martial Arts in Foster City, to run for City Council. Pretty good chance Herb Perez could kick anyone elses' ass who is running... as for his political skill, we'll all have to wait for November to see.

Wider streets in Palo Alto… always a battle worth fighting, especially if it means there will be room to park two cars instead of the one. Like anything in Palo Alto, neighbors fall on all sides of this issue.