Morning News Round-Up -- 5.24.10: May Two-Four

Redwood City will start the environmental review process for the Cargill Saltworks development... this will take years everyone, so we are sure there will be plenty of public meetings to show up and complain...

DMB (the Saltworks' would-be developers) probably wasn't happy when the Mercury News hit their electronic doorsteps on Sunday morning... the Editorial Board wrote: Redwood City salt ponds not the right place for massive development...

DMB won't find this much fun either: There will be a pro/con discussion in Atherton on the project this week on Thursday night hosted by the League of Women Voters. Have fun in the NIMBY capital of the Peninsula DMB...

East Palo Alto is looking for a new City Manager (and soon, we'd bet, a new Police Chief)... there are 8 finalists...

Here's a sign of the times: the San Carlos Arts Commission may be disbanded because the city budget is costing the Arts Commission staffers their jobs...

Along the same lines, workers in the County are about to get cut too...

Monday + Daily Journal = Sue Lempert + Tax Collector/Treasurer

This is very strange: Just as some cities are shying away from red-light cameras (SSF, San Carlos) one is just launching them (Belmont). So make sure you slam on your brakes when you are driving in front of me in Belmont.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.13.10: A few minutes late today... I was biking to work

We apologize in advance to Supervisor Carole Groom, because for the next little while, we are going to revert back to what we started calling her when she first got appointed: unelected. Since she has served on the Board of Supervisors she has been unelected, and now she is gearing up for her big race for Supervisor so folks can ligitimately vote FOR Unelected Supervisor Carole Groom. Of course she is going to win by a huge margin, which reinforces what Watch Dog (and others) thought long ago -- that Supervisors should have called for a special election so that Groom doesn't have a seat for life... What brought all this up? The Daily Journal looks into the "race"...

Remember how much fun Governor Gray Davis had with the Vehicle License Fee? It cost him his job... and put the Terminator into the Governor's mansion (?). Anyway, San Mateo County may be getting its own VLF if they vote favorably in November. The money will go to congestion management... Perhaps Gray Davis is free to do the TV ads for the campaign...

That beautiful orange and black "The Times" sign just off 101 will be replaced with 74 housing units and a self-storage complex... paved paradise, put up housing and storage...

Live shows again at the Fox Theatre? Send thanks to Eric Lochtefeld, a San Mateo

entrepreneur...

San Bruno made the seemingly smart decision to forgo red-light cameras because it was going to cost them money, as opposed to bolster city coffers. Plus, now you can't catch us...

Shocking... Belmont needs to raise sewer rates...

Another shocker...

The Burlingame Voice is on part 16 of their anti-High-Speed Rail campaign, this time talking about Union Pacific's opposition.

In other blog news, PP Examiner's Bruce goes into the voting records of the Assembly 21 candidates... which proves that he is getting the same emails that Watch Dog is getting featuring hit-pieces from one campaign on another.

Morning News Round-Up -- 5.11.10: Union Pacific and Menlo Park, a match made in heaven...

Everyone is trying to get in on the breakup of San Carlos and Belmont's fire department... folks are courting San Carlos to allow them to serve San Carlos... which begs the question: why would any other city think they'll get along with San Carlos when Belmont didn't?

Add a rail company to the list of folks opposing High-Speed Rail... Union Pacific. Union Pacific could set up their anti-High Speed Rail office right in downtown Menlo Park...

Remember the Menlo Park City Schools parcel tax that passed last week? Well, it isn't enough to fix their budget problem... more taxes?

No red-light cameras in San Bruno after all because they won't generate any/enough revenue...

Don't worry though, San Bruno will make up for the money that they won't get from red-light cameras by raising rates on trash...

Morning News Round-Up -- 4.27.10: Rainy Days and Tuesdays...

For the cities that are looking at implementing red light cameras (that's you Belmont) you should read this story from South San Francisco. They need to refund drivers $237k and refund the County Court $250k... have fun with that SSF...

While we're in South San Francisco, some property owners there are not pleased with proposed changes to zoning laws there East of 101... the City wants to change it from industrial to business commercial and technology... seems arcane, but not to the East of 101 Property Owners Association.

Senator Leland Yee's bill that banned young people from buying violent video games will be heard by the US Supreme Court... yippee!

Supervisor Mark Church has someone running against him for County Assessor... sort of. A write-in candidate, John K. Mooney, signed the forms to become an official write-in candidate for Assessor. Of all the positions in local government, wouldn't you want the Assessor to be on top of his game enough to actually file to run for office on time and get his name on the ballot? Just asking...

The East Palo Alto Police Chief may be moving to Seattle... it may be difficult to be the Police Chief of East Palo Alto from there...

The post-prom stabbing that sent the police tot he Marriot San Mateo and sent 4 kids to the hospital was apparently gang related.

A new park in Belmont? Say it ain't so... the first one since the 1970s...

If you love the cafe in the County building... you'd better find another place for lunch because it will close in July...

Thanks to Politicon Valley, we know that Yoriko Kishimoto got the Sierra Club endorsement... adding to a long list of organizations?