Month: April 2016

  • High-Cost Rail – Part 122 Top Terrorist Target

    The likelihood that a completed high-speed rail line in California would instantly become a top terrorist target was obvious to me five and a half years ago.  You can read it here.  I was pleased to see the Mercury News run a piece by a retired L.A. sheriff named Jerry Harper who writes

    Protecting a train hurtling 220 miles per hour on more than 800 miles of track is a different story.  Should we build a fence around the train? Is it possible for security to be omnipresent via helicopter and ground surveillance? Will the government create a huge police force just to protect the rail system? I haven't seen many people asking these tough questions, but they need to be asked.  

    Protecting the system could cost far more than anyone has anticipated.

    If terrorists are able to derail the high-speed train, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries, the cost would be devastating, immeasurable and would never be offset by future passenger fares. An attack on a train that holds hundreds of passengers traveling at such speeds and that costs billions of dollars would create an international media bonanza for any terrorist group, foreign or domestic.

    Sheriff Harper is correct, but only goes half way to understanding the full problem.  Protecting the tracks is nigh impossible as he notes, but protecting the stations and the waiting passengers is even harder since there are no provisions for the space, equipment or manpower that would mimic the TSA checkpoint at an airport.  You read it here first; in November 2010.  If completed, HSR is a disaster waiting to happen.

  • KFOG’s Demise

    Dave Price from the Daily Post noted the demise of radio stations KFOG and KGO in his editorial yesterday.  I seldom listened to KGO, but I have been a KFOG listener since the day they went to rock 'n roll.  Wikipedia helpfully notes

    On September 16, 1982, they dropped the easy listening format for a blend of album-oriented rock which they called "Timeless Rock". The first song on the new format was "Rock This Town" by The Stray Cats. The station featured a wide range of music, from the psychedelic sounds of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to newer artists such as Prince, the Eurythmics, and the Thompson Twins. They avoided more commercial bands such as Loverboy, which were widely played on many other AOR stations at the time. KFOG's specialty programming included "10 At 10", ten great songs from one great year interspersed with old newscasts, commercials and film clip, hosted by Dave Morey and more recently Annalisa. A nightly "Psychedelic Psupper" showcased music from the psychedelic era and the "Sunday Night Idiot Show" featured an eclectic collection of oldies hosted by M. Dung. KFOG was inspired by San Francisco's free form rock radio heritage, dating back to KSAN.

    I was tuned in on Sept. 16, 1982 as "Rock This Town" played and was a devoted listener for a long time.  Unfortunately, KFOG slowly turned to KSLOG for me as the play list seemed to shrink and the "San Francisco Sound" was de-emphasized.  Dave Price noted that DJs Annalisa, Rosalee, and the morning team were all let go last Thursday and we now get a station "on autopilot.  No live hosts.  Music being cued up as if it were from an iPod with recorded announcements every once in a while."

    There is a lesson in here for us all.  When you start to sound like everyone else (or we start to look like everywhere else) in a Vanilla World of chain stores, chain restaurants and cookie-cutter McMansions, you lose your soul.  The end of the good times is soon followed by BORING.  Let's not be BORINGAME!

  • Housing vs. Parking

    Unfortunately, this is not an April Fool's Day post.  Coming on the heels of the 94010 = No. 24 post below is this Daily Journal article about the City of Burlingame getting into the affordable housing business.  It first surfaced a year ago, so you can catch up here.

    The Burlingame City Council is set, during a meeting Monday, April 5, to approve entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with Pacific West Communities to build an affordable housing development on city property currently used as a downtown parking lot.

    The pending agreement is part of a larger vision by officials to leverage underutilized city property into more parking and housing units in a city where the high cost of living has become a contentious issue.

    The decision to select an affordable housing developer comes just days after residents frustrated with the escalating cost of living in Burlingame took steps toward filing a ballot initiative aiming to repeal the city’s anti rent control ordinance, as well as establish a variety of other renter protection policies.

    Putting aside the last failed "exclusive negotiating agreement" at the Post Office, I would much prefer to see the ballot initiative be attempted.  Let's have a vote on so-called "affordable housing" with taxpayer monies.  Actually, I thought we just did and that candidate was beaten by 1,000 votes times two. The last I checked, the parking situation downtown was on more people's minds than how to squeeze even more cars (and their drivers) into downtown.  And that's no joke. 

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