Should we be angry that our dear leaders appear to think we are stupid? I suppose so. How else to process these two things simultaneously? The Merc reports
A broad new water conservation law will soon take effect in phases, banning the watering of “ornamental turf” at corporate, industrial, government and homeowners’ association properties with drinking water across California as a way to preserve supplies.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the new state law in 2023 as California was emerging from a harsh three-year drought. Starting on Jan. 1, it will be illegal for local and regional government agencies across the state — including schools, cities, counties, courthouses, fire stations and libraries — to irrigate decorative grass with potable water whether or not California is in a drought. On Jan. 1, 2028, the ban will expand to commercial businesses like office parks, car dealerships, supermarkets, strip malls and corporate campuses, along with colleges and universities. And on Jan. 1, 2029, it will apply to homeowners’ associations.
But let this bit of news from the Comicle sink into your cognitive dissonance–rattled brain
For the past 21 years, he and many other Brisbane residents have opposed efforts to transform the roughly 680-acre former industrial site straddling the San Francisco border into a mixed-use development with thousands of homes. In July, after Brisbane repeatedly missed deadlines to approve a plan for up to 2,200 homes on the Baylands site that would cover 81% of its state-mandated housing allocation, California ruled the city out of compliance with state housing laws.
The plan evolved over the years as environmental studies and cleanup proposals developed, and demand for housing grew. By 2010, the proposal called for about 4,400 homes, mostly concentrated in the northwest corner of the Baylands site, away from the old landfill. The developer had also been working on a project adjacent to the site that includes the former Schlage Lock factory, where San Francisco leaders had already approved 1,674 housing units.
I won’t reach for my calculator, but one doesn’t need it to know that is a lot of housing–and that’s just Brisbane and the southern reaches of EssEff. So much for being green as in green grass. What exactly happens to all these square miles of grass that get parched and die because there is hardly any non-potable water around? And what about the trees that are interspersed on this “ornamental turf”. Do all the property owners need to run separate irrigation lines to them to keep them alive? They think we are all stupid. And perhaps a majority of us are.
P.S. update: I walk by this lovely patch of grass up at CSM every week. It’s right across from the big new dorm being built. Very ironic. Water consuming dorm next to soon-to-be-dead “ornamental grass”. As the kids say “touch grass” except for those living on the CSM campus…..
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