Category: Politics

politics: workings of government

Santa Cruz CA traffic solutions: Greenway multi-modal roadway & walkway scores BIG on flexibility, takes people where they want to go, moves more people, provides choice

  Santa Cruz CA traffic solutions: Greenway multi-modal roadway & walkway scores BIG on flexibility, takes people where they want to go, moves more people, provides choice.

The East Bay got money from California to do a Greenway — let’s do likewise in Santa Cruz CA?

East Bay Greenway Awarded Active Transportation Program Grant

Sep 19, 2014 at 11:23am

$2.656 million state grant will help fulfill community vision to transform 15 miles under the BART tracks from Oakland to Hayward into a bicycle and pedestrian path.

The following is a comment from Rail Trail post written by Will 3/12/18  

“Westcliff  [Santa Cruz CA’s] multi-use path is not wide enough to function as a active transportation facility, period. At 10 feet wide it has built in conflicts for all user groups.

“This is why the Monterey coastal recreation trail is being widened to a width of 26 feet. 16 feet for the Bikeway allows for faster wheeled vehicles to pass in each direction. The separated 10 foot wide pedestrian sidewalk allows groups of two or more walkers walking side by side and pass each other.

“The plan is for the Greenway to use this same 16 + 10 formula wherever possible.

“The 26 feet needed for a proper active transportation facility does not fit over most of the rail corridor, particularly within the “Central Reach” of the system.

“From a Active Transportation perspective there is no comparison of the functionality of the bike and pedestrian facility embodied in the MBSST plan and what has been the proposed Greenway multi-modal roadway and walkway facility.

“As far as mass transit goes, the use of buses in a dedicated transit lane on Hwy 1 is three times faster than the headways predicted by the RTC for passenger rail between Santa Cruz and Watsonville (16 minutes vs ~42 minutes). Likewise for Santa Cruz and the Pajaro Station (20 vs ~60 minutes).

“There are over 220,000 trips daily on Hwy 1 today vs a prediction of 4,500 trips with the most ambitious plan described in the RTC’s rail feasibility study.
Do the math.

“The Greenway + a highway 1 based Bus Rapid Transit could serve 10 times the number of users and goes to where people are going to today: Cabrillo College, the greater Dominican Hospital complex, UCSC, Santa Cruz City and County government buildings, downtown Watsonville and Santa Cruz, etc.

“The existing freeway corridor is more central to the major employment and population centers than the rail corridor.

“From the standpoint of “social equity”, reductions of GHG emissions, active transportation users, health, sustainability and recreation all favor the Greenway and the democratization of the freeway to support and prioritized bus transit.   written by Will-

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Aptos Psychologist: Consider traffic needs of our  most vulnerable  residents and build  solutions  into the overall transportation/  Greenway plan:  how mothers get two small children to school in AM, how the elderly get to medical appointments, how the very sick get to hospitals.

So far, I’ve not heard how to creatively use the frontage roads on either side of Highway #1 and integrate those roads in how better to allow people to move.

Consider ALL ways to move traffic NORTH in the AM and SOUTH in the PM.   For example, we could usse Soquel Avenue as done on the Golden Gate Bridge  — more lanes in AM versus PM.  We could use Traffic Persons rather than Lights to move the traffic on Soquel Avenue.

What say you?  How solve our traffic mess?

written by Cameron Jackson  DrCameronJackson@gmail.com   

Monerey Bay Forum

127 Jewell Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
United States (US)
Phone: 831 688 6002
Fax: 831 688 7717
Email: jaj48@aol.com

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which RAIL TRAIL best for people living in Santa Cruz County? Still time to tell the RTC what you think!

Which RAIL TRAIL best for people who live in  Santa Cruz County?

Do we want a wide TRAIL  that can handle electric bikes and wheel chairs and walkers or do we want  a narrow trail  along a high fence that preserves the rail tracks for a train that may never happen?

There’s still time for you to tell the Regional Transportation Center what you think.

Measure D — which passed in 2017  — preserves the current  rail tracks and permits only a narrow trail.

Maybe there’s a better solution?  Read and decide.

Click  here   for a comparison of the wide one versus narrow one.

Go to the link below to sign petition.

https://www.change.org/p/santa-cruz-county-rtc-help-build-a-world-class-greenway-in-santa-cruz-county-by-removing-the-train-tracks

Thank you Dana Abbott, a gardener with Aptos Community Garden, for providing information.

written by  Cameron Jackson   drcameronjackson@gmail.com

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Firenze Sage: depends on whose ox is being gored [powerful Democrat woman accused of sexual misconduct with male staff]

Garcia (female) accused of sexual misconduct by Fierro (male staff)

Whose ox is being gored:   If something awful happens to someone you don’t know, or perhaps dislike, you are likely to ignore it in the first instance, or may even applaud it in the latter instance. If something awful happens to you or your loved ones, well, that’s a different story altogether.

Leading #MeToo California Assemblywoman Accused of Sexual Misconduct

 Daniel Fierro of Cerritos told POLITICO that in 2014, as a 25-year-old staffer to Assemblyman Ian Calderon, he was groped by Garcia, a powerful Democratic lawmaker who chairs the Legislative Women’s Caucus and the Natural Resources Committee.

He said she cornered him alone after the annual Assembly softball game in Sacramento as he attempted to clean up the dugout. Fierro, who said Garcia appeared inebriated, said she began stroking his back, then squeezed his buttocks and attempted to touch his crotch before he extricated himself and quickly left.

From The Sacramento Bee:

Garcia was “clearly inebriated,” Fierro said, and grabbed his arm. At first he thought she was just trying to steady herself, but then Garcia grabbed his back, he said, and began to stroke it.

“Her hand was there and it slipped down to my butt and she tried to squeeze,” Fierro said. He said he knew then that it had crossed a line and he spun away from her to leave. As he was walking past her, Fierro said, Garcia made a grab for his crotch.

“The entire encounter lasted 30-45 seconds,” he said. “I was in shock. I was embarrassed.”

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Firenze Sage:  Will she  [Garcia] resign or rather attend one of the many classes devoted to telling people that sexual assault is wrong .

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Time to eat crow? Democrats sat on their hands at the State of the Union address by Trump

Democrats sat on their hands during the State of the Union address by Donald Trump

Time to eat crow?  Democrats sat on their hands when Donald Trump spoke about what’s happened during his first year in office.

No Democrat voted for the Tax Cuts.  Those tax cuts benefit many Americans.

No Democrat stood in unity with Republicans concerning the economy or foreign policy.

What do the Democrats stand for?  Seems like they simply stand against.  What say you?   DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

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Firenze Sage–Russians muffle Maxine [Walters Democrat from CA]

Maxine Waters [  https://waters.house.gov/]    now sees a Russian behind every mailbox and lamp post.

During an anti-Trump tirade at an urban housing event, the California congresswoman Maxine Walters  went on a stem winder about Russia and the Kremlin’s alleged love for the American president.

At one point,  Waters declared Trump has committed “obstruction of justice,” and made the case for impeachment, also citing “possible collusion” with Russia.

She theorized Russia wanted to elect Trump so he would lift sanctions to allow Russia to drill for oil.

Walters said, “RT, which is Russian television, absolutely interfered with a speech of mine on the floor of Congress and blocked me out for 10 minutes,” she bellowed, as a woman in the audience gasped, “What?!?”

“They don’t play. They mean business,” Waters declared.

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Firenze Sage:   Imagine that Putin actually cares what this lunatic [[Maxine Walters]  says.

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Firenze Sage: Boo louder! [Trump’s speech at Davos]

boo sound was ‘boosted” by German media

German public broadcaster ARD has been blasted after admitting it “boosted” the sound of booing at the speech given by U.S. President Donald Trump late last week.

President Trump gave his speech at Davos on Thursday, again delivering sharp criticism to the mainstream media. He stated: “it wasn’t until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be.

ARD released a clip of the speech on the Twitter account for its popular news programme “Tagesschau” in which distinct boos could be heard directly after the President’s comments. A short time later the programme admitted it had booted the volume of the audio in order to showcase the booing. The show has since been accused of “manipulation”, Stern reports.

Those behind the programme wrote on Twitter, “We did actually make the sound a little louder at the end so that you can hear the booing. Only in this way can we reflect what our correspondents have reported.”

Editor-in-chief of the German tabloid newspaper Bild Julian Reichelt called out those involved saying it was, “hard to imagine that you would have done the same for applause.”

Kai Gniffke, the editor in chief of ARD defended the move saying that it proved the reporting of his journalists.

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Firenze Sage:  If you hate someone this badly, anything goes.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=four+more+obama+years

 

 

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Dreamers – are they productive, law abiding and speak English? What Arizona statistics show ….

 

Are the Dreamers productive, law abiding and speak English?  Look at the statistics ….

What do we know whether  the Dreamers  are productive, law abiding and speak English.

A majority (74 percent) of U.S. Protestants and Catholics support “Dreamers” receiving permanent legal status, according to a Pew Research Center report released on Jan. 19. Catholic Hispanics overwhelmingly support the Dreamers (92%).

“Dreamers” are persons brought to the U.S. as minors and who have only known the U.S. as their home.

In Arizona, the Dreamers are 4 times more likely to commit crimes than their numbers would suggest.

Younger illegal immigrants in Arizona make up a far larger percentage of the state’s prison inmates than their share of the population would suggest, according to a new analysis.

While illegal immigrants ages 18 to 35 — a group immigration activists call “Dreamers” — are about 2 percent of of the Arizona population, they are almost 8 percent of the prison population. The over-representation by a factor of four shows that younger illegal immigrants in Arizona are far more likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens or legal immigrants of a similar age, says John Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.

Roughly half of the Dreamers are literate in English.  Persons who don’t speak English are not able to get jobs that will support themselves and their families.

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Aptos  Psychologist:   America stopped all immigration for 40 years  (1924-1965) which allowed for assimilation of all the millions who had come.  Perhaps it’s time again to stop immigration and again assimilate those who are here?   To be successful here immigrants need to learn English and learn skills so  they can be  productive members.  What say you?  Comments welcome.

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Firenze Sage:The fate of nations depends on an idiot’s memory? [Hawaii missile alert]

 

Hawaii’s Governor forgot his password

How come Hawaii took so long to defuse phony alert?    — More than a week after a false alarm claimed that a missile was headed towards Hawaii and sparked widespread panic, the governor of America’s 50th state made an embarrassing admission as to why it took officials so long to defuse the phony alert.

Although Governor David Ige reportedly knew the alert was a mistake two minutes after it was sent, Ige confessed he forgot what his Twitter password was and couldn’t tell the public as a result.

“I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made. I’ve been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly,” Gov. Ige said, via the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

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Firenze Sage:  Isn’t there a “forgot password” icon for the esteemed governor to push?

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Firenze Sage: French say no macho attack… [French actress Catherine Denenve deplores wave of MeToo “denunciations”]

Catherine Deneuve, French actress deplores the #MeToo denunciations of men

An open letter from French artists, performers and academics  deplores the recent  wave of  American  #MeToo denunciations.

France’s most revered actress Catherine Deneuve hit out Tuesday at a new “puritanism” sparked by sexual harassment scandals, declaring that men should be “free to hit on” women.

She was one of around 100 French women writers, performers and academics who wrote an open letter deploring the wave of “denunciations” that has followed claims that Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted women over decades.

They claimed that the “witch-hunt” that has followed threatens sexual freedom.

“Rape is a crime, but trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not — nor is men being gentlemanly a macho attack,” said the letter published in the daily Le Monde.

“Men have been punished summarily, forced out of their jobs when all they did was touch someone’s knee or try to steal a kiss,” said the letter, which was also signed by Catherine Millet, author of the hugely explicit 2002 bestseller “The Sexual Life of Catherine M.”.

Men had been dragged through the mud, they argued, for “talking about intimate subjects during professional dinners or for sending sexually-charged messages to women who did not return their attentions.”

The letter attacked feminist social media campaigns like #MeToo and its French equivalent #Balancetonporc (Call out your pig) for unleashing this “puritanical… wave of purification.

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Firenze Sage:   At last,  some can tell the difference between courtship and rape.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=four+more+obama+years

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