Category: News

San Jose is considering a new “Downtown North“. It will have 100,000 jobs, supposedly, and 24,700 new residences. Shades of Coyote Valley where, once again, San Jose is not providing housing to balance all the people it is trying to attract to the region. On the other hand, this development will destroy much less open...

An interesting article in today’s New York Times discusses a newly-discovered connection between the lack of sardines and global warming. It appears that these tiny fish eat, or used to eat, massive amounts of phytoplankton, which are tiny plants floating in ocean currents. With the sardines exploited and overfished, the phytoplankton proliferates, dies, and rots....

We just learned of a new guidebook to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District‘s 25 preserves and 200+ miles of trails. “Peninsula Tales & Trails” by David Weintraub ($19.95 from WestWinds Press, available at Kepler’s) promises a preserve locator map, historical, cultural and anecdotal material, including a table with trail use info (bikes, dogs, horses)....

CGF has found serious problems with County planning processes, where developers are given access to government documents that are not shared with the public, and given a chance to influence the final version of those documents without input from the public. We have more information about this illegal practice here. We are now beginning to...

Santa Clara County is now accepting comments on the environmental documentation for the first of the two trails that Stanford promised to build in return for all the development it was allowed. (For background information, click here.) You can review the County’s new document here: Stanford S1 Trail Alignment Draft Supplemental EIR (scroll two-thirds of...

Yesterday was the first public meeting in a process to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan for most of Santa Clara County. This is a quiet step forward on a process that will influence development for good or ill in the County over 20 years or more. CGF and other organizations will keep track of the...

On this election-day-eve, you might, like me, be feeling the need to act locally. Here’s an opportunity to have an effect on our local representation – on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) Board of Directors. With the addition of the San Mateo County Coastside to its jurisdiction, MROSD now needs to adjust the...

Today’s SF Chronicle has an interesting article on the growth of the so-called “green economy,” or the sales of items considered to be environmentally friendly (rather broadly defined). Some of this is no doubt due to a cultural shift. But some of it is, I’m sorry to say, just more clever marketing on behalf of...

I sit on the Environmental Advisory Committee for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Our local water district is very different from most districts, who view their mission as getting as much water as possible no matter the consequence, and placing development over flood planning and environmental protection. Our water district has come a long...

So which is more likely to kill you: Hike alone for an hour at dusk in mountain lion territory; Take an evening drive for an hour; or Sit in front of television for an hour, eating a half-pint of ice cream? I’m not completely certain on first and second place, but my best guess is...