The scandal in San Jose over City staff bias in favor of Cisco products is unfortunate but unsurprising to environmentalists. Coyote Valley’s unwise momentum towards development came out of the same pro-Cisco bias. While there is nothing wrong with rooting for the home-team company, San Jose needs to remember that its first priority is its residents, not its resident businesses. -Brian
“Sick of Nature” writing
An interesting article by a nature writer in the Boston Globe, bemoaning the current state of nature writing as being too reverent and preaching to the converted. (Hat tip to Conservation News (August 11) for the reference.) A good thing to keep in mind for those of us among the converted. CGF’s newsletters do try and balance reverence with all the other appropriate emotional and dispassionate reactions to the world around us. -Brian
Glad-handing the politicians
Just a short observation: I went to a Sierra Club/League of Conservation Voters’ meeting with candidates for political office. Those two organizations kindly offered other groups, like CGF, a chance to set up tables with information. I manned a table, but the politicians were sitting, not circulating. “No use just sitting here,” I thought, grabbed a bunch of CGF newsletters, and started introducing myself to candidates and giving them newsletters. That’s when the observation hit me: a meeting full of politicians, and the only person working the room is me. How often does something like that happen? -Brian
Green Foothills’ Decision Markets
I have been listening to the audio version of a good book recently, The Wisdom of Crowds. The author’s thesis is that groups can arrive at the correct answer to a question more reliably than single individuals, even if the individual is an expert and the group members are not. Larger groups are better decisionmakers than smaller ones. The reason for this is that each individual knows some small amount of useful information along with random biases. In the collective decisionmaking, the random biases cancel each other out and the correct answer emerges, under the proper circumstances. The author then...
It’s here….
West Nile virus, that is. A dead crow in East San Jose has been diagnosed with the disease. This exotic disease may force some unfortunate changes in wetlands management. Environmental groups will have to watch government agencies to make sure they do not cross the line separating reasonable caution in conducting mosquito abatement, from paranoia that causes environmental destruction.
Tiger Salamanders finally get protection
The Fish and Wildlife Service has apparently decided to finally grant protection under the Endangered Species Act to California Tiger Salamanders throughout their range. While the government missed its promised May 15 deadline, it at least decided to go ahead with the listing, contrary to the wishes of developers. The timing is also fortuitous for CGF, coinciding with the headline article for the latest Green Footnotes article. Something that is a little unusual about this listing is that ranching activities that harm salamanders will be allowed, without the usual provision that a permit must first be issued. Usually species listed...
Sprawl comes home to roost in Gilroy
For years, the City of Gilroy has had an unfortunate obsession with promoting “big-box” retailing, placing massive discount outlets near the outskirts of town in order to attract retail customers from around the Bay Area. Besides using up open space and destroying farmland in the last stronghold for agriculture in Santa Clara County, this policy maximizes commuter miles as people travel to the southernmost point of the Bay Area, and increases pressures to widen highways. The Gilroy Dispatch is now writing about the decay of Gilroy’s downtown business area. Big-box retail, used to grab tax dollars from other jurisdictions, is...
Morgan Hill’s version of Coyote Valley?
I (Brian) just came back from a meeting in Morgan Hill to discuss the City’s proposed “Greenbelt”, which is unfortunately linked to a proposal to establish a new and expanded Urban Line Limit for the City. While a protected greenbelt could be a good idea, the proposal to create a 50-year, Urban Line Limit beyond the current Urban Growth Line could be a recipe for sprawl. The issue we were discussing is the unincorporated, southeast area of the City. While most of the discussion was about a greenbelt, another concept under consideration is a 200-acre industrial campus, plus vaguely-defined residential...
Metro Weekly corrects the Mercury News
A good article about Coyote Valley was in last week’s Metro Weekly: “Coyote Ugly – Why is the ‘Mercury News’ calling the city’s vision for Coyote Valley sustainable when it isn’t?” The Metro points out that 25,000 homes will not satisfy the demand created by the massive industrial development in Coyote Valley. Neither the City of San Jose nor the Mercury News has publicly admitted this flaw, although the City comes a lot closer. Like the Metro Weekly, we have contacted the Mercury News, but have yet to hear back from them.
Otters recovering, but still in danger
Some good news about California sea otters: “After a long, frightening decline, a new survey shows that the number of California sea otters living along the coast has increased sharply for the second straight year.” (Mercury News, registration required for viewing.) Before that long, frightening decline, the otters had been steadily progressing towards recovery, and were set to be removed from the endangered species list when the numbers remained above 3,000 for three years in a row. The current number is just short of that – 2,825. While 3,000 may have seemed a safe figure back when the trend line...