Rebane's Ruminations

Economic Development – ‘ConnectGoldCountry’

George Rebane

Kentucky reports that getting internet connectivity into remote parts of the state – say, like the foothill counties of the Sierras – has been a boon to economic development of the region.  The estimated number of new jobs created by ConnectKentucky is about 63,000.  According to an article by Ann Carrns in today’s WSJ, ConnectKentucky is “a nonprofit with a roughly $2 million annual budget that has worked for the past four years to expand the availability and use of broadband Internet connections in the state's rural areas.”

Now that’s $2M over the entire state of about 4.3 million souls.  Not all pro rata calculations are necessarily correct, but it’s a good place to start.  Say, that we organize a handful of gold country counties with a total population of one million people and start a non-profit program I’ll call ConnectGoldCountry.  It would then require about $500,000 a year to do the same thing.  CGC could, perhaps, be run/promoted by the equivalent of our ERC from all the counties.

Then in four years or less, we would need to spend $50K a year and generate from that 6,300 jobs, or at least the capacity to support that level of job creation.  ConnectKentucky now has a spin-off called Connected Nation that is supposed to help replicate Kentucky’s experience across the land.  We should be able to get all kinds of input from them on telecomms, how to get funding, etc.  Anyway, it’s worth a look by our local telecom and economic development mavens like Steve Monaghan (Nevada County’s Chief Information Officer) and Gil Mathew (CEO of our Economic Resources Council).

For those who don’t subscribe to the newspaper, I have taken the liberty of making a pdf of the WSJ article and you can download it here Download faster_and_stronger.pdf.  (I hope that they won’t yell at me too much since spreading the word about rural connectivity is the purpose of the piece.)

 

Los Angeles Times Gags Blogs

George (the Banned) Rebane

Slate has published a report about the LA flagship controlling the content of the blogs it serves.  This is another step down the path that MSM newspapers are taking toward oblivion (a related story on NC Media Watch).  Our beloved Onion just bans individuals (e.g. moi) and has yet to plumb these depths.  For our community's sake I hope they don't follow the example of this Big Brother of the nation's daily rags.  The times they are a'changin' (pun intended).

Medpedia – The New Collaborative Online Encyclopedia of Medicine and Health

George Rebane

James Currier of Ooga Labs just announced the development and launch of a new wiki that promises to be the premier online service for everyone concerned with health, and that should just about cover everyone on the planet.  RR readers were introduced to James some months back (here), and, true to form, he and his team have been busy doing the next great thing that will be delivered on the internet.  In their own words -

The Medpedia Project today (23jul08) announced the formation of the world’s largest collaborative online encyclopedia of medicine called Medpedia. Physicians, medical schools, hospitals, health organizations and public health professionals are now volunteering to collaboratively build the most comprehensive medical clearinghouse in the world for information about health, medicine and the body. This free public site will officially launch at the end of 2008, and a preview site becomes available today at www.medpedia.com.

The Medpedia Project is a collaborative effort to build and support a community of volunteers to create the world’s best and most comprehensive resource about medicine, health, and the body and to make it freely available to the world. The result of this effort will be to transform how both medical professionals and the general public acquire and understand information about health. Contributing to Medpedia gives health professionals the chance to become known around the world for their areas of expertise.

Medpedia is created in association with Harvard Medical School, the Stanford School of Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and health organizations around the world.

Over the next few years, the growing community of Editors on Medpedia will create and interlink Web pages for the more than 30,000 known diseases and conditions, the more than 10,000 drugs being prescribed each year, the thousands of medical procedures being performed and the millions of medical facilities around the world. These pages will provide insight into the latest health and medical discoveries along with photographs, video, sound, and images. The site has been designed so that everything on a subject will be simple to access. The main topic pages will be written in language the general public can easily understand, and each topic page will have with it a "Technical” page for professionals to discuss the same topic in more clinical and scientific language. Medpedia will constantly improve in real time, keeping up to date with discoveries in health and medicine.

Congratulations to James and the Medpedia team at Ooga Labs.  We – especially those of us starting to notice some creaks and groans here and there - anxiously await the launch of this service in the fall.  RR will be posting updates on progress from time to time – visit the site and stay tuned.

'A WORLD THAT STANDS AS ONE' – Obama in Berlin

George Rebane

Obama’s speech calling for a unified world starts out with a bald-faced lie and goes down from there.  It follows the well-trod and thinly veiled path toward world unity sought by socialists since the French Revolution.  Given his age and political panache, one can make the case that Senator Obama is the first person in history who might be looking at the American presidency as a stepping stone to higher office.  The excerpts below have my emphases added and comments entwined.  The full transcript is available here.

Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, …

[gjr] Right, let’s have, say, Senator Herb Kohl, (D) Wisconsin, try to schedule a speech there for next Thursday.

History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

[gjr] This man is historically challenged; the Germans dismantled the masonry at best, they were in no position to do more against the Soviet empire.  And to credit the Germans with the worldwide aftermath of USSR’s fall goes beyond the pale of even his ignorance - or is he just pandering?

Consensus on Global Warming is “Shattering” (PG-13) (edited)

George Rebane

More evidence on the global warming hysteria is now starting to pour in that corroborates what the technically-savvy skeptics have been saying for years – GW, and most certainly manmade GW, is not happening.  Anthony Watts and Russ Steele have been our northern California bellweather skeptics, and they have alerted us to the 22jul08 testimony of climate scientist and meteorologist Dr. Roy Spencer to the Senate at the conclusion of which he was insulted by Senator Boxer.  And here is a report on the same phenomenon today in a Canadian news service.

Because of the worldwide climate change panic complete with international conferences, and heads of state pronouncements, and carbon catastrophe laws being passed right and left, and the UN hyper-ventilating, and Big Al leading the band down Main Street, Earth … , you’d think that this deluge of contrarian evidence would make a blip somewhere on the radar screens of the ever-vigilant main stream media.  The MSM have been the hysteria-meisters who, out of the other side of their mouth, still attempt to convince us that they are professional journalists who present a balanced view of the available facts.  Well that bull crap can be safely shoveled out of the barn now.

But all this doesn’t mean that the conquer-carbon-crusade is over.  Nope, the bigger-is-better government types don’t even sense this “shattering” of the scientific consensus as a minor speed bump.  (I am sad to add the Wall Street Journal to this shameful list.)  Simply because the problem has long since passed from science into politics, and will stay there as long as the MSM keeps all the sheep bleating ‘cap and trade, cap and trade!!’

24jul08 edit - Since this weblog seeks to meet minimum standards of decorum and has a readership that in most circles is recognized as polite company, we have superimposed the international prohibit sign onto the perhaps too graphical representation of the MSM claims of balanced coverage.  Nevertheless, we will maintain this post's PG-13 rating unchanged.

Ruminations – 22jul08

George Rebane

Scope insensitivity!!??   Well now folks, the politically correct wordsmiths have presented us with a new use for the word ‘insensitivity’ – a person is no longer ignorant or stupid, he’s just insensitive.  So an illiterate is just lexicographically insensitive; that sounds much nicer.  And an innumerate person, get this, is one afflicted with “scope insensitivity” which makes him more than ineffective as a voter.  Ed Ring on EcoWorld clarifies –

Scope insensitivity is the inability of a person, or voting block, or nation, to understand simple quantitative proportions, which if understood, would cast a policy issue in an entirely different light. Simply put, because of scope insensitivity, the logical conclusions one might rationally find obvious are eclipsed by emotional arguments.  Absent the ability to recognize basic quantitative realities, the proper scope of the relevant variables that affect a policy issue are incomprehensible, and policy becomes a puppet of whoever has the most money and the most compelling emotional appeal.

… more here .  A related post is ‘How Elections Really Work’ that summarized Bryan Caplan’s The Myth of the Rational Voter.

Perhaps the debate is not over after all, and Big Al with his “100% zero carbon electricity in 10 years” is beginning to make some people cower a little.  His 'facts' and proposals are beginning to tilt the thinking population into re-examining the claims of the IPCC and the true believers of Team Gore (BTW, they include your president and governator).  Bret Stephens (22jul08 WSJ) asks why he remains so believable, and notes that in The True Believer Eric Hoffer wrote "The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. . . . All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. . . . To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible."

Viz all this, Californians please keep one eye on CARB's Scope Plan for implementing your governator's AB32, and both hands on your wallet.

End of science – out with theory, data rules!  This pile of bovine scat was foisted by editor-in-chief Chris Anderson in a Wired article.  Anderson should either dust off his physics degree or demand a refund from his alma mater for arguing that zillions of data bytes floating out there will now make theorizing obsolete – that all important answers will be found in the huge amounts of data that we daily record and store.  No more need to invent or refine theories. 

Well, that’s just silly.  Theory is the efficient representation of knowledge that lets us predict the future.  A simple regression (think of curve fitting) explains nothing and has very limited predictive powers.  Besides, having all that data doesn’t mean that you can necessarily do anything with it until you can efficiently search it, and then process what you have found.  All this requires more theory and algorithmics based on theory, and … .  Science may just be starting for real - after all, fundamentally we’re critters who want to understand and explain what we experience.  That's how we live.  See related stuff in Singularity Signposts – 22jul08.

Singularity Signposts – 22jul08

George Rebane

As technology accelerates, one of the measurables is how often we have to upgrade our notion of supercomputer and how often supercomputer users must buy new ones.  The Department of Defense uses a lot of supercomputers and the pace of development has become so hectic that it must now upgrade every two to three years.  More here.

The corollary to all this new supercomputing hardware is supercomputing software which is having a hard time keeping up.  To get the required performance out of new supercomputer architectures (how the components are hooked up and communicate with each other), new kinds of programming approaches are needed.  There is a lot of parallel work going on here too.  We will all be hearing a lot about “petascale computing” which requires engineers to rethink whole new approaches to how problems are formulated and numbers are crunched.  Supercomputers gain much of their speed through parallel processing where thousands of computers work concurrently on parts of the problem passing data from one to another in a whirlwind.

Jazz Camp in the Sierras

George Rebane

Another one of the gems, or should I say golden nuggets, of this foothills community of ours is Jazz Camp presented by the Sierra Jazz Society.  Once a year this society, under Artistic Director Bill Douglas, assembles a group of professional jazz musicians from near and far to put on a five day intensive teaching camp that is bookended by concerts in the Miners Foundry.  The students are vetted to be at a level so that they can all work together and benefit from the instruction which is given on the campus of the Nevada City School of the Arts located out on Bitney Springs Road.

Grandson Sean (age 12, experienced rock drummer) arrived last Tuesday from the LA area to spend a week with us while he attended the seventh annual Jazz Camp.  Grandma spent the previous two weeks locating an appropriate drum set for our budding musician.  It turned out that someone from our church had a drum set that they would gladly lend Sean for the week.  So we were ready.

When we got back from the airport there was barely enough time to get Sean settled in his room, freshen up a bit, and head into town for the faculty concert in the Foundry.  Part of the deal is that for the student fee you also get two guest tickets for each concert.  So there we were enjoying cookies and listening to some first class jazz from the musicians who were going to do the teaching.  They presented an ample set of bona fides to a packed hall – a great evening of jazz.

Big Box, Buy Locally, and Wal-Mart

George Rebane

Community planning and economic development of small counties like ours is often detoured and dead-ended by debates that lack a factual basis, or worse, based on myths generated by agenda-ladened activist groups and propagated by the MSM.  The location of big retailers like Costco and Wal-Mart in communities always brings out the warring factions.  The advent of Costco in nearby Auburn (see NC Media Watch) will again light the torches and people will gather with pitchforks and scythes in front of our town halls at midnight.  They usually wind up protesting that small businesses will be destroyed and the community will lose jobs.  But is that what really happens?

Andrea Dean and Russell Sobel (“Has Wal-Mart Buried Mom and Pop?”) have done what appears to be a thorough econometric analysis of the community impact of this big retailer, and the results from their work will surprise you.  They write –

Many believe the mega discount store Wal-Mart is a plague set upon small “mom-and-pop” businesses. The instant Wal-Mart moves into town, all small businesses are destroyed in its path, leaving downtowns barren and empty.  This popular misconception has garnered significant media publicity and widespread public acceptance.

Nevada County Economic Development Update – 17jul08 (Featured Post)

George Rebane

*** 25jul08 - This 17jul08 post is featured this Fri, Sat, Sun because it is referred to in my radio commentary that airs these three days.  After this weekend it will be relegated back to its normal place in the date queue.  I am grateful to the management of KNCO, Nevada County's leading news station, for inviting me to become one of their guest commentators.  ***

We have not heard much about the NC Economic Development program that got so much publicity last winter.  The main idea of the time was that the various county jurisdictions – GV, NC, Truckee, and County – should all get together to back a united effort to bring more businesses to the county and do what could be done to help those already here to stay put.

A lot smiles, nodding, and handshakes got things off to a good start.  They even agreed that it would be good to define what economic development really meant, and what ‘success’ in this effort would look like, and that they should focus the effort on a few projects that would make that success likely.

The county’s Economic Resource Council or ERC under CEO and President Gil Mathew was given the job of pulling the ED program together - a mighty effort given the propensity of all the jurisdictions to go their separate ways.  Then all the councils and supervisors went home and thought about for a bit and came back with a lot of reasons why they all needed to have things done twenty different ways from Sunday. 

As one of the county’s active bloggers and commentators, I attended these happy meetings and, along with other observers of the local political scene, shook my head about the prospects.  Gil Mathew, a gentleman of demonstrated capability, looked mighty lonely and underfunded to herd all those cats into a tight enough of a bunch so that they could be, maybe, headed in one direction. And sure enough, about May things got real quiet.

Russ & Ellen Home At Last

George Rebane

Jo Ann and I were happy to welcome home Russ & Ellen Steele from their three month adventure that criss-crossed our fair continent.  The last leg today was from Truckee where Russ had to attend to county business before being able to haul their customized Airstream into its usual resting place.  Knowing how little one wants to do when arriving at the barn, we invited them for a relaxing evening at Casa Rebane.  There we regaled them with Jo Ann's fine cooking and my workmanlike effort incinerating a few large pieces of dead cow.  It was fun catching up on our travels and talking about the state of the Union.  Russ is the prolific author and publisher of NC Media Watch where you can catch up on the latest in Nevada County doings and the sanity side of climate change.

Ruminations – 13jul08

George Rebane

• Schwarzenegger Blasts Bush on Global Warming
• One strike and you’re out! – McCain fires Phil Gramm
• European Space Agency on Ocean Levels

Schwarzenegger Blasts Bush on Global Warming  Remember the starting scene from ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’ where the cowardly ape emerges to pound on the limp body of another ape, defending a water hole, that was killed by his cohorts.  Reminds me of our formerly Republican governator as he now champions California’s headlong charge into our state’s ineffective and economically disastrous response to climate change.

One strike and you’re out! - McCain fires Phil Gramm  Dr. Phil Gramm, PhD is one of the few people in the country who can give Senator McCain some credible advice on things economic.  The former senator recently spoke his mind (more here) on the current economic downturn, a statement that was a more direct and, perhaps, coarse redux of FDR’s ‘nothing to fear except fear itself’.  For this he was promptly canned from the McCain team, and replaced by a low-grade ore type who instantly appeared on network TV to calm those still hyper-ventilating about Gramm’s direct talk.  Obama did the same thing by firing advisor Robert Malley, for having a politically incorrect relationship that might later have benefitted his office and the country.  And other lesser lights like Hillary who kicked out Geraldine Ferraro for saying what most people were thinking.  This kind of behavior underlines the assessment of the voting public (see ‘How Elections Really Work’) and speaks to the so-called courage of our politicians of all stripes. And to the point, it will prompt more conservatives to ask whether McCain left his once-admirable spine at the Hanoi Hilton.   

European Space Agency on ocean levels  It’s hard to sit quietly and watch the ‘CC caused by correctible AGW’ hysteria sweeping the world.  In medieval times to stop calamities and warfare, many people in Europe decided to kill all available cats as obvious agents of Satan.  Plague bearing rats multiplied and the result was the Black Plague killing more than a third of Europe.  Today, reporting in the MSM is totally dictated by ‘the debate is over’ politics. Clear scientific evidence to counter any politically correct CC conclusion is simply not reported.  Recently the ESA reported that 1) the Antarctic is not contributing to the net rise in the oceans; if anything, it is reclaiming water into its mid-continental ice pack, and more importantly 2) that were climate change to stop today, the ongoing thermal expansion of the oceans would continue the rise of sea levels for decades, perhaps centuries (more here and here).

Russ Steele (NC Media Watch), Anthony Watts (Watts Up With That), and the sites they point to, regularly present authoritative sources and evidence countering the done-deal message that ‘climate change is caused by correctible anthropogenic (manmade) global warming’.  For those still seeking to find answers to questions no longer asked by the herd, please visit these weblogs.

How Elections Really Work

George Rebane

When the overwhelming fraction of voters consists of people indifferent, ignorant, or just plain stupid, how does a republican form of democracy work?  Why doesn’t it just collapse right away as such people cast ballots?

Political scientists have studied this remarkable stability of democracies, and have noticed that somewhere in the 20th century something was beginning to break down – voters around the world were voting for policies that clearly were not best for them or their country.  To understand what was happening, we need to back up a bit.

The Cost of an “Iron Dome”

George Rebane

From the “Iron Dome” report in Breitbart.com -

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday.

The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas.  Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning.

There’s a famous analytical combat model – Lanchester Combat Model - used since WW1 to do high level warfare planning, the application of which to the Iron Dome should put a lid on fielding this system.  Here the cost ratio of the attacking weapon and its countermeasure is huge.  It doesn’t matter if the Iron Dome works perfectly.  If it costs $100 to stop each 10 cent bullet, then the defender is doomed because the attacker will break the defender’s bank.   And it will be the US taxpayer who will be asked to bear this cost.  Hmmm… maybe when Lanchester is exercised from the viewpoint of the Israelis, the system makes sense after all.  Now if only Uncle Sam could deploy an iron dome over its wallet when it comes to our annual gift to Israel.

Ruminations – 5jul08

George Rebane

• Colombian Rescue – It’s a humorous but sad sign of the times that the rescued Betancourt praises France and Sarkozy for her freedom, and does not even give a nod to the role that the US has played in making it all possible.  For years FARC has never given a tinker’s damn for France’s efforts which have been all but invisible to the rest of the world.  And those informed about US involvement in Colombia know that our country has managed all the progress in defeating FARC and its narcotics program with one hand tied behind its back.  Which hand??  The left hand, of course.

• The dumb get dumber.  We watched the NBC national news tonight with dinner.  The thirty-minute program contained only one fluff item that would affect the fortunes of US citizens – the growth and competition from Brazil, one of the BRIC countries.  The rest was about a 41-year-old Olympic veteran swimmer, California wild fires (close up of flames), and the progress of an abandoned baby penguin being raised by some warm-hearted people.  Meanwhile the EU is under Islamic assault and rejecting progress toward unity, Iran is posturing to ‘talk’ while rushing to complete its first nuclear device, US is printing money like its going out of style to continue inflating inflation (i.e. increasing the tax on your monetary assets while simultaneously reducing its transfer payment obligations).  And no one gives a big rat’s asset.

• California’s Air Resources Board, with the full backing of the left, is about to implement its AB32 Scope Plan that will redefine real property use across the land in the futile attempt to alter climate change.  This is a national issue that is purposely kept under the public radar by the mainstream media so as not to arouse any property rights ire now soundly asleep.

• US missile shield for Europe.  What in hell is going on??  We’re willing to install, fund, and man a missile defense system in Europe to reduce Iran’s (and other rogue Islam nations’) threat of nuclear blackmail against the EU, and we’re getting pushback from those getting the protection.  Poland wants us to bribe them into letting us do this on their soil.  From Reuters –

In the months-long negotiations, Tusk's (Polish prime minister)  center-right government had sought billions of dollars worth of U.S. investment to upgrade Polish air defenses in return for hosting 10 two-stage missile interceptors.
"We are ready to accept proposals or corrections from the American side which would include our proposal to increase (our) security. We can do this in a day, a week, a month," Tusk said.

A Small Town Fourth of July

George Rebane

We just returned from the annual 4th of July parade in beautiful downtown Nevada City.  It was ‘our’ turn to have the parade this year and next year it will be held in Grass Valley, our neighboring town and Nevada County’s big city.  It was ever thus, and this year it was no different – a glorious affair for all.  The custom around here is that you either watch the parade or march in it.  The whole community is always there, and there is no rule against anyone’s participation. You got a funny old car, belong to a club or group, or just want to show off your patriotic outfit, then just sign up and you’re in.  Actually, there are some minimal rules which you probably learned in kindergarten – keep your place in line, don’t crowd, and don’t bite anybody.

Nevada County loves parades.  Heck, we’ll throw a parade for almost any occasion and have a whole slew of them already lined up in both towns every year – ‘Hey, Sam is retiring from the Fire Department, let’s have a parade!’  But what makes these parades so special is that they include people with some pretty strong and different feelings about what’s wrong with the county and the country, and what to do about it.  When they’re not parading, they’re at some meeting or assembly or writing letters or blogs lambasting the other side, often using language not heard in polite company.  And then suddenly everyone lines up at the top of Broad Street, a band starts playing, and off they go all smiles as if they really loved one another.

I guess our ability to do that on a regular basis is a good indication that we know we’re all neighbors and fellow citizens in the greatest country ever.  Our country works because we all make it work.  Here in Nevada County, and I suspect other places as well, it’s good to have a parade now and then; it keeps tabs on how well we’re all hanging together through thick and thin.

So today we celebrated Uncle Sam’s 232nd birthday in grand style; and all of us hope that in our historic town a hundred years from now people will still stand and choke up a bit when Old Glory goes by at the start of yet another parade.

Estonia Wrap-up

George Rebane

(For those readers who missed our frequent posts while in Europe, please see the dated ‘Road Ruminations’ under the Happenings category on the right.  Those not willing to subject themselves to this drawn out but sometimes witty reportage can cut to the chase below.)

Wrapping up the Estonia trip starts with our revisit with friends in Frankfurt where we were deposited by Estonia Air that ended in an extraordinarily smooth landing of our Boeing 737-500.  We were again picked up by the Hans and Gitta limousine service and whisked off to our meticulously prepared room.  Peter and Helga were already there and everything started, as always, with the obligatory coffee and cakes that center all such arrivals in proper German households regardless of the previous condition of their guests’ alimentary canals.  We treasure their friendship that has now reached the half-century mark.

Not to be outdone, Jo Ann and I had scheduled to take all of them to dinner at a place of their choosing which turned out to be a fine restaurant located on one of the hills north of Frankfurt.  The patio dining presented great views of the entire Frankfurt region that prominently included a nuclear power plant on the river Main in the direction of Hanau to the east.  Lots of discussion about ‘atomkraft’ and its role in the years of climate change.

Our formerly English-only ears had to do a real big jump shift from Estonian to German, and just when our ears were getting tuned, it was time for bed.  The next morning we were taken to the airport by our four friends for a long good-bye and promises to visit us next year.  Our American Airlines 767 then made a valiant attempt to follow the summer sun across the sky as we flew over the southern tip of Greenland to Chicago (I’ll spare you the Keystone Kops description of immigration and clearing customs which is now our considered response to militant Islam), and from there to San Francisco, landing just as the sun was setting at about 5,000 feet.  For us almost 24 hours had passed and we hit the sack at the Millbrae motel where our car was waiting. 

The next day, yesterday, we drove home to rescue Leo the cat from three weeks in solitary with minimal visiting rights.  Leo spent the first hour admonishing us as we got our stuff into the house and started to feel normal again.  So what was my takeaway from this trip that I had been anticipating for about 50 years?  The following is a slightly edited version from my journal – Jo Ann and I are both dedicated diarists the benefits of which I’ll cover another time.

Bedroom Community Maintenance Measures vs Economic Viability

George Rebane

Nevada County's Rural Quality Coalition (RQC) is a major backer of the MGI and bases its support on the following argument -

"While the “Managed Growth Initiative” does not change the General Plan, it adds the requirement that amendments to the Land Use Element, except in certain circumstances, be approved by a majority of Grass Valley’s voters.  Is this tantamount to “locking in” or “freezing” the Land Use Element, or the whole General Plan, for 30 years, as the City and other opponents have asserted?  No.

This initiative draws on similar measures adopted in Napa, Saratoga and Escondido, and which have served their communities and survived legal challenge. Related examples of requiring voter approval of land-use actions (some more rigorous than this initiative), which passed in 2000, include:

·         the City of Clayton’s “Measure O”, which required voter approval if development involved 10 houses, 2 acres of open space or 1,000 square feet of commercial space;

·         the City of Danville’s “Measure R”, requiring a popular vote for any development of at least 10 units;

·         the City of Malibu’s “Measure P”, which required voter approval of commercial, industrial or mixed-use development of at least 25,000 s/ft, projects that involve road expansion or construction, projects that require a variance or Conditional Use Permit, and projects denser than existing zoning;

·         the City of Newport Beach’s “Measure S”, requiring a vote on most projects that require a general plan amendment;

·         the City of Solano Beach’s “Measure T”, requiring voter approval to change general plan designations, except to reduce residential density.

Instead, “the Friends of Grass Valley’s initiative measure does not prohibit changes to the General Plan. Rather, the measure simply requires the City to engage in a democratic process that includes City voters before making such changes.” As with initiatives in other communities, this initiative’s effect “is to establish a democratic process for proposed changes to the General Plan Land Use Element and Map. Why should the City be allowed to approve so-called ‘creativity’ demanded by a developer that a majority of the voters of Grass Valley find to be contrary to their well-being and values?”

To begin, the RQC's "No" above is not supported by the copy that follows - the success of the cited measures in the legal arena is a totally different aspect of the issue.  When we examine the cited communities, we find that they are bedroom communities that don't depend on the economic development of new businesses that hire workers.  Their residents work in other communities whose economies would be destroyed by measures such as the proposed MGI.  In short, the new folks moving into Clayton, Danville, etc. do so only when they find work in another community nearby that is not encumbered by such collectivist measures to enforce bedroom community standards.  The adopted "measures" insure that such bedroom standards and characteristics will be maintained through the support of nearby communities that do have vibrant economies.

Grass Valley as part of western Nevada County was never intended to be bedroom community for the I-80 corridor or Yuba County, and therefore should have the ability to economically fend for itself as a freestanding economic entity.  The MGI will become a ball and chain on any community already having to overcome liabilities imposed by high energy costs and CARB's AB32 Scope Plan.  Apparently the RQC and 'Friends' don't want anyone to notice this aspect of such "democratic process(es) for proposed changes to the General Plan Land Use Element and Map."