Environmental justice leaps into the mainstream

The water was turned back on in Arroyo Del Valle. The cost to reverse nature is estimated between $6,000 and $10,000. (The mayor and council are still spending money like water when the economy for local government may take a turn for the worse when the governor’s budget finally gets passed.)

Natural for the arroyo during the summer months is dry. It has only been the last few years that man has interceded to keep the arroyo from drying up.

The issue was spearheaded by Mayor Tom Pico. Mr. Pico, normally a back to nature guy, is asking Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to stretch their charter to force Zone 7-the local water agency-to pump groundwater to the arroyo. Mr. Pico describes his request as seeking environmental justice.

The main question is “what is environmental justice?” What is just about creating an artificial environment and then taking a chance that that may change (no water)? Take away the water and arroyo critters may not survive. (The rubber tires and aluminum cans survive year around with or without water.)

The lesson for school children crossing the arroyo near the newly painted Pleasanton Hotel and the Cheese Factory is: a frog out of water may croak and a frog in water may also croak. Lost in Mr. Pico’s environmental justice rhetoric is that frogs have predators -and they are not all of French descent. The kids are not given the complete story. Evolution and survival of the fittest are two additional lessons school kids can learn from the arroyo.

One final question: if frogs croak, (or fish or bugs, for that matter) will the world end?

Mr. Eastman are you listening? Mr. Pico is a profligate spender-again. His environmental justice is clap trap. And while it would be nice to give biology teachers and their students a real-live pond in which to do their research, it is costly.

Most of all it is election time. Mr. Pico, by asserting himself in the issue, will keep a strong hold on all of the frog votes-touch feely mothers who do not want their children to see the carnage of a dry arroyo. It did not hurt Mr. Pico that Wanda Bianchi’s cute little ducklings made the papers.

True to form for environmentalists, the public picks up the tab. Mr. Eastman should suggest to mothers that the $10,000 could be used for city-sponsored soccer or lacrosse programs and frogs should be studied pinned down to a board in biology class. In that light-they are yucky-Mr. Eastman nullifies Mr. Pico’s “natural” advantage.

News Opinion

Why is the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce
so invisible in Pleasanton politics?

The Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce all but disappeared from the Pleasanton political scene when the Pleasanton City Council was dominated by the three to two eco-extremist voting block beginning in the late 80’s. So why are they not more visible today when that voting block is much more fluid?

The 90’s were roaring in Pleasanton. Mixers seemed more appropriate than political action. But what has the inaction of the Chamber wrought?

Former Mayor Ben Tarver and his Dreamteam (which included current Mayor Tom Pico) steamrolled candidates friendly to business. In gaining and firmly holding onto the reigns of power, the Dreamteam and its successors packed city commissions, committees and task forces with like-minded citizens. Put into play was a decade of candidates who prefer foxes and Red-Legged Frogs to people; subsidized housing to free-market housing and traffic to roads.

Homebuilders make up a large part of the Chamber. It was their ox that got repeatedly gored by Mr. Tarver, Mr. Pico and company. So why did the Chamber go it alone against the Dreamteams? Why did they not enlist their business counterparts in the Chamber? Why did they not organize credible campaigns targeting Dreamteamers?

Maybe the Chamber and the homebuilders preferred to build $1million homes preferred by the eco-extremist elites. Maybe the status quo was in their best economic interest. Homeowners who can afford $1 million homes can spend more in Pleasanton’s restaurants and retail sector.

What about the rest of Pleasanton? The Pleasanton workforce can use an inventory of more reasonably priced homes. Roads for faster and safer cross-town travel would have been planning for today and tomorrow. A mass-transit center on the Bernal property means transportation infrastructure to meet future needs for us and our neighbors who must pass through town to Walnut Creek and San Jose. A transit village—ALA Dublin and other progressive cities—means people living near convenient transportation, shopping and civic facilities. City Hall and other city facilities on Bernal means that valuable land in downtown can be developed to ease parking and traffic gridlock and pay for the new city facilities.

These concepts are not foreign to former Chambers. Members with big ideas advanced projects. They even buck the trends and advanced projects clearly in the sites of the Dreamteams. We have city parks and gyms on school grounds because Chamber members stuck their necks out. We have Hacienda Business Park because Chamber members fought the good fight against the no-growthers. We have a first-class hospital convenient to the entire Tri-Valley because Chamber members saw that a hospital is good for the community and good for business.

We have no business leaders who want to do the heavy lifting that the City Council should be doing. While the council reacts--and mostly to development issues—no one has stepped forward to say, “this is a good idea and it is good for the entire community.” Maybe the Chamber should consider filling this void.

Quick Opinion

 
Huzzahs to the Economic Vitality Committee

It costs consumers too much for some environmental programs. That is what the Economic Vitality Committee concluded when studying the proposed green building ordinance. Costs to builders are simply added to prices or rents and the consumer picks up the tab. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this is why property and rents are deemed “unaffordable.”

Think globally on traffic

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is at it again. This time they are insisting that the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District revise their projects to meet national air quality standards or they will freeze highway projects. Right when roads are needed to keep cars moving, the feds want to shut them down. Cars at idle pollute more than cars that are moving.

HUD dollars should go to Bernal mass transit/senior housing

It appears that $160,000 is coming our way for housing and urban development. Smart growth dictates high-density housing near transportation. There would be no better way to spend those dollars than to plan senior housing in a mass-transit facility in an ACE train station complex on the Bernal property. Housing and urban development for Bernal is the perfect solution to honestly spending the pork from the federal Housing and Urban Development department.

Guest Opinion

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