Bruce Bratton hosts University Grapevine, linking local and campus issues, every Tuesday 7:30-8:30 p.m. on KZSC 88.1 fm.
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GOODBYE DICK WILSON. Rumors are zooming all around our City Hall about who's going to be City manager Dick Wilson's replacement. Martine Bernal's name is usually the first guess, but lots of doubts on that one. Then Bill Kocher's name gets some "well just maybe" reactions. Then there's some action about Laura Brown who is general manager of the Soquel Creek Water District., and was former Assistant Manager for our City but the real interest is in how could we ever attract former planning director Greg Larson back to the job? He still lives here. Would he even take it, do we have enough money to top what he makes over the hill? The big problem here is of course the huge amount of control Dick Wilson has over the City Council. Wilson has run this City for decades...and any honest/open councilperson knows and will admit that. Council people have tons of work to do, little amounts of time to do it, and rely on Wilson to make their decisions for them. Nothing too crooked or slimy here, it's just that over the years we have allowed one person to create an enormous amount of power. We could of course do away with the City Manager position like many, many other California Cities have done, but none of our present City Council would dare suggest such a thing.
WALLACE SHAWN READS HOWARD ZINN. | click to open on the right, click again to close >>>
What more can be said about Howard Zinn...if you ever read him or saw him you know what his death means to all of us. Wallace Shawn reads some Zinn...and Zinn is there too!
"IT'S ONLY $1.50" OR HOW LITTLE MAGGIE SUNSHINE IVY'S CVC WANTS TO STEAL OUR GENERAL FUND PUBLIC MONEY.
Maggie Ivy with lots of help from her cheerleader Cynthia Mathews and a wimpy City Council wants to assess NOT TAX just $1.50 per room stay on our tourists. By stopping an increase of our T.O.T tax Maggie would be stealing this money from our general fund. That means that the tax money that now goes to our streets, police, fire, and city support system would go instead to Maggie Ivy's special interest group the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council (CVC) to advertise the Boardwalk and Roaring Camp. That's got to wake someone up. Spending money to bring tourists here and not spending that money to make this a better place to visit (and live?). If you ever talk to your City Council people ask them to hold a public hearing on CVC funding. Remember the CVC profits from the tourists but does not contribute to the upkeep of our city. Speaking of questions ask your councilperson to did deeper into that B.S. figure of "for every $1 spent on tourists we get $9 back" who dreamt that one up and who has ever seen proof ? We need a re-evaluation of the role the CVC plays around here and why should we support private businesses when we don't have the money to take care of all our very desperate non profit agencies?
VETS HALL, BEHIND THE SCENES. Something didn't seem right in the rapid way the county shut down the Vet's hall two weeks ago. California Counties all over the state have been shutting Vets Halls down, tearing them down and of course because they are in such valuable locations, building more profitable buildings in their wake. Murmurings about Tim Brattan's (different spelling different family) insensitive management have been circulating for years. And although no one ever mentions it, just where does the rental money for and from the Building go? I asked old friend Harry Meserve longtime Veterans Association Board member, former Chair of their Board of Trustees, and current Chaplain of the Bill Motto Post for his and his comrades reactions...Meserve wrote...
1. Paul Cox, a member of the Post and also a certified structural engineer, while the county engineers were not, did an inspection with county engineers (as reported in the Santa Cruz Sentinel). His report (a formal engineering report with graphs, etc.) will show that the damage identified is real, but not sufficient to abruptly close the building. And not even allowing time for the vet groups to get their stuff out before locking the doors. It is the kind of damage old buildings sustain due to wear and tear. As Paul says, "its deferred maintenance, the kind of thing the county has NOT been doing all along in the vets building. The general impression is that the stage in the Auditorium (or at worst, the auditorium itself) might have to be closed for repair. What is really needed is retrofitting.
2. The way in which this "crisis" was handled is indicative of the management of the vets building, going back at least two decades. The needs of veterans and their organizations are given second place to the bureaucratic needs of the county or the schemes of the management of the building to "work around" veterans and use the building for other purposes than the ones that it was originally built for. The present manager (not the Board of Trustees - an independent body that manages the building) - Tim Brattan sees it as a cash cow that can produce profits (albeit modest profits) and the veterans as a factor that can be ignored or manipulated to achieve that goal.
My personal experience with this is as onetime chair of the building Board of Trustees and active in the Bill Motto post for 20 years. I've experienced that the county Parks, Open Space, and Cultural Services (POSCS) the division of the county that runs parks, etc. and has responsibility for the vets building, has always had a hard time getting around its own bureaucracy and working with the veterans themselves (their organizations) in order to produce a cooperative spirit to govern the use of the building. There is a court order handed down by the late Judge Black (in 1994 I think) that directs how the building is to be managed, specifies veteran preference for use of the building, etc., but it has been largely ignored by Brattan, the present manager.
It would have made a lot more sense to note the damage, make as assessment of its importance, and meet with the veterans to figure out how best to go forward. Would the county have done anything like this ordered closure (in a matter of days) with any other entity - especially commercial entities - in the area?
3. There is a suspicion, based on the way the closure has been done and a long history of dishonest interaction with veterans and their groups that there are other motivations. First, we are making attempts to put Judge Black's order back on the table in negotiating with the county on how to manage the building. Second, many counties in the state have, over the years, closed veterans buildings or allowed them to fall into disrepair, or turned them into commercial establishments, which can fit into redevelopment plans or other "revivals" of downtowns (where most of the buildings exist). For a long history of conflict and city/county pressures against veterans and their organizations, you can look no farther than San Francisco.
Once the veteran organizations are out of the building and repairs are delayed (perhaps forever) due to money problems, what then happens to the building and its original purpose? If the Cox report shows that the damage is not as extensive as the county would have us believe, will the county even consider revisiting its actions?
4. Generally, of course, the struggle to keep the vets building for veteran use AND for community use is an important one. Fully 30% of homeless folks are veterans and the hard times that veterans of the first and second Iraq Wars and the Afghanistan War are well known. There is no indication that we will not have more wars like these in the future. Where will be the place that these women and men can go to get help and find understanding and camaraderie?
5. The Bill Motto Post would like to see an honest appraisal of the damage by the county (full consideration of the Cox report) and a cooperative attitude toward working with the vets (the United Veterans Council) to find ways to take care of whatever problems are found. This and a reestablishment of responsible building management can both be accomplished if the problems are approached in the proper cooperative spirit".(end of Meserve' s email)
THE WORLD'S MOST GENERIC NEW REPORT | click to open on the right, click again to close >>>
NEWSWIPE LONDON i.e. BBC. If you have the same problems with super produced and commercial news reports...then Kate Minott should win another award for sending this clip...
Still more on that Aptos Village Plan Update.
There are still questions to be answered before the new Aptos Village Plan Update moves ahead. For those interested in what could happen here, the County Planning Commission will be considering these revisions on Wednesday, February 10th in the County Supervisors Chambers at 9:00 A.M. I still think it's headed in the right direction, but people need to pay attention.
Not mentioned in previous comments on the AVP Update, is the proposed elimination of one-way streets, and the use of energy efficient building practices. Will these changes make the final cut? The original plan did NOT mention water as a key feature of the plan. The AVP Update requires compliance with Soquel Creek Water District restrictions on new water service: Reduction of current demand by 1.2 gallons for each gallon of new water demand or future restrictions that may be adopted by Santa Cruz Water District (SCWD).
No traffic study was included in the existing AVP. The AVP Update requires that recommendations of a 2009 Traffic Study be implemented, that are supposed to improve Level of Service from D to C at Soquel Drive and Trout Gulch Road and improve Level Of Service from E to C at Soquel Drive and Aptos Creek Road. These improvements are mostly traffic signals which should be in place now. There may be more signals needed, and this should be brought to the Planning Commission.
Concerns over traffic still remain. One obvious solution would be to create passenger rail service from Aptos Station to points north and south. This would make too much sense, so don't look for it to be part of any formal AVP Update. Of course one of the new streets to be built should be named after Lucille Aldrich and/or the Aptos Ladies Tuesday Evening Society. Thanks to Lucille and the ALTES, we still have an Aptos Village to build a plan around.
NO on the Governors Gas Tax Swap. The latest dirty trick from the Governor is a proposal to eliminate the sales tax on gasoline, which would essentially end funding for public transit in California. His proposal replaces the sales tax with a gallon based excise tax which could not be used for transit purposes. Unfortunately, this proposal has the support of leading Democratic Staff members, along with the usual Republican anti-tax lobby. You can help by calling State Senator Joe Simitian and Assembly member Bill Monning to urge that they STRONGLY OPPOSE any proposal that would eliminate the State sales tax on gasoline as a way of "balancing" the State budget. It's a really bad idea.
The contact information for Joe Simitian is: Sacramento Telephone: 916-651-4011
Santa Cruz Telephone: 831-425-0401
and for Bill Monning: Sacramento Telephone:916-319-2027
Santa Cruz Telephone:831-425-2570
(Paul Elerick is a member of Nisene 2 Sea, a group of open space advocates, serves as the chair of the Campaign for Sensible Transportation, and is a member of the Sierra Club's Santa Cruz Group's executive committee).
FREDIANI'S FOREST UPDATE. All the February 2010 monthly news from the forest and wild places that Jodi Frediani can come up with is right here
PATTON'S PROGRAM. Gary's on vacation...his stuff will resume as soon as he does.
(Gary Patton is "Of Counsel" to the Santa Cruz law firm of Wittwer & Parkin, which specializes in land use and environmental law. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton's.)
EAGANS DEEP COVER. Tim digs deep into the Generational "thing" scroll down...
MOST FUNNY STAND UP COMEDY SKETCH EVER | click to open on the right, click again to close >>>
AUSTRALIAN HUMOR. Travel much??? Watch this funny travel clip.LANDAU'S PROGRES. Read Saul Landau's article titled "Really Inconvenient Truth" in Progreso where he leads off with..."In the documentary "The Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore – remember him? – warned that greenhouse gasses and other sources of hydro carbons would increase, and threaten future planetary life. After issuing this filmic challenge, Gore advised citizens to recycle and buy gas-efficient cars. Inconvenient? How about shutting down most of the factories belching smoke around the world, which contribute little to global health? Or abandoning the high rise office buildings that require heating and cooling 24/7? Read it all here Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow whose films are on DVD from roundworldproductions@gmail.com
JOHNNY CARSON & THE EGG TRICK. If you miss Johnny Carson and are as bored with Leno, Conan, Letterman and that ilk as much as I am, watch this one...
This is how you can change the desktop picture or, as it is sometimes called, the desktop background. This procedure is for Windows XP. You will be able to select from your photos, or images that come with your computer or none at all like a solid blue background (desktop).
Begin by performing a Right click on the desktop and a "Pop Up Window" will appear that says "Display Properties" in the window title. There are five separate tabs titled: Themes, Desktop, Screen Saver, and Appearance & Settings. Each tab has a different function regarding display options of your computer, but today we're only focusing on the "Desktop" tab. Properties on all the tabs are easy to change and will not affect the performance of your system. Go ahead and experiment with any tab, you can always go back to where it was. Perhaps writing down where things are before changing them would be recommended.
Select the second tab from the left, the "Desktop Tab". In this window is an icon that represents what the desktop currently looks like, and below this icon is a small window with the title "Background:" above it with a list of items to select from. There are up and down arrows to the right for scrolling the list. Click on any item in this list. After making your selection a preview appears in this window above this list. No changes have actually been made until you select the "Apply" button in the lower right corner. Try this out a for some different items on this list. Also try the very first item in this list "none" where you can set your background to a solid color.
To set the background to your personal photo select the "Browse" button to the right of the list. This is not nearly as complicated as it sounds, really.
A new window with the title "Browse" pops up, this is where to find your photos. There are three items in this window; the top one has a title "Look in" with a small icon of a folder and a name next to it and an arrow further right.
The bottom field has a title "Files of type." It probably says "Background Files" now but we want to use a photo, so change it to "All Picture Files" by selecting the arrow on the right. Now that "Files of type" = "All Picture Files" we can "look in" our "My Pictures" folder by clicking on the top field arrow and finding the "My Documents" folder which contains the My Pictures folder. Select a photo in the list. (Please send your thoughts for next weeks Casey's Computer Comments...and remember he does house calls, affordably. computer casey@yahoo.com
THE WHITE RIBBON. There isn't any real violence in this thought provoking saga and it's about the people and their attitudes in a small pre WW1 German Village. Director Michael Haneke who did Cache and the unforgettable(no matter how hard you try) Funny Games has a masterpiece with this one. It's all in black and white, deep, dark, mysterious and unending. It's won awards in Cannes and has several nominations coming up...go see it, especially if you're a serious movie goer.
DEAR JOHN. This piece of fluff actually overtook Avatar at the box-office last weekend. It's the same type of Hallmark- feel good nearly brainless plot as Avatar has. No depth, no meaning, just cute people. Amanda Seyfried from HBO's Big Love is fun to watch and has the lead but "Brother" was a much better film on the same Iraq veteran topic.
FROM PARIS WITH LOVE. Up until this nutso flick, John Travolta was always good and also fun to watch, but this attempt to outdo Quentin Tarantino with fun and blood and gore and goofy is a miserable film. It isn't even so bad it's good...it's just bad and should be avoided at all costs (even rental)
FILM CRITICS AT THE NICK DAY. I've lost track of how many years Wallace Baine, Lisa Jensen, Morton Marcus and I have done the critics picks of the OSCARS at the Nick. Morton went to cinema heaven now but Lisa, Wallace and I will hold forth again on Sunday, February 28 at 11am at The Nick to share which films we think deserve the Oscar and which ones will get those gold plated booby prizes. It's free and we love to hear what your opinions are about the 2009 films....which was a pretty good year. (My opinion).
DARWIN DAY CELEBRATION. Dr. Dennis A. Etler who teaches Anthropology at Cabrilho is heading a Darwin Day Celebration titled "New Research Confirms Darwin's View of Human Evolution". It's this Saturday February 13th in Calvary Episcopal Church's Fireside Room (across from The Nickelodeon) at 2 p.m. it's free and is sponsored by the Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County. Call 338-2314 for info.
SANTA CRUZ CHAMBER PLAYERS & TALES OF LOVE. The Chamber Players featuring Lars Johannesson, Kathleen Kasdorf, Amy Brodo and Susan Bruckner will perform musics by Music by Farrenc, Karg-Elert, Ravel, Beach, Loeb, and Raum. Or as it says on their website Romance; tropical, historical and fairytale... Exotic scenes of faraway places. This program centers around the sensual and evocative Songs of Madagascar by Ravel and the lyrical, late-romantic style love songs by America's Amy Beach. Scenes of hummingbirds, an evocation to Brahma, and Sephardic melodies are united with other exotic instrumental elements to delight the senses. From the real to the imaginative, the concert culminates with Elizabeth Raum's beautiful setting and narrative of Cinderella's fairytale love story. Enjoy this musical Valentine's Day treat together with someone you love! Or just a good friend call 420-5260 for tickets. The concerts will be this Saturday Feb 13 at 8p.m. and Sunday the 14th at 3 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church, 10707 Soquel Drive. Google for directions the first time it can be confusing.
UNIVERSITY GRAPEVINE. Each and every Tuesday from 7:30-8:30 p.m. I host University Grapevine on KZSC 88.1 fm. or on your computer at WWW.KZSC.ORG. On February 9th Carol Fuller will talk about The Waddell Creek Association and Rancho del Oso in the first half hour then Taylor Simkins will discuss Fair trade coffee and the Community Agroecology Network (C.A.N.). On February 16th film critic and author Lisa Jensen will talk about her most and least favorite films and then Allie Wilson and Beth Gummere from the Santa Cruz Film Festival will discuss this years Fest. Coastal Commissioner and County Supervisor Mark Stone will lead off on February 23 followed by UCSC's Don Williams telling us all about The Rainbow Theatre productions and events. Sandy Lydon and I will co-host the March Pledge Drive on March 9th. Any and all suggestions for future programs are more than welcome so tune in and keep listening.
QUOTES. "You are to learn to listen to the cursed radio music of life and to reverence the spirit behind it and to laugh at its distortions", Hermann Hesse. "We are most asleep when awake", Paul Reps. "...pure, deep blue. It's the cosmic color, the color of heaven, the color of infinity. It is also the color of my eyes. And of my bedroom", Avery Cardinal (SIR Magazine Pin Up)
Deep Cover
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
It's free! Click here.
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