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• Construction brings out the kid in me

  Construction brings out the kid in me

  I’ve always been fascinated with construction. That fascination is even more intense when it is a reconstruction project.

  As far back as I can remember, I would stand on the sidewalk and watch carpenters build homes in our neighborhood. I’d wander through the construction site after a day’s work was done, when the workers had gone home.

  I marveled at how the walls took shape, how the electrical wires were routed between the boards and even how the roof got built.

• Viewpoint: Council deserves bouquet, not brickbat, for downtown project

  Viewpoint: Council deserves bouquet, not brickbat, for downtown project

  I just delivered chrysanthemums to two of my colleagues on the SLO City Council for going forward with the proposed $750,000 investment in two key blocks of our downtown. This council deserved a bouquet far more than a “brickbat” from The Tribune. We were, in fact, demonstrating prudent stewardship of our fiscal resources.

  We heard a few complaints about the need for “fiscal restraint,” but we also heard praise for this investment from a variety of sources, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Association, and Save Our Downtown — a rare alliance of business and environmental interests. They know that we’re doing the right thing because this project will:

  • Improve security and safety with a continuous “mission-style” sidewalk in place of the dangerous mishmash of sidewalk in parts of these blocks. It will improve sidewalk transitions with tree grates, ADA-compliant curb ramps and improved signposts.

• Letters to the Editor 1/12

  Letters to the Editor 1/12

  Wolf invader

  Our state “fish and game” is not doing its job. That wolf that came into California that everyone wants to make a pet out of needs to be eradicated. It is an invasive species just like the mussels in our lakes.

  As to the endangered species part that someone will bring up, these are Canadian wolves. They are not endangered. Canada has plenty of them. We do not need them. Our government killed all the deer and elk on Santa Rosa Island because they were not native. This wolf is not native.

• Letters to the Editor 12/9

  Letters to the Editor 12/9

  Corporations lie

  The Nov. 6 Tribune carried this story: “On environmental regulation, companies give mixed messages.” Interpretation: Corporations lie to suit their purpose. Corporations — and their repugnant lackeys in Congress — bemoan environmental regulation as job killers and growth inhibitors. Those same corporate flip-floppers tell the Securities and Exchange Commission, “… the impact of environmental proposals is unknown or would not cause serious financial harm to a firm’s finances.”

  An article on the Think Progress website, “Contrary To GOP Claims, Research Shows Environmental Regulation Actually Spurs Economic Growth,” states that an Economic Policy Institute report “… concludes that far from deterring economic progress, ‘the dollar value of the benefits of the major rules finalized or proposed by the EPA … exceeds the rules’ costs by an exceptionally wide margin.’ ” Additionally, they “… found that the EPA’s proposed ‘air toxics rule’ would actually lead to modest job creation.

• Letters to the Editor 1/9

  Letters to the Editor 1/9

  A wish list for 2012

  Part of my new year’s wish list includes continuing to question factors influencing the relicensing of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in beautiful San Luis Obispo County. I recently picked up the Emergency Planning Guide, issued by the county and found on the first page, instructions on what to do if there is a serious emergency at Diablo Canyon Power Plant (the word nuclear is left out). The levels of emergencies does include nuclear power plants but leaves out “Diablo Canyon.”

  I was never very good at reading between the lines.