Klaasje Nairne
We like a good neighborhood squabble as much as the next newspaper, but now that the SLO City Council has decided to allow parking near the Mitchell Park senior center, it’s time to put the brakes on the Great Parking Lot Debate.
Fanatics on both sides—and you know who you are— need to take a deep breath and let it go.
Yes, there were valid arguments both pro and con on the parking lot, and we wish there had been a way to resolve this to everyone’s satisfaction.
But let’s put this in perspective. We really aren’t talking about paving paradise. This is a relatively small section of Mitchell Park that will be turned into a parking lot for seniors.
So let’s move on to other issues, like climate change, or the city’s declining job base or David Archuleta’s song choices.
Do not, we repeat, do not inflate parking into a major issue in the upcoming council election. And don’t even think about mentioning the words “recall” and “Mitchell Park” in the same breath. Not unless you want a load of diagonally striped, paved-over brickbats parked on your doorstep—along with our entire collection of warped Joni Mitchell albums.
Children can thank the Copelands
We offer the Copelands a million roses for their generous, $1 million donation to the San Luis Obispo Children’s Museum. That brings total contributions to the museum to $4.6 million—very close to the $5.2 million goal. That exhibits a remarkable commitment to kids, and we have a huge thank-you bouquet for all the donors, along with a reminder to mark your calendars for June 5. That’s when the museum is set to open.
Airport manager’s soaring success
We’re flying in a first-class bouquet for SLO County Regional Airport Manager Klaasje Nairne, who retires this summer after a nearly 20-year career at the airport.
Nairne has played a huge role in the airport’s steady growth and success. Under her leadership, it’s developed into an enterprise that contributes more than $200 million a year in economic benefits to the community, compared with just $35 million in 1998.
Her job hasn’t been easy. Among other challenges, she saw the airport through the period of much-heightened security following Sept. 11—but Klaasje has always been accessible, helpful and gracious. She’s one class act, and we wish her the best.
Are you saying we’re small-minded?
On behalf of the small towns in our great state, we’re hauling a tractor load of country-bumpkin brickbats all the way to the governor’s place in big ol’ Sacramento.
In case you missed it, Arnie had these disparaging words last week for legislators who hail from the “little towns” of California.
“Some of them come from those little towns, you know what I am saying, they come from those little towns and they don’t have that vision yet of an airport or of a highway that maybe has 10 lanes or of putting a highway on top of a highway. They look at you and say, ‘We don’t have that in my town. What are you talking about?’ ”
To better acquaint these hayseeds with airports and other urban wonders, Arnie encourages them to take foreign trips—as in trips financed by special interests.
While he didn’t name any names, we take the governor’s reference to “little towns” personally.
By the way, Arnie, we do have a few airports here in SLO County but—thankfully—no 10-lane highways.
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