Saturday, September 29, 2012

Tell-A-Vision: Plenitude Economy

Some practical ideas for living.



And since there is such anger, confusion and misinformation during the campaign season, a few minutes here unfolds an alternative way of thinking about the 'isms . . . capitalism, socialism, fascism . . that are hurled at people's words, ideas and candidates. There are a whole series of people presenting innovative, sustainable local/regional enterprises to a group of investors in a Slow Money gathering. Actually it is a kind of small c capitalism with social justice, community building potential.


The frustration of terrible filming - bad camera work not showing slides, bad lighting - are a lot like our local city council videos.  Don't let this keep you from checking out a bunch of people each letting this "Tell-A-Vision" being central to their lives. It is regrettable there are no women speaking given that women are responsible for 80% of the world's food production and women are the fastest growing group of new farmers in this country.

Whoops! Update because I spoke to soon. Here is the YouTube Channel showing all of the speakers and there are women in this group.  The restaurant speaker gives those with more of an urban world view a great vision for the future of this industry.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Law We Don't Need



Where on earth did the city find this ancient purveyor of doom, gloom and dire risk? This codger came up with all the words the staff provided in the recommendation. The marathon city council meeting last night wrapped up before midnight with this useless agenda item: Recommendation from City Council Subcommittee on revisions to banners over Public Right-of-Way Program. 

The only thing worth waiting for was hearing truth from public speakers in this nine month delusional obsession of the mayor and majority to justify being - mean and uncaring towards Maggie Houlihan at her death and at every step along the way in rationalizing their behavior. It is sick-making but will have to come back one more time according to Glenn Sabine.  These are the clips to be proud of though. And congratulations to Teresa Barth and the speakers for getting much of the needless verbiage tossed out.

Note: You'll need to turn up volume on most of these.







 The nine months of wasting the taxpayers time, energy, money and good will is spelled out in this week's Myths Encinitas at Our Mayor.  Even if you disagree with the narrative, the actual council clips - accusations, outbursts, denials, truthiness and all - are within the actual footage.  We also link to the news articles and blog post comments. Judge for yourself.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Lisa Shaffer: Inclusive Transportation


In addition to campaign videos, events and her volunteer work, Shaffer attends council meetings each week. We respect that as a kind of basic requisite to a potential city council office holder. Tony Kranz and Lisa Shaffer have been doing this for years.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tuesday is Dues-day: Why?

Why Tuesday as Dues-day? The parody of the undecided voter, SNL sketch here, is really not that far from the truth. A really large (not so funny) number of Encinitas voters don't have a clue.  More unfunny - many think they are somehow superior for this anti-awareness attitude and the least funny part is the city council majority incumbents are counting on this ignorance.  If you know nothing - simply hearing "stocks" or "mayor" or "fire chief "seems good enough.  In the council majority world, dumb and dumber rule.


Since February, every Tuesday we have posted something to aid the undecided or low information voter regarding Encinitas politics, that's 27 posts with only a hand full directed towards national or international themes. There isn't a lot to add except what the candidates for the election will be telling us in the next 42 days (or sooner for those who vote by mail-in ballot). Take a look at the link and scroll through the last 8 months of Tuesday is Dues-day subjects. Most all are bound to come up again in this last 42 days - or they should.

By the way, today is National Register to Vote day. If you know of such of voter, you also know where he or she can get up to speed on this local political climate in Encinitas. You're welcome.

Here is the first post as it appeared on Our Mayor log, before EYNU was created.

Tuesday is Dues-day: Mayor Rotation

We are at a critical place in Encinitas.  The next 9 months demand dues. Today is Dues-day.

Our dues?  Paying attention . . . Yes, by simply schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported you can legitimately call yourself a citizen, an advocate for democracy.

Being vigilant is being an activist, not the crazed lunatic portrayed by those in power.  If larger numbers of people are informed and paying attention, we make changes. Simple math.  There are only a tiny minority trying to garner power, land and influence over the many thousands simply wanting to live a quality life.

Each Tuesday is Dues-day and a post on some basic aspect of local government will feature some facts, a video clip (called Citizen Tip), some links or images to build up our sense of the process and how this has historically played out at city hall.  This week the mayor rotation is one of several important agenda items for the Wednesday city council meeting at 6 pm.

This clip shows how year after year the council majority have kept Teresa Barth from assuming the role of mayor. If letting a majority keep someone from serving as mayor is the current policy, it may be legal. It isn't ethical or representative. As James Bond says, "that's okay, but it's not good policy."


This post isn't offering the solution, just engaging the conversation and providing the background. These last three years show mean spirited displays of political power and failures to match words to deeds.

Our Mayor Stocks blog has written almost a half dozen posts on mayor selection seen here. We must demand much more and demonstrably a whole new batch of council members.

Democracy isn't free.  We're all paying the price of turning a blind eye to the goings on around us in our government.  So much has been trashed, so much done in our names that neither benefit us or our communities or the resources all around.  Locally this has cost us representation of growing majority of voters as the city council is made up of a super majority serving primarily commercial, developer, wealthy investors over the majority of residents or the common good.  Even if these four council people believe they are doing the work of the people, they have consistently marginalized and silenced Teresa Barth as well as dissent, minority views and transparent government practices in general.  And that is not democracy, even if they wrote a code or ordinance saying it is.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Take a Moment

“There seems to be three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war . . . this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way.” ~ Benjamin Franklin


After a few minutes thought, the above quote seems to speak to this writer's core beliefs.  All people are entitled to food, water and shelter. 

No matter what, we all need to eat.  Take a moment this campaign season to think about your community and your part in shaping it.  Keep what matters most, those essential life moments, in the forefront of your thoughts. Encinitas You Need Us thanks you in advance for being one of those that Encinitas does truly need.


Thursday, September 20, 2012

Lisa Shaffer - Financial Health



Lisa Shaffer's Website is here.  Encinitas Undercover has mistakenly linked EYNU as the Shaffer website.  We are a political opinion blog that happens to support this candidate. Shaffer has no part of this blog.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tonight! Our Way or The Highway or Another Way


In a spectacularly bad scheduling conflict (editor: for which I personally hold Jerome Stocks accountable), Caltrans is presenting at the Community Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive from 6 pm - 8 pm; that is, during the same time frame as the City Council Meeting. 
"The meeting will provide additional information on lagoon studies that were not final during the circulation of the I-5 NCC Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) in 2010." Patch 
The graphic at the opening is to frame this event based on reality.  It shows that across all ideologies and parties the preferred method to reduce traffic is first and foremost public trasit followed by driving less.

This week we got a good laugh out of those Danes - where we know the bicycle riding in Copenhagen is like no other western metropolis.  The clip below isn't about cycling, it's about public transit - riding the bus and it is like no US promotion we have ever seen.

Suggest turning down volume and turning on closed caption (CC at bottom of screen).


For video clips with community members speaking out about the I-5 widening, Stocks and company defending, obscuring and confusing the issues go to encinitasyouneedus YouTube channel where some of the clips for I-5 are grouped.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Tuesday is Dues-day: Hoodlink Resource

Tuesday is Dues-day. The dues are schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported?

You’re a citizen, an advocate for democracy with this first step, paying attention.

Citizen Tip = Hoodlink, Guest Post

This is a group of activists with a Leucadia focus who have been documenting City Council shenanigins since June 2005. (See the page tab above for Hoodlink in the top tab row for a link to the full list of archive articles.)  These are thorough, thoughtful newsletters to help anyone with 7 years of history from the vantage point of those dissenting with the council majority. Today we are happy to reproduce the articles from the latest, Labor Day 2012 issue with the editors' permission.

THE PROVERBIAL NUTSHELL . . .

1) For over 10 years, scant progress has been made toward safe pedestrian rail crossings at reasonable spacing along the tracks. The railroad right-of-way through Encinitas is still a dusty wasteland. The man squarely in favor of these abject failures is the North County Transit District board member representative from Encinitas: our mayor, Jerome Stocks.

As the City’s self-appointed railroad right- of-way expert, Stocks has repeatedly rejected as impossible the reasonable and affordable solution that could serve everyone crossing the tracks. Instead, we get a single, mega-expensive, under crossing, useful to relatively few people.

In this issue, Herb Patterson reprises an article of his from 2008. In it he discusses how adept Stocks is at scheduling things so he can claim the big PR credit for some mega-project he helped to delay, but that can be conveniently addressed when he is up for re-election.

2) Where have all the flowers gone? Their disappearance is tied to a long term plan for generating money to pay for our existing future obligations. Which came first, chicken or egg?

Jerome Stocks and his supporters champion upzoning in every neighborhood while they pile on City debt like shopaholics. We need to stop them before we have “no choice” but to follow Stockton into troubles driven by the ag business calling for upzoning that promises new property tax revenue to cover the mounting debt. Next comes bankruptcy when there are far more empty homes than there are buyers.

Some members of the Encinitas Taxpayer Association have put together a three-part series on one of the financial troubles we-the-people of the city are in. Our representatives continue to claim good times have never looked better in Encinitas. The series starts [below].

~ the Editors

THE TICKING TIME BOMB . . .

On May 15, 2012, Encinitas Treasurer Jay Lembach presented the City’s pension status to the City Council. He stated that pensions are underfunded by $16.2 million. That statement is false.

It turns out Lembach’s $16.2 M figure represents only one of the City’s four pension plans: "miscellaneous employees" He excluded the plans for firefighters, lifeguards and San Dieguito Water District employees. Firefighters are among the City’s most highly paid and pensioned employees. To exclude their underfunded pensions from the City’s reported total is willful deception.

The “miscellaneous employees” plan had assets of $36.5 M and liabilities of $61.7 M when Lembach reported its status. To most people, 61.7 minus 36.5 equals 25.2, not 16.2. Lembach’s questionable math apparently assumes the $36.5 M in the account is really worth $45.5 M. At best this is a fantasy valuation that produces $9 M out of thin air. In his report, Lembach neither discloses nor explains why he used hypothetical rather than real assets.

An independent analysis by Charlie McDermott of the Encinitas Taxpayers Association shows the total unfunded pension liability is closer to $70 M — and growing. McDermott calculated the $70 M figure using the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s (CalPERS) future-return assumptions. He believes, and we agree, that the CalPERS assumptions are excessively optimistic. More realistic assumptions for return on investments would push the shortfall to well over $100 M.

For some perspective on that amount, $100 M is more than the combined bond debt the City has assumed to buy the Hall property, to build the park on the property, and to build the library and fire stations.

On several occasions, Encinitas citizens have publicly asked the City Council for honesty and transparency regarding the City’s unfunded pension liabilities. Mayor Jerome Stocks has repeatedly shrugged off these requests, with flippant remarks to the effect that CalPERS, not the City, is responsible for the calculations, and that the City just pays the CalPERS monthly bills.

Stocks’ public position on the pension trouble is the equivalent of our repeatedly making minimum monthly payments on our credit card, ignoring the large and growing balance, and continuing our shopping sprees.

The City’s combined employer and employee pension payments to CalPERS are more than $6 M annually. That’s about 11% of the budget. The longer we put off being honest about our liabilities, the greater the eventual cost will be.

~ Encinitas Taxpayers Association

FOUR YEARS LATER . . . 

and what has really changed? Here is a reprint from the November 2008 edition.

Jerome Stocks, currently Mayor of Encinitas, has served for over six years on the North County Transit Board [ NCTD] and had previously been an alternate for two years. You would think that over that period of time, Mayor Stocks would have been able to benefit Encinitas in some way, but to my eyes, the only improvement in all that time is an asphalt path at the Leucadia/Vulcan/101 crossing.

People die at this intersection and the surrounding NCTD right of way, yet nothing has been done. Then there were the orange sandbags at the same Leucadia crossing that garnered so many complaints. Did it take weeks or months or years to get them removed? Did Stocks even have any input?

Or, we could consider the tree cutting by the NCTD that occurred with roughly 24 hours notice and no possibility of local input. Did Mayor Stocks give us a heads up? No!

Sure, Mayor Stocks was right there to take credit for the completion of the Sprinter project and garner as much publicity as possible. He neglected to mention that the San Diego County Taxpayers Association awarded the Sprinter project it’s Grand Golden Fleece award for it’s long delays, budget over runs, and repeated ecological pollution resulting in large fines. The Taxpayers Association concluded that the Sprinter does not improve traffic on 78.

Most Encinitas residents believe that under grounding the train is the answer to the many problems associated with the proposed increase in train trips (and as the situation is now). Mayor Stocks, however, has referred to under grounding the train as “impossible” in a Encinitas Council meeting and supports the ridiculously expensive underpass solution which would make under grounding less feasible.

Just on a very simple level, look at the NCTD right of way -- do you see any improvement in the landscaping? Isn’t it the same dusty, desert of neglect it was 10 or 20 years ago? Where is ANY improvement?

At a recent NCTD meeting Mayor Stocks missed a closed session where the selection of the executive director was made. He was also late to the regular meeting and then left early. No wonder Mayor Stocks has at least one sitting NCTD Board Member who would prefer Mayor Stocks not be re-appointed to the NCTD.

UPDATE LATE AUGUST 2012 . . .

We are currently building an underground crossing at Santa Fe using someone else’s money - it is clear that any other underground crossing will be financially unfeasible for the City of Encinitas to build in the foreseeable future. So do we have an at grade crossing planned for Leucadia or other areas? Not to my knowledge.

We did have additional pedestrian improvements at Leucadia and 101, with plantings. If we can plant in this area, why the hell can’t we plant the rest of the NCTD corridor? What has stopped us all these years?

The City staff did a boundary check of the East side of 101 to ascertain where our land ends and the NCTD right of way begins. Anybody know what they found? Are you happy with the progress we have made in four years?

~ Herb Patterson

To receive Hoodlink via email, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to 
stoprezoning@yahoo.com

Monday, September 17, 2012

Maggie Houlihan Remembered


This photo is from the Patch article honoring the anniversary of Maggie Houlihan's death from cancer one year ago.  The Cardiff Kook was captured for the Coast News piece too. 

The Encinitas Undercover blog posted an illegible picture on Sunday with the command to go outside and visit it in person.

Councilwoman Teresa Barth and Lisa Shaffer  and Dave Roberts all paid homage to Maggie on their Facebook pages. We're assured that Tony Kranz, like Laurie Michaels and crowds of others were talking about Maggie these past few days. We have been hanging back waiting to see . . .

Stocks, Bond, Muir, Gaspar? Crickets . . . 

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Lagoon Nature Center Tribute to Pam Slater-Price

I was with a big group of people who paid tribute to Pam Slater-Price today at the San Elijo Lagoon Nature Center, a facility she played a big part in getting built. Pam has endorsed Dave Roberts to replace her on the County Board of Supervisors, and I'm going to follow her lead. Dave will represent us well. ~Tony Kranz

Thursday, September 13, 2012

According to Mary: Buddee

This week Mary Fleener shares something personal, her pet dog Buddee, with her usual skill at entertaining us while informing us.

And, Councilwoman Barth's Facebook shares Mary's cartoon along with a reminder that the Rancho Coastal Humane Society Thrift Shop in Cardiff is having a 50% off sale on Saturday 10-5 pm.  Shopping local, being frugal, re-purposing our possessions through 2nd hand thrift stores, supporting the RCH work with dogs and cats needing homes - what's not to love?

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Expanding Beyond Capacity to Sustain

 ". . . what happens when you force human communities, families, ecosystems to kneel before the dictates of the market."
This is one of the quotes from a profoundly disturbing interview of Chris Hedges by Laura Flanders of Grit TV, titled "The Absurdity of American Empire."

Encinitas is clearly not a part of a sacrifice zone discussed in the book being reviewed, yet we have the same fissures out of sight but threatening our lives.  We do share the nationwide problem of "the invisible - banished from our consciousness." Said another way from another source,
"The fabric of our nation is being torn apart. MANY familiies are struggling so badly, either due to low-income wages (against rising cost of living prices), or a substance dependency issue brought on by the depressing nature of our times, or a health issue. Then there are the families broken up due to the race-based War on Drugs, and the families broken up due to the hunts for "illegal" aliens, and the families headed by overworked single Moms..."


Keeping the larger picture in view, despite the utter lack of conversation in the Encinitas political community of these monstrous national and international problems via empire is one great freedom seized by we bloggers, unfettered by power systems. (And, respectfully, there is a tradition of local elections being non-partisan.) We are a progressive blog with liberal opinions.  That's the point of creating a space where minority voices can be heard and further explored. These voices have been disallowed, marginalized or ignored in our council chambers, the press and existing blogs. Presumably those who are unable to hear or process anything outside his or her world view aren't hanging out here anyway.

Denial, religiosity, fantasy thinking and other ways to anesthetize are all around us. We are soaking in it.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tuesday is Dues-day: 2012 Campaign 10 x 10

Tuesday is Dues-day. The dues are schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported? 

You’re a citizen, an advocate for democracy with this first step, paying attention.

Citizen Tip: Concentrated Dues
This is dedicated to all the good intentioned amongst us who wishes that he or she had done more, said more, learned more, given more, etc., etc.  Business, busy-ness and a host of other diversions - yada, yada - we all know.  These next few weeks though are the most critical weeks of this year.  If you have done nothing at all to pay your civic dues as an adult Encinitas person, you owe your community, your neighbors, family and yourself some concentrated attention for a minimum of 4 weeks.

Be Careful, If You Blink You'll Miss It
  • This week Tomorrow - Wed. 9/12/12 City Council Meeting 
Maybe the more important task this week is to try and clear your calendar for the next four weeks for some intense campaign scrutiny.  Better yet, find out if you can gather a group of friends and neighbors to join you some of the following key events of the campaign.  Highly recommended is to watch council meetings at home with games, prizes for predicting the mayor's comments and behavior in advance.  It is entertaining for "take a drink if" score keeping.  

Both council meetings and candidate forums are included for several reasons.  Council meetings are a far better metric to use for the two incumbents, Stocks and Muir.  Better to actually see how they treat community members, each other and staff than simply hear them for more what they do than what they say they do. There is also a good chance you'll see and hear Shaffer and Kranz who have attended most every council meeting the last year or two. Candidates Brophy, Forrester, Yost, Zeigler, Shuh have to our knowledge never spoken at a council meeting though any one of them might have attended a meeting.  I wouldn't count on it.

The Candidate Forums are wonderful to ask all of the challenging questions that are never aked and answered in a council meeting.  Side-by-side comparisons of how each handles himself or herself, how truthful, how combative, how defensive and how articulate are possible here.  The advantage of going to the different forums is the community audience and the formats are different, bringing real diversity to candidate scrutiny. And, just one more thing . . . talk to 10 people each week about each of the following events.  This is the 10 x 10 idea.
  • Week One
1. Tues. 9/18/12 Cardiff Candidates Forum, 7-9 pm
 Ada Harris Elementary School, 1508 Windsor Road, Cardiff-by-the-Sea

2. Wed. 9/19/12 City Council Meeting

  • Week Two

3. Wed. 9/26/12 City Council Meeting
  • Week Three
4. Wed. 10/3/12 Olivenhain Candidates Forum, 7-9 pm
 Olivenhain Meeting Hall, 423 Rancho Santa Fe Road, Olivenhain
  • Week Four
5. Tues. 10/9/12 Leucadia-Encinitas Town Council(s) Candidate Forum 7-9 pm
Community Center, 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive, Encinitas 
Moderated by League of Women Voters
6. Wed. 10/10/12 City Council Meeting

  • Final 4 Weeks

7. Get a sign for your front yard! 
8. Tues. 10/22/12 Last chance to - Register to Vote - for yourself or those you meet. 
Online Registration - San Diego County Registrar of Voters makes it easy to register 
9.  Tell 10 people a week (minimum) what you have gleaned, why Shaffer and Kranz are the best.
10. Vote Nov. 6 (If you haven't already mailed your ballot)

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Something to consider . . .


Maybe feeling overwhelmed, depressed, sad or helpless isn't a personal problem after all.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Transition Towns - Alternatives

Going on right now in real time in the real world are people making choices to reject the takeover in their local community of the big money control in banking, energy and food production.

The Transition culture in the UK and around the world now, started about six years ago in Totnes in Devon, UK.  The slow and steady rise of a maturing resilience is building, where neighbors and friends are coming up with alternatives from within their own communities and sharing these ideas for free to the rest of the world. Yea internets.

The Brixton (South London) video below is one of the best in years to capture in a few minutes the essentials of local resilience to the stressor of a failed economy, extractive energy structure and dependency on all the unknowns of agribusiness for food.  It has the added feature of showing a realigned emphasis on people and community over a financialized culture.

It's offered here on Encinitas You Need Us as one of the many alternatives we should be allowed to envision and share with others and with our local government officials.  If we think of twenty years into the future it is easier to come up with ways to empower ourselves, the people, to make change happen at our own pace.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Tuesday is Dues-day: Community Character & Density

Tuesday is Dues-day. The dues are schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported?

You’re a citizen, an advocate for democracy with this first step, paying attention.

Citizen Tip - Emotional Campaigning

Where rape, abortion, gay marriage, racism work well to mobilize a segment of the national voting base, local elections have their own hot button issues to incite emotional responses (fear, anger and paranoia to name a few) for mobilizing votes. In 2012 Encinitas it is the state and the region demands for density, increased building heights and mixed use zoning.

This style of campaign thrives on the evocative use of words to heighten people's real fears, doubts and frustrations. As an example, we step back from the present to 2001, just after Jerome Stocks had won his first election and aligned himself with Jim Bond and those of the real estate and development special interest groups.

NCT article, praises the purchase of the new Hall nursery property for a park and the council not shouting at each other, there is this:

"Bond and Stocks, who have consistently voted against the community character protection effort, say it infringes on private property rights and favors one architectural taste over another."

[ . . . ]

Turning the Cardiff nursery into a park and building a citywide trails network have all drawn opposing factions to City Hall. Particularly risky, some observers say, is the community character issue because sweeping changes would affect every property owner in the city.

"They're messing with people's property rights," said Bart Smith, an architect and president of the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association. "It could be a two-headed monster that costs them their council seats." 

We interviewed an activist and found that there was an organized effort to meet with HOA's (Home Owners Associations) around the city to build opposition to the threat of "community character" with claims that the city wanted the power to select home owner's paint colors.  These property owners were not able to explain why living under the HOA (covenants, conditions and restrictions) CC&R's were much different.  The current city council majority crony network were the force behind this community "involvement."

Let's fast forward to our major political player in Encinitas, Mayor Stocks, and his recent tweet.  Now he proclaims himself savior of the community character. Saved from whom? The city staff who are following the city council directives? What?


 

So now Stocks is okay with neighborhood's community character?  But, the general plan update was just fine by him and highly praised in one instance until a few months later he had a minute and a half tantrum calling it an ugly baby without one single example to set a whole series of offensive actions into play.

The heart of the dues we owe it to ourselves to pay, is being aware that we are being manipulated.  What are very real issues in our lives are conflated, twisted and misdirected by very big money interests nationally and the power base locally?  This was a long term strategy.  Vigilance is needed in protecting our quality of life, our community character and even property values while not dismissing the changing trends, needs of the young, working class renters, fixed income seniors, our air, water and environment and small business opportunities and development.

AB 32, climate change legislation was signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2006. SB375 was passed as a state law in 2008 when Mayor Jerome Stocks and his majority club on the city council chose to keep the public uninformed. For four years he's taken virtually no steps to educate or engage the citizenry in the planning implications of this powerful 21st century legislation for Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS).

Conversely, dynamic leaders and conscientious planners acknowledged the hard work ahead with Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) education and accommodation.  Of course cites understandable balk at being told these things.  That was understood from the onset.
“Cities always think numbers for projected housing are too high and now with a longer cycle the numbers will be even higher, so there will clearly be sticker shock and with the economy in the tank, cities will say ‘how can we possibly plan for that much housing,’ ” Creswell said. “If all the stakeholders get engaged in the process as the SCS are being developed there is potential that this could serve affordable housing and sustainable development. We’re committed to participating fully to meet both the housing needs and the really important climate objectives. We have to make sure people understand that we need to provide adequate housing for all Californians.”  source
Millions of people have the same kinds of fears, resistance, confusion and demands we in Encinitas have been feeling and voicing. Each one of the five regional planning bodies have proceeded to comply with SB375 and Encinitas residents would benefit from reading about how other regions are faring.  We are not alone.
1. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Plan
2. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) Plan
3. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Plan
4. The Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) Plan
5. The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Plan
We invite you to try and find out of the more than 175 plus meeting minutes or video archive snippets, any that include Stocks treating his SANDAG, NCTD or other board seats as anything more than his personal fiefdom when he shared anything at all. His opportunity to career network was vast, his contribution to the edification of Encinitas residents experiencing economic emergencies, foreclosures, increasing gas prices, global climate changes, lost employment or anything that might benefit from planning strategies for our Encinitas future – not so much.

It's not a bumper sticker issue or a simple tweet.  Land planning and transportation for the future is complex and real leadership, not just a career of campaigning, is needed.  

Monday, September 3, 2012

Quote of the Day on this Labor Day

 Now-a-days we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we can pay.—OSCAR WILDE

It is so pathetic to hear reasonably rational people repeating the anti-labor memes fed them over 40 years.  The nearly successful destruction of the labor movement is hurting us all and it is simply denied by these same people. This is a very sad labor day for progressives who have watched the slow extinction of the only real counterbalance to the power of capital. The theme of low wages was touched on last week here at EYNU.

From Hullabaloo . . . Digby writes, Low Wages and Low Expectations. The full read is worth it, but here is a hefty excerpt.
Jeff Faux, a progressive economist who founded the Economic Policy Institute in 1986, is the author of the new book, The Servant Economy: Where America's Elite Is Sending the Middle Class. "The mantra, as you know, in today's political debate is jobs, jobs, jobs," he told an audience at EPI recently. "Listen carefully because the subtext is low wages, low wages, low wages." 
Faux argues that by the mid-2020s, even with the most optimistic assumptions about economic growth, current trends indicate that the average American's wages will drop about 20 percent. One big factor is that more and more good jobs will go overseas, leaving even America's best and brightest no alternative but to enter the service industry. 
"You go into an Apple store and you see the future," Faux said. "The future's not in the technology -- the future of the labor force is all in those smart college-educated people with the T-shirts whose job is to be a retail clerk for Chinese goods."
[ . . .] 
Interestingly, this turned up in the New York Times, just this past week:

While a majority of jobs lost during the downturn were in the middle range of wages, a majority of those added during the recovery have been low paying, according to a new report from the National Employment Law Project.  
The disappearance of midwage, midskill jobs is part of a longer-term trend that some refer to as a hollowing out of the work force, though it has probably been accelerated by government layoffs.

“The overarching message here is we don’t just have a jobs deficit; we have a ‘good jobs’ deficit,” said Annette Bernhardt, the report’s author and a policy co-director at the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group.

The report looked at 366 occupations tracked by the Labor Department and clumped them into three equal groups by wage, with each representing a third of American employment in 2008. The middle third — occupations in fields like construction, manufacturing and information, with median hourly wages of $13.84 to $21.13 — accounted for 60 percent of job losses from the beginning of 2008 to early 2010. 
It's like it is happening in an alternate universe if one would listen for such news or discussion in Encinitas City Council and local watering holes.  Even if this community is wealthier than most, it is filled with working class, middle class people who are economically suffering.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Good Times - Good People


Lisa Shaffer, Teresa Barth and Tony Kranz have captured a lot of hearts hoping for so much better for Encinitas.  Today was the Kranz family celebration of three generation of deep roots in the community.  They invited one and all to join them at Cardiff Park, and to share stories, games and food.

A while back there were several other events with good photos that never got posted. Like the event supporting Dave Roberts last week.


Or the Senior Center Spaghetti Dinner where Lisa Shaffer snapped this great shot of Teresa Barth serving with a smile.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Poetry Slam: Lisa Shaffer's Poem, Tony Kranz Thanks

Now I can share my original poem that I presented at the Blue Moon Poetry Slam tonight. So proud to be supporting the arts in spirit, with money, and by participating as a judge and a poet. There was some amazing talent tonight!

Encinitas 
by Lisa Shaffer

Encinitas, what a home
Inspired me to write a poem
‘Bout beaches, boards, bikinis, bikes,
Horses, dog parks, surfers, hikes.

Encinitas has it all
A property that belonged to Hall
A Fellowship of Self Realization
Peace, love, and meditation

Stop signs and space in Olivenhain
The Ranch – a community by design
In Cardiff people take a stand
Leucadia - funky is our brand

Historic downtown 101
Lots of bars and lots of fun.
New Encinitas – are you awake?
How many Walmarts will it take?

Running for Council, am I crazy?
Not a job for one who’s lazy.
Council manages our money.
Are we sure there’s nothing funny

Going on inside our City?
Politics is rarely pretty.
I’ll bring an ethical perspective,
Avoiding rudeness and invective.

Got no agenda, just want to serve.
I’m rising on the learning curve.
Vote Shaffer on November 6 -
An election you don’t want to miss.
___________________________________________

Message from Tony Kranz


Congratulations to all the poets that put their names in the popcorn bucket and took to the stage to perform. The finals produced the first-ever tie for the grand prize. The Cory vs. Rudy Bonus Poetry was epic.

Thanks to all who attended, and a special thanks to the Full Moon Poets Society, led by Danny Salzhandler, Swami Bruce Stephens and Jim Babwe. Encinitas is lucky to have them.

via FaceBook