January 5, 2000

The last Artichoke Awards before 2001

Our area used to be world famous for artichokes, which require our kind of cool, even climate to thrive. In their honor, this is the 19th year I've handed out something called the Artichoke Awards, representing a partial list of Pacificans and others who deserve a compliment (a Golden Artichoke) or to "honor" some with a Purple Artichoke, a vegetable less than tasty and somewhat past it.

A purple artichoke to SamTrans. Our bus district, which gets most of its resources from the public taxpayer, put its system through a complete revamp last year, inconvenienced almost every bus passenger, damaged driver morale, eliminated many, many bus stops and routes, and still can't establish an east-west route up and down Sharp Park Road. Evidently SamTrans hasn't figured out that people want to go east and west as well as north and south. Oh, well, maybe by the fourth millennium they'll get it figured out.

A golden artichoke to Jef Raskin, the Pacifican whose genius brought us the Macintosh computer, one of the few computers designed to get past the y2k thing without worry or expense. Raskin demonstrated his respect for the world's cultures, only some of whom use the Western Calendar, and in the process saved Mac users a world of grief and expense.

A purple artichoke to Rite Aid, the company which bought Thrifty and Payless, and has since demonstrated a serious inability to do things right, starting with spelling the name. At the rate our local stores and the whole company have gone down hill, stock price leading the slide, it may not be too far from its last rites.

A Golden 'Choke to all the folks throughout Pacifica who decorated their houses with Christmas lights. Some were simple, some elaborate, but all deserve a round of applause.

A Golden artichoke to the Lions, whose ongoing program to furnish used eyeglasses to those who need them has brought better sight to many thousands. Helen Keller would be proud.

A Purple Artichoke to the designers of entrances, exits, and traffic lights for the Linda Mar Shopping Center. The 500 block of Linda Mar Blvd. is now more dangerous and inconvenient than ever before.

A Golden Artichoke to the operators of the newly opened Holiday Inn Express. A great additon to the community.

A Purple Artichoke to CalTrans, which can't seem to catch on that what was Coast Lane is now Sea Bowl Drive. The street signs are up to date, but the highway signs are still stuck in the old mode.

A monster cluster of Purple Artichokes to all those who fought down Stevan Davidovich and don't want him to build his dream home in our city. It's a crying shame a man is not allowed to build a fine home.

A Golden Artichoke to those in the California legislature who did a bit of housekeeping. Beginning with the 2002 Primary election, the state won't suffer the costly waste involved in printing separate ballots when no one files for positions on county Central Committees. Some of the minor parties had this happen to them The Democrats and Republicans have a different system that works just fine. Democracy is not cheap, but there's no reason it should be wasteful. If a party is vibrant enough to generate competition for its central committee or county council, that's fine. If there's so little interest few or none file, the public shouldn't be expected to pay.

Some recent Reactor columns may be found at Paul Azevedo's website, http://www.thereactor.net/ Reach him by e-mail at Paul@thereactor.net