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December 19, 2001

Had any great ideas lately?

When I first wrote this column, in the mid-70's, I typed it onto sheets of newsprint 5.5 x 8.5 inches in size, which were then transcribed by Sam Stewart into slugs of hot lead using a cumbersome machine called a Linotype. After the lead cooled, the galleys of type were locked into position to form pages of this newspaper. Sam was a real craftsman, and a good friend. He operated his machine with great precision and skill, and he used his brain constantly (often correcting spelling as he went along) but Linotypes were limited in speed, and when the Compugraphic cold type system took over, Linotypes joined the slide rule in the museum of the obsolete. Linotypes lasted close to a century. Compugraphic was here and gone within a few short years, made obsolete by the genius of Pacifican Jef Raskin, the man universally credited as the inventor of the Macintosh computer.

The Mac's strengths compensate for my weaknesses. I'm a sloppy typist. Those half-sheets in 1975 we're always well-marked with penciled corrections. If this column displays sloppy typing or misspelled words today, I can't blame a typesetter. I'm the typesetter. Though the Tribune has an editor, he should be able to use his time in better ways than correcting my errors.

Since I retired a number of years ago, I've found the Macintosh an even more useful tool. For a while I drove a floppy disk with each week's column to the Tribune. Then I learned I could use e mail and save 10 miles of driving. Which explains why it took an invitation to a holiday party on Pedro Point for me to finally meet John Maybury, who's been writing his interesting column for some time for the Tribune audience.

As he mentioned in his column last week, we discussed one of my favorite pies in the sky, merging Colma and Pacifica. Colma has the tax income. We have live people and open space. There are only two reasons why such a merger won't work. Our cities aren't contiguous, and can never be unless Daly City disincorporates and we absorb Serramonte. And the residents of Colma would have to agree.

>From time to time I've proposed other great ideas that won't work: Reducing California's 58 counties to 27, which would create far more efficient units of government suitable for the 21st century, and requiring those who run for office to accept campaign contributions only from registered voters in the district concerned. That would eliminate all contributions from corporations, unions, and wealthy outsiders. It would change the fundamental dynamics of the local election process, and perhaps, change the kind of person we elect to public office.

More recently I suggested the residents of Shamrock Ranch, most of whom live only a short walk from Linda Mar School, vote at one of the precincts that use that location. However, merging Pacifica Outside #3540 into Pacifica Precinct 3531 won't work, since it's not permissible to cross city boundaries when designing a given precinct. The Shamrock precinct is too small to justify a polling place of its own. It votes by mail, as do all precincts in the county with fewer than 250 voters. Shamrock's voters are welcome, of course, to hand in their voted ballots at any Pacifica precinct on election day, rather than be forced to mail them ahead of time.

If the city of Pacifica ever absorbs all of San Pedro Valley Park into itself, another mail precinct will be lost, and the resident of the park ranger's house will no longer have a separate precinct all to himself.

E mail Paul Azevedo at Paul@thereactor.net. Check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.

 
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