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A few choice expletives
I've reached the stage in life where I check the bank around the beginning
of the month to confirm that my Social Security check has been deposited.
And there are some days I don't have to set an alarm. However, I've also
enjoyed the opportunity in recent years to make use of my forty years
experience in proofreading newspaper ads, legal notices, and news stories
to work periodically for San Mateo County's election department. It's very
satisfying to nitpick and get paid for it.
So there are still some mornings when I'm on Highway One shortly after 7
a.m. heading for the county complex just off 280 and Highway 92. And,
especially after Labor Day, I've been rediscovering the pain involved in
driving between Linda Mar and the top of Sharp Park Road. Cars often stack
up just north of Crespi. More lanes are urgently needed to keep traffic
moving. That urgent need has been apparent for at least 30 years. At one
point Interstate 380, which serves the needs of the city of San Bruno, was
supposed to find its way over the hill, demolish Shelldance nursery, and
make east-west travel to and from the coast a comparative breeze.
Pacificans voted for it, but Jerry Brown, Adrianna Gianturco, and the San
Bruno City Council vetoed it. The western stub end of this aborted project
still stands useless. Even the late Carl McCarthy's ingenious suggestion,
now almost a quarter century old, that a hundred feet of asphalt would make
San Bruno Avenue accessible to Pacifica-bound traffic, has not been acted
on. Carl took me over there to demonstrate his idea, and I've taken key
public officials there in turn, but nothing's ever come of it.
Last week I read the Beachcombings column only to discover that Bill
Michel, a leader in the Sierra Club, is urging our city council to make
sure that it will continue to be difficult to traverse Highway One during
commute times. It's a matter of principle, you understand. Nothing
personal. A wider highway is against his principles. If we make it easy to
commute, people will not suffer. If they don't suffer, they won't seek out
alternatives to cars, and suburbs like Linda Mar will continue to sprawl.
Pardon me while I unload a barrel of expletives unfit for a family
newspaper. @#$%^&*()_+¢f§ Ahh, thanks. I needed that!
I learned years ago that Sierra Club leaders may blather on about reducing
sprawl, transportation alternatives, etc. but fewer than half of them use
horses, buggies, trolleys, Sam Trans, bicycles, or shanks mare as their
main means of transport. Quite a few of them, in fact, use SUVs, and it
wouldn't surprise me to see Hummers in their driveways. Truth is, I don't
blame them, though they are being a bit hypocritical. It's damn
inconvenient to get around these days except in a car. To be precise, I've
discovered the hard way that commuting by bus to and from Tanforan each day
to an eight hour job would make the work day 14 hours. That's eight hours
labor, one hour lunch, and five hours on the bus. A day where you leave
your house in Linda Mar at 5:30 a.m., get to work near Tanforan at 8, leave
work at 5 and arrive back in Linda Mar at 7:30 p.m. strikes me as a
singularly unattractive way to spend a life. To do all that just to please
some theorist from the Sierra Club makes it even more infuriating. I urge
our City Council to direct a few choice expletives toward Mr. Michel, then
ignore him and those who think like him. Widen the highway. Do something
good for Pacificans. We deserve it.
Paul Azevedo's Reactor column reflects his opinions. His E
mail address is Paul@thereactor.net.
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.
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