SUNDAY READINGS 1/20/02

ARCHITECTURE

Barton Meyers "3 STEEL HOUSES" EXHIBITION has said " the use of off-the-shelf (steel) materials..... are stock that you pick of the shelf.... but most of them are standard pieces that are fabricated for you.... they (Steel manufacturers) make up your dimension of parts and pieces readily available industry wide."

NEW NEWSPAPER

THE PRESSES ARE ROLLING IN BAKERSFIELD

Jenny Gia-Briggs is wanting to expose the hip side of Bakersfield. The Blackboard free alternative monthly is challenging the Bakersfield Californian.

ENERGY

Peter King is asking the right questions. His article is most perceptive with regard to California's "past" energy crisis. He concludes "Still, one year and several hundred headlines later they (the questions) remain."

EDUCATION

Anica Butler's article about three decades after desegregation order, the Pasadena school board is to consider a five-year plan to redraw attendance zones to create neighborhood schools, is going to be something to follow up on.

Imagine the Pasadena Superintendent Wants to Phase Out Busing

THE STATE

A survey pondering the ranking of the "meanest cities" has San Francisco and Santa Cruz ranked third and seventh in the nation.

Naturally both cities question the study's methodology.

New source of money: Tax overnight street parking

What was once considered by some to be a pipe dream is closing in on being a realistic proposition, now that the board of the monorail company has presented detailed plans for a proposed system and cost estimates for building it. This, presumably, will form part of a ballot measure to be put to voters this fall.

The expected cost of up to $1.7 billion sounds like real money, the acquisition of which looms as a formidable problem. Unfortunately, the preliminary suggestions for how to obtain such funds are mundane and unpromising. And without suitable funding in view, the monorail reverts to being a pipe dream.

Here's a funding suggestion that deserves some attention: Tap a new revenue source and redress a significant inequity in contributions to public services. The inequity is simply this: Those who park their cars on private property -- garages, driveways, private parking lots -- are paying real estate taxes on that part of their property devoted to parking; those who park on the streets pay nothing (except occasionally for metered space).

If we are to be fair, the time has come for those who have enjoyed free street parking to contribute their proper share of the costs of public services.

Here's some specificity on which to chew: I suggest that the city require a vehicle parked on the street between, say, midnight and 6 a.m. to have an appropriate permit displayed. Given the cost of parking in metered zones, an entirely reasonable fee for such a permit might be a modest $1 a day or a discounted $25 per month.

Since thousands of cars are parked on Seattle's streets overnight, such a plan would generate enough revenue to make paying for a new monorail system quite manageable.

Lester Goldstein Seattle

State breaks city to airport rail link promise

The Department of Infrastructure had found that Maglev would require a government subsidy similar to or higher than a heavy rail option ... Light rail was ruled out because it could not achieve the journey-time savings expected of the transit link.

Mulally's message: Is anyone listening?

"We're moving all our stuff on third shift in the middle of the night," Mulally said. "People can't get back and forth to work from their homes."

Boeing is leaving Washington. The above impossible home to work problem can only be part of reasons for change. Freeways and seamless roadways are not working well enough for commuters. It's a amazing that Boeing was one of the companies who two decades ago refused to work with Magplane 2000!

TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS GET IN GEAR

".. this is going to be an interesting year because of all the alternatives we are looking at ... " Hassinger said"

The east coast is rewarded again in regional overview.