Reconsidering Steve Francis

Has your first impression of someone ever turned out to be wrong? 

I hate admitting such things -- like the time in high school I misjudged an intelligent and well-connected scion for a nerd with nothing interesting to say.

It may be time to say again, I was wrong. After reading Chuck's post about Steve Francis -- the independently wealthy mayoral candidate funding his own campaign -- I thought, "Why does this man (Steve, not Chuck) think he can step into the public sector and do well?" 

It drives me kind of nutty when successful businesspeople try to impress voters with their cash and business acumen. 

Admitting I wrote off Steve Francis may not be the same as admitting I was a near-sighted fool in high school. Then again, it may be better to slow down and give some credit where it's due.

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This May Be Our Last Chance

Photo: Candace Suerstedt

This week marks the 38th Earth Day. It seems impossible that nearly four decades have passed since the first one in 1970. Though I had grown up reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring , I don't think I realized the full significance of that first Earth Day. I do remember that a number of folks dismissed it as yet another "hippie commie" activity and even the news magazines were unsure of how to portray the event.

The Uppity Wisconsin recalled that Newsweek was bemused, and somewhat dismissive, calling Earth Day "a bizarre nationwide rain dance" and the nation's "biggest street festival since the Japanese surrendered in 1945." Time said the day "had aspects of a secular, almost pagan holiday..." Newsweek asked,  "whether the whole uprising represented a giant step forward for contaminated Earthmen or just a springtime skipalong."

At any rate, here we are 38 years later and the worst environmental predictions from those early years seem optimistic in relation to what has actually happened to our environment.

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Notes from a Plumber’s Assistant: The War on Bad Flappers

"Guardian of Water" sculpture by Donal Hord in front of the San Diego County Administration Building. Photo by Courtney Johnson.

Primary polls, pontification, prognostication and political palaver are in no short supply leading up to today's Texas and Ohio contests. The news networks are once again driving the storyline with conjecture and hypotheticals. I'm content to just wait until the votes are counted and the fog lifts.  In the meantime, I feel it my civic duty to pass on a startling bit of information that might have a practical effect on San Diego's water crisis.

I know just enough about plumbing to be dangerous. But I work with a veteran plumber not afraid to follow a hunch, to carve up drywall in search of leaky culprits, to fire up the Sawzall blade or strap the chain cutter around suspect cast-iron pipe if the case calls for it. Plumbers are like surgeons who have never been to medical school, don't use X-rays and work on patients who can suffer massive complications, but never die. Experience and luck are plumbers' best friends on tough jobs. I am qualified to discuss the plumbing job that requires almost no experience, skill or time – what is referred to in the business as a Teddy Bear's Picnic. There is no picnic more teddy bearish than changing that leaky rubber stopper chain linked to the handle on your toilet tank – the bad flapper.

Hybrid vehicles, perfect recycling, solar panels and energy efficient light bulbs represent the glamorous side of conserving the environment. But nothing sexy ever really happens inside your toilet tank – until now. An unscientific survey (mine) reveals that about one in 10 toilets suffer from a bad flapper, the number one cause of running toilets. A mildly bad flapper can fill a bathtub (about 80 gallons) of water every day, 365 days a year. Jiggling that handle is no cure. Buy a good flapper and chain for less than $10, get elbow deep in that fresh tank water and invite yourself to a teddy bear's picnic.

These bad flappers are like little al-Qaida cells hiding in your bathroom, conspiring to deprive you and future generations of Californians of our most precious resource. Be alert for suspicious toilets – warn your neighbors, friends, home owners and apartment dwellers. We must find and follow these bad flappers to the gates of hell. Sí se puede! Sí se puede!

Whose Beach Is This Anyway?

One of the most contentious debates in Coronado is whether or not the city council has the right to build a permanent lifeguard facility on Coronado beach without voter approval.

Proposition A was initiated by an unincorporated association of property owners and Coronado residents who are asking voters to Vote Yes on Prop A which reads: "Shall the Land Use Plan of the City of Coronado Local Coastal Program be amended to require that prior to the construction or expansion of any permanent lifeguard facilities, restroom facilities, or bike paths on the Coronado Beach the City Council must first receive voter approval?"

Proposition B, initiated by the city, reads: "In the event that Proposition A shall be approved by a majority of the Voters of the City of Coronado, shall the construction of the Lifeguard Public Safety Service Building at Coronado Beach be approved?"

In other words, Prop B is an attempt to construct this particular structure even if Prop A is passed.  Confused?  Of course you are. As with most initiatives it is hard to know how to make sure you are actually voting the way you want to, because the wording is so convoluted, it would be easy to vote against your intended outcome.

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