Where's the apple pie?
The Merced Sun-Star and the noble crusaders against WalMart wildly endorsed UC Merced, anchor tenant for the largest speculative housing boom in Merced history. The Merced Sun-Star endorsed Riverside Motorsparts Pork, which Mike Nelson, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, described as his legacy. After the project was approved, due to some backroom financial dealings, disgruntled investors persuaded the paper to run some negative history of RMP boss John Condren's financial dealings.
Now, clean air crusaders and the Merced Sun-Star hurl criticism at the Valley air board, composed of supervisors and council members that have passed every development project that has come their way and have no solution for the resulting air pollution but to diddle the law, with a lot of leadership from their members of Congress, safely stuffed in the pockets of the major polluters.
The Great Valley Center, providing maternal nourishment (thanks primarily to the Packard Foundation) of win-win, public-private partnerships for smart growth and all the rest of the hypocritical propaganda coined by finance, insurance and real estate special interests, has now become UC/GVC, a publicity outlet for our anchor tenant campus for growth. Good-bye Dolly, and Hello level-4 biowarfare lab and depleted uranium bomb tests near Tracy.
Activist moms worried about their children's health should not stop at publishing critical articles in the newspaper. They should all bake apple pies and send them to the members of the air board, just to show how serious they are about the problem and how committed they are to fighting it.
That's sure to do the trick.
Badlands editorial board
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4-28-07
Merced Sun-Star
Leaving a legacy of bad air...Candice Adam-Medefind
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/columnists/story/13530986p-14134811c.html
The red flags that grace our schools to prohibit our children from taking recess or playing sports on bad air days... The Valley is one of the most polluted air basins in the entire country. In addition, Merced, as well as Merced County, ranks among the nation's top ten most polluted cities and counties. Valley residents pay a heavy cost, estimated at more than $3 billion every year or approximately $1,000 per person annually, for this pollution, and our children pay disproportionately. This is why Moms Clean Air Network (Moms CAN) was formed. Currently, our Valley is considered a "serious" nonattainment area for ozone pollution. However, the staff of the SJV Air District has created a plan for an "extreme" non- attainment area. By voluntarily downgrading our status to this worst classification, the air district staff can have the current 2013 deadline for cleaning the air extended to 2024. What's really unconscionable here is that the staff made no effort to draft alternate plans for the other possible deadlines of 2017, 2019 or 2021. To make things worse, this plan to delay only addresses 48 percent of the pollutants under the assumption that the other 52 percent will be solved by some miracle device not yet invented, a metaphorical "black box." The SJVAQCD Board is composed of county supervisors from each of the eight Valley counties and three city council members from throughout the Valley...will decide whether or not to pass the staff's plan at their meeting on Monday. Merced County's district representative on the board is Supervisor Mike Nelson. He must exercise leadership on behalf of our children... Bureaucratic, staff-driven plans will simply not suffice. Cleaning up our air should and will involve sacrifice on the part of both industries and individuals, but the only sacrifice assured by the proposed plan is our children's health.
New clean air deadline stinks...Our View
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/13530948p-14134828c.html
Each year, more and more hot air is expended by the windbags at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to tell us how the air is going to be cleaned up -- and then nothing much happens but more coughing, choking and wheezing. Their inability to chart a course to clean the air has helped lead to alarmingly high rates of childhood asthma and countless other breathing-related maladies that deteriorate our health and pillage our pocketbooks with medical bills. Monday, the district's board will vote on an ultimate delay: a proposal to extend the federal deadline to clean up our dirty air from 2013 to 2024. We, frankly, think that idea stinks. The Valley shouldn't have to wait 11 more years for clean air. If the board approves the extension on Monday and it does indeed take until 2024 to clean up our air, an entire generation of Valley children will have grown up inhaling some of the nastiest air in the country. The district's professional staff should be ashamed to put forth such an embarrassing delay. We also can't figure out why the district staff is so antsy to get the delay pushed through. Merced County Supervisor Mike Nelson represents Merced County on the board...told CVAQC members that he has not made up his mind. We urge him to vote "no" on the extension, which we think would be a hasty and misguided decision made under a false sense of urgency.
Wal-Mart foes seek documents...Leslie Albrecht
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/13530939p-14134877c.html
Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now, a Florida-based anti-Wal-Mart group, filed a public records request with the city Wednesday asking for all Wal-Mart-related documents -- including e-mails between city staff and Wal-Mart officials -- from 20 city departments. WARN organizer Nick Robinson said the request is designed to bring more public scrutiny to the planned distribution center... Opponents say trucks servicing the center will damage Merced's already poor air quality; supporters say it will eventually create 900 jobs. The City Council will vote on the distribution center later this year. Such requests are standard practice for WARN, which has stopped new Wal-Mart supercenter stores from being built in 24 Florida counties, said Robinson...Wal-Mart isn't going to give us records." The fight against the Merced distribution center is the first campaign WARN has waged outside of Florida...
Quick facts: Wal-Mart Distribution Center
WHAT: The 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week sorting merchandise for Wal-Mart stores. There are currently nine Wal-Mart distribution centers in California.
WHERE: The site is a 275-acre parcel between Childs and Gerard avenues west of Tower Road in southeast Merced. The site is about three-quarters of a mile from the new Mission Avenue interchange.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY: Proponents say the center will bring an economic boost, eventually creating 900 jobs that pay $13 to $14 hourly. Opponents say the estimated 450 trucks that will drive in and out of the center every day will worsen Merced's already poor air quality.
WHAT'S NEXT: Consultants are writing the environmental impact report about the distribution center. The report will likely be released in the fall. After public hearings, the City Council must vote to approve the distribution center if it is to move forward.
4-29-07
Modesto Bee
Builders offer to sweeten the deal...J.N. Sbranti
http://www.modbee.com/business/story/13533578p-14137432c.html
Now home builders are doing something new to attract reluctant buyers: drastically cutting prices...slashed prices. "Some builders are being very aggressive about (reducing) prices and giving incentives," Smiley said. "They're going to sell their houses for what they can get, regardless of what they paid for the land." Meritage Homes this weekend is offering $100,000 "to spend any way you want" including reducing the purchase price at its subdivisions in Ceres, Lathrop, Modesto, Oakdale and Ripon. D.R. Horton is promoting "rock bottom pricing" at its Diablo Grande homes, with reductions and incentives worth up to $80,000. Lakemont Homes' Moraga project in Merced has cut prices $30,000 to $60,000 per home. Its advertisements claim prices for some of its houses are "below builder cost." New America Homes' Mansionettes in Livingston is offering "a $75,000 price reduction on select models" for those who bring in its Modesto Bee ad. "It's very expensive to hold standing inventory," explained Shane Hart, senior vice president for The Grupe Co..."Modesto is one of the most challenging markets in the state right now. Builders are selling less than two homes a month, which is not good,"...Grupe has been offering incentives and lowering prices as much as $55,000 to keep its sales going. "The last three months, we've averaged about one sale per week. We're really happy with that." Hart doesn't expect a quick recover for Stanislaus County's new home market, primary because of tightening requirement for subprime loans.