This is a public comment I made at the June 24, 2024 City Council meeting, lightly edited for clarity. Good evening Mayor Dugan, Vice Mayor McDowell and the rest of the Council. I appreciate you giving me the time to address you tonight. I want to thank the city for keeping our community at the […]
Making Driving Interesting in San Carlos Read More »
This is an op ed I wrote which was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on September 11, 2023. Free marketeers have complained about excessive government regulation since time immemorial. You’d think, in a representative democracy, by now we would’ve figured out how to address their concerns. Of course, some will ascribe the ongoing
Those Pesky Externalities Read More »
This is an op ed I wrote which was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. It’s been lightly edited to add some additional links. Years ago, while serving on the San Carlos City Council, we experienced a home burglary surge. Sadly, those happen from time to time. There’s an
Flirting with The Beast Read More »
This post was sparked by a Washington Post opinion piece which is, sadly, probably paywalled but worth reading if you can get ahold of it. It was authored by Christine Emba and published on Monday, May 15, 2023. The article is interesting not only for what it explains about the motivations of many of those
Gun Culture and Communities Read More »
This is a public comment I made to the San Carlos City Council at their 9/12/2022 meeting. Thank you Mayor McDowell and the rest of the Council for giving me this time to address you. Last week San Carlos saw, in the most horrific fashion possible, just how poorly we deal with domestic violence. This
Acting Against Domestic Violence Read More »
This is a letter to the editor I wrote to the Palo Alto Daily Post which was published August 1, 2022. It was sparked by the second part of Dave Price’s July 27, 2022 editorial. Editor: I like the idea of county governments being audited about how they responded to COVID-19. Any process can be
Audits Are a Good Idea! Read More »
The families suffering from a perfectly avoidable horror in Texas have my sympathy. But I’m not sending thoughts and prayers. Because those are useless, and generally just serve to make the people sending them feel they’ve done something. No, I’m sending something else: anger. Anger at the idiocy of an advanced nation, dedicated on paper
Sending Anger, Lots of It Read More »
This is op ed was published in the San Mateo Daily Journal on Monday, April 11, 2022. What you see here is slightly different from the print version because the Journal objected to me identifying the Council member who made the quote I cited1. I don’t agree with their position2 but it is their newspaper
That’s What They’re For Read More »
This op ed ran in the Palo Alto Daily Post on December 8, 2021 (I’ll add a link to the paper’s version if and when the publisher posts a link to it). It was prompted by comments made by Gina Papan, who serves on the Millbrae City Council, about how “sustainability” argues against increasing residential
Let’s Not Forget Commuting’s Carbon Footprint Read More »
Recently a question was raised on NextDoor about why new homes continue to be constructed when we’re in the middle of a multi-year drought. It’s a great question and sparked a lot of discussion. These are some thoughts on the topic and how it relates to the principles we’ve embodied in our government based on
Droughts and First Come, First Served Read More »