EyzonBelmont

Gladwyn d'Souza following happenings in the town of Belmont CA- I'm at [email protected]

[eyzonbelmont]

NO on VTA Measure B

Vote NO on VTA Measure B because mega commutes are gumming up the commute and there is no linkage to jobs, housing and transportation as required by SB375’s Sustainable Communities Strategy.

[eyzonbelmont]

A Realistic Approach to Affordable Housing

My perspective on Affordable Housing published in the Daily Journal concerns the tendency to overlook real solutions. More efficient and equitable housing in walkable communities reduces energy lost to commutes and climate change. http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2015-12-28/guest-perspective-a-realistic-approach-to-affordable-housing/1776425155805.html

Photo by Gladwyn: Manhattan epitomizes the affordability transportation link.

Two types of people have responded- The first like the policy objectives outlined and expand on them. The second take any policy prescription to address health impacts to imply increased taxes. Doing things smarter instead implies lower cost and more efficient use of public dollars. Rooms are cheaper than parking for one; and when employer based, eliminate the commute and return a revenue to the employer instead of being a drain. Enforcing existing regulations makes fiscal sense since it’s meant to eliminate larger public costs downstream. Of course that’s one reason why policy makers engage in smoke screens! The other is to look like Santa Clause to their wealthy patrons.

[eyzonbelmont]

Working Collective Roots for all those things that would snack on seedlings and starts!

[eyzonbelmont]

Why don’t bike lanes from San Carlos and San Mateo connect through Belmont?

Belmont’sbicycle infrastructure can leave you scratching your head. For example bike lanes recently appeared on Fifth Ave from Broadway to E street. Meanwhile bike lanes on Old County are conspicuously absent- San Mateo to the north and to the south both San Carlos and Redwood City have amazing bike lanes installed. On Ralston at 101 the city shared millions o dollars in costs with Redwood City to rebuild the interchange around 1998- yet bike lanes from Redwood City terminate on the east side of the interchange. Council in turn is constantly harping about how well they get along with neighboring jurisdictions. Clearly talk is cheap and doesn’t translate into paint on the road.

Photo from Sfgate showing separated bike lanes in Golden Gate Park.

Across the region a healthy discussion is raging on better bike lanes.  In San Francisco some proponents are calling for the elevated bike lanes. This despite the city moving forward with plans for separated bike lanes by either removing parking or placing bike lanes to the right of parking! Mayors from Redwood City, Menlo Park, and Atherton attended a meeting in Atherton on 3/9 to discuss installing bike lanes on El Camino. Separated bike lanes are in the mix of options for El Camino.

I’m a fan of a network of bike boulevards like Berkeley installed about twenty years back. I especially like Palo Alto’s Bryant Street Bike Boulevard, also known as the Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard .  The Bryant Street Bike Boulevard’s limitation is that a couple of streets downtown takes priority over Bryant; which means you have to stop for a stop sign. It should function as an expressway all the time. Also I think it should be an expressway with priority over expressways like Oregon and Page Mill too. The difference between a network of bike boulevards and elevated bike lanes is in the cost and roll-out timeline.

Networks of decent functioning bicycle infrastructure have large implications for life on this planet. Our profligate use of fossil fuels threatens human life on this planet. Many people go along hoping someone else will solve the problem- what’s called the free-rider problem.  But some people modify their behavior to solve environmental problems. For example more than 36% of people in Copenhagen cycle to work through snow and rain.  Why did so many people respond to the environmental crisis created by fossil fuels and change their behavior? in what’s called the Copenhagen Effect Elinor Ostrom won her Nobel in economics partly for observing that contained communities like Copenhagen often solve free-rider problems.

Other features, with bicycling in Copenhagen, have a chicken and egg dichotomy. Infrastructure is clearly one reason for more cycling in Copenhagen. Denmark has overpasses and roads devoted only to bicycles--no cars allowed--making bicycling much safer than it is here. If we could incorporate that sort of infrastructure here, would it make a big difference in driving habits? And Copenhagen is dense with many expected services located close to commuters. A planning approach in SB375 hopes to get us there.

An economic analysis in Sunday’s New York Times said both the Copenhagen Effect and a Climate Club approach are needed for meaningful reduction of emissions. The Climate Club is a process where states and nations combine to solve problems. Europe approach with the Kyoto Protocols is one example. California’s partnership with Western States on limiting green house gases is another. Thus at regional level it’s important for Belmont to link bike lanes from San Mateo, San Carlos, and Redwood to deliver functioning networks that can change behavior.

[eyzonbelmont]

10% of households make up a quarter of the garbage on the road.

Item 9 Solid Waste Rates on the 10/28/14 City Council Agenda.

If you convert the number of cans into 32 gallon equivalents you get

20e=1157 households

32= 4146

64e=1310

96e=234

Adding 96e and 64e gives 1544 or 23% of the total volume on the road. In other words ten percent of users make up about a quarter of the extra trucks, road wear, and cost of service of garbage. At 40 seconds into the video the consultant says that the price differential in the overall per gallon rate is 23% also. It’s an arbitrary way of setting the differential and covers a larger range (from 20 to 96) but coincidentally it relates to a concrete cost number which is the volume on the road.

[eyzonbelmont]

What Is Stormwater?

AND WHY IS IT THE LARGEST SEGMENT OF BELMONT'S INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS?

Stormwater is the result of modification to the floodplain or stream flow in nature. Modification is  coded in stream setbacks and C3 requirements. Because of development stormwater  becomes a risk to development. The risk is ameliorated with flood insurance to make development feasible in places where better heads should prevail. 

Harbor at Old County flooded in 2012

Damage occurs because when large volumes of runoff flow quickly into streams and rivers or undercut a bank. Examples of damage in Belmont are the flooding of Old County Road at Harbor from Belmont Creek and the bank undercut on Marsten off Christian. The quantified damage from stormwater in Belmont's budget  is $45M;  but larger problems exist off Reed, Old County, Hillman, Marburger, etc and  easily place the actual cost at three times that.

THE USGS DESCRIBES STORMWATER THUS:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs07603/

Over the past century, the United States has become an increasingly urban society. The changes in land use associated with urban development affect flooding in many ways. Removing vegetation and soil, grading the land surface, and constructing drainage networks increase runoff to streams from rainfall and snowmelt. As a result, the peak discharge, volume, and frequency of floods increase in nearby streams. Changes to stream channels during urban development can limit their capacity to convey floodwaters. Roads and buildings constructed in flood-prone areas are exposed to increased flood hazards, including inundation and erosion, as new development continues. Information about streamflow and how it is affected by land use can help communities reduce their current and future vulnerability to floods...

Land use and other human activities also influence the peak discharge of floods by modifying how rainfall and snowmelt are stored on and run off the land surface into streams. In undeveloped areas such as forests and grasslands, rainfall and snowmelt collect and are stored on vegetation, in the soil column, or in surface depressions. When this storage capacity is filled, runoff flows slowly through soil as subsurface flow.

[eyzonbelmont]

Council 5 Belmont citizens 0

Last night the Belmont City Council chalked up one more score over the public. For past scores see the stone deaf council continues to vote against the public. On Talbyrn last night the council did not respond to most of the issues of substance that the public raised, preferring to rely on Traffic and some made up conjectures.

General Plan doesn't permit flag lots.

Subdivision Act should be denied for environmental damage or safety.

General Plan already allocated entitlements based on steepness. Redrawing the entitlements creates demand across the imperiled watershed.

Traffic experts had caveats and were not unanimous on the safety of the T intersection.

Downstream culvert size is an exponential function of flow frequency. Changing the functions of the watershed deteriorates its capacity for ecological services. Adding additional flow to a bottleneck is irresponsible especially when downstream flooding was advised on 8/23/2011 to city council to have "substantial liability."

The Mitigated Negative Declaration does not address the previous issues impact to Belmont Creek and should be replaced with a full Environmental Impact Statement.

Stormwater is the largest quantified aspect of the infrastructure bond. Causing additional damage and then going to the public for a bond will be a marketing disaster.

The public view from Ruth was considerably diminished.

Council said that the Traffic issue should be left to the experts who did not agree, that the environmental damage should proceed and a future study should evaluate the feasibility of the mitigation! 

Made up conjectures occurred on hillside stability, expert testimony and stormwater retention which runs contrary to the history of hillside development in California.

[landusejournal]

Guerilla Sidewalk: “cross wherever pleases you”

[eyzonbelmont]

Here one solution to the Ralston Corridor Study's missing school age traffic

[eyzonbelmont]

Stone deaf council to hear Talbryn next.

So far not one community appeal has been upheld by this council. Small wonder, after the mayor publicly thanked the Chamber of Commerce for paying for his state of the city speech! Developers appear to be getting the upper hand over the citizens.

The community denials so far:

Valley View- allow a retaining wall in the public right of way and do not recognize an easement for public access on a paper trail.

Valley View- said paper trails may not exist despite historical use and respect.

Valley View- Permitted the largest grading project in the city’s residential building history with 150 heavy haulers for the project adjacent to 1704 which could result in over $1M in damage to the road.

Bartlett- saw fault with the donation of three contiguous lots to the city’s open space program because of the loss of a grand total of $810/- to the general fund AND the sewer assessment!

The issue with Talbryn is that the General Plan only permitted one lot at this location because of the slope and does not permit flag lots. Of course the developer wants to do a flag lot, subdivide into four lots, and needs the city to vacate part of the public right of way to make it happen! Right up the alley of this council.

[eyzonbelmont]

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest- traffic through Twin Pines

Council authorized a study of traffic conditions to propose solutions on Ralston Avenue in Belmont last year. The Ralston Corridor Study has put together $9M of solutions one of which is to route bicycle traffic through Twin Pines park.

There are a number of problems with this suggestion:

Dumb- Parks have different rules and enforcement from streets that are designed to used 24/7/365. Twin Pines like other parks around the area has signs informing users that it will close at sundown. With day light savings time, that closure would occur during the commute period. How can the Public Works Department justify spending regional transportation funds when the access is unclear?

Dumber- The park is very narrow in this section so any new right of way will come at the expense of large established trees that determine both the appearance of Ralston Ave, as well the park atmosphere within Twin Pines. Placing the path by the street in effect is a widening of the street, but the purpose, diverting bicycle traffic, has no observed success rate in an urban setting.

Dumbest- Jane Jacobs admonition to observe, observe, and observe is completely ignored by the study- the park on the westerly side is used primarily by toddlers and young children. Do you want your little children to be dodging bike traffic trying to get places? Children also need to get to Nesbit Elementary School. Yet the study recommends preserving all the dangers for safe routes to school on Ralston between El Camino and 101.

[eyzonbelmont]

Why should a city accept lot donations contiguous with Open Space?

The city would benefit from accepting open space for four major reasons:

1- The land would link continuous corridors for streams, wildlife, and trails as noted by staff and public comments.

2- Open space reduces the cost of supplying what is becoming burdensome city services on the urban fringe- almost a $1m saved per ten dwelling.

3- Open space prevent land cover changes that result in downstream flooding in California according to the EPA.

4- reduce wildfire, from development on the urban fringe, that is the prime cause in the bar area according to the California Energy Commission's third assessment report.

[eyzonbelmont]

Council horrified by thought of increasing open space

Real Estate money hit the jackpot with the 2013 elections in Belmont. At the 3/25 council meeting Item 10 C. Involved Discussion and Direction Regarding Donation of Three Lots to the City of Belmont - Assessor's Parcel Numbers 043-041-090 and 100 (Bartlett Way) and 043-242-090 (Alhambra Drive). The staff report said the lots were contiguous or near land currently owned by the city of Belmont. One benefit of accepting the donation was the ability to connect trails across the land. However  the newly elected council were horrified at the lost of revenue from lots not developed. The donation came at near zero impacts to the city- a total of $60/- in general fund taxes and about $750/- in sewer fee taxes. The development-at-all-costs minded council proceeded to imagine a lot of problems with the almost free land donation. The main objection was the loss of revenue like CSUS. Running the numbers imply the city would have to get a hundred times larger donation to attain the losses of CSUS.

[eyzonbelmont]

Bonds need population growth- drought causes downgrade threat for water agencies.

You probably believe a public utility operates in the public interest. Uh uh. Reuters reports that "A prolonged drought in California could lead to ratings downgrades on the state's water and public power utilities unless they show a willingness to raise prices."

And here we are conserving because of the drought! Not for some extra terrestrial reason like ensuring our grand children have a reliable supply of drinking water and salmon to eat! Conservation means money down the drain. 

The reason why the bond rating downgrade occurs is because revenue to the water and power utilities is based on gallons sold- a request for folks to conserve means less revenue coming in. And that's bad for bonds. They go on to say: " a sustained decline in margins or reserve levels due to the drought could pressure ratings."

[govtoversight-blog]

If you thought the days of the $7,000 coffee machine and $640 toilet seat were over, Rep. Jackie Speier has some more examples of egregious waste at the Department of Defense.

[eyzonbelmont]

Until we can afford to pay taxes.

[eyzonbelmont]

How much is your teacher worth?

The largest liability in the state is in the teacher's pension funds. The LA Times projects:

If lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown eliminate the fund's $71-billion shortfall over the next 20 years, the extra contributions needed from the state, schools and teachers would total a little more than $180 billion in that time period.

But if they put forward a 60-year plan, the total cost would be $622.8 billion. The analysis was created by the California State Teachers' Retirement System.

Image from google image.

For each of the ten million tax payers in the state the liability from the above numbers is $7100, 18,000, and $62,280 per person. What's more interesting is that the 550,000 tax payers who make more than $200,000/- per year send their kids to private schools i.e. for all that money we are not competitive with what people would rather buy.

[eyzonbelmont]

Unfunded liabilities- pensions

  Belmont has a budget of $65M. It's unfunded liability for pensions is over $50M. The stormwater unfunded liability at Marburger, Holly, Notre Dame, Lyon, Harbor, and Hillman ($8M by itself) is equivalent, Now let’s look at unfunded liabilites elsewhere in CA. Surprisingly living largely beyond our means is a common trait. UC fees have gone up more that 100% since 2005, a period when the median American household has seen a decline in wealth of 35%. The UC system has a student to staff ratio of almost 1.14.

Image from Wikipedia Commons

Does one staff member for every student make sense! Here is the data from Wikipedia:

Endowment $11.227 billion (2013)[1]

Budget $22.7 billion (2011)[2]

President Janet Napolitano

Academic staff 18,896 (Fall 2011)[2]

Admin. staff 189,116 (Fall 2011)[2]

Staff total ------------------208,012

Students 236,691 (Fall 2012)[3]

Undergraduates 184,562 (Fall 2012)[3]

Postgraduates 52,129 (Fall 2012)[3]

Yesterday the regents discussed the possibility of raising fees again because of rising pension costs. The state funding proposal had failed to match “the regents’ November request for an additional $120.9 million in state support for pension and enrollment-growth funding… (which) would amount to only a fraction of the university’s largest liability: its pension system. The UC Retirement Plan, which is currently unfunded by the state, and other pension benefits represent billions in unfunded liabilities and remain a serious burden on the university as it seeks a sustainable model for predictable tuition increases over time and reliable funding for faculty, staff and capital projects.”

^ Jump up to:a b "Annual Endowment Report, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2013; p.4" (PDF). Chief Investment Officer of the Regents of the University of California. Retrieved 2013-11-30.

^ Jump up to:a b c d "About the University of California".

^ Jump up to:a b c d "UC Financial Reports – Campus Facts in Brief" (PDF). University of California. 2011-12.

[eyzonbelmont]

Stormwater costs mount

San Diego has said that complying with stormwater regulations will cost as much as $4 billion over the next 17 years. By comparison, the city’s revenue in 2013 was $2.75 billion. Its unfunded pension liability—another cost many cities are facing—is $2.3 billion. By some estimates, stormwater utility fees for homeowners and businesses would have to increase 1,000% to meet expenses.

from http://www.stormh20.com/SW/Blogs/1914.aspx