The Daily Fetch

You read about it this morning on Watch Dog and elsewhere. The Palo Alto Police Chief said some interesting things last night at a community meeting…but as the day has gone on — the interesting things she said got more and more attention.

Including this story in the Merc and the following video. It will be hard to get away from these comments she made on KGO-TV yesterday:

“When our officers are out there and they see an African-American, in a congenial way, we want them to find out who they are…the one suspect around the California Avenue train station is wearing a do-rag…If my officers see an African-American who has a doo rag on his head, absolutely the officers will be stopping and trying to find out who that person is.”

She did backtrack today and said:

“I did use the term do-rag and that was totally inappropriate and I apologize for that.”

See for yourself (please excuse the beginning ad):

Watch Dog prediction — she’ll be gone next week…

Yes…the following story seems crazy…but sometimes crazy stories can capture our attention. (As an example, let me tell you a story about a small-state, inexperienced Governor being named a VP candidate…)

The story also has a Watch Dog scoop at the end…so read all the way through.

There is no shortage of NIMBYism in San Mateo County. Just this week there have been stories of neighbors not liking housing projects in the County because of “density,” “parking,” and “traffic.” Not to mention the explicit NIMBYism Watch Dog has covered about Menlo Park and Atherton not being please with the proposed high-speed rail running in their backyards.

But the Pop Warner (youth football) issue in Atherton is really the kicker. Some residents in the Lindenwood neighborhood of Atherton don’t like Pop Warner playing at Menlo-Atherton High School fields because of the noise. (Because the sound of kids playing games is so annoying and so antithetical to Atherton’s peace and quiet. While we are at it, let’s get rid of those pesky birds too. And, hey kid, get the hell off my lawn!) And this has been going on for sometime.

In 2006, then-Mayor Charles Marsala had a letter to the Editor published on this issue talking about how Pop warner is an “…integral part of our community…”.

In April of this year, the issue boiled over again. The Pop Warner folks and the Lindenwood neighborhood folks faced off at the line of scrimmage…a.k.a. the Atherton City Council meeting. After the “lively” meeting, the Pop Warner folks and the Lindenwood folks got in a shouting match outside the meeting. (Lively is in quotes because the linebacker of the Lindenwood crew is none other than Phil Lively, the star of this Watch Dog story in mid-October as a campaign volunteer for Kathy McKeithen. Same overly “lively” guy, different episode.)

…and the next chapter of this episode is about to be written.

The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is letting potential witnesses know that they will be called to be interviewed related to the series of Pop Warner episodes — some as early as today.

Watch Dog wonders if Mr. Lively will be called. Perhaps his candidate Kathy McKeithen as well? Will voters find out before Tuesday if she is?

The geniuses that robbed a Wells Fargo in San Mateo on Wednesday got caught. One of the detectives investigating the case recognized one of the robbers from “previous contact.” Kudos to the San Mateo police.

A nurse at the VA in Menlo Park stole $1,000 from a veteran there. Wow.

The murder in SSF on Wednesday was drug-related.

Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson called robbers “opportunistic bullies” — thank you Chief for the update.

Economics 101 says that people respond to incentives. The opposite is true too. Even with soccer fields. Folks are leaving Belmont soccer fields because they are too expensive. Mayor Warren Lieberman is ok with that. In a classic NIMBY quote he said: “In my perspective it’s a net positive for Belmont and its residents because teams that elected to move were primarily players not from Belmont…”

The Daily Journal’s Jon Mays chimes in on North Central San Mateo’s unique Halloween attraction. In an unrelated couple of paragraphs, he also says Yes to Prop 2.

An op-ed in the Daily Journal is titled: DMB’s lust for land. DMB are the folks who are slated to develop the Cargill land in Redwood City. Can you guess how this piece reads? And opposite that piece is this piece, titled (not surprisingly): Solving our housing problem.

Republican Greg Conlon hopes to make a strong showing against Jackie Speier. In other related news: pigs can fly, the 49ers are going to win the Super Bowl, the fundamentals of the economy are sounds, and Joe the Plumber is leading candidate for Secretary of the Interior…

Here is a campaign “Letter to the Editor” from Jim Janz, Mayor of Atherton. This is also printed on the Almanac comment section.

To the Editor:

Why I’m supporting Elizabeth Lewis and David Henig for Atherton Council.

All the discussion in the presidential campaign this year is about change, with both sides claiming that they’re the best agent for change. Change can be a good thing. Change is needed here in Atherton too.

As Mayor, I have tried this past year to elevate the level of discussion at the City Council, to have the Council focus on the big issues, not the day-to-day issues that seem to have bogged us down.

But I’m concerned that upgrading the discussion level won’t happen without some significant change on the Council, and I believe that David Henig and Elizabeth Lewis are two people that can help bring that about. Henig and Lewis are both honest, smart, committed, open-minded, and, most-importantly, capable of working with other Council members, Town staff, and the public with civility, respect, and empathy.

Bring some new people onto the Council, and let’s have a Council that focuses on the future of the Town.

James R. Janz
Mayor of Atherton

An interesting point, at least it is interesting to Watch Dog:

If “…Henig and Lewis are both honest, smart, committed, open-minded, and, most-importantly, capable of working with other Council members, Town staff, and the public with civility, respect, and empathy…” are the other folks (McKeithen and Moore) dishonest, not smart, not committed, closed-minded, and most-importantly, incapable of working with other Council members, Town staff, and the public with civility, respect, and empathy?

Train service has resumed. Some gruesome pictures from the train/truck crash.

Much has been said about increased voter registration and increased interest in this election. That isn’t just true in Virginia, or Florida, or Missouri. It is also true in San Mateo County too.

Here are some details you may not know (all info as of 10.28.08):

Total Number of Registered Voters in San Mateo County:

2000: 338,608
2004: 368,410
2008: 389,717

There are 21,307 more registered voters in the County now than their were in 2004. More strikingly, and not reflected in those numbers: 27,199 of the 389,717 voters registered in the County in September and October. That means nearly 30,000 new registrants (or about 7%) will be voting in the County for the first time on Tuesday.

Total Past Election Turn-Out – % Voter Turnout:

2000: 261,297 – 77%
2004: 288,533 – 78%
2008: So far, 58,869 (about 15%) of registered voters have voted (as of 10.28).

To give some reference, that is about 1/2 of the total number of people that voted absentee in 2004 and most people who vote absentee wait until the very end to get their ballots in…meaning, a huge number of people will have already voted by the time the polls open. If local campaigns didn’t get information out early, they might be in trouble.

“What does this mean?,” you ask…

There are a lot of newly registered voters in the County. Turnout will be huge. Many people have already voted, but many, many more will have voted by election day. Get to the polls early if you need to vote on election day and tell you boss that Watch Dog says you have permission to be late.

(A big thank you for the Watch Dog reader “Pink” who provided all the detailed numbers…)

Reminiscent of “It Takes a Thief,” Palo Alto police released an image of the truck robbers used to rob a home on October 17th.

In a (hopefully/probably) unrelated story, a guy robbed a Wells Fargo in San Mateo yesterday. As of the writing of the story in the Daily Journal, the dude wasn’t found even though he left on foot…

Again, in a (hopefully/probably) unrelated story, SSF police are investigating a murder from last night. The Coroner is not releasing details about the victim.

And thanking the folks that investigate and solve these things, Michelle Durand is “Off the Beat” again today in the Daily Journal. This time not talking about her dog Riley, but talking about the One Hundred Club, which helps families who lose law enforcement officers on the job, and the officers that serve the County.

Now, onto something a bit lighter…like school districts that got screwed and NIMBYs…

The Burlingame Elementary School District double-whammy. Lost money because of the Lehman Bros. fiasco and increasing enrollment. This may lead to the District re-purchasing the Hoover School. Look out for this type of thing to be a trend here and elsewhere. Districts lost money and now have to do more with a less and do it more efficiently. We’ll see what Burlingame does on November 18th at their Board meeting.

More parks are coming to Belmont for the first time since 1970.

I’m sure there is something more to it, but the San Carlos City Council unanimous NO vote on a plan for multi-family development along Holly Street and Springfield Drive sounds a lot like NIMBYism…

Not to be outdone on the NIMBY issue, residents in Palo Alto are citing “parking” and “traffic” as they oppose development. “Coincidently,” the development is for lower income workers.

The Palo Alto Parks and Rec Commission decided to not move forward with a smoking ban in City Parks. cough…cough

Pacifica businesses feel the pinch in the economic downturn. An interesting tidbit in this story which Watch Dog didn’t know. The largest employer in Pacifica is the Pacifica School District (no surprise) and the second is Safeway (ok). The third? French Patisserie…hmm…and yum…

Caltrain is stopped this morning due to a fatal train/truck crash in San Mateo.

Details as they become more available.

A tipster just shot this link over to me for an Atherton Property Rights group website that seemed to be gearing up for a battle this past January. I guess if you had a 11,000 square foot home, you’d want to protect your rights on that as well.

It doesn’t look like the site has been updated lately, but has a ton of research for all of you Atherton residents who are just sitting at your home glum during this economic downturn…ha!

If you look through these documents, perhaps it can provide a root for much of the angst among the residents…

Pacifica…our friend on the coast. Watch Dog has been neglecting you.

So, with apologies to a sad reader who wrote in to complain that Pacifica issues are rarely (never) being covered on Watch Dog, I will reverse that trend today.

And for those Pacifica-situated Watch Dogs, this post is for you…with links to my favorite newspaper, the Pacifica Tribune.

The candidates for Pacifica School District provide their answers to questions from the Tribune. There is one incumbent (Laurie Frater), and two challengers (Ellen Manning-Villar and Cynthia Kaufman) for a total of two seats. They actually all have some compelling endorsements, especially the two challengers — lots of elected officials. Any details readers can provide about this race would be helpful.

The candidates for City Council in Pacifica answered similar questions for the paper. There are two incumbents and three challengers for 2 spots on the Council. More background on these folks can be found here as well — although only three of the candidates bothered to fill out the free, widely read SmartVoter.org questionnaire for the League of Women Voters, Pete DeJarnatt (incumbent), Mary Ann Nihart, and Cal Hinton (incumbent). Details would be great here as well.

And finally, I don’t know what to make of this: the “Most Viewed” stories of the past 12 hours, as of the writing of this post, from the Pacifica Tribune were the Obituaries and the Police Beat. Perhaps you’ll be inclined to click through on one of the previous stories and reverse this depressing trend at the Tribune online.