Category: News

Santa Clara County is now accepting comments on the environmental documentation for the first of the two trails that Stanford promised to build in return for all the development it was allowed. (For background information, click here.) You can review the County’s new document here: Stanford S1 Trail Alignment Draft Supplemental EIR (scroll two-thirds of...

Yesterday was the first public meeting in a process to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan for most of Santa Clara County. This is a quiet step forward on a process that will influence development for good or ill in the County over 20 years or more. CGF and other organizations will keep track of the...

On this election-day-eve, you might, like me, be feeling the need to act locally. Here’s an opportunity to have an effect on our local representation – on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) Board of Directors. With the addition of the San Mateo County Coastside to its jurisdiction, MROSD now needs to adjust the...

Today’s SF Chronicle has an interesting article on the growth of the so-called “green economy,” or the sales of items considered to be environmentally friendly (rather broadly defined). Some of this is no doubt due to a cultural shift. But some of it is, I’m sorry to say, just more clever marketing on behalf of...

I sit on the Environmental Advisory Committee for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Our local water district is very different from most districts, who view their mission as getting as much water as possible no matter the consequence, and placing development over flood planning and environmental protection. Our water district has come a long...

So which is more likely to kill you: Hike alone for an hour at dusk in mountain lion territory; Take an evening drive for an hour; or Sit in front of television for an hour, eating a half-pint of ice cream? I’m not completely certain on first and second place, but my best guess is...

(The following is a “thought-piece” originally intended to be part of an article in the forthcoming newsletter, but we decided it didn’t quite fit. We hope it’s an interesting read here. More good stuff to come in the Fall 2004 newsletter… -Brian) No one has difficulty identifying a speculative financial bubble – with hindsight. Dot-com...

A recent study shows that suburban sprawl creates a car-dependent lifestyle pattern that fosters chronic diseases. Unfortunately, then, San Jose is promoting sprawl with with its recent proposed sports complex, located on a road so dangerous that children are forbidden under threat of expulsion from walking or bicycling to the athletic fields. The complex is...

It’s fun to get a news item out before the news media does, and here it is: San Jose failed to pass an “urgency ordinance” that would allow trapping coyotes in part of Almaden Valley. As an “emergency” measure that skips the normal process, it needed 8 of the 11 City Council members to support...

In an interesting blog by security expert Bruce Schneier, he argues that technology’s increasing ability to detect legal violations has its downside. Calling it “Bigger Brother”, he cites the example of Baltimore using aerial maps and computer software to detect code violations such as rooftop decks built without permits. Schneier argues that because technology makes...