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Just in case you think it doesn't matter who you vote for...

9/22/2012

From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat Watch Sonoma webpage: Comments on this story: http://www.watchsonomacounty.com/2012/09/cities/compromise-reached-on-coddingtown-zoning-plan/

Eric Newman
September 19, 2012 at 3:15 pm
The vote on the North Santa Rosa plan by the city council is good evidence of why we need a progressive majority on the council. The Chamber pawns on the council voted to throw the public good under the bus by catering to the demands of one large commercial property owner. The public be damned if even one demand be made on the sacred personhood of a national corporate operator.

This the root dysfunction in modern America: government does not operate in the interests of the entire community, but on behalf of an arrogant ownership class who think that they above the law and the social contract.

Through the sycophantic service of their political enablers, their word is the law!

We can turn back this tide of the corporate overlords, starting right here with our city council. Vote for Julie Combs, Caroline Banuelos, and Erin Carlstrom if you want a city government that is responsive to real people, not the bogus and inflated corporate “persons” who have bent us to their will.

4 thumbs up 23 thumbs down

Kay Tokerud

September 20, 2012 at 8:42 am
“Arrogant ownership class”? Wow, Eric, your class warfare attitude is showing. According to you, people shouldn’t be allowed to own property at all but rather the government should feed, clothe, and house everyone. I think that has been tried before and it didn’t work out too well.

They re-zoned 1,390 properties that are all non-conforming now. I wonder how many property owners really understand what has happened to them. As bad as the plan is, it would have been a lot worse had the progressives been in the majority on the City Council. The progressives don’t care one wit about the property rights of the people although property owners pay the majority of taxes which go to support all the public welfare programs. Without private property ownership there would be little money for schools,infrastructure, etc.

The re-zonings have crippled development rights for the current property owners but once these properties are sold to big developers they will make out because there will be huge subsidies for smart growth style development coming from federal transportation funds, via One Bay Area. Other subsidies include low income housing tax credits, HUD grants, infrastructure financing district subsidies, and New Development subsides through the IRS.

I hope the current property owners hold out for a big price for their land because the new zoning allows for a large number of housing units to be built. The unsavvy owners may sell for bargain basement prices because they don’t know about their new zoning. The upzoning has actually increased property values. However, the current use of the properties may be disallowed resulting in losses for current owners and businesses.

The big problem is that we are in a major recession that could become far worse soon. We certainly don’t need more housing to exacerbate the oversupply we have now. All of the Specific Plans being developed will have the effect of crowding out any free market development which could have occurred and instead we will only have subsidized government controlled development. This plan paves the way for One Bay Area which seeks to cram all new housing development into these small transit villages for years to come.

The private property rights of Americans are being systematically eliminated through these Specific area plans which of course is by design. I’m afraid some of our elected officials don’t even know exactly what they are doing but rather are being pressured by Planning Departments that tell them that they must make these plans. Where are these plans really coming from? From the highest levels of the Federal Government and from International policies from the United Nations, World Bank and the IMF among others.

The Deciders, the Controllers, whatever you want to call them have decided that Americans have too much space, use up too many resources, have too much money, etc. and it’s time to shrink us down to a level more consistent with the rest of the world. Sounds good to them, how about you?

11 thumbs up 1 thumb down

DID YOU GET THAT EXCHANGE? JUST IN CASE YOU THINK IT DOESN'T MATTER WHO GETS ON CITY COUNCIL THIS TIME...THINK ABOUT IT.
We do NOT support Combs, Banuelos, Wysocky, or Carlstrom.

2 Comments

CRYSTAL BALL: The dangers of 'progressives' on Council

9/15/2012

3 Comments

Thank God we’ve had a two year reprieve from the extremist progressives on Santa Rosa’s City Council. The oppressive, anti-property rights former majority put in place our current land- use regulations which now must be undone. Wysocky and Gorin have completely sold out to the regional smartgrowth ideology that seeks to mandate that only taxpayer subsidized high-density development will take place, aka One Bay Area. By this time next year City Councils all over the Bay Area will have signed onto what our unelected MTC and ABAG boards have cooked up in consultation with ICLEI. If the progressives get the council majority back Santa Rosa will sign onto One Bay Area rescinding the development rights of most property owners in Santa Rosa.

How does it work? ABAG sets the housing numbers and the One Bay Area twenty-five year Plan requires 80% of all new housing to be built in PRIORITY DEVELOPMENT AREAS, which are pre-designated small land areas next to trains or buses, only about 4% of all land in the Bay Area is identified for this. The other 96% of land will only be allowed to accomodate the other 20% of housing over the 25 year period. If you are holding undeveloped or partially developed land in the 9 county bay area, get out now unless your land is in a PDA. Otherwise you could end up with a worthless property yet still be paying property taxes and other expenses. On top of the housing mandates, One Bay Area calls for 70% of new employment to be located within the small PDAs.

I support the loosening of regulations that continue to block the efforts of entrepreneurs who could be having a positive effect on our stuggling economy. If you stifle private development and instead impose government controlled development the economy will fail. ICLEI is promoting an international agenda which is not in the best interests of Americans. In fact, having America fail is necessary before an international government can take hold. Once you realize what the true problem is, then everything will begin to make sense. We need people in elected positions who are not afraid to look at the true picture and use whatever power they might have to preserve and protect our nation from the influence of outside forces. Vote wisely. WE DO NOT SUPPORT WYSOCKY, CARLSTROM, COMBS, OR BANUELOS.

Kay Tokerud
Steering Committee

3 Comments

THE LONE STAR STATE

11/7/2011

2 Comments

I visited Texas speaking about UN Agenda 21 and how it is implemented. I wish I could say that it's better in Texas but it's all the same programs and projects with slightly different names all over the nation. One thing I can say for Texans in Houston and Dallas: They don't appear to be as brainwashed as our Sonoma County residents. Once they get the big picture they're ready to take action against local elected officials who won't KICK ICLEI OUT and clean Sustainable Development out of their General Plans.

Sonoma County is a sad case but that doesn't mean that we can't wake up and shake up our fellow liberals to see that the environmental movement has been hijacked by people like Michael Allen, Lisa Maldonado, and Norman Soloman. And what about Alan Strachan and Dennis Hunter? Global Legacy? PACE Loans? $5 TRILLION IN GREEN LOANS? These manipulators use all the right jargon to get you going. But, my friends, as anyone who has been abused knows, the rhetoric is just talk. You have to look at their actions.

As I've said before, being a Sociailst is ok in America but don't put 'Democrat' under your name when you're running for office. Progressives are Socialists. Oh, I don't mean you. You think it's cool to be progressive. You like the IDEA of sharing the wealth, just not your own. Right? Are you honest? Willing to have a couple of families move into your house permanently? Willing to give up half of your pay? Or have you lost your job due to a total manipulation of our economy and you're now willing to promote socialism? It doesn't work. Utopia is a lovely idea. Everyone has lots of everything, no one has to do what they don't want to do, lots of smiling people, bikes, and blue skies. Does the Stalin experiment ring a bell or haven't you heard? What about Mao? Great idea, right? Take the wealth away from the princes and give it to the people. What happened? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Won't get fooled again.

So the Texans are looking at UN Agenda 21 in the form (besides Smart Growth, Comprehensive Plans linked to Metropolitan Planning Organizations in a regional brew that steals their sovereignty, just like yours) of TTC--the TransTexas Corridor, Highway 35. Enters the nation in Texas, exits at the Canadian border, and links the North American Union. You don't care about sovereignty, you say? You have faith that you'll be taken care of, that government is good and you'll live happily ever after? What about WTO? Have you forgotten the Battle of Seattle?

Oh, you think government is great? What about those slimeballs at SMART? Or do you like the idea that THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS? Only when you like the ends, right? And who says that the 'end' is what you think it will be?

What is happening with the OCCUPY thing? Have you stopped to ask yourself why you think it's cool that anyone would OCCUPY the center of your city? Are you playing with the idea that you're at WAR WITH THE MAN? It's stupid. The government has allowed itself to be taken over by mega corporations. The only concrete thing I've heard from the whole movement is that you should move your money to a credit union. What is this? A credit union backed occupation? It's a BANK WAR. And you're in your tent. Doing your obedient call and response--yes, master, hear and repeat, master. I urge you to think about all of this--it is a manipulation, a distraction. YOUR COUNTRY HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY MEGA CORPORATIONS AND YOU ARE LOSING YOUR CIVIL LIBERTIES. NOW.

KICK ICLEI OUT. STOP AGENDA 21. NAME THE PROGRESSIVES SOCIALISTS AND MOVE ON FROM THERE. Get up, Stand up.

2 Comments

IF IT'S BROKE THEN FIX IT--REPEAL SMART

8/3/2011

1 Comment

Today's Santa Rosa Press Democrat published some "Let them eat cake" comments by Valerie Brown and Jake Mackensie regarding the SMART train failures. They'd said that the folks who are calling for a repeal of the 1/4 cent sales tax to pay for the ever-widening cost of the train were 'never in support of SMART'-- implying that it was a sour-grapes movement.

I posted this comment on WatchSonomaCounty.org:
Don’t forget that many of us who opposed SMART in the first place did so because we could see the serious flaws and outright lies in the propaganda.

We are not opposed to mass transit, not opposed to public transportation, and not opposed to trains.

We are opposed to fat cat bureaucrats making deals with land owners who have donated to their political campaigns. We are opposed to bait and switch. We are opposed to big pensions and endless consultant fees. We are opposed to arrogance and ignorance in our elected officials.

The Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition will do whatever we can to assist REPEAL SMART. Let’s get those petitions out to the community and derail this gravy train to nowhere.

Rosa Koire
Steering Committee
Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition

1 Comment

notSMART TRAIN: The Greenhouse Gas Mask

6/10/2011

0 Comments

Sonoma Marin Area Regional Transportation--SMART train, ain't either.

Get this: The OneBayArea.org plan, a regional transportation and housing plan in the implementation stage NOW, aims to restrict the construction of all new residential units in the Bay Area along just a few ‘transportation corridors.’

Now, it doesn’t matter if there is actually a train, since we know there isn't enough money to build it. Just the expectation of the train is enough according to the Metropolitan Transportation District (MTC). The idea is that you can’t get public transportation cost effectively to the rural and suburban areas, therefore you need to move all of the people in to the city center.

The deal is that if cities in the Bay Area want any of the MTC transportation dollars in the next 25 years, the cities have to agree not to approve any residential development anywhere but in the redevelopment areas along train tracks and bus lines. That means high density condo development–vertical sprawl.

If you think this is a good thing take a look at where you’re living now. Are you in a condo next to the railroad tracks? With higher gas prices and VMT (vehicle miles traveled tax) coming your way, you’ll effectively be forced to take public transportation…even when there isn’t any. That’s the case with notSmart. You won’t be able to afford your car and your county roads won’t be paved out to your rural or suburban home. You’ll be moved into the vertical sprawl next to the tracks. This is UN Agenda 21.

This is a manipulation and a green mask for controlling where we live and how we live. By putting the greenhouse gas mask on it these regional boards can dictate who gets our tax money and keep pounding sand dollars down the rat hole of notSmart.

See Democrats Against UN Agenda 21 dot com for more info.

0 Comments

You just can't make this stuff up

3/7/2011

4 Comments

The more you know the harder it is to just condense UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development into a short paragraph. On the one hand we just want to say: 'Take my word for it,' and on the other hand there are the skeptics who think we’ve made it up since they didn’t read it in the local paper or see it on FoxNewsCNNMSNBCCSPAN.

Everyone is being impacted by it, but since your government uses different names for all of the programs (it’s alphabet soup), you don’t recognize that there is a connection when you hear, for instance:

Your 10-year old child won’t be automatically going to the middle school in your neighborhood but has to apply for admission. S/he may end up across town where you’ll never attend parent/teacher night, never become friends with other parents, and not volunteer in the classroom (and hear the lesson) because you can’t make it home from your job in time.

Your business is being subjected to a Business Improvement Tax by your local government and you have to pay even though your customers now have to put money in the meters, pay huge parking tickets, and can go to the Mall with free parking.

You inherited a piece of land from your folks but now you find out that it’s impossible to build anything on it because the County has an ordinance that won’t allow you to install a septic system on your 40 acres. And the Biotic Resource Corridor that it’s in won’t allow development anyway. And besides you’re in the ‘viewshed’ so bicyclists can look at your land as they ride a nearby trail, and a building would ruin that.

You don’t believe that you’re being ‘forced’ out of your private vehicle but then you notice that even though Libya produces only 2% of the world’s oil your gasoline cost just jumped up 15% since Gaddafi started shouting. You also have noticed that there’s talk about a ‘Vehicle Miles Traveled Tax’ in your town council that would charge you for long commutes. You moved there to buy a house but the market has crashed and you’re not going anywhere for a while.

You, of course, were an avid fan of the Smart Train idea and voted for the 1/4 cent sales tax hike in perpetuity, but now the train is a distant hope since they underestimated costs, and the money went to repair the tracks (for freight) and big pensions for staff. All of those SMART Growth condos by the tracks are now going to hear freight train whistles and smell the fumes 6 feet away.

You’re sick of being called an “Oil Addict” and can’t understand why innovations for energy efficient vehicles have never been funded by your government. Until now, when you can pay $40,000 for a compact that gets 35 miles to the gallon…

You came home from work and noticed that your energy company had installed a SMART METER without asking you, and now you’ve heard that they can shut it off remotely, monitor your use, reduce your allotment, and generally mess with you any time.

You attend your church or civic organization meeting and find out that you're going to be walking around your neighborhood with an 11-page questionnaire that is so comprehensive that you'll be embarrassed to ask the neighbors to fill it out, but you have to because you're a MANDATORY VOLUNTEER. You'll be reporting back to the organizers of the Neighborhood Summit, the Leadership Institute of Ecology and Economy---it's a public private partnership that is all about getting as much information about you as possible and then using it to manage you.

You’ve gone from saying you’d never bother to learn computers to checking your email every half hour, and your kids never look up from their I-whatever when you talk to them. Their classrooms are so crammed with kids that even you think remote learning might be a good idea, and, hey, textbooks on-line should save money—they can update them, change them, change history with a click of the mouse—Great!

You just came back from a vacation in Mexico and noticed the retina recognition and fingerprint readers at every customs officer’s station, and it made you nervous. Of course they’re not using them on everyone yet, but how long will it be? You’ve also read that they have miniature drone spy hummingbirds that can fly 8 miles, in and out of windows, and record sound and video! Who? Your government. What else do they have? Do they know you’re reading this?

You go to a neighborhood association meeting out of some sense of civic duty and see that they’re electing officers to the association. You’d like to nominate your neighbor but you can’t because the by-laws say that any candidate has to be okayed by the board first. You try to make a comment but you are boo’d by your ‘neighbors’ in bike helmets and spandex. It’s clear that they have a candidate who will be elected and claim to speak for the entire neighborhood.

Call it Smart Growth. Call it Sustainable Development. Call it Form Based Zoning. Call it Capacity Building. Call it Consensus Building. Call it Green Building. Call it Wildlands. Call it Homelands. Call it Outcome Based Education. ETC. Hey, it’s not “What is Agenda 21″, it’s “WHAT ISN’T AGENDA 21″ It’s not Republican, and it’s not Democrat. It’s not Libertarian, and it’s not Independent. It’s COMMUNITARIAN.

Satisfied? Are we making this up? Have you noticed? So? WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT? Listen, no one is holding a gun to your head; you’re not losing your job if you speak out. Will you please go and talk to your neighbor, friend, co-worker, partner, coach, financial advisor, lawyer, clerk, you get the idea…. SPEAK UP. SPEAK OUT. STOP AGENDA 21 NOW.

4 Comments

Just in case you think it doesn't matter who you vote for...

CRYSTAL BALL: The dangers of 'progressives' on Council

THE LONE STAR STATE

IF IT'S BROKE THEN FIX IT--REPEAL SMART

notSMART TRAIN: The Greenhouse Gas Mask

You just can't make this stuff up

Eyes on Santa Rosa

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