Death by a thousand cuts is the best way to describe the plight of bus and rail service in the land of sprawl and crawl.
It boggles my mind how with the price of gas firmly ensconced at more than $4 a gallon, parking in coastal communities damn near impossible to find and commuter rail ridership up, North County Transit District, or NCTD, is cutting service as it struggles to make ends meet and contend with $34 million in debt.
A devolution of public transit in San Diego County seems like a case of criminal neglect or purposeful mismanagement.
Read the entire column online: County’s mass transit off track
Mayor of Encinitas Jerome Stocks is up for re-election this year and he wrote this scathing letter criticizing the Coast News and their "columnist".
click images for large view
Jerome is "available" but that doesn't mean he will address your question or issue.
ReplyDeleteTry asking him about his many errors in judgment. He will either bullshit you or blow you off.
Jerome has said that the tracks will NEVER be lowered because it would cost too much money and the feds won't pay for it -- why not sell some of that Hall property and use the TOT taxes to underground the train in Leucadia. If the train is placed underground -- going through a tunnel, as opposed to lowered as in Solana Beach, there would be no need to eminent domain land belonging to the City or private property. It could work if we had leaders with vision and imagination and financial acumen.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else question the ethical lapses at The Coast News for allowing a current City Council candidate to continue to write a weekly column?
ReplyDeleteNo. He's not promoting himself. Just pointing out facts.
ReplyDeleteHey on the Presidential Vote., Put Ron Paul in the choices.
ReplyDeleteI could never vote for either of the losers McCain or Obama. Either of them would be a dissaster for America, just like Bush or all the other losers selling out our kids future by sinking the country in debt.
If you vote for either McCain or Obama you are wasting your vote and even worse you are voting on ruining America.
Get Smart and Vote Ron Paul.
Ask Jerome if there will ever be double tracking through Encinitas, and if so, why can't depressing the tracks be a possible leverage?
ReplyDeleteO.K here's the 411. Jerome Stocks called the Coast News to take issue with my writing for the Coast News as an opinion editorialist.
ReplyDeleteAs you can tell by his letter to the editor he was not happy with my question about what they were planning at NCTD.
Jim Kidd, the publisher has talked to Lori the editor, who has talked to me. It has been decided that I will continue writing the column, I have written since 1992, during my run for a Encinitas City Council, but refrain from mentioning Encinitas until November.
I will, however, be permitted the opportunity to respond to Representative Stocks in rebuttal letter to the editor.
It's all good.
I gladly agreed to refrain from mentioning Encinitas political figures so that my commentary may not cast Jeromes Stocks actions as a Encinitas city councilman and representative to NCTD and SANDAG in a negative way.
I gladly agreed
If the Coast News allows candidate Nanninga a weekly forum, that's an in kind donation worth far more than campaign limits allow, and a lawsuit as well as an FPPC complaint will happen!
ReplyDeleteTweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.
ReplyDeleteBob won't be elected he is too crazy, Stocks shouldn't be re-elected he's too stupid.
As my grandfather used to say... Now is the time to do something, even if it is the wrong thing. Electing Bob may be the wrong thing for the future, but that is an unknown, re-electing Stocks is the wrong thing and that is a known.
Houlihan will probably be re-elected, by you have to wonder why?? What has she done for Leucadia?? I think the answer is doodle squat.
Politics is the election of evils, more often than not we elect the lesser of the evils, or at least that is what we believe. Many times that turns out not to be the case. Who will be elected in November is unknown at this time, but the campaign should be a hoot and a holler!
Re: the presidential poll, I did not include Ron Paul because he sought the Republican nomination which was won by John McCain. As far as I know Ron Paul is not running as an independent. I did add a third option, "other" for third party candidates but I didn't want to list them all. If you voted in the poll already you have to do it again because I had to reset it. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHello, I get paid to write. It's my job. I also own a cafe. Should I not work there. Is that an unfair advantage. What other candidate will be expected to stop working.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't mention Encinitas, big deal. It just gives me more time to focus on the Liebham/Bilbray race.
I'm sure that will make Mr. Bilbray happy.
Thanks JP-
ReplyDeleteI am voting for Ron Paul write in in the elections or another 3rd party, because to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate is a vote against your country.
The next four years will so such a decline in the quality of life for the working american that in 4 years people will be ready for a positive change like Ron Paul.
Don't waiste your vote. Don't vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate.
wait a minute, is the fact that stocks can spew his retarded comments every week at city hall, through the bully pulpit, not considered in the equal time for fair political practices? lets start recording of time of all politcal rhetoric, and lets see who really has the advantage.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Bob should refrain from mentioning Jerome because it's not nice to pick on the mentally handicapped.
Go Bob! I say... speak your mind!
ReplyDeleteIf people can't handle the truth and reasonable questions from a citizen, perhaps they should change their behavior. Stocks had the opportunity and ability to publish his rebuttal. This is all good.
The fact is that we need transparency in our government on all levels. Merely asking questions, pointing out issues or calling for accountability should not be a threat.
Don't give up the day job(s)!
Bob should not refrain from mentioning anything he wishes. (and usually does, even when he's not hosting the Poetry Slam!) Jerome and everyone else within our borders should have the same right. That's what free speech is.
ReplyDeleteKeeping in mind free speech can be a two edge sword. When we've put our foot in our mouth it's usually because of something we've said.
By the same token, I think citizens involved in legal or criminal issues should be allow to voice their concerns to the press at any time instead of having gag orders from judges.
And lastly, I think that jurors should use everything in their means to research a case they're deciding. Anything less impedes justice. Why current proceedures regarding ordered silence are popular I'll may never understand, but for now, they sure diminish the meaning of "Superior Court" to me.
So there. I'm not running for anything so no one in their right mind can accuse me of grand standing.
You tell'em Fred!!
ReplyDeleteYes, Stocks calls the Coast News to try to swing his weight around. Everyone knows that incumbents have a big advantage.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and complain to the Fair Political Campain Practicies commission, Jerome Stocks. And there will be complaints made against you for using Encinitas First to unfairly publicize you and your family. That newspaper is subsidized by the City through the taxpayers' subsidy of the Chamber of Commerce, including moving it to an area more impacted by traffic and lack of parking, when the volunteers had wanted to stay put, in the Smart and Final center, near Encinitas Blvd freeway exit.
Public newspapers are not required to be balanced in their editorial comments. You are not the newspaper police, Jerome. A candidate can be a columnist, and that is not considered a donation "in kind."
Now I know why Jerome and James Bond wanted to stop publishing the agenda in the classified section of the Coast News before. Christy Guerin got so mad, she switched to NCT for awhile, but Council eventually went back to the Coast News.
Jim Kydd did sell Gil ads anti Prop A, as I recall. The paper has every right to have an editorial opinion, and so does each columnist. These are not "ads" and should not be treated as such. Particularly when Jerome Stocks got his long letter published, and Dan Dalager recently published a letter in support of Brian Bilbray.
Please, tell a friend. We need to get Stocks out of office, and James Bond, too, if he changes his mind and runs again.
Is Jerome Stocks really this stupid? Has he parked in Lot B? Has he ever ridden the Coaster? Does he think that nonimpervious surface will solve our dirty runoff problems?
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion for Jerome. When the city shoves the widening of Encinitas Blvd. down our throats and spends $730,000 for the Project Approval/Environmental Document (PA/ED) for the expansion of the underpass at I-5, let's use a nonimpervious surface identical to Lot B for the additional 2 lanes. That way we will have cleaner water at Moonlight Beach and save some money at the same time.
The PA/ED (don't you love this obscuring language?) will be passed on Wednesday night. Of course, Mayor Stock put it on the Consent Calendar to try to avoid public scrutiny. Oy veh!
Jerome Stocks is intellectually and ethically bankrupt. I'm looking forward to watching him go down in flames in November.
ReplyDeleteCollier and Nanninga 2008
Nanninga should be allowed to write about Encinitas issues in the Coast News. This is America and he should be allowed to write about anything he wants.
ReplyDeleteI betcha Stocks didn't even write that letter, he can't spell and his grammar is atrocious. He probably had one of his staff write it -- which is a violation of the Fair Political Practices Act. Send Stocks to the stocks in 08!
ReplyDeleteInstead of stifling free speech for the summer campaigns it would be cooler if the Coast News did a point/counterpoint feature between Nanninga and Stocks.
ReplyDeleteThis is America. The Coast News has the FREEDOM to CHOOSE to take the most fair approach.
ReplyDeleteNanninga shouldn't be given that the coast news' infrastructure to run freely. You all would be freaking out right now if Jerome was the one with a weekly column.
Once again, JP comes up with winning solution.
We are all freaking out because that loser is our Mayor!
ReplyDeleteJerome practically does have a monthly "column." Three weeks a month he reigns over Council Meetings, when Maggie should have rightly been Mayor, now, according to tradition and the number of votes cast for her, compared to Jerome.
ReplyDeleteJerome gets to be on TV, be on the internet, gets to set and interpret the rules. He's got a huge advantage.
In this upcoming edition, I hope somebody writes some good letters in reply to Stocks' bogus letter in last Friday's Coast News.
His last camaign flyer had him shaking hands with Arnold, now he's blaming him for the woes of the NCTD. Jerome also had corrupt politician and felon Randy Duke Cunningham as his number one endorser and supporter.
He is ethically bankrupt, and does discourage dissent in every way he can, particularly by marginalizing the messengers.
Keep those fires burning and tell a friend. The "reign" of Jerome Stocks is at an end.