Given the economy, there’s plenty to complain about, so
…
Given the economy, there’s plenty to complain about, so …
Why is it that city planners give a rousing endorsement to a strip club in a shopping center proposed by someone from out of town and lay waste to developer Gary Walton’s plans to turn the Gaslighter Theater downtown into an entertainment venue featuring comedy and music? It’s theater of the absurd, and the City Council should be wondering the same thing aloud.
And who writes this bologna on the city planning staff’s report on the strip club proposal to the Council: “The City anticipates that the adult cabaret will fit harmoniously with the surrounding land uses and will not create a nuisance, because the surrounding uses operate primarily in the daytime, and do not cater to sensitive clientele such as children.” Not a nuisance? Police Chief Denise Turner’s experience in Kings County, WA with a strip club would be more akin to a constant nightmare. Maybe city planning staff, given the difficult economic times and pending layoffs at City Hall, is just trying to make life even more difficult for the City Council and turning in reports with a wink and a nod …
Am sure the City Council had somewhat of a tough time with South County Housing’s bailout request to take a second position on some loans, but Councilman Dion Bracco said the right thing when he told Dennis Lalor, SCH executive director, that as a councilman he had to look at it from the perspective of whether he personally would make that as an investment. Regretfully, but rightfully so, request denied.
From the suggestion box: “The city should strongly consider declaring bankruptcy as a strategy. That nullifies all existing contracts. We cannot afford to maintain the salary rates and the luxurious benefits paid to city employees. Bankruptcy would wipe the slate clean and we can start over and get back to providing city services at a reasonable cost.”
Well, I am amazed that the local union leadership has not come to the negotiating table now before a far more serious and injurious reality sets in. There’s still time to save the city, and the responsible thing to do would be to face reality now and hammer out contracts that are sustainable. How can local union leaders ignore the plethora of news reports like this one from CNBC?: Like many California cities, Vallejo promised its employees salaries, benefits and retirement packages that it can’t afford to pay, signing generous labor contracts during economically flush times, said Marcia Fritz, vice president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility. “It’s a nightmare for city governments because they have to continue to pay these benefits that were granted when they had extra money from real estate and sales tax,” Fritz said.
About face … really, you gotta love being a local newspaper editor. No sooner did I sit down for my favorite Japanese lunch at the Bowling Alley – where I had my first meal ever in Gilroy with the former editor of this paper Scott Livingston, (God rest his soul) – than a gracious and lovely lady came up to me and said, “I know what really works on dogs to get the skunk smell out.” I egged her on. “Massengill,” she said with a wry smile, and I belly laughed. On the way out the door, her husband added, “It really does work,” and I laughed all the way back to the office where I told the story to the young reporting troops, who asked me stupefied, “What’s Massengill?,” then laughed when I told them it was a feminine hygiene product. Ah, the generation gap strikes again … still, I can’t picture myself in the checkout line at Long’s Drugs with six bottles of Massengill …
Perhaps I have the attention of some good-humored ladies in the audience, so I’ll share a bit of shopping news: Saks Fifth Avenue will be opening a Saks Off Fifth outlet store in Gilroy this May or June. Well, it’s no Macy’s-anchored shopping center, but it’s another reason to shop local and keep those sales tax dollars close to home …
Back to the complaining … when in the world are they going to turn on the flashing-red signal light across the bridge on Sixth Street into a regular light? We get it, it’s a signal, turn the darn thing on and make it work. Green for go, yellow for slow, red for …
And you know what, if you’re walking around in public talking like you’ve just been released from an insane asylum, just STOP! If you have to leave that ugly cell phone device attached to your ear, don’t talk in public. Captain Kirk wouldn’t wear one and neither should you. There are people who can’t see the thing, and wonder whether the babbling-to-yourself behavior is symptomatic? Well, it is and it’s more than annoying, it’s symptomatic of a rude human. Power down. Whatever you’re cooking up, it’s not that important …
I’m really not trying to start a cooking column – though I’m thinking about entering the Rock ‘n Ribs BBQ competition downtown that Steve Ashford says is coming again this summer. (And at the same time I was disappointed to learn that the pre-Garlic Festival car show has been cancelled.) Don’t know, but I suspect the seed money donated by the Garlic Festival Association dried up in the wake of the belly-up downtown condo project …
Anyway, I am trying to get my wife to once again write her wildly popular cooking column, Jenny’s Kitchen. Our menus at home have been getting … naw, not true, but an occasional serving of goading is good for the soul of a high-spirited woman … If you’d like to read her cooking-with-a-slice-of-life column again, shoot me an e-mail which I intend to use as ammunition/evidence of an adoring public. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a mighty-tasty recipe for a hearty winter soup that I harvested and whipped up from John Schepper’s Kitchen Garden Seeds catalog:
– Cube a 2 1/2-3 pound butternut squash
– Peel, core and cube six Granny Smith apples.
– Toss into a large stock pot with 8 cups of chicken broth and three cinnamon sticks. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes until apple cubes are fork tender.
– Transfer to mixer and puree in batches (yes, you’ll need another pot)
– Put puree mixture back into stock pot and add 1 1/4 sticks of butter, 2 cups heavy cream, 4 tbs. maple syrup, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger. Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally and enjoy. Serves 10 … Plate it with a wonderful three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich and a SJ Sharks game on TV … and there you have it, the debut of Marco’s Cucina – what’s the world coming to?
