Sunday, January 13, 2008

CM PRESS # 272


SNOW BUNNY KATRINA BACK FROM THE SLOPES

Useless bumponthelog City Councilperson Katrina Foley is apparently back from the slopes.

On Saturday, the Daily Pilot carried a puff piece by Foley about sports fields. Foley apparently wants voters to think she's responsible for fixing up sports fields. LINK

Foley ends her drivel with her Web site address. LINK

From information on her Web site, it appears that Foley is planning on making some time in her busy skiing lifestyle to attend the upcoming January 15th City Council meeting.

On her Web site, Foley is trying to call out the troops to support her bikes in the drainage ditch scheme that will cost us $ 100, 000 for an 'outreach' (read PR campaign) to push through this multi-million dollar plan of hers.

The CM PRESS will be at the meeting to share some of our thoughts on spending priorities. Hint: Our thoughts don't include a scheme for taking your money to put a bike trail in a drainage ditch behind homes whose owners mostly don't want it.

There are lots of questions that have to be answered by Foley about this proposal. Among them are:

--What will the total cost be?
--What will the on-going upkeep costs be?
--How many people will use the drainage ditch for their bikes?
--Will the trails go anyplace meaningful so that they'll take bikes off the streets or will they just be for go nowhere recreation?
--Will the police be able to see the drainage ditch bike trails from the street and be able to get police cars up and down them in case of expected burglaries and other crimes?
--How will the city protect the privacy and security of homeowners who back up to the trails?

FOLEY'S SOFT 'EMINENT DOMAIN'?

Say you buy a home in Mesa del Mar that backs up to a drainage ditch. You know the ditch is there, and you expect it to stay there. That's a reasonable expectation from what we know about drainage ditches.

The purpose of a drainage ditch is to drain water--it is not for bicycling. You may have bought your house because you like it quiet and sans people out back, and you may have relied on the reality of this drainage ditch in making your buying decision.

With the ditch, you sleep sound at night knowing you don't have people, perhaps with bad motives, being in the ditch and being able to look into your yard and home, while pretending to be bicycling, and know when you're home or not and know who lives in your house and the ages of your kids.

Then, along comes do-gooder Katrina Foley--your neighbor--who has power because she's on the City Council. What does she do? She comes up with a scheme to put a bike trail behind your house!

Now, you don't own that drainage ditch, so Foley is not taking your real property, but you do have a right to the quiet enjoyment of your property (read peace of mind) and maybe you figure a bike trail takes that away from you.

What should you do? Complain. Go to the City Council meeting on the 15th and let the Council know of your concerns. If you can't go, then send an email to the City Council via the City's Web site or even Foley's Web site (she has a link there).

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