We’ll start local and work our way up, just a little, this week. Exercising an arbitrary discipline, I’ll not say anything negative about Mr. Bush today. I’ll accomplish that by saying nothing about him at all.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Grass Valley City Council approved the application by the Briar Patch food co-op to rezone property on Litton Hill where it wants to build a new store. The city planning commission had turned down the application, citing concerns about traffic and saying it wanted to stick with the original zoning for an office complex, although no such proposals were on the table. The co-op has been trying for several years to hatch a scheme for a new and bigger store.

I’ve always thought that concerns about traffic, while legitimate, have been applied arbitrarily and sometimes without merit to justify opposition to some development proposals. So I was surprised to learn that, in Grass Valley, at least, there’s actually a formula for determining how much traffic is tolerable. It’s called the two second rule, and although I don’t actually understand it, I’m pretty sure no one can accurately predict how much traffic any particular development will generate, anyway.

The two second rule says that if traffic flow is slowed by two seconds at an intersection with two stop signs, or slowed by two percent at an intersection with lights, then the impact is too high. Do you understand that? I didn’t think so. Anyway, the story is that one council member, Dean Williams, is proposing to change it to a one second rule, but Lisa Swarthout says that would effectively eliminate all new development in the city. She’s probably right, but I would hope traffic isn’t the only thing in the discussion when you’re deciding what to build and what not to build.

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This story is local government, but not exactly our own. We talked about this a few months ago. Contra Costa County includes some delta islands where people have been living and building for a long time without bothering to get building permits and without necessarily observing the Uniform Building Code. A few months ago, the county came down on Salisbury Island where the housing ranged from old shacks up to modern houses, but in that event, the county said, "Bring ‘em up to code or tear ‘em down. This time, the target was Golden Isle, where all the buildings look pretty good. Golden Isle is a water ski club. It holds tournaments and charges members $300 a year to belong. It has 28 houses, 28 docks, and it’s been there for 35 years. Last week the county came in and said, "Tear it all down."

I report this because, as most of you know, Nevada County has been looking the other way about non-permitted housing for even longer than that. If this kind of code enforcement raiding by local government becomes a trend, there’ll be hell to pay on the San Juan Ridge. Imagine what would happen if all the non-permitted housing on the Ridge were torn down. Developers could make big money stringing a power line up Cruzon Grade and buying up a bunch of cheap land. Food for thought.

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I mentioned recently the story about Wal-Mart choosing to close down a store in Ontario rather than negotiate with a labor union. I guess the big company got the message across. Last week the employees of a little tire and lube business operated by Wal-Mart in Loveland, Colorado voted overwhelmingly to reject membership in a union. Smart enough to figure out that even a job at Wal-Mart is better than no job at all.

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A listener called last week to let me know that the county Board of Supervisors will be discussing a proposed ordinance about clearing land for fire safety at it’s March 8^th meeting. I haven’t seen this ordinance, and I’m sure not saying it’s a bad idea, but hey, I want to see all those property rights people who fought NH2020 out at this meeting in force to remind us that you’re supposed to be able to do anything you want with your own property without government interference.

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What do Hunter Thompson and Jose Canseco have in common? Nothing, really, but a lot of newspapers have been moaning and moralizing about baseball players using "performance enhancing" drugs. Those same papers have been eulogizing Thompson with high praise, although he would have been the first to tell you that his performance was enhanced by drugs. I’m sure it’s not the same angle Todd Snider had in mind when he said it, but it’s still true that it’s not what drugs you’re using; it’s whose.

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Finally, I see that Martha Stewart is getting out of jail this week, but she’ll be required to wear one of those ankle bracelets for electronic monitoring. I sure feel safer knowing that. I wouldn’t want a vicious criminal like her just running around loose.

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