A couple of weeks ago we talked about local growth and development, mostly as it relates to projects that are proposed in Grass Valley, but since that report was written, a couple other proposals have turned up in the news. Mostly, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether they’ve reared their ugly heads. One is called Berg Heights, and unlike the earlier proposals, it’s actually within the city limits of Grass Valley. The developer wants 122 single family houses on a little less than ten acres along the south side of Ridge Road west of Hughes. That’s urban density for sure, but it’s within sight of apartment developments of even greater density which have been there for decades, and it’s within walking distance of Nevada Union High School and the Sierra College Extension campus, so if the city approves the plan, it would be hard to argue that the city is raising any eyebrows in the slow-growth camp. But 122 new houses–figure two cars each coming and going every day–you can imagine the parking lot you’ll see on Ridge and Hughes and the Alta Street race track will get considerably faster.

The other proposal is more alarming as it relates to traffic and it’s in the lap of county government. It’s called Deer Creek Park II and if you follow these stories you know what that means. Basically, it’s the suburbanization of the rest of Banner Mountain. The map published in the Grass Valley Union seems to include some territory that’s already developed, but the idea is the continuation of dense residential development further south along Red Dog Road to the tune of 193 lots on 580 acres. That’s a much more rural density factor, but it’s served by roads that already are inadequate for the traffic they serve. I see three directions of resistance to this proposal. First, the people who are just cautious about development in general will be alarmed about the possibility of nearly 200 new houses on Banner. Then the people who live on the mountain already are likely to be unanimous in their "not in my back yard" reaction. The third and most formidable–although we haven’t heard anything from them yet–should be Nevada City. Boulder Street, originally a horse and buggy trail which hasn’t gotten any wider, already has been hammered by Deer Creek Park and Cascade Shores traffic. If I’m sitting on the Nevada City Council, I say "no way" to 200 new houses on the mountain unless you give those people another way to get in and out.

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One more local item: A guy named Craig Dennis has quit his job as publisher of the Auburn Journal and joined the staff of the Grass Valley Union in a new position called "associate publisher." I don’t know what the job description is, and I usually wouldn’t mention an item like this, but I was shocked by the comment of Union publisher Jeff Ackerman, quoted in his own paper, about the hiring of this guy. Jeff said Dennis will be very helpful in working with the sales teams to better serve local businesses. I paraphrased that quote, but I thought anyone who might think their local paper exists to provide them with objective information should know the true goal of the organization.

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Well, I guess there’s actually one more local item. Right after last week’s report was written, the Nevada Union High School District announced that it actually would buy some more lockers so every student could have one. My local paper hasn’t followed up, however, so I’d like to know if that really happened. I’m sure someone who’s listening can clue me in.

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This is an old story that’s been laying around on my desk, but since it might yet be the subject of a state ballot initiative, it’s still topical. Governor Arnold has a keen interest in sex offenders and one of the things he’s proposing is a state law which would prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within 2000 feet of a school or a park. I read a piece by a Bay Area resident who calculated that such a law would effectively ship all of those people out of all urban areas. In other words, Arnold is advocating the "ship all the perverts to the countryside" law.

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175 heads of state are planning to attend a conference at the United Nations in a couple of weeks to discuss world poverty and reforming the UN. The statement of principles which has been drafted for the approval of these people includes the phrase "respect for nature." You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Bush administration has demanded the deletion of that phrase from the resolution. Everyone’s an environmentalist, but what environment does the Bush gang inhabit?

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Even before Hurricane Katrina had stopped raining on New Orleans, the US media, flakking for the oil companies as usual, started telling us that the pump price of gas was about to spike twenty cents a gallon because a couple of drilling rigs in the gulf of Mexico were disabled. If you believe that, I could sell you one of those rigs for the cost of a tank of regular.

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Finally, just when you thought Islam had cornered the world market on threats of violence in the name of God, Pat Robertson comes along to put Christianity back in the game. Someone managed to ask the guy who thinks he’s president to renounce Robertson’s incitement to assassination, and you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Bush wouldn’t answer. If I were Hugo Chavez, I’d be getting a disguise and a hole to hide in before I ended up as Saddam Hussein’s roommate.

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Since we’re no longer invited to appear on Tuesday afternoon, the Strawberry hiatus no longer is in effect, and Local Views will be here next week if all goes well.