Calhouns Can(n)ons

Bleep You AND The Horse You Rode In On

Did you watch the great eucalyptus trees at the Tri W site groan and strain and finally fall under the power of the grubbing Cats? If you wanted to get a clear message of what the Los Osos CSD Board majority thinks of the citizens of this fair burg, then the title of this column would just about fit the bill. In fact, it doesn’t get any clearer.

CSD Director Tacker emailed CSD President Gustafson to ask for an emergency public meeting and Board vote regarding cutting the trees town before the recall election, before the citizens could even weigh in with their votes. NO! All kinds of citizens marched and held vigils and called the CSD office asking for a postponement of the cutting until after the election, a scant three weeks away. NO! Countless community members urged the CSD Board majority to hold off on doing anything irrevocable until their votes were cast on the 27th. NO! No, nope, nuh-huh, not interested, talk to the hand, not listening, don’t care, go away, shut up, Bleep you and the horse you rode in on.

Instead of good public policy and a piece of smart politics, what I saw in the great tree fall was a hissy-fit of pique by three directors enraged that enough members of their community (over 20% certified by the elections office) disagreed with their governance to get a recall as well as a Sewer Initiative on the ballot. Instead of taking a deep breath and pausing until the whole community could be heard from, they appeared hell-bent on a deliberate process of pounding as much State Loan Money into the ground as quickly possible, doing as much irrevocable damage as possible, inflicting as much lasting physical and financial damage as possible so that they could turn around and blandly argue that voters shouldn’t bother voting since it would be a shame to waste all that money and anyway, the trees are already dead, so bleep you, bleep your horse. The tin-eared message couldn’t get any clearer than that.

Sadly, no matter the election’s outcome, the actions of the Board majority in the simple matter of the trees has turned it into a Pyrrhic victory, evil and bitter, unforgivable and entirely unnecessary. That is the tragedy of what this Board majority has done and is still doing.

Even the Tribune couldn’t crank up much enthusiasm for this project in their tepid Sept 4 editorial. It failed to deal substantively with the Why of the recall and curiously avoided any discussion on the Sewer Initiative altogether. Instead of investigating and updating and verifying the recently proposed out-of-town plans and sites, it merely trotted out the old false mantras and speculated on the tired ginned-up threats before it finally wimped into a weasley whine: Yes, it’s a bad deal, but just roll over and swallow it because we’re sick of hearing about it. Bleep you. Bleep your horse. Los Osos doesn’t deserve anything more than tired expediency.

Certainly, there is a group out here that is wildly enthusiastic about putting a sewer plant in the middle of town. Yes, it’s the thousands of anxious tots who are clamoring for a Tot Lot to be built next to their new sewer plant (one of the reasons given to the Coastal Commission for demanding the plant stay in the middle of town – play space for the little tikes).

Next, there’s the Dream Team. According to an August 24th Bay News story, the “Save The Dream” team has amassed a $34,700 political campaign war chest, with 36% of the money raised coming from developers and real estate professionals. This certainly makes sense because in the economic cleansing that will take place when the sewer bills arrive, a whole lot of people forced to sell their homes will need the services of a good realtor. So, it’s only smart that realtors and developers should contribute to a campaign to make sure Los Osos gets a sewer plant in the middle of itself as soon as possible.

I don’t have a war chest. But thanks to the efforts of a lot of citizens who put their signatures on recall petitions and a sewer initiative, I have finally been given something far more precious – one chance and one chance only on September 27 to ask and answer one simple question: “Do I really want an industrial-sized sewage treatment plant built in the middle of my town?”