Coronado Common Sense

Now I've Seen It All . . .

 

After an afternoon of munching grass in the warmth of the sun, my friend's beautiful Palomino Paint lays down to rest.

 

 

But the grass is right under his nose so he begins nibbling again.

 

 

Is this the laziest horse in the world? Or the smartest?

Results of CCS Coronado Tunnel Project Survey

Thanks to all of you who participated in this survey regarding the Coronado Tunnel Project. The information gathered revealed a great deal about how the residents feel about this project.

 

These are the percentages of people who agreed with each of the four statements:

 

[14%] I agree with all aspects of the present plan being pursued by the Coronado city government.

 

[65%] I don’t see why a tunnel is needed at all                                                                         

[77%] I would like to hear about alternative solutions to the NASNI commuter traffic problem.

 

[59%] The tunnel proposition should be revisited by placing the issue on the next election ballot.

These responses indicate that:

• The people who responded to the survey are against the Coronado City Government’s present plans to study and construct the tunnel by at least a 4-to-1 margin.

 

• Nearly 2/3s of those surveyed responded “I don’t see why a tunnel is needed at all.”

 

• Over 3/4s of the participants wanted to hear about alternative solutions to the NASNI commuter traffic problem.

 

• The 77% survey result would seem to be a mandate for the City of Coronado to at least temporarily stop their monetary investments in a tunnel plan until much lower cost tunnel alternative plans (which are currently under way) can be assessed.

 

• Almost 60% of voters who completed the survey agree that the tunnel proposition should be on the next public election ballot so that the Coronado citizenship can vote on it again, and perhaps this time reject a tunnel plan.

 

• The overall results strongly indicate that a tunnel is not wanted and that other alternative solutions—not presented in the City's plan—might be more acceptable.

Thank you for your interest in this issue.

Coronado Tunnel Project Survey

The results of the Coronado Tunnel Project Survey will be posted in tomorrow's Coronado Common Sense.

Thanks for your patience.

Coronado Tunnel Project Survey

The Coronado Tunnel Project Survey is now closed.

Thank you for participating.

Stay tuned as the results of this survey will be posted right here at Coronado Common Sense later this week.

What's Your Opinion?

For almost as long as I can remember, "The Tunnel" has been the hot topic around town. I thought it might be nice to find out your personal opinion.

A very quick survey regarding the Coronado Tunnel Project (CTP) is now available. There are four opinion statements and you are allowed to check as many as you agree with. You may take the survey at Tunnel Project Survey.

I will also place this link in the CCS sidebar under "Common Sense FYI." Please tell your friends and neighbors about this survey so that everyone who wishes to express an opinion on this topic may do so. Stay tuned as the final results will be displayed here at Coronado Common Sense.

"Boondoggle": The Rest of the Story

A CCS reader sent me this interesting information about the origin of "boondoggle:" 

The origin of "boondoggle" might be of interest to you as well. The article failed to mention the word was coined by Robert H. Link an American scoutmaster dated 1929.

Word Origin: boondoggle
Top Home > Library > Literature & Language > American Word Origins
Origin: 1935

A boondoggle was just a little recreation for Boy Scouts and cowboys until the government took over. Some say it began as a craft project to keep Scouts busy and quiet, braiding the ends of a lanyard or leather strap to be worn around the neck for decoration or to hold something like a key. Similarly, at home on the range on an idle day, cowboys would make boondoggles by weaving together odd scraps of 
leather as decorations for their saddles or other equipment. In the mid-1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, someone who was skeptical about newly created government jobs gave them the contemptuous name of boondoggles.

We can see the transformation of boondoggle from private pastime to public waste in a New York Times article of April 4, 1935, with the headlines "$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play...'Boon Doggles' Made...Aldermen Find These Are Gadgets." An instructor in boondoggling explained to the city aldermen, "They may be making belts in leather, or maybe belts by weaving ropes, or it might be belts by working with canvas, maybe a tent or a sleeping bag. In other words, it is a chamber of horrors where boys perform crafts that are not designed for finesse and fine work, but simply a utility purpose."

Ever since, boondoggle has been the standard and indispensable epithet for purposeless and wasteful projects in government and business. Where the odd-sounding word came from no one knows, but it resembles extravagant inventions of the early nineteenth century like Sockdolager (1827). Perhaps only boondoggle is sufficiently outrageous for proper censure of an outrageous waste of time.

I appreciate anything CCS readers may add to enrich and further educate us all! Thanks!

What's Your Opinion?

Several Coronado Common Sense readers have recently compared the tunnel project with a boondoggle, both in comments to CCS articles or in emails to the editor. Example:

"The tunnel is a boondoggle."

A what? Are you familiar with this word? I wasn't. After the fourth comment using "boondoggle," I decided that I better educate myself. Here are the definitions:

boon⋅dog⋅gle [boon-dog-uhl, -daw-guhl]  

–noun

1. a product of simple manual skill, as a plaited leather cord for the neck or a knife sheath, made typically by a camper or a scout.
2. work of little or no value done merely to keep or look busy.
3. a project funded by the federal government out of political favoritism that is of no real value to the community or the nation.

–verb (used with object)

4. to deceive or attempt to deceive: to boondoggle investors into a low-interest scheme.

–verb (used without object)

5. to do work of little or no practical value merely to keep or look busy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009. 

• • • • • • • • • •

boon·dog·gle      (bōōn'dô'gəl, -dŏg'əl)    

-noun  

1. An unnecessary or wasteful project or activity.
2. A cord of braided leather, fabric, or plastic strips made by a child as a project to keep busy.

boon·dog·gled, boon·dog·gling, boon·dog·gles 
To waste time or money on a boondoggle. 

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 

• • • • • • • • • •

boondoggle  

-noun

1.  work of little or no value done merely to look busy 

-verb

1.  do useless, wasteful, or trivial work 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. 

So readers, what is your opinion? Do you think that the tunnel project is a boondoggle? Are the citizens of Coronado being boondoggled?

What's Your Opinion?

The election has presented many issues Coronado faces traffic/tunnel, Military impact, Hotel Del Coronado upgrades, the hospital buyout plan and keeping the Village life safe and controlled growth. What is missing from these issues is the hard facts that confirm our fears of what happens in Coronado, those facts are presented in retail sales tax performance records, property tax reviews, TOT tax breakdowns of each hotel/motel taxes for the last 10 years, the lawsuits over the past years and legal costs to our city and finally the devalulation of our business properties 50% according to appraisal and sales information. ALL ARE PUBLIC RECORDS AND WHY HAS OUR CITY OF CORONADO NOT PUBLISHED THEM! Also the US Military EIR report NEVER mentions any tunnel now or in the future, why? because the US government is not approving the tunnel. Remember terrorist and 09/11? Caltrans WILL not do anything about traffic until we, Coronado, have a real dialogue with the State of California and US Military to create new traffic flow regulations, carpools, and the future planning of water transport and monorail on the bridge. A REAL TRAFFIC PLAN! As a native Coronadoan, the issues have been the same for 30 years and very little thinking out of the box has been presented to us voters by all of these candidates. I advise the candidates to do their homework, review the history of these issues and follow the money to where we are now.

Liz Forsyth-Lovell

What's Your Opinion?

I just returned from the Coronado City Council Meeting. Item 8a was a closed Public Hearing for a Request to Approve the Hotel del Coronado 2008 Amended Master Plan and Parking Plan and to Introduce the Ordinance Amending the the Development Agreement for the Hotel del Coronado 2008 Amended Master Plan for the Property Commonly Known as 1500 Orange Avenue.

Closed means that the public was not allowed to comment and Mayor Smisek stated that they were moving the Public Comments portion of the City Council Meeting to after the Hotel vote, in case anyone tried to speak out of turn. This vote was continued from the City Council Meeting of September 2, 2008. Council member Al Ovrom commented at that meeting that he needed more time to think and council members Tananka and then Monroe followed suit.

Mr. Ovrom started the discussion with his reasons why he was voting against the 2008 Amended Master Plan. It's my opinion that he really used those two weeks to reflect on the positives and negatives of this new plan. He spoke at great length with considerable thought about his concerns. He was followed by Mr. Tanaka who was also against the new plan but spoke only briefly. Mayor Smisek, who was for the plan, went next and Ms. Downey finished the discussion and raised the decibel level slightly in her excitement in favor of the Hotel del. The tie-breaker was left to Mr. Monroe. He wavered for a few minutes, building the tension, and then followed Mayor Smisek and Ms. Downey.

The final vote:

Downey YES

Monroe YES

Ovrom NO

Smisek YES

Tanaka NO

So, readers of Common Sense, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?

How to post your comments

This is one of the reasons that I wanted to create this 'online newspaper.' So that all of you, the community of Coronado, could read an article and respond to it (or each other) if you would like. To create an open communication forum.

So now let me show you how easy it is to submit a comment. If an article is open for comments, you will see the word [Comments] displayed in gray type underneath. Click on [Comments] and a comment section will appear.

First type in your name. This may be your actual name such as John Doe or it could be a name you want to use to write comments, for example: NadoSurfer.

Next, type in your email address (example: JD1946@aol.com). This will NOT be displayed with your comment.

Go to the comment box and enter your text. Once finished, you may click on [Preview] to see how it will look.

Last step, click on [Post] and your comment will be sent. Wasn't that easy?