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The annual celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a few days away.
This is always a good time to reconsider that we, by virtue of being Americans, are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Nice use of unalienable, which has its own resonance in this tremulous era of alienation.
It is the pursuit of happiness that captivates me — not wealth or property or the latest model Teslas that proliferate like Foster City geese.
We are free to pursue happiness; however we define it. What a radical notion. Here on the Peninsula, where we are particularly endowed by our Creator, happiness seems to be tied to homeownership. Pursuit of it often takes shape as preservation.
In San Carlos, the City of Good Living (not Happiness), this recently expressed itself by banning certain kinds of life science labs that have yet to be built, and by buying out a gun shop that has been around since 1969.
No one wants cooties gushing into the atmosphere or the water system, beyond the ones that already do. But the opposition to higher level labs leaned heavily on the possibility of cooties, not established fact that these labs routinely leak bad stuff. The council decided 3-2 to limit the nature of the labs, making it the only city in the Bay Area to issue such a ban. This could put the city at a “competitive disadvantage,” and risks that San Carlos could descend into the City of Meh Living.”
The evidence may be lacking, but the fear is real.
In the second instance, the city has had its sights on the gun shop (sorry) for a while, and the council has decided to buy out the shop. This is positioned as advancing housing development on El Camino Real, which is a good idea. The gun shop was described as “incompatible” with the neighborhood envisioned for the area, which, presumably, will be residential buildings that will be too short and have too little density.
But this is more about fear of guns, which are legal in this country. In this instance, there is no evidence that this particular gun shop has played any role in the proliferation of guns and gun violence in America.
During the Fourth of July, no doubt, we will have the opportunity to hear the “Star-Spangled Banner,” which concludes that we are “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Not always. Not always happy.
INTERESTING: In the race for the District 1 seat on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, Burlingame Councilmember Emily Beach is out with campaign signs that bear the word Democrat.
This is interesting on a couple of levels.
First, the Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan office. The people who hold the office may well be Democrats or Republicans. All the current board members, in fact, are Democrats, no surprise given the lay of this political land. Still, it is nonpartisan for a reason. The county is where the majority of social programs are provided and they should be delivered absent partisan politics.
Second, it appears Beach is trying to anticipate a potential attack for her Republican past. Beach was a Republican when she first was elected to the Burlingame City Council, also a nonpartisan office. She switched some years ago when she realized her own views were more in line with the Democrats and dramatically out of sync with the direction of the GOP. Beach could not be reached for comment.
Elsewhere in this race, housing advocate Irving Torres has decided not to run, saying only that the time is not right, right now. Torres is 35, and certainly can wait to run until the time and the office are right.
So, right now, it is Millbrae Councilmember Gina Papan versus Beach, but it is likely another high-profile candidate will get into this race.
AND: Contrary to last week’s column Burlingame Councilmember Peter Stevenson has not endorsed in this race.
YOU DESERVE A BREAK TODAY: But unlike the vintage McDonald’s slogan, I will be the one to get up and get away. I have been writing this weekly column for the Daily Journal, Mighty Buttress of the First Amendment, for something more than four years without a week off. With the gracious approval of Editor Jon Mays, I am going to take a break for a month. This could be a heady mix of good and bad news, depending on your point of view. Upon my return, I will expect an essay on how you spent your summer vacation.
Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.
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(14) comments
Mark- you write that the San Carlos gun shop did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our county/state/nation. That shop has been in business for over sixty years. I'm guessing that in that time period, they have sold tens of thousands of firearms. To claim that those sales did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our society doesn't seem to make much sense.
What does a "proliferation" of legal gun sales have to do with anything?
I don't know...he used the term. Ask him. I'm just responding to it.
Do you think legal gun sales are bad?
GE52, your numbers (not sure where you got them or whether you picked them out of the air) support Mr. Simon’s claim more than yours. From 2000 to 2020 (likely higher in 2021 and 2022), there has been a low of 400,000 and a high of over 1.2 million firearms sold annually in CA. Per your guess of tens of thousands of firearms sold, it means they sold approximately 1666 guns per year, at most - so about 0.14% to 0.42% of all guns sold annually in California. I’d say that at those percentages, those sales did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our society, in any sense. Feel free to check the math or make another reasonable guess.
That particular gun shop has been in business for over sixty years. Try again.
GE52, I’ve accounted for 60 years in business. What’s the problem? Or, should I ask, what’s the solution, since you don’t agree with my numbers? Please try again.
Mr. Simon – I almost couldn’t enjoy today’s National Bacon Burnt End Day. When I began reading your last paragraph, it sounded as if you were hinting towards a permanent break. Thank goodness it’ll only be a month! Road trip across America? National Park visits? Staycation away from social media? I doubt you could stay away from all media. Vacationing to the dynamic destination known as Ukraine? Regardless, enjoy your well-deserved time off and I look forward to your return. The day now seems a bit brighter and I can return to burning the ends of my bacon. Because everything is better with bacon.
We should all take time to define happiness and then determine if it is really providing us happiness. I recently got a sports smart watch. I got it to better monitor my activity with the idea it would help me to be and feel healthier. The only thing it has done is make me feel dumb. The consolation prize is others seeing me wear it believe I am smart. That makes me happy. Seriously we receive the most happiness when we are in the service of others.
I doubt Emily Beach suddenly realized, well into her adult life, that her views align more with Democrats. She switched parties because it was politically expedient to do so. And now she is like a religious convert, having to swing far to the left in order to prove herself to the progressives.
You're mistaken here. Ms. Beach, like many people, was a Republican because her family were Republicans, back in the days when the parties were not so polarized, and moderate Republicans were a thing. I have friends who continue to stick with their Republican registration and vote for moderates in the primaries, out of some kind of sense of loyalty, and a hope that maybe someday the party will swing back towards the center. But I also have friends who are ex-Republicans who realized that the way the parties have evolved, they were more at home being moderate Democrats rather than continuing to identify with the GOP.
I think the idea that Emily's positions are "far left" doesn't stand up to scrutiny. She's a smart pragmatist who's going to do what she can to move policy incrementally towards making life better for most citizens.
Good morning, Mark
Your hiatus from writing weekly columns is well deserved. Have fun.
I guess San Carlos will not ask voters to to increase taxes, since they eliminated a sale tax generating business. At least they did not try to buy a gun manufacturer.
Hello, Mark
Last summer, Longfellow hosted information sessions at their Redwood LIFE campus and one of the sessions focused on sustainability. At that session, I asked who is responsible for disposing of laboratory wastes? According to the Longfellow team, tenant labs contract with private services for this service. So, it appears there is no oversight by anyone in the private or public sector watching how labs dispose of lab wastes. If Longfellow or nobody else is monitoring the removal of lab wastes... what could go wrong?
I walk on the Bay Trail and on the levee in Redwood Shores near Longfellow's Redwood LIFE campus. I have observed a waste management vendor removing wastes in large lab containers stacked unsafely. I have also observed a lab package, from a lab on Longfellow's campus, left next to a trash receptacle on a public street a couple of blocks away from the lab. I have photographs of both incidents.
What could go wrong?
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