It’s a man’s world. Whoops. Not so fast. Women, for the most part, are in charge when it comes to serving on city councils in San Mateo County these days. They are running the show. Most of the 20 councils here have a majority of female members.
One such governing body in Hillsborough has an all-female makeup. And it’s not really news at all. It’s actually pretty much ho-hum. We’ve seen it before. But that wasn’t always the case in these parts — or anywhere else for that matter.
Way back in 1992, history was made when five women occupied all of the chairs on the Pacifica City Council. The coastal town was enduring one of its periodic fits of political angst at the time.
A recall election produced the surprising all-female result as four women succeeded in winning council seats and joined a fifth who was already on the council. All 17 of the men running in the election failed.
The surprising outcome was a very big deal back then. It was national news. Media outlets sent curious reporters to the city and they expounded on the revolutionary situation as if alien life forms had somehow descended from outer space and into the town council chambers in some sort of a hostile ET takeover.
It was said that Pacifica’s ladies-only elected grouping was unique, certainly in California and perhaps in the United States as a whole. That was then, but this is now and Hillsborough’s councilwomen appear to be functioning quite well together with virtually no fanfare at all.
We have not heard loud cries for a council gender shift in the wealthy burg. The testosterone level seems to be muted. That’s all to the good.
The Hillsborough female five are: Laurie Davies Adams, Marie Chuang, Sophie Cole, Christine Krolik and Leslie Marden Ragsdale.
FACEBOOK TO THE RESCUE: Social media is often the target of critics for a variety of reasons (just look at Australia’s ban on teen use of the platforms for some proof). But this communication option isn’t all bad. Really. Just ask Jeff Scheller, the athletic director at San Mateo High School.
He has been putting together a photographic display of a former gymnasium on his campus. Dubbed “The Pit” because of its old, cramped design that featured all seating above the playing floor, it was demolished years ago due to earthquake safety issues, a lack of adequate capacity and other limitations and concerns.
Scheller’s photo search wasn’t bearing much fruit. Then, after a suggestion, a request for Pit-related photos was sent out via Facebook. And, voilá, Scheller received an online avalanche of snaps from helpful San Mateo alumni registered by the thousands on the site. The school was founded in 1902.
The Pit may live again on a wall of a new gym on the San Mateo campus which is under construction and is scheduled to open for business in coming months.
AN INSTRUCTIVE LABOR ACTION: This month’s strike by the public employee union members of the Valley Transportation Authority in Santa Clara County has been another wake-up call for taxpayers throughout the region. In essence, those VTA workers have been withholding their services from the very people who pay their salaries and benefits, the citizenry.
The strike turned out to be held, coincidentally as it turned out, as area politicians and their public transit enthusiasts in San Francisco and the East Bay have lately been trying to gin up support for a new tax increase to prop up several of their struggling agencies.
The South Bay labor action has certainly not been a plus in the public relations department for those transit tax enthusiasts.
HEY, STEPH, PLEASE SIGN HERE: Parking was at a premium on Sequoia High School’s tree-studded campus for a portion of last week. That’s because dozens of video professionals and their assistants were in the process of shooting a commercial featuring Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Autograph hounds abounded.
TIME TO BECOME LITERATE: Let’s hear it for a most appropriate moniker for a quiet learning space available upstairs in the bright and airy downtown Half Moon Bay Public Library: “Literacy Room.” We’ll tip our cap to that.
John Horgan has been writing about San Mateo County’s ins and outs, to the tune of an estimated 7 million words, since 1963, beginning modestly at the defunct Burlingame Advance Star. He can be contacted by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com or via instant messaging on Facebook and Instagram.
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(4) comments
Thanks for another eclectic column today, Mr. Horgan. The VTA strike is another reason why folks should eschew public transportation. It’s always about the money, not serving the public. Lets DOGE the VTA and first rid the agency of waste, fraud, and abuse. Until then, voters should vote NO on any measures or taxes to support public transportation. And thank goodness the “Literacy Room” was not titled the “Literasy Room.”
If almost 30 Bay Area Transportation agencies have any kind of money issues it is probably due to the fact that we have almost 30 different Public Transportation agencies with almost 30 CEOs, 30 politically charged boards and 30 overblown administrations for what is basically one big Metropolitan Area.
If they were really underfunded and struggling we would be seeing merger after merger.
But Public Transportation agencies are basically overfunded, which is why SamTrans had to do several real estate deals to hide the money to look more poor. That is why Caltrain keeps wasting money on the Dumbarton Railroad Corridor - a project NYT said was hampered by "local political dysfunction". Now that that story blew up they switched to turning the corridor into a "bus lane" so they can burn another few millions over the next 10 years on studying this "bus lane", which is basically just another highway widening.
I’d like to see Horgan, Teri or Ezgard title live on a bus or light rail operators salary! I bet most of those people commute from Stockton or Modesto. And contrary of what Ezgerd says about having too many transportation, jurisdictions and too much money. The simple truth is: Yes there are too many individual transportation organizations, but not enough money or coordination/collaboration to manage the real needs of the people. We need well, coordinated, convenient and affordable mass transit. Regarding what Teri says about “… It’s always the money”. This is true! The operators are not getting enough $$$. To them, It’s a job and they (like everybody else who works for a living ) need to get paid well so they can support their families. To the organizations that run these transportation organizations it needs to be about serving the people! If it was, they would make sure that there was coordination, collaboration, convenience, and a well cared for Employee group because they are the ones who make it all work.
No, money is never the issue, these transportation agencies are already quite overfunded. Budgets don't lie. If they needed money, they would merge.
Yes, teachers aren't earning enough money, operators aren't earning enough money, working class people aren't making enough money ... yet the leaders and administrators always do.
Let's look at David Canepa, Diane Papan, Gina Papan, Jeff Gee, Rico E. Medina, Emily Beach, Alicia Aguirre and his positions on the Board of Supervisors, SMCTA, SamTrans, Caltrain, MTC, etc over the last few years:
- The county leadership approved a highway widening, which directly affects Caltrain ridership
- The county leadership approved SamTrans buying a new HQ, but their huge Bus Shelter Improvement Project for the people has not led to even one new bus shelter being installed
- The county leadership for years was wasting money on the Dumbarton Railroad Corridor, which the New York Times called basically doomed by "dysfunctional local leadership".
- Instead of using the Dumbarton Railroad Corridor now as a "green lane" for bikes/ped, they are using again fake studies and research to use it as a bus lane. Basically they are planning another highway widening.
- The county leadership discontinued at least 2 important ped/bike crossings over the dangerous 101 citing money issues, but they have money for useless highway intersections like 92/101, 84/101, 380/101, etc.
- Sen. Dave Cortese wants to audit MTC for creating a slushfund where bridge tolls were supposed to be going to public and active transportation projects are used for car-centric projects
- And if these teachers and workers are so poor, why is nobody building "affordable transportation" for them aka bus lanes and bike lanes. Why is Nicole Fernandez taking bike lanes away from single mothers and their children in a so called low-income, working class neighborhood.
Apparently these board members and politicians are taking money from a lot of the same unions of the workers and teachers they never want to pay. So while these unions seem all politically very powerful, they never get it done for teachers and workers. Why is that really?
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