Tim - this has got to be the lamest column you have ever written. Has living up in Castlewood given you hypoxia? To make a statement that the only thing that the Summerhill apartments would change is the view is the stupidest thing that you have ever said. What if someone put up a 60 ft 200 yard building between a Castlewood home and a view of the golf course. There would be hell to pay. If it takes an agitator to tell James Paxson to take his Hacienda Multi-Use plan and stick it, then so be it. If you had read the planning commission report, you would have known that this complex will generate critical levels of traffic congestion that will need to be addressed. Unfortunately the planning commission also said that the traffic problem will be b dealt with at a later date. What? You need to come off your mountain and hike down the Parkside side of Arroyo Mocho Creek and see for yourself what this building will do the viewscape.

Sorry to incroach on this thread but I've left some comments on one of your previous posts/blogs. I'm hoping you will respond to my comments regarding "A necessary, but large budget hit for schools."

While I agree the PUSD BUDGET will take a LARGE HIT, I do not agree that it is/was necessary. IMO, the budget hit you speak of is a direct result of the CTA & CalSTRS (the teachers union retirement fund) robbing their own pension plan to the benefit of their members, and to the detriment of both school age children, their taxpayer parents, and everyone else paying school bonds, parcel taxes, or receiving reduced services which includes increased class sizes.

California taxpayers are being asked to double their contribution toward the Teachers Retirement system (CalSTRS) from five billion to 10 billion dollars per year. Most of that cost is a direct result of the teachers union/CalSTRS gaming their own pension plan - at everyone elses expense.

What has occured should be considered criminal. Hopefully Tom Cushing can respond as well.

The link to your comments regarding: A necessary, but large budget hit for schools

Web Link

Again, I apologize for diverting attention from your current topic.

Arnold,

There's an easy way to navigate the blogs so you can find the one you want to reply to.

1. Go up to the top menu, just under the Express' Name, and hover on "Blogs."
2. Click on "Meet our Bloggers."
3. Locate the Blogger you want to search and click on the Name of the Blog. In Tim's case it is "Tim Talk."
4. That will list Tim's last five or six blog titles. You can click on the one you want to reply to or reread.
5. You can also click on the Year below the list to find all of Tim's past blogs back to 2012.

I hope this helps.

Roz

Hi Arnold: okay, I'll bite, per your invitation.

Your write on this topic a lot, and have placed blame, on several occasions, in language like this:

"Most of that cost is a direct result of the teachers union/CalSTRS gaming their own pension plan - at everyone elses expense."

Would you explain what you mean by the 'gaming' terminology? Is it a result of the give-and-take of collective bargaining, or are you making a serious charge of illegal conduct? If it's the former, then are not the management-side negotiators responsible for kicking this compensation can down the road, or the taxpayers to blame for being asleep at the switch? And what did the teachers Not get instead -- like current salary increases?