Electing ciy council members must be about the city staying solvent

 Pacifica Tribune, Letters-to-the-Editor, 5/29/12.  "State of denial" by Gil Anda

"Editor: Without knowing the actual breakdown of tax revenue from all of the businesses in Pacifica, it would be hard to tell conclusively whether tourism is our 'biggest private business' or whether it's the supermarkets and auto repair shops. What's really irresponsible is to obstruct other businesses and development with the vague pretense that our 'ecology is our economy' and all we have to do is 'market' it.

Another nice day on a sandy beach in Pacifica

It has now been a decade since that 'marketing' campaign was started and the city is now within a few years of running out of money. I don't expect the writer of last week's letter to change her beliefs, but I think the rest of us need to wake up and smell the coffee or we will run out of money.

And we need to wake up to the reality that running out of money may mean the closure of the many things that we value in this city, such as the Resource Center, the libraries, etc. We also need to wake up to the fact that being green costs money. Other things that cost money are maintaining our infrastructure so that we don't pollute and keeping our parks open and staffed.

There's more at stake this time than who gets elected and who doesn't. This time it's about the city staying solvent.

Related - "Our environment is our economy", guest column, Pacifica Tribune, 5/8/12

reprinted  as an article on Fix Pacifica, 5/11/12. Within the week following, there were several related articles responding to that slogan.  

Posted by Kathy Meeh