George Rebane

We have seen the sun set in Flagstaff for the second day and last night heard our share of the 100 to 130 trains per day that pass through this town.  The last time in Flagstaff for me was in 1957 when as a teenager I drove my own used Beatle following my parents on our family’s migration to California on US66.  That was before they wrote the song about getting your kicks on Route 66. Today was Grand Canyon revisited with Russ and Ellen.  We had a fantastic lunch at the best table overlooking the canyon El Tovar could offer.  Lots of pictures and memories of previous visits.  The day ended with BBQd rib eye steaks served with all the fixin’s at the Steeles’ rolling roadhouse.

Having written the SESF report on our county’s ozone problem, I am looking forward to attending the Sierra Ozone Summit.  It will be interesting to see if we can mobilize to do something innovative and effective about highlighting the plight of communities downwind from massive pollution sources.  Right now the feds and the state are still holding us responsible for a correcting a problem that is out of our hands and threatening punitive actions if we don’t.

Jeff Pelline takes me to task in calling a spade a spade on the proposed left-wing Managed Growth Initiative.  Community general planning, which includes handling growth, is and always has been a political problem pitting opposing ideologies against each other in a competition that sometimes finds a tolerable middle ground.  Not understanding that this well-worn path must be trod again is an unfortunate shortcoming of our newspaper.  For the community’s conservative and MGI-opposing liberal coalitions to join in defeating MGI will require that the common charter they adopt be an effective compromise.  The draft of the “talking points” against MGI that I have seen is clearly too one-sided and needs work.  Not solving the real political problems in mounting an opposition plays into the hands of the Stagnators who back the MGI.