Opinion | ReallyRedding

November 30, 2021

Covid again

“US response to Covid has ultimately been like our response to school shootings: Once we decided unimaginable loss was a price worth paying for an imagined ideal of freedom, the number of deaths ceased to matter. We’d trade a million lives for our need to do exactly what we want.”

Peter Manseau @plmanseau · Nov 23

This tweet is spot on. Same is true for human caused climate change brought on by land use change, meat production, and burning up as much fossil fuels as we can.

Back when the pandemic first hit in 2020, there was a panicky lockdown. It looked like it could get pretty bad, but nobody knew for sure. It did get bad, especially for frontline medical workers. But then it eased up with increased mask use, and the several excellent vaccines. And then Redding saw a second wave with a more contagious mutation named Delta. You can plainly see it in the graphs:

The new variant came, and quickly spread. More people died, hospitals filled up. But then the wave passed, just like the first wave in late 2020. So now there is a new mutation called the Omicron variant. Will it bring us another wave? Well it might, because despite the wide availability of a free and effective vaccine, many people refuse to take advantage of that protection. Health officials literally just shut down the free clinic at the Redding Senior Center because nobody was using it. You can still get vaccinated easily (again, free of charge) at any drugstore. But the local ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated population has remained about the same as it was before the last wave, with predictable results:

So the virus still has lots of opportunity to continue to spread and further mutate among the unvaccinated population.

“Once we decided unimaginable loss was a price worth paying for an imagined ideal of freedom, the number of deaths ceased to matter.” Yep. Oh, and there was another school shooting today, and 3 kids are dead. I suppose this is just normal life now. Get used to it.

August 24, 2021

New Covid-19 variant roars into town

So there’s a new Covid strain in town coined the Delta Variant, which apparently packs a virus load in the sinus that can be 1000 times higher than the original virus. It’s much more contagious, with predictable results in hospitalizations:

Recent hospitalizations are now more than the prior peak last Winter. I wrote here in Spring that things seemed to be improving, and so was the mood. Now infection rates are rapidly worsening, just as kids are now back in school. Back during that first spike in late 2020, we went into a lockdown to “bend the curve” and avoid overtaxing the hospitals. Now, there is no official response, and seemingly no politically acceptable way to re-impose a new lockdown. Worse, a free and widely available FDA approved vaccine that we didn’t have during that last spike is being shunned by a significant number of county residents.

My Facebook feed is festooned with hard core anti-vaxxers, not just the vaccine hesitant. Nobody can change their opinion.

So it looks like we are in for a rough ride, especially our frontline medical workers. Sorry!

December 20, 2017December 20, 2017

Genes Drive In in Redding

A Facebook post reminded me of this image I captured of the old and semi-famous Gene’s Drive In. A classic Highway 99 burger joint that in its day often attracted crowds of hot rod enthusiasts. Seen here with a “classic” dented Geo Metro parked out front, more indicative of the hard times seen a few years back. Gene’s did not survive the economic downturn.

I think it was mostly the big neon sign that made it seem special. In the end, not enough to save it, like many other neon lit Redding landmarks.

A few years back, Redding adopted a “50s Glitz” proclamation. That was to be our design theme for downtown. It hasn’t been widely adopted, luckily. What few new structures that tried it ended up looking ridiculous and forced. Not real neon, but neon-like colors and plastic signage. I hope the idea fades out. Neon elevated Gene’s to a certain charm, but obviously not enough to sustain it. Neo-Redding should look elsewhere for a design theme.

May 24, 2016May 25, 2016

Oh, those Oregon kids

Every year, I like seeing the videos produced by Oregon college kids letting off steam at Lake Shasta.

Youth!

Unfortunately this year was marred by social media images of trash left behind from partygoers. That’s too bad. Slaughterhouse Island in particular received the brunt of party leftovers. Actions of adults with no supervision.

We humans are a messy species. We all seem to party with our ecosphere like we somehow own the planet. And so I guess we do own it. There’s no other species to tell us we don’t.

We’re all Oregon kids when it comes to our planet. Actions of adults with no supervision.

April 1, 2016

Heavy river flows in Redding

After 4 years of drought, it really is somewhat disturbing to watch high water flows in the Sacramento River as it flows past lovely Redding California. Knowing the water won’t be stored downstream for later in our hot Summer. Drawing down Lake Shasta for flood control prudence, but perhaps for nothing. So it’s a pretty view, but also a reminder that we need more water storage like the Sites Reservoir to be built if California is to continue to thrive.
Overabundant water, it’s Really Redding.

August 3, 2015August 3, 2015

Bold action to protect future generations

To me, the danger seems clear enough. Some won’t agree. Even if you don’t, the potential calamity that awaits our grandkids is too much to risk. And so we must err to the side of caution in any event. This is a step in the right direction. We have a leader who can at least acknowledge the danger of inaction.

As I post this, the forest around Redding is ablaze with massive wildfire and our skies are muddy brown. We are in the 4th year of a terrible drought. Is this just a glimpse of our future?

It’s not worth the risk. We need action now.

July 28, 2015July 28, 2015

Welcome to Redding. We have water.

The Sacramento River in Redding California in Summer

Sometimes the war drums of the drought campaign ring hollow in River City.
I am 100% for saving water (see how I ripped out my back lawn and replaced it with decomposed granite). But Redding is not in the desert.

We have water.

Marc Beauchamp, columnist for our local paper, recently ran an email he’d gotten as an opinion piece in his blog. I don’t know who wrote it. But the author articulated some points about Redding and our relationship to water (and our present drought) that I believe are worth sharing. My sentiments echoed.

An excerpt:

“As an adjunct to this line of thinking let me offer this. The truth is that the city of Redding has plenty of water. We sit at the confluence of five or six of the most important rivers/streams in California.

“In addition, Redding receives more direct rainfall than Seattle, a little known fact that should win a wager at any respectable cocktail lounge south of here.

“This terrible drought notwithstanding, we are awash in water even at this time. The rainfall that we receive in addition to riparian rights and precedent use would dictate so.

“After all, downstream urban use and AG interests came along much later than Redding. Redding has water and this fact is due to our geographical positioning.

At the height of Summer and after years of drought, this is what 7200 cubic feet per second of water looks like flowing through Redding. 7 days a week, 4,653,481,595 gallons a day. Image captured 7/24/2015

“On the other side of this argument is that our geographic positioning lashes us with a very hot summer season and our community suffers for this. I believe that our inability to attract high quality corporate investment and thereby all the attendant benefits (wealthy middle classes, high quality shopping, quality higher education, quality cultural events etc.) is due to the Death Valley summer conditions that we endure.

“San Diego, La Jolla, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Palo Alto and any number of coastal cities enjoy the benefit of their geographical positioning as well.

“They have moderate temperatures year round and the wealthy choose to live there. They receive these benefits but do not want to accept the negative side of their geographic positioning which is that there is now insufficient water for all of them to live there, much less continue developing.

Sunset in Redding at Riverview. To achieve lawns as perfect as these, try <a href= — reelrollers.com” width=”640″ height=”360″ /> Sunset in Redding at Riverview

“Since we suffer the inconvenience of our location we, at the very least, should receive the benefits of our location.

“When it is unbearably hot here we do not ask the residents of Los Angeles to pay our air conditioning bill.

“When they do not have sufficient water they should have no moral or legal claim to the water that we might use on our landscaping done by LW Landscapes or similar companies, or any other use that we might have for our water, certainly not without compensation.

Let Redding offer to those south of us this proposition. We have plenty of water and you can locate your family here and your businesses here and be assured that you will have sufficient water.

“We here in Redding should be watering our lawns, building water features, and even finding some discount sheds to make sure our landscape looks spectacular. Every landscape should have a shed so that maintenance tools, like rakes or hoses, don’t obstruct the gorgeous landscape being created. We should also let the Market figure out where is a good place to live and have sustenance.

“Los Angelinos taking a 2 minute shower twice a week while we run through the sprinklers on our lawns would do more for the promotion of Stillwater Park than a phalanx of overpaid “Marketing Directors”.

Perhaps it would be better named “We Still Have Water Business Park”

“Hope this view might provide a perspective for dialogue between the haves and the have nots.”

There was more to the piece, but that’s the section that struck a chord with me. Here’s a link to the full article.

Redding has been asked to cut water use by 36%. Complying seems more an act of artificial solidarity than anything of real hydrologic value. Seeing now all the dead landscaping showing up around here isn’t helping Redding, and it isn’t really helping the rest of the state much either.

Shasta Lake in Spring of 2011. Arguably the start of the current drought. In my 40 years of living in Redding, the lake has looked like this in Spring far more often than not.

March 19, 2015March 19, 2015

Our deep sympathy to Tunisia and the families

We visited Tunisia just about exactly one year ago. Easily the most striking aspect of the visit was how proud the people we met were of having become a democracy in 2011. Clearly conveying that they wanted to be a normal part of the developed world, and were so eager to have more foreign visitors. From Wikipedia:

In 2011, a revolution resulted in the overthrow of the autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali followed by the country’s first free elections. Since then, Tunisia has been consolidating democracy. The country held its first Parliamentary elections since the 2011 Arab Spring on October 26, 2014, and its Presidential elections on November 23, 2014.

And so we were so very sad to hear about the tragic killings of the tourists and others in the Bardo Museum yesterday. Both for the families of the victims, but also for all the regular Tunisians we met who were so hopeful for positive changes in their country. While these horrific events can seem far away, having been there in person it’s easy for us to imagine the terrible disappointment of the vast majority of the people in Tunisia. And so we are equally saddened here in Redding today. Here are a few images I took in Tunisia a year ago.

Tunisia 10 This last image conveys the tension that lingered over Tunis even last year. Democracy doesn’t come easily. Today we stand with Tunisia in hopes that they can push ahead through tough times.

March 18, 2015

Even Sacramento wants to ride a train to Redding and beyond

This article about daylight passenger rail service in the Northstate appeared recently in The Bee.

It’s an attractive concept. And it’s been done before.

Some time back in a more graceful age, you could ride the Shasta Daylight from Redding. Riders watched Mt Shasta go by in daylight hours from a comfortable railcar with an observation dome, and enjoyed meals in the articulated Pullman diner-tavern-lounge car, which offered 3 railcar length unimpeded interior space.
This from Wikipedia:

The Shasta Daylight was a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train between Oakland Pier in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. It started on July 10, 1949 and was SP’s third “Daylight” streamliner; it had a fast 15 hour 30 minute schedule in either direction for the 713-mile (1,147 km) trip through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery of any train in North America. The Shasta Daylight replaced heavyweight trains on the same route that had taken nearly a day and night to complete the run. The Shasta Daylight was the first diesel powered Daylight and the only Daylight to run beyond California. The scenic route of the Shasta Daylight passed its namesake Mount Shasta in daylight hours.

Rail proposal2

Rail proposal3 Since this service was discontinued, many things have changed. The population of all the communities once served by the Shasta Daylight has increased dramatically, and along with it the need for transportation and recreation alternatives. Imagine the businesses that could be created with trainfulls of Bay Area and Sacramento people looking to tour and shop the areas around Redding and Shasta. The infrastructure is already in place. We just need a daylight train.

Redding needs to join Dunsmuir in pushing strongly for this opportunity.

December 10, 2014December 11, 2014

In opposition to the Moody Flats Quarry

Every citizen of Shasta County should read the draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Moody Flat Quarry north of Shasta Lake City. They are taking written public comments until December 18, and you need to voice your opinion. You, and every individual currently tasked with making the decision whether to move forward will be long dead by the time this project is in full production over the next 100 years.

Imagined view of the Moody Flats quarry as seen from Redding.

Moody Flat Quarry EIR document can be found at this link. The project proposed to turn a 1380 ft and 1950 ft peak into 2 deep pits (pg 89). At peak, hauling 2 million tons of aggregate a year in a 24 X 7 operation, using rail and 560 truck trips each day (pg 90). Starting about page 20, the report outlines impacts to air quality, noise pollution, and visual degradation it labels as “Significant and Unavoidable.”
The impacts are entirely avoidable, at this point.

We’ve seen these companies and schemes before in Shasta County. With the (not insignificant) promise of some middle-class jobs, they exploit our local natural resources for profit that wont stay local. Millions, perhaps Billions in today’s dollars worth of gold and copper were taken from the hills surrounding Redding, leaving only hundred year old scars and polluted Superfund sites. Anyone in Redding can look to the northwest and see the actual and present legacy of the Iron Mountain Mine. Where did all those mining profits go? To Lord Keswick? Evidently not to the town of Keswick.

Shasta County has long played the foolish virgin. Too eager to give up her natural resource charms for plunder with little to show for it later. Our virginity in these matters is long vanished, and we should take heed of our own mining history. There may well be a need for the jobs and products this project will provide. But on balance the tradeoffs are simply too great, the impacts too substantial to permit the Moody Flats Quarry under the current proposal.
You can find a website opposing the Moody Flat quarry at the link. From my perspective as a local real estate agent, there is no upside to this project. I suspect the project is crucial to raising Shasta Dam, but will ultimately have a much larger impact on Redding area property values.
Unless there is “Significant and Unavoidable” impact to 3M in the form of leaving a big portion of our mineral wealth profits local, I oppose the project.