Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Those darn kids, with their skateboards

It's a good time to be a rapscallion in Los Altos. Maybe too good. Monday night, the city council followed Mountain View's lead in entertaining the local 'hoods by finally approving the concept of making tentative plans for a permanent skate park. Not to be outdone, Mountain View is finally going ahead with the plans, on hold for the last three years due to bizzarre concerns about gender equity concerns, to build a BMX park out at Shoreline.

Of course, give those kids an inch and they'll take a mile. For the perspective of the square community, we turn to the award-winning (seriously) editorial pages of the Los Altos Town Crier, which implores readers to "Grow up and leave the cows alone."
Regardless of how we feel on the subject of public education in Los Altos Hills, we can all agree that stealing and defacing plywood cows erected on town land is beyond the juvenile.

The cows, conveying the "Got Milked?" message of discontent following the 2003 closure of Bullis-Purissima School, are continually vandalized, according to their creators, and the incidents go up or down depending on the surge of publicity regarding town public education issues.

Some cases are the work of pranksters, but others surely result because perpetrators don't like a message that conflicts with theirs. Such protest and debate belongs in open public forums, not played out in petty, stealthy acts of vandalism. We strongly urge the guilty parties to recover their maturity and leave the cows alone. If town residents choose this option to express themselves, so be it.

I have to say that it speaks poorly of the investigative abilities of the reporters at the Town Crier, Daily and Mercury that not only can they find nothing better to write about, but that they also can't seem to sleuth out the fact that the people behind this dastardly political espionage are just a bunch of bored high school kids.

By the way, this might be a good time for me to apologize to Patricia Williams and other city council candidates whose campaign signs we removed in 1994 and hid in another candidate's bushes.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I have to say that it speaks poorly of the investigative abilities of the reporters at the Town Crier, Daily and Mercury that not only can they find nothing better to write about, but that they also can't seem to sleuth out the fact that the people behind this dastardly political espionage are just a bunch of bored high school kids."

'Cos you're the best, Wiener. What will we ever do without your brand of hard-hitting weekly reporting?

Why not put a disclaimer on this blog that you're basically ethically bankrupt?

Anonymous said...

It was YOU!!!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous tough guys rule.

blondebomber said...

What's the concern over gender equity? I see lots of girls hanging out with these bikers. They're cool.

Kathy Schrenk said...

sigua's right. They make me hot.

Anonymous said...

I think I'm gonna puke.

Anonymous said...

By the way, guys named sigua are tough, too. And about as meaningless as anonynmous.

Anonymous said...

Ethically bankrupt? Ha!

You want ethically bankrupt? Pick up a copy of the Palo Alto Daily News and see their "hard-hitting" reporting, which consists of re-running AP wire articles and real estate ads.

Or just take a drive through Los Altos Hills and a city that has been attracting the "ethically bankrupt" in droves since the early 1990s. Though not Daily News reporters. At least they have enough sense to keep that scum out.

In any case, anonymous, good on you for coming across hard. I wouldn't want to cross you in a dark alley with your 'sophisticated' brand of insults.

Oh yeah, I also love your use of "'Cos" - good for bringing that one off the comics page and onto the blog. Let's see if anyone can incorporate "good grief" into their posts...

Anonymous said...

Bigdra, wow, that almost made sense, especially the part about "cos." Go look up "coherent" in the dictionary and get back to me, "cos" right now you sound like a flaming idiot.

It's good to know members of Wiener's fan club wouldn't know an journalistic ethic if it snuck up and bit 'em on the ass. Do you realize how many lines he's crossed posting this close-but-not-quite-clever garbage? So much for being "fair" or "objective," no less about the very subjects he's supposed to be covering (have covered) as a "journalist." Good riddance. Or should I say "good grief?"

Boy, you got the Daily News pegged good, don't ya? All AP wire and real estate ads. Sure pal, if that's what helps you sleep at night. Regardless, I hardly think that -- if it were true -- counts as making the paper ethically bankrupt.

Oh, nice touch with the "scum" comment, too. Classy. Real classy. But about what I'd expect from this crowd.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, its clear you're barking up the wrong tree. This is a blog. You might want to go look up "blog" and find out what its all about. Its not a newspaper or even close to it.

I fail understand why you spend your time insulting people on a local news blog. If you don't like, don't visit the site. I visit it because he's right on. I'm a third generation Los Altan and have lived here all my life. So, I have a bit of perspective and yeah, you're damn right I have the Daily News pegged.

This isn't some sort of "fan club", its a blog. If you disagree, then post your comments/responses to the material and we can "stick to the issues." If you have a problem with the blogger (or its readers), then simply log off. Its a free county, and you're not going to stop free speech.

Anonymous said...

Again, Bigdra, you're comments reveal just how clueless you really are.

This isn't about freedom of speech, but nice try. It's about ethics and professionalism.

A journalist has no business doing this kind of thing. It's about the most unethical thing I've seen. Yet you fall all over yourself defending this blog as "right on." Wiener may have given up journalism (thank goodness), but not before breaking some cardinal rules. It would behoove him to maintain some level of professionalism rather than publishing blogs guided by a blind hatred of anything that isn't the Voice.

Wiener has the right to say whatever he damn well pleases and I'm not trying to censor him. I'm hoping he has the good sense to start acting like a professional instead of a self-satisfied twit.

That's what this is about.

Kathy Schrenk said...

Anon, what exactly are your qualifications for judging what does and doesn't qualify and journalistically ethical?

And I'm pretty sure he hates the Voice just as much as the other papers...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
Now that Wiener is no longer a journalist, what is the problem? There is no conflict of interest. He's certainly not a professional, especially now.
Again, this is just a blog with a small audience. And while I disagree that Wiener is a 'self-satisfied twit', most bloggers are and that's why they blog. That's what blogs are all about: non-professionals weighing in on various subjects in a public forum where they can be discussed.
I remember Wiener poking fun at the Voice and the PA Weekly all the time...
In any case, instead of simply Wiener-bashing, why not address what your concerns are specifically and let's discuss them.

Anonymous said...

Just a side note respectfully, Town Crier reporters are not investigative reporters for a reason. Theyre bound by a fascist publisher as you know and by an editor too cowardly to publish the truth. there's almost no management direction and on top of that, at least one of the reporters is unhappy, peeved and overworked.