by Pat Lynch

Councilman Steve Cohn paid a friendly visit to an ESPNA meeting the other night. During a civil exchange about McKinley Village (a toxic development that will force ruinous traffic unto our streets) one citizen noted that both a physicians’ organization and an environmental organization opposed the project.

Cohen replied that he was a lawyer, not a scientist, and said it was often hard to credit scientific testimony because expert witnesses could be summoned to refute it. A fair point.

But wait. Wait, wait, wait..

Don’t we all have an obligation to acquire at least some scientific literacy? Isn’t that part of critical thinking? For example, I am persuaded that the earth is round, that human origins are African, that smoking can cause cancer, that global warming exists, that particulate matter in the air can cripple lung function. This is common scientific knowledge, or should be.

Then there’s Barry Schenk, the famed lawyer who, with Peter Neufeld, founded the Innocence Project. This worthy legal organization used DNA science to exonerate wrongly convicted prisoners; eighteen have so far been released from death row. Now this is an instance of a lawyer embracing science to secure justice. It is truly admirable and my guess is that Steve Cohn would agree.

On my block lives a man whom I will call Shane because that’s the kind of name he would like to invent for himself. Shane, in his sixties now, likes right-wing physicist Richard Muller who vociferously disputed global warming. Shane also scorns regulation, thinks he is a survivalist, promises frequently to join his own kind in the mountains but never does. When I first met him he told me he was building a bunker to guard his provisions from the advance of “the mud people.” So now you know. He hates Project Innocence and says DNA is a “bunch of hippie, liberal crap.” So take that, Ancesry.com.

We used to get into arguments but now I try to pretend he isn’t there, which is hard because he’s a compulsive monologist and sits on his front porch talking loudly on the phone to his fellow doomsday preppers. Every year he burns wood and some kind of horrific cheap plastic-smelling junk in his fireplace. The smoke from his chimney fills the street with a broth of gray ooze. Somebody reported him. Somebody else left an air quality leaflet on his porch. He thinks I did it, but I didn’t. However I say to the person I suspect is responsible, Thank you, brother.

Now Shane talks pointedly when I pass by. “Got some snitches on the block,” he says. Once he held up a newspaper photo of a big blizzard back east. “That global warming’s giving everyone the shivers,” he boomed. After this he emitted a prolonged nasal chuckle that is one of the most irritating sounds on this planet.

But next, falling from he sky—a revenge miracle. His science pet, Richard Muller, conducted his own study and became a “converted skeptic.” “Global warming (is) real,” Muller famously stated. “Humans are almost entirely the cause.”

Now when chatting on the street with neighbors I straighten up when Shane is near and say, with great precision, “How about that Richard Muller?” It confused the neighbors at first but they’re getting used to it.

I’m not suggesting in any way that our councilman is like our survivalist. In fact, Shane does not like our councilman and speaks of him with an astonishing panoply of aspersions.

But I am saying that all science is not equal. The physicist who denied global warming was wrong because he had come to conclusions without testing, evidence or experimentation. Bad science. But when he employed the traditional and scrupulous scientific method he came to the right conclusion. Good science.

ECOS and Physicians For Social Responsibility (the groups with such misgivings about McKinley Village) are reputable organizations. Nobody is paying them for an opinion. I hope Steve Cohn considers this. He is an educated man and can certainly exercise rational judgment when presented with what appears to be conflicting scientific information.

And we know from its DEIR that bogus analysis and defective reasoning are part of the pro-McVillage presentation. I hope that is considered as well.

One night while I was trying to watch Cosmos Shane strolled our side of the street talking on his cellphone. It was loud. It was incessant. I know, I know—practically every block has a nut-case. But this particular evening it was acutely annoying. Sometimes it’s enough to make you write your councilman.

Sticks and Stones

by Pat Lynch

In an open hearing on McKinley Village Midtown councilman Steve Hansen spoke dismissively of the sometimes heated nature of East Sacramento public discussions. “That’s not us,” he said sternly to the Midtowners. It reminded me of the way I used to talk to fourth graders. “We’re not like those noisy third-graders,” I’d say in yet another futile effort to establish dominance. Oddly, the audience made no objection to Hansen’s condescending manner. Maybe they were used to it. Maybe some of them liked it. Six or seven East Sacramentans attended but none of us jumped up and launched into any tirades. There were outbursts from others however. A couple of men blurted loud, hostile remarks about McKinley Village and one woman, when it was her turn to speak, tried to wrest the microphone from Hansen’s hand. He wouldn’t let go. “I hold the mike,” he said. “A control freak,” she answered, refusing to relinquish it. Both of them clutched it throughout her comment.

Later I asked a Midtown woman why Hansen spoke disparagingly, and wrongly, of East Sacramentans. We are indeed a free speech zone but he mischaracterized our public gatherings. She said it was Divide and Conquer. She maintained that developers and the city officials who collude with them don’t want neighboring groups to form effective coalitions.  “It’s just politics,” she said.

Politics. And politics, of course, is about power and people’s relationship to power. The perceived power of even a city council office can make some citizens embarrassingly deferential. Worse, it can give the minor elected functionary an inflated regard for his significance and encourage him to publicly speak ill of other neighborhoods.

It’s worthwhile to note that nobody accused East Sacramentans, (East Sacramento Preservation members in particular) of inappropriate outspokenness when we had many conversations with Stonebridge developers about the project that will replace Sutter Hospital. Stonebridge solicited our input and received it. We forged a productive relationship, and on March 7th East Sacramento Preservation president, Ellen Cochrane, spoke to the Planning Commission in support of the project. Now Stonebridge will bring new and welcome residents to our community, won’t increase our traffic problems, will give new families a chance to thrive in a livable environment. We’re glad to have played a part in something that actually is good infill.

But when we opposed the McKinley Village proposal because it’s traffic invasion will ruin our streets and its other multiple hazards degrade the environment, the false judgments arrived. A few claimed we were “anti-growth.” This, after our productive commnication with and endorsement of Stonebridge, was mystifying, but we have learned not to expect high caliber reasoning from everyone. Then we have “radical,” the tag that we are supposed to refute by timidly allowing dangerous development. But if it’s radical to follow our charter, which tasks us with defending our neighborhood, then so be it. If it’s radical to stand with the Environmental Council of Sacramento and Physicians for Social Responsibility, both of which have serious misgivings about McKinley Village, so be it.

We will be certainly be subjected to even more imaginative misnomers in the future, but that’s the price of advocacy. We’ll survive. We’ll continue to try our best. And while some have attempted to dismiss or marginalize us, we have seen this: since we took a stand critical of McKinley Village our blog following has increased. Public meetings got larger. Our Save East Sac signs began popping up everywhere. An influx of new memberships filled the P.O. box. The phone keeps ringing. People show up. Now this is smart growth.