September 16, 1965 (20 pages)

ee A ERT St Nae ye Pa Ser SEI ertesner ane = — ——_——— NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET WedA seine ry heel adtA se iae ry hes! mdeA eine atest dete Reel cesl indie el akeel Piet e ee dal Y Ss ah EDITORIAL”: . September.16,. 1965 NEVADA CITY COUNCIL ACTED WISELY WHEN IT REJECTED THE ONE WAY STREET PROPOSAL The Nevada City Council made a wise decision Monday night when it decided against accepting the planning commissionrecommendation tomake Commercial Street a one way street northbound. While the planners should be comparking inthe city and for their attempt to eliminate the difficult and dangerous traffic hazard at Commercial and Pine Streets, a one way street is not the solution. — Finding more downtown parking in Nevada City is a.continuing problem, but is not really related to the traffic . difficulties on Commercial Street and should not be tied in with it. Commercial Street is narrow and parking even on one side creates a traffic hazard. On the lower block, vehicles can, if necessary, go up on the sidewalk to get by, but in the middle blockthis isnot true. Parking along the side of the Elks Hall creates a bottle neck and a hazard for that intersection is blind both forthe driver coming from Commercial onto Pine or the driver turning from Pine onto Commercial. Because of the poor visability of this intersection, there have been several near collisions there since the parking meters were installed. The device of the one way street can be a useful tool in keeping traffic moving. The parking meter is also such a tool and was instituted with this in mind. While the city needs every bit of revenue it can lay hands on, the parking meter is a traffic device not arevenue producerand should be used in that manner. One way streets can often produce results never contemplated by those who originally conceived the idea. The difficulties of turning, backing and making deliveries described by the crowd of people opposing the move Monday night had apparently not been considered by the planning commission in its search for a traffic solution and more parking spaces. The entire picture of sucha move has to be considered or the city may find it is creating many problems just to solve one. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN _OUR HIGHWAYS CAN BE BEAUTIFUL IF PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO WORK Next week -marks the start of National Highway Week. Since our life recently seems to have been dominated by .a highway or lack of one in the Twin Cities Area, we thought mark the event by passing on one story. The story, which comes fromthe California National Highway Week Committee, tells a tale of empty coffee cans and one of the biggest do-it-yourself roadside beautifications programs in thehistory of the state. The project started in 1964 when an amateur horticulturist developed a successful process for germinating redbud shrubs in empty two pound coffee cans. The idea was passed on to various civic groups and the Mariposa Chamber of Commerce and the Highway 140 Association agreed totake over the process for the planting of Route 140, main entry point into Yosemite National Forest. Last spring they made a nation-wide appeal for empty coffee cans. Thousands came in from as far away as Brooklyn. Since then 8,000 shrubs have sprouted and are almost ready for planting. The first single symbolic redbud shrub will be planted next Tuesday to mark National Highway Week. The rest will be planted along the highway later. _ What does all this mean? For one thing it means that highways do not necessarily have to be ugly. It also shows that people, with ingenuity and energy, can accomplish many things inthis big state. Finally, it gives some indication that the State Division of Highways, although it often does not seem so, is willing to listen to new ideas and to accept them if possible. -6¢ ee eeee ees @ WHILE MARKING weeks and months, we should also point out that September has been designated as Keep California Green Month, We have been fairly fortunate with fires in Nevada County this season, but September is a critical month and one big fire could wipe out all the good prevention work of the rest of the season. ---Don Hoagland CALIFORNIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED TO DO THE JOB AT LAKE TAHOE Lake Tahoe is not as clear as it used to be and it is becoming an algae pond; development around the lake basin is inadequately controlled to prevent an accelerating pattern of landscape desecration, and further lake and stream pollution. What you see with your eyes, the experts will confirmwith facts and statistics. At no time this summer at our house on Crystal Bay was the water Tahoe-clear. When it blew up in the afternoon bottles and papers and pieces of plastic and clumps of algae-like stuff and worse things inevitably floated by. The experts and their studies have been perfectly clear about the pollution problem facing the lake. This pollution problem is here today, right now, apparently forever aggravated by the seeping into the Lake of sewage effluent containing algae producing nutrients. Tahoe is not going to be polluted; Tahoe is polluted an d becoming more so, And don't let anybody tell you that algae is not a public health menace. The stuff may be drinkable butI for one get sick to my stomach when _I see what is happening--see it with my own eyes. The scarring, the slashing, the stripping off of ground cover around the shores continue worse than ever. They destroy the beauty of the land and they contribute directly to the pollution of the lake. I was appalled to see the black mud rolling down in torrents in the Incline areathis summer. A good summer storm such as we hadcan produce a roily stream in that area, but only the folly and ignorance of the developers could produce the floods which the developers themselves as well as the rest of us suffered. The relationship between development and drainage is obviously very close, yet the local agencies who can control these things by and large are not doing so. New and worse development schemes pop up everyday. We are up to our ears in variances to weak zoning codes. Now they want a variance to an R3 zone on Crystal Bay, a zone that never should have been allowed in the first place. higher skyscrapers on the shore of the lake than are permissible at the present time. A visitor to Lake Tahoe coming from just about any direction is met first by the ugliest picture the whole earth affords; the dismal visual cacophony of strip commercial cities, theslurbs. Thisiswhat our muchrevered localcontrolhasbrought us. It has been weak home rule and it has brought Tahoe home ruin. ---Alfred Heller, first of three excerpts from a recent talk before the Lake Tahoe Area Council. ---Alfred Heller WASHINGTON CALLING THE KASHMIR CONFLICT POSES SERIOUS ARMS POLICY QUESTIONS WASHINGTON, --In the lurid light of the spreading war between India and Pakistan the American policy of providing desperately poor countries with modern arms is seen in all its tragic consequences. That policy began with John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State in the wishful ‘50s. But in one form or another the policy has, continued down to the present. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recently awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service medalto the man who is in effect the Pentagon's chief arms salesman. He is Henry J. Cuss, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs. McNamara said in his citation: "As an international negotiator he has assisted in a unique fashion to develop the military export sales program and other significant international logistic efforts." Dulles labored under the illusion that Pakistan could be a bastion of anti-communism in Asia and the Middle East, Enrolled in two dubious Dulles pacts, CENTO and SEATO, Pakistan began to get American arms aid that continuing down into 1965 has added up toan estimated$1, 5 billion, These are the Patton and Sherman tanks and the F-104 jets being used against G96T “QT Jequioidag***3988nN AlunoD epeAon’** 00 This will allow even ‘

ee A ERT St Nae ye Pa Ser SEI ertesner ane = — ——_——— NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET WedA seine ry heel adtA se iae ry hes! mdeA eine atest dete Reel cesl indie el akeel Piet e ee dal Y Ss ah EDITORIAL”: . September.16,. 1965 NEVADA CITY COUNCIL ACTED WISELY WHEN IT REJECTED THE ONE WAY STREET PROPOSAL The Nevada City Council made a wise decision Monday night when it decided against accepting the planning commissionrecommendation tomake Commercial Street a one way street northbound. While the planners should be comparking inthe city and for their attempt to eliminate the difficult and dangerous traffic hazard at Commercial and Pine Streets, a one way street is not the solution. — Finding more downtown parking in Nevada City is a.continuing problem, but is not really related to the traffic . difficulties on Commercial Street and should not be tied in with it. Commercial Street is narrow and parking even on one side creates a traffic hazard. On the lower block, vehicles can, if necessary, go up on the sidewalk to get by, but in the middle blockthis isnot true. Parking along the side of the Elks Hall creates a bottle neck and a hazard for that intersection is blind both forthe driver coming from Commercial onto Pine or the driver turning from Pine onto Commercial. Because of the poor visability of this intersection, there have been several near collisions there since the parking meters were installed. The device of the one way street can be a useful tool in keeping traffic moving. The parking meter is also such a tool and was instituted with this in mind. While the city needs every bit of revenue it can lay hands on, the parking meter is a traffic device not arevenue producerand should be used in that manner. One way streets can often produce results never contemplated by those who originally conceived the idea. The difficulties of turning, backing and making deliveries described by the crowd of people opposing the move Monday night had apparently not been considered by the planning commission in its search for a traffic solution and more parking spaces. The entire picture of sucha move has to be considered or the city may find it is creating many problems just to solve one. IN THE FOOTHILLS VEIN _OUR HIGHWAYS CAN BE BEAUTIFUL IF PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO WORK Next week -marks the start of National Highway Week. Since our life recently seems to have been dominated by .a highway or lack of one in the Twin Cities Area, we thought mark the event by passing on one story. The story, which comes fromthe California National Highway Week Committee, tells a tale of empty coffee cans and one of the biggest do-it-yourself roadside beautifications programs in thehistory of the state. The project started in 1964 when an amateur horticulturist developed a successful process for germinating redbud shrubs in empty two pound coffee cans. The idea was passed on to various civic groups and the Mariposa Chamber of Commerce and the Highway 140 Association agreed totake over the process for the planting of Route 140, main entry point into Yosemite National Forest. Last spring they made a nation-wide appeal for empty coffee cans. Thousands came in from as far away as Brooklyn. Since then 8,000 shrubs have sprouted and are almost ready for planting. The first single symbolic redbud shrub will be planted next Tuesday to mark National Highway Week. The rest will be planted along the highway later. _ What does all this mean? For one thing it means that highways do not necessarily have to be ugly. It also shows that people, with ingenuity and energy, can accomplish many things inthis big state. Finally, it gives some indication that the State Division of

Highways, although it often does not seem so, is willing to listen to new ideas and to accept them if possible. -6¢ ee eeee ees @ WHILE MARKING weeks and months, we should also point out that September has been designated as Keep California Green Month, We have been fairly fortunate with fires in Nevada County this season, but September is a critical month and one big fire could wipe out all the good prevention work of the rest of the season. ---Don Hoagland CALIFORNIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED TO DO THE JOB AT LAKE TAHOE Lake Tahoe is not as clear as it used to be and it is becoming an algae pond; development around the lake basin is inadequately controlled to prevent an accelerating pattern of landscape desecration, and further lake and stream pollution. What you see with your eyes, the experts will confirmwith facts and statistics. At no time this summer at our house on Crystal Bay was the water Tahoe-clear. When it blew up in the afternoon bottles and papers and pieces of plastic and clumps of algae-like stuff and worse things inevitably floated by. The experts and their studies have been perfectly clear about the pollution problem facing the lake. This pollution problem is here today, right now, apparently forever aggravated by the seeping into the Lake of sewage effluent containing algae producing nutrients. Tahoe is not going to be polluted; Tahoe is polluted an d becoming more so, And don't let anybody tell you that algae is not a public health menace. The stuff may be drinkable butI for one get sick to my stomach when _I see what is happening--see it with my own eyes. The scarring, the slashing, the stripping off of ground cover around the shores continue worse than ever. They destroy the beauty of the land and they contribute directly to the pollution of the lake. I was appalled to see the black mud rolling down in torrents in the Incline areathis summer. A good summer storm such as we hadcan produce a roily stream in that area, but only the folly and ignorance of the developers could produce the floods which the developers themselves as well as the rest of us suffered. The relationship between development and drainage is obviously very close, yet the local agencies who can control these things by and large are not doing so. New and worse development schemes pop up everyday. We are up to our ears in variances to weak zoning codes. Now they want a variance to an R3 zone on Crystal Bay, a zone that never should have been allowed in the first place. higher skyscrapers on the shore of the lake than are permissible at the present time. A visitor to Lake Tahoe coming from just about any direction is met first by the ugliest picture the whole earth affords; the dismal visual cacophony of strip commercial cities, theslurbs. Thisiswhat our muchrevered localcontrolhasbrought us. It has been weak home rule and it has brought Tahoe home ruin. ---Alfred Heller, first of three excerpts from a recent talk before the Lake Tahoe Area Council. ---Alfred Heller WASHINGTON CALLING THE KASHMIR CONFLICT POSES SERIOUS ARMS POLICY QUESTIONS WASHINGTON, --In the lurid light of the spreading war between India and Pakistan the American policy of providing desperately poor countries with modern arms is seen in all its tragic consequences. That policy began with John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State in the wishful ‘50s. But in one form or another the policy has, continued down to the present. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recently awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service medalto the man who is in effect the Pentagon's chief arms salesman. He is Henry J. Cuss, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs. McNamara said in his citation: "As an international negotiator he has assisted in a unique fashion to develop the military export sales program and other significant international logistic efforts.." Dulles labored under the illusion that Pakistan could be a bastion of anti-communism in Asia and the Middle East, Enrolled in two dubious Dulles pacts, CENTO and SEATO, Pakistan began to get American arms aid that continuing down into 1965 has added up toan estimated$1, 5 billion, These are the Patton and Sherman tanks and the F-104 jets being used against G96T “QT Jequioidag***3988nN AlunoD epeAon’** 00 This will allow even ‘