Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 1, 2011

11

OPINION

 Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 1, 2011 


HAIL Hamilton My Turn

STUART Tolchin..........On LIFE

Mountain 
Views

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Dean Lee 

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Hail Hamilton 

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John Aveny 

NOT EVERYTHING CHANGES

Stop Drinking Bottled 
Water - that’s my

New Year’s Resolution

My wife has this sometimes 
wonderful job, a part of which is 
to arrange reunions. She characterizes 
the different groups 
she works with as exhibiting 
specific characteristics. I recall 
her saying that the old grads 
who fought in the Wars often express a kind of 
“How can we help you to make this great?” while 
other groups express a kind of, “What can you do 
for us?” attitude. Well, my fifty-year High School 
Reunion is this year and I’ve been trying to sort 
out my feelings as to what kind of group we were 
and whether I want to attend.

 I think the entire graduating class numbered 
about 500. Included were teenagers who were 
already famous or soon to be famous. One was 
already known from TV as a Mouseketeer, (I really 
didn’t know her). Other classmates were 
soon to be stars of their own TV series and minor 
movie-stars. Many classmates claim to have 
known these people,e but at the time I don’t remember 
any strong associations. Another classmate 
became Lieutenant Governor after a career 
as a rock-impresario, but I can’t say I knew him 
either. The Queen of our Prom became a kind of 
Buddhist Monk and, I think, a pretty important 
person within her sect. I got to know her a little 
better after high-school and recall that she was 
quite cute but not particularly interested in being 
sexual with me. In fact, I think, this typifies a 
lot of the girls who loosely belonged to my group. 
They were all young, many were attractive, and as 
far as I knew, none were particularly interested in 
having sex with me.

 These are not particularly pleasant memories. 
There were cool kids; hip and aware but I was not 
a part of that. Remember - this was still 1961. It 
was, for most of us nice Jewish kids, pre-drugs and 
pre-sex and being on the outside. Yes drugs, college, 
and civil rights were right around the corner 
and attitudes were about to change but for the moment 
my group was hopelessly behind the times, 
still concerned with material values, SAT scores 
and getting away from home. Let me share a more 
personal glimpse of myself with you. In my senior 
year I was about a year younger than everyone 
else because Chicago’s Elementary School system 
had double- promoted (we called it skipping) me 
two times. Although I have always been kind of 
proud of this fact and manage to sneak it into conversations 
where it has little relevance (I see my 
mother-in-law doing the same thing as she tells 
disinterested people how her otherwise undistinguished 
son-in-law {me) skipped three grades) 
it was probably a socially disastrous occurrence. 
Not only was I younger than everyone else but I 
was also immature, over-protected, financially 
hopelessly deprived and generally clueless. By the 
middle of the twelfth grade I had never been out 
alone with a girl. In my Shakespeare Class (yes in 
pre-computer times we had Shakespeare classes) 
the annoying Jewish girls of my group would pass 
notes around me to Barbara who for some reason 
obviously liked me. Unfortunately I found her attention 
and their attentions bewildering, annoying, 
and possibly frightening. I felt like all these 
Jewish girls were trying to control me (what a surprise) 
and I didn’t like it. I knew they all wanted 
me to ask Barbara to the Prom and even though 
I didn’t know what I wanted to do I knew I didn’t 
want to be controlled by them. This is a pattern 
which, for better or worse, I have repeatedly followed 
during my life.

Anyway, after one of these days of note-passing 
I rebelled. After English Class I asked this beautiful, 
tall, Gentile girl to go to the Prom with me and 
she said yes. Why do I keep mentioning this Jewish/
Gentile stuff?. It’s kind of hard to believe but 
at that time and at our particular high-school in 
the San Fernando Valley, and without anyone ever 
even talking about it, it was well understood that 
Jews and Gentiles were almost separate species 
who barely spoke the same language and did not 
interact. This rule was not universal and did not 
apply to athletes, musicians, and dummies; but for 
my group that was the rule and that was the problem. 
Within our group we were too similar to be 
of interest to one another and leaving the group 
was generally too frightening and, in 1961, almost 
unthinkable.

Since 1961 the ways of society have changed 
many times. Old barriers (like religious, racial, 
and sexual ones) seem to have fallen. It is a new 
and different time and perhaps, like many other 
people, I am mainly interested in interacting with 
people - different kinds of people who represent 
the future - rather than the same old people who 
are memories of an undistinguished past. I still 
don’t want to be controlled by anyone, but I need 
someone to tell me what to do next as I approach 
retirement and other potentially frightening 
events. I have yet to decide about going to the Reunion. 
I guess some things don’t change.

I’m sure everybody’s asked the question: 
What can I do to protect and improve the environment? 
Here’s my answer and my resolution 
for the new year: I will stop drinking bottled water ($11.7 billion 
in U.S. sales last year) and use tap water instead. It can be filtered 
but not bottled. I will even insist on tap water when eating out. No 
more little plastic bottles of H2O with French-sounding nature-
friendly names. If the restaurant doesn’t have water on tap, I’ll eat 
somewhere else. 

I figure not drinking bottled water is going to save me a whole 
bunch of money, improve my health, and help the environment a 
lot more than just “recycling” plastic bottles. Here’s why:

Regulation: In fact, both regulation and enforcement of bottled 
water safety is weaker than of tap water safety. Federal, state, and 
local environmental agencies require rigorous testing of tap water 
safety. Be sure to check the label and look for “from a municipal 
source” or “community water system”, which just means it is tap 
water.

Safety: American tap water is among the safest in the world, and 
as much as 40% of the bottled sold in in the U.S. is just filtered tap 
water. By drinking tap water, you can avoid the fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, 
disinfectants, and other chemicals found in bottled water. 
Organic contaminants often found in bottled water, such as E coli, 
is thought to be the result of bottlers removing chlorine, a powerful 
anti-bacterial agent, for reasons of taste.

Carcinogens: DEHP is part of a chemical group called phthalates, 
which are used to produce plastic, including water bottles 
made with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), identifiable by the 
number 1 on the bottom of the bottle. These chemicals are potential 
human cancer agents that can leach from the plastic into the 
water, even under normal conditions.

Oil: Producing plastic bottles uses energy and emits toxic chemicals. 
Making bottles to meet Americas’ demand for bottled water 
required the equivalent of more than 17.6 million barrels of oil last 
year -- enough fuel for more than a million U.S. cars for a year 
-- and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide 
contributing to global warming. Transportation to deliver bottled 
water burns additional fossil fuels and emits more CO2, the most 
abundant greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. 

Money: Bottled water costs significantly more than tap water. 
Ninety percent of the cost of bottled water is in the bottle itself. For 
the $2 you spend on a liter of bottled water you can get about 1,000 
gallons of tap water. If taste is an issue use a water filter -- Poor taste 
is most often the result old or poorly maintained plumbing.

Garbage: North Americans use over twenty-eight billion plastic 
water bottles per year; 88% of these bottles end up in landfills or 
wash into the ocean instead of being recycled. That amounts to two 
million tons of PET plastic bottles piling up under new housing 
tracts or floating out to sea (adding to the largest collection of plastic 
bottles, and other plastic products, permanently circling in the 
middle of the Pacific Ocean).

Water Privatization: Water extraction for bottled water leads to 
local water shortages affecting nearby communities and farmers. 
Water bottlers deplete aquifers and other groundwater sources, 
and harm local economies by paying too little for the water they 
take. Contracts often give preference to water bottlers over the 
town’s ratepayers because the company can draw the maximum 
amount of water it wants, regardless of drought or water shortage.

This year the township of Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia 
became the first bottled water-free city on the planet. Its citizens 
voluntarily chose to ban bottled water in response to a bottling 
company’s desire to extract millions of liters of water from 
the local aquifer. The initiative for a bottled water-free town was 
proposed by local businessman Huw Kingston and carried out by 
the grassroots organization, Bundy On Tap. In a community meeting 
of 356 of the town’s 2,500 residents, all but one voted in favor 
of the ban. According to Bundy, it is now prohibited to sell or give 
away bottled water anywhere within the town limits.

Following the lead of our friends Down Under, I propose that 
the City of Sierra Madre adopt a similar ban on bottled water. It 
would give us the distinction of being the second city on the planet, 
and the first city in the U.S. to do so. Banning bottled water sure 
makes more sense than the noise ordinance on gasoline blowers 
and anti-smoking ban we passed last year. I think it’s high time 
residents of Sierra Madre stop talking the talk about protecting the 
environment and start walking the walk. I’ll do my part. Will you?

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RICH Johnson

2011 Stock Market Strategy


I must admit I have never 
invested in the stock market. 
All my investing dollars 
have been funneled into a 
rather dubious and questionable 
company. That would be 
mine. The jury is still out on 
whether this strategy was the 
keenest use of my dollars. I 
may never know. My heirs will ultimately be the 
better judge of my decisions along the way. And 
since there have been no close calls with runaway 
buses, or failing brakes on my car, I think 
my heirs are somewhat satisfied for the moment. 
Still, I’ve adopted a cautious wait and see posture.

Not that I don’t recommend prudent investing. 
Since I have climbed up on this soapbox 
and started dispensing advice, suggestions, and 
blither, I have never tendered investment strategies. 
And why not? I thought what better time 
and place to diversify (that’s a investment term.) 
So, I did peruse the Wall Street Journal, Baron’s, 
Forbes, and that 8-ball thingy you turn upside 
down for answers to life’s difficult questions. 
And I have honed a 2011 stock market report 
and investment strategy. Please bear in mind I 
have no idea what I am talking about. Adopting 
a approach 180 degree in the opposite direction 
to any suggestions I make is very likely the most 
sensible response. Anyway, here is my priceless 
stock report:

Helium was up.

Feathers were down.

Paper was stationery.

Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light 
trading.

Knives were up sharply.

Cows steered into a bull market.

Pencils lost a few points.

Hiking equipment was trailing.

Elevators rose, while escalators continued 
their slow decline. 

Weights were up in heavy trading.

Light switches were off.

Mining equipment hit rock bottom.

Diapers remain unchanged.

Shipping lines stayed at an even keel.

The market for raisins dried up.

Coca Cola fizzled.

Caterpillar stock inched up a bit.

Sun peaked at midday.

Balloon prices were inflated.

Scott Tissue touched new bottom.

And batteries exploded in an attempt to re 
charge the market.

I would like to publicly thank my friend Jeff for 
help in pouring through all the data formulating 
this valuable treatise. His investment strategies 
have done him well over the years except for 
possibly the investment of time in certain friendships. 
I just can’t see how that has helped him all 
that much. Be well.

City of Sierra Madre

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

To: Citywide

From: The City of Sierra Madre

Subject: MUNICIPAL CODE TEXT AMENDMENT 11-01 (MCTA 
11-01) REPEALING SECTION 17.68.050 (OFF-STREET PARKING 
DISTRICTS) OF CHAPTER 17.68 OF THE SIERRA MADRE 
MUNICIPAL CODE 

The City of Sierra Madre gives notice, pursuant to State of California 
law, that the Planning Commission will conduct a public hearing to 
consider an amendment to the Sierra Madre Municipal Code, repealing 
Section 17.68.050 (Off-Street Parking Districts) of Chapter 17.68. 
The proposed amendment would rescind Section 17.68.050 from the 
Code, thereby removing this provision which allows an applicant for 
a building or zoning permit to pay a sum of two thousand dollars per 
parking space, in lieu of providing any or all of the off-street parking 
spaces required for a project. 

 

DATE AND TIME OF HEARING PLACE OF HEARING

City of Sierra Madre City of Sierra Madre

Planning Commission meeting City Council Chambers

Thursday January 6, 2011 232 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.

(Hearing begins at 7:00 p.m.) Sierra Madre, CA 

 

All interested persons may attend this meeting and the Planning 
Commission will hear them with respect thereto.

ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: This Municipal Code text 
amendment qualifies for a Categorical Exemption under Section 
15061(b)(3) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as 
the Code text amendment is not a project and it can be seen with 
certainty that it will not have a significant effect on the environment.

APPEAL: The Planning Commission recommendation will automatically 
be forwarded to the City Council for consideration. If in 
the future anyone wishes to challenge the decision of the Planning 
Commission in court, one may be limited to raising the issues that 
were raised or presented in written correspondence delivered to the 
Planning Commission at, or before, the scheduled public hearing. 
For further information on this subject, please contact the Development 
Services Department at (626) 355-7135.

By Order of the City Council

Danny Castro, Director of Development Services


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