Hi,

Tomorrow is anniversary of the Canary Islands Airplane Disaster (1977 two planes collided and 570 people lost their lives), the anniversary of the Alaskan earthquake (the largest in North American History in 1964), the North Sea Oil Rig Disaster (1980).  For birthdays we have Gloria Swanson birth anniversary (1899), Sarah Vaughan birth anniversary (1924) and Quentin Tarantino’s birthday 1963.

I’m sorry, I am only talking about two things this evening and I’m whining about them both.  So if you want to check out, I take no offense (plus I’ll never know) :).

I think the developer’s name is something like Buncher, I’ve read about them several times.  They own a number or properties in the city that are in various stages of development.  They either own or have an option on all that vacant land behind the Terminal Buildings in the Strip.  They want to develop the land and I’m in favor of this.  They’re talking about a housing/retail mix.  BUT I am very much against their insistence that we allow them to demolish over a block of the Terminal Building so they have EZ access to their property.  Why do we have to give up on a piece of an icon building so they have an EZ flow?  Instead of demolishing part of the Terminal Building so they can create an intersection at 17th Street, why not go down to 15th street and build an intersection by Lydias?  They wouldn’t have to demolish any building with this option.  Personally, I’m not willing to give up any of that cool building.  And while I’m complaining about preservation, it looks like we’re loosing the Igloo, we lost the latest battle.  The City Counsel is our last hope.  We have a lot of iconic buildings in the city.  But I guarantee that if you take an international pool, the image of the Igloo is the most recognizable structure in the city.

Finally, the reason I’m writing this entry.  The problems with the nuclear power plant in Japan has had me thinking about nuclear power.  I was in the protests in the 70’s against nuclear power in Harrisburg and DC after Three Mile Island.  I don’t mean to treat you like idiots, I’m sure you know the waste (that we haven’t figured out  what to do with) is lethal longer than mankind (and womankind 🙂 ) have been on earth.  The risks are incredible on so many levels.  And here’s the reason for this post,with all the talk about global warming, they have been presenting nuclear power as an option.  I have been begrudgingly falling for this line.  Blame it on old age.  ):  Nuclear is WRONG.  We have no right to something that is deadly longer than man and woman has been on earth.  In the early 40’s, the car factories became tank factories.  We won a war.  We didn’t have to deal with special interests back then.  It was a war.  As I watch those poor people in Japan dealing with contaminated water, those brave men entering highly radioactive areas (basically a suicide mission to save their country), the animals and vegetation taking such a hit.  And the newscasters are happy when the radiation blows out to sea because the sea will dissipate it.  Hey, am I the only one on earth that’s aware that no matter how much it’s dissipated, for Plutonium is deadly for 24,000 years!  That’s a lot of fish that’s going to die for a long time.

OK, I promise be nicer next time we talk,

ed