By Robert Haugh
The Good —The Leg Drop Award:
You can get a free COVID-19 test at the Northside Libary today. We’re not sure when the pop-up site will return. But kudos to Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe for letting people know about it with this video.
The Bad — The Jabroni Award:
Councilman Raj Chahal made a case for the split carts on Tuesday. The problem is he lost that vote in December. And not many people liked the split carts in a City pilot program.
The Jabroni Award? He was depicted as a “sore loser” by others, but I didn’t hear it that way. Sounds like Raj Chahal had some legitimate concerns that were sidelined previously and he should be encouraged to work with the City to find alternatives to doubling the garbage costs. I was impressed by his energy.
Raj was given the Jabroni award because the basis for his argument is that City residents should use split carts. There’s two problems with that. He lost the split cart vote six months ago. Why would Raj argue for split carts now when he has not convinced a majority of the Council that he’s right? The second problem is that the majority of residents in the pilot program hated the split carts. But Raj doesn’t believe the data because it doesn’t fit his argument. So he ignores the pilot program. We heard from lots of residents. Split carts are not popular. People didn’t like the carts or the rats they attracted.
I heard Raj say that the split rate carts were unpopular “as configured” , , , and that the design could be changed. Plus he said he interpreted the law requiring food waste “recycling” differently and thought it should be looked at again.
I now live in a small apartment so find food scrap disposal to be a challenge based on management decisions. When I lived in a house, all food scraps were composted. It is possible, perhaps not convenient for people working themselves ragged in this area.
I’ve never commented on you blog because it’s a poor excuse for journalism. Do you have any standards? If you actually read the data from the pilot surveys you’d know that your statement, “a majority of residents in the pilot program hated the split carts” is simply false. In fact, in both pilot surveys, a majority of residents were satisfied or somewhat satisfied and the minority were somewhat dissatisfied, dissatisfied, or undecided.
https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showdocument?id=56273 Survey 1:
Satisfied/Somewhat Satisfied: 53.28%
Dissatisfied/Somewhat Dissatisfied: 37.02%
Undecided: 9.7%
https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showdocument?id=56273 Survey 2:
Satisfied/Somewhat Satisfied: 57%
Dissatisfied/Somewhat Dissatisfied: 35%
Undecided: 8%
Despite this, Councilmember Chahal saw that there is still room for improvement with the program and that we should do so to have a successful program and save residents MILLIONS of dollars.
Maybe you should consider publishing the several Councilmembers who lied about the data rather than trying to make stuff up to try to make Councilmember Chahal look bad. Either you’re careless and don’t do your homework, are horrible at math, or have some other agenda with your joke of a blog that you try to pass for “journalism.” Whatever the case may be, your blog has some major issues and you severely lack journalistic professionalism.
Stop spreading lies and do better.