Special to Bayview Hill-Jake Sigg's Nature News

1. What do we want in our National Parks? Tuesday 24 February at Fort Mason
2. Berkeley's Strawberry Canyon under threat
3. Register now for East Bay's Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
4. Tankless water heaters
5. California budget: Solutions, or just more nattering?
6. Mark Twain doesn't have a solution, just acerb commentary
7. Let Bay Nature work for you
8. Feedback: coffee, carrots, plastics, pennies, journalism,
agribusiness, and political hypocrisy; oh my!
9. A steep decline in public accessibility to important information
10. LTEs: evolution, religion
11. And yet another view on evolution, a very sensible one
12. Miscellany
13. Compare the sizes of planets to each other,
to the Sun, and the Sun to other suns. You won't be sorry
14. Anton Bruckner, symphonist. And he wasn't English, either
15. Another view of agribusiness, from the impish Steve Mirsky
16. Chinatown gradually being nibbled away


1. The National Park Second Century Commission is having a public meeting in San Francisco Tuesday the 24th 5 PM to 8PM at Fort Mason to hear comments from the public on what they want in their National Parks.

National Parks for the next 100 years
or http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1638723.html

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2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) plans to construct almost one million square feet of new research buildings on Strawberry Canyon's steep hillsides and in the surrounding watershed landscape. Learn more: www.savestrawberrycanyon.org

Former LBNL director Steven Chu (now U.S. Energy Secretary) was working with East Bay mayors and UC to create a "Green Corridor" to attract private-public partnerships for energy-focused research and development. These sites are all west of the Hayward Fault, in contrast to the hilly LBNL location, which is riddled with fault traces.

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3. Registration for the Fifth Annual Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour (East Bay), which will take place on Sunday, May 3, 2009, is now open at www.bringingbackthenatives.net. This free, award-winning tour features 50 pesticide-free gardens that conserve water, provide habitat for wildlife, and contain 50% or more native plants.

The Native Plant Sale Extravaganza will take place throughout the week end of May 2 and 3. Please go here for details: http://www.bringingbackthenatives.net/plantsale.html

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4. Tankless water heaters

Tankless heaters use anywhere from 10 to 20 percent less energy because there's no need to keep an entire tank of water hot, eliminating standby energy loss. Depending, it may also save water. http://www.toolbase.org/Building-Systems/Plumbing/tankless-water-heaters

(I have a long supply line from my shower and bathroom sink, and an even longer one to my kitchen sink. It wastes enormous quantities of water in order to get hot water. It is a disincentive to wash my hands or the dishes as often as I should. Even though the cost of the heater [much higher than conventional storage tanks] plus cost of installation means that it may not repay me for many years, I think I will do it. I can't stand thinking about all the waste of energy and water.)

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5. Comment on California budget settlement from the Center for Biological Diversity

The bad news is that the budget package still included some terrible environmental rollbacks in response to Republican demands. The worst of these was a postponement of regulations to clean up exhaust from diesel construction equipment, which causes serious air pollution and health problems. Bizarrely, the two Republican leaders who pushed for this rollback represent the Central Valley, which has some of the worst air quality and diesel pollution in the state. The budget also exempted eight planned highway infrastructure projects from environmental review.

Of course, it is completely preposterous that a small minority is able to hold the entire state budget hostage and make outrageous demands that would undo years of progress in protecting California's environment and public health. We must make sure it doesn't happen again that a small minority can use the state budget to threaten California's environmental protections. To do that, California will have to repeal the requirement of a two-thirds super-majority vote to pass a state budget.
(JS: Yes, we need to do that, but it would also be helpful to remove another absurdity: The drawing of legislative district boundaries to assure that either a Republican or a Democrat will be elected from that district. This desirable move won't happen, because both parties love it the way it is; incumbents are guaranteed to be re-elected. A pox on both of them. Elected representatives can defy the public will with impunity, and this is acceptable to the public.)

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6. Mark Twain:

"Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat."

"Providence protects children and idiots. I know, because I’ve tested it."

(Fran Lebowitz: "All God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.")

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7. Let Bay Area nature enthusiasts know what you are up to by listing your events on BayNature.org's online events calendar. That’s even easier to do now with our new online event submission form. You can also still email us your announcements (but please email events two weeks in advance).

The Baynature.org events calendar is the most comprehensive listing of nature-related public activities in the Bay region. What kind of events do we post? Our visitors are looking for hikes, talks, film-screenings, workshops, restoration projects, special days at nature centers or science museums, and anything else local and nature-related.

Events added to the calendar not only show up on our events page, they also feed into our interactive map, one of the most popular features of our website. Your event may also be selected to appear in our new biweekly e-newsletter, Bay Nature Connections.


Visit our website to see our events calendar or submit your event now. We look forward to getting the word out for you!

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8. Feedback

Kathy Shrenk:

I am in the process of breaking a 15-year addiction to diet soda. I am mostly drinking coffee as a replacement. I've definitely been seeing a lot of studies lately about coffee being good for you! And it's definitely better for you than diet soda, what with the osteoporosis, and check this out: http://www.rense.com/general67/rum.htm


My whole saga of quitting is chronicled on my blog: http://schrenkrap.blogspot.com/ It's been six months since I started trying to quit!!


Mei Ling Hui:

Regarding Carrots--I'm pretty sure most, if not all, farmers harvest the carrots right after the root has grown enough to be marketable - I don't think anyone leaves the carrots in the ground to die back in winter and regrow new tops the following summer. In fact I'm pretty sure a carrot is a biennial plant - it grows what we like (yummy orange root) one year then uses that stored energy to flower and seed the following year. So there wouldn't be much in the way of useful product for us after that first year. Carrots are usually harvested about 2 1/2 months after the seeds are initially planted. And younger is better.

I think the taste change has to do with the weather. Carrots don't love hot temperatures and if the carrot is developing more slowly, as it would in times of less sun and heat , it would have more time to accumulate sugars. Perhaps this is why winter greens, like kale, are also better in the winter?

I imagine it's similar to the way radishes are affected by heat. Radishes are best in hot weather because the slower they grow the spicier they get; I grew inedibly spicy radishes once when I seeded too early in the year.

Thanks for this, Mei Ling. You are certainly correct about the biennial nature of carrot, and that it must be harvested the first year from seed, which is what made me dubious about Andrea's explanation.

You may be right about the sweetness and flavor being better in the slow-growing winter season. However, do you know that this is the correct explanation? In the case of fruits, the sweetness is strongly correlated with heat and the amount of energy collected from the sun. Think peaches and melons, which are best in July and August. With a root crop, is it just the opposite? Is there science on this?

Siobhan Ruck: (re Love the Ocean and Use Less Plastic):

I understand there is a huge "plastic island" somewhere...where all the garbage gets sucks into a huge pool

Rather than send a bunch of links, I'll just say: Google "plastic pacific gyre" and you get a lot of good info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch is a good overview.


Chris Darling:

Dear Jake, I have a comment regarding plastics in the ocean. Petitions and resolutions to stop using excess plastic will never solve this problem as those pledging voluntary action will never be all of us or even most of us.

There are two ways to eliminate long-lasting plastic waste. The first is to make it prohibitively expensive to use things like plastic bags. In Ireland, there is a tax of thirty-three cents per bag for use of plastic grocery bags and since it was instituted use of such bags has dropped 94%. Even the retail store owners now think it is a good thing. Here is a quote from a New York Times story about the reaction of the owner of a major retail grocery chain.

'Today, Ireland's retailers are great promoters of taxing the bags. "I spent many months arguing against this tax with the minister; I thought customers wouldn't accept it," said Senator Feargal Quinn, founder of the Superquinn chain. "But I have become a big, big enthusiast."' Here is the link for the story that quote is from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/world/europe/02bags.html?pagewanted=1

But such taxes and fees that will not solve the problem as even the 6% use of plastic bags in Ireland is still millions of plastic grocery bags per year. And no matter how conscientious we are individually, some plastic will end up in the ocean. So we should legislate that all plastic be degradable in the presence of sunlight after a certain amount of time. That way, that which ends up in the ocean will eventually break down so it causes no harm to any living thing.

I have read dozens of calls to individual action regarding our negative impact on the environment since the first Earth Day in 1970. In spite of all the brochures, petitions, resolutions, and promises by individuals to do better in terms of using less water, using cars less, using fewer plastic bags, etc. etc. we are much worse off by many measurements of negative human impact on the environment. The only way it will improve is by making systemic changes that reward the right actions and penalize or make impossible the wrong actions.

D'accord.

James Grant:

Hi Jake, Given a government requirement to choose beteween lowering one's income down or up to the nearest nickel, most would choose to round up. My guess is that retailers, taxing agencies and nickel miners will have a hey day should the mint cancel penny production. Also, the U.S. Mint can now manufacture and deliver every coin denomination at profit. (They are a for profit agency) Coin metals prices have dropped over 60 percent from their highs of the previous two years. By the the pound, nickel is around $5; Copper around $1.50; and zinc around 50 cents.


Eliminating the Penny from the U.S. Coinage System: An Economic Analysis
http://ideas.repec.org/a/eej/eeconj/v27y2001i4p433-442.html
Removing the penny from circulation will have significant adverse direct effects on consumers. Simulations show that the resulting need to round prices will generate a rounding tax of no less than $600 million a year. The inflationary impact of rounding will probably be small. However, even a small effect will cumulate over time to a considerable sum; removing the penny would raise government outlays by about $950 million in 2005 and by $2 billion in 2010. Significant negative effects on firms are also identified. The evidentiary requirement for removing the penny from circulation does not yet appear to meet necessary standards. If and when seigniorage turns negative and inflation reduces the real value of a penny substantially further, then removal will be more attractive.

Well, James, you've certainly caught me off balance on this one. I wish I had the time to try to unravel this. I can't argue; however, I find the statements difficult to credit--in the case of pennies, impossible. If I won't stoop to pick them up, they can't be worth much. (Nickels, too.) And I am not the only one who declines to accept pennies in change. (I decline, even when it costs me 4 cents, which it sometimes does, although most often the clerk will just knock off 1 cent.) Just transportation and distribution costs more than they're worth--and don't ask me for figures.

Perhaps I'll have to file this under Ripley's Believe it or Not, or Unbelievable, Yet True. But someone's going to have to do more convincing. Regardless, thanks.
P.S. Oh, and another thing. The Mint is a for-profit organization? When did that happen? Under Reagan?

Hi Jake, The U.S. Mint is a self funded agency. They operate at a profit by producing and distributing coins, medallions, bullion, and commemorative pieces for sale on the open market. Revenue beyond operating expenses is turned over to the General Fund of the Treasury. In 2008, $735 Million was transferred to the Treasury General Fund.


The treasury uses a business model that considers supply and demand. Last year, the number of penny, nickel, and dime coins shipped to the FRB dropped 34 percent from 2007. So the demand in the marketplace is waning naturally. Alternately, from observations at the container recycling center, many people are not willing to walk away from small change. The last couple years were expensive years for producing the penny and nickel due to high metal costs, but those prices have subsided along with the demand for small coins. Given the Mint's substantial profits, I think the Mint can afford to let the issue ride. .


http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/about/annual_report/2005AnnualReport.pdf
http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/about/annual_report/2008AnnualReport.pdf


From their website: Since Congress created the United States Mint on April 2, 1792, it has grown tremendously. The United States Mint receives more than $1 billion in annual revenues. As a self-funded agency, the United States Mint turns revenues beyond its operating expenses over to the General Fund of the Treasury.

Thanks for all the information. Writing this newsletter is certainly an education. Just today I got the skinny on something I've wondered about for years: Why carrots are so much more sweet and flavorful in the winter. Now this.

I guess by a "for-profit organization" you mean that a government agency is not allowed to make money, but the Mint is allowed to? It is still a government agency, though, isn't it? It sounds like that from what you've written.

Steve Lawrence:

Jake, I sent your bit on endangered game wardens to a friend and retired game warden (warden about 1975-2006). Here's what he wrote back about the endandered California game warden: "Yes, this is known to me and others. It it part of the California fake it program. Say you care, but don't. They will tell you they care, but lack funding priority. We must protect the environment, but not be a burden to business. That and other assorted BS. Wardens; although Peace Officers of a special fund agency, will have to take 2 extra days off a month. Poaching is only a small part. Think pollution and habitat destruction."


Carol Teltschick-Fall:

The Food Pyramid, made to order
Ha, ha, yeah. This would be great if most of our food wasn't poisoned by agri-business practices. But that's our good old Ag Dept, always ready to make us feel better about eating pesticides, gmo's, hormones, antibiotics and manufactured additives.

I don't follow you, Carol. Given that USDA has facilitated agribusiness, they are not necessarily committed to it as the only way to produce food, and they can be just as cooperative with sustainable/organic means of production. The aim of the pyramid is to provide recommended proportions to fats, calories, carbohydrates, and so forth. Those proportions would apply regardless of whether the food is grown sustainably or by agribusiness.

well heck, I was just mouthing off about the general state of our agricultural system and our food, which I perceive to be unhealthy. I don't think the USDA should be cooperating with any methods that are bad for our health.
as an individual, I can buy organic, but how keep the pesticides out the rivers, etc. etc ...

Well, I buy organically-produced food as a rule, but I am in a privileged position. Using the world as a yardstick I am wealthy, or at least well-to-do, and can afford it. I know people who would like to eat organic but can't afford to. (To a degree, this is a matter of scale in growing crops, which organic does not have presently, and possibly never will have.)

I can't help wonder whether feeding billions (and heading for the tens of billions) doesn't require intensive methods such as agribusiness. Is organic a luxury that only we rich can afford? I have read reports that organic can outproduce agribusiness acre-for-acre, but I am dubious. And looking at the whole picture, I am doubtful that the masses can be fed by this method. I would like to be proved wrong. You have all these megalopolitan areas around the world. (Ever heard of Chongquing? 31 million, and counting!!) How many have even heard of it? Where are these megalopolises going to grow their organic, sustainably-produced food? Or for that matter, food from agribusiness?

I am not sanguine; in fact, I get depressed when I think about it too much. You have pressed my Population button, and I can feel another rant coming on, so I'd better stop right now.

well Paul Erlich scared the crap out of me about the carrying capactity thing years ago
but now I feel like the "old gotta feed everyone" argument is being bogusly used by greedy people to justify immoral use of our environment
I'm not saying I don't worry about burgeoning population, but the food and economic paradigm is so screwed up, entire populations could be living off waste
and anyway, if we keep on eating and breathing like this we'll soon all be dead of cancer
rates in U.S now stand at 1 out of 2 for every male and 1 out of 3 for every female
that's epidemic, but no one is talking about it...or bothering with prevention
so don't worry...all us baby boomers ain't gonna live nearly as long as everyone fears we will


John Bosley:

Hey Jake--As always I love your Nature News, but man! it gets tiresome to read stuff from The Economist. I know most of what you copy is fairly innocuous stuff without much to do with economics but that journal is such a loser when it comes to the real economic stuff... Just venting--like I said, I like most of what you take from the journal. I myself can't find time to wade through the neoliberal economic balderdash to find the nuggets, so I guess in fact I should be grateful you do that for us!!

Thanks for the feedback, John. However, I'm not clear whether you and I see the journal's material in the same way. About its being "such a loser when it comes to the real economic stuff", what are you referring to? I may or may not agree with you.

Ultimately, I don't trust journalism, no matter what their policies or POVs. (Leave aside, for the time being, the prejudices, the economic pressures, &c.) The reason for distrust is that writing attempts to portray the reality of the world--any situation you name--via words, which are an abstraction of reality. Even with the best of will and skill on the part of the writer and editor, it is impossible to portray the real world. The challenge to a good writer it to come as close as possible, but it is an impossible task.

The irony is that, knowing this, I still read--and believe--most of what I read. Shocking, I know. And I know that this is true of most other people, whether they're aware of it or not. I enjoy The Economist, but am aware of some of its limitations. On subjects that I know something about in depth, such as biological/ecological issues, they are out to lunch and they make me cringe.

So very nice to get feedback from "the Left Coast," here in Baltimore. Speaking of environment and ecology, I'm sure you are aware of the 800-pound gorilla for us Marylanders (and Pennsylvanians and Virginians...)--the dying Chesapeake Bay. The gyrations and ill-advised "proposals" that are seen every day are enough to make you weep.


I must confess that with The Economist I have a "chicken and egg" problem; my brother takes the magazine and so when I (infrequently) visit him in North Carolina and read the journal more or less cover-to-cover, I get so turned off by their economic reporting that I then skip reading again until the next visit, and the cycle repeats. Due to their title I hardly notice the non-economic stuff but I must admit you do find some good nuggets in their book reviews and so on. My problem with their economics is that it is orthodox neoliberalism--the doctrine that gave us concepts like "globalization," "free trade," and other really (to me) dangerously counter-progressive practices that have been to a large extent responsible for the sorry mess we all find ourselves in.


I do love your newsletters; I lived in the Bay Area on and off for about 25 years total while working on the peninsula; became friends with guys like Don Mayall, who turned me on to your newsletter.


I do sympathize fully with the challenge of reading, sifting, and then writing about what you've read. And by and large I don't find you a gullible person from what I read in the newsletters--for what that's worth. Anyway, take my feedback with a grain of salt and keep on doing what you're doing. I'm sure your fans appreciate getting the "straight dope" from you!!!


Best from Baltimore!!

Then we do agree. I read The Economist, knowing that that is their lens on the world. I can see them taking this view back in the 1800s, and they have been consistent (and internally consistent) ever since. The liberal theory (free markets, open borders, &c) is an appealing theory which I would like to subscribe to. Unfortunately it has serious flaws, as we know. They would perhaps argue that it will work if allowed to, but successive governments have allowed un-liberal practices and ideas to creep in. Now the fox is frequently guarding the henhouse and laissez-faire isn't allowed to work. (I don't think they would put it this way, and I'm not explaining my thoughts very well, but I hope you get the idea.) And crucially, there is the factor of uncontrolled population, which is not part of the theory, and which neither economists nor governments are seemingly willing to address, which defies reason. (Defy reason? Businesses love all those consumers, and the more of them there are, the more they can sell to them.) The result is devastation of the land and natural systems that we depend on. We--as a society--should be able to see that, but greed (on the part of some) and ideology (on the part of The Economist and others) prevent them from seeing the reality. So I suspect yours and my views of the magazine may be similar. I do find them thoughtful (even going back to their very first essays back in 1843) and they do a creditable job in regard to balance, which impresses me greatly.

Your praise means a great deal to me. If I don't hear from readers for awhile I begin to be assailed by doubts that this is the way I should be spending my time, when I am neglecting other issues that need attention. Fortunately, people do give me positive feedback, and that bucks me up and makes me want to continue.

Running Elk:

There is a provision in the stimulus bill (inserted by a Republican, by the way) that prohibits a state's governor from refusing to accept stimulus money for their state. This way, the republithugs can "refuse" the $$$ (because it's another step down the "slippery slope to Socialism", which they couldn't properly define with a dictionary), and be "forced" to accept it, anyway.


Given our attention-challenged electorate, it won't even be mentioned in 2010.

GOP governors take the (stimulus) money and run For higher office, and away from their earlier statements about how much they hate the whole idea of the stimulus.

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9. Accessibility of Scientific Observations

"The growing efforts of governments, corporations, and individuals to prevent competitors from knowing certain things that they themselves know has led to a stunning expansion of intellectual property rights and the strengthening of state classification powers...Broad areas of two sciences, physics and biology, are now off-limits to public discourse because they are national security risks. Our society is sequestering knowledge more extensively, rapidly, and thoroughly than any before it in history. Indeed, the Information Age should probably be called the Age of Amnesia because it has meant, in practice, a steep decline in public accessibility of important information." Physics Nobel Laureate Robert B. Laughlin in The Crime of Reason

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10.
LTE Guardian Weekly 20.02.09
Even Darwin evolves

Steve Jones says "most clerics realised [that Darwin's ideas] have no relevance to religion". Really? After Darwin, neither of the two strong claims for religion - that there's no other plausible explanation for the wonders of nature, and that humans (or, in some variations, certain races) are special - could be intellectually sustained. That just leaves the claim that religion makes us better people. The evidence on this score is equivocal, to put it charitably. Jeremy Gilling, Sydney, Australia

In this year of Darwin, we are subjected to the agonies of Christians trying to reconcile their religion with evolution. Their major dilemma, of course, is to decide at what evolutionary stage do humans acquire a soul? Did Neanderthals have one? What about Homo ergaster, Homo erectus or Homo habilis? What about Lucy, our celebrity Australopithecus afarensis?

If only Homo sapiens have souls, at what stage did evolution give them one - at the start about 200,000 years ago, or when they developed speech about 70,000 years ago?

Hindus, with their larger conception of creation, do not have this problem.
Art Raiche, Killara, NSW, Australia
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11. From The Book of Musical Anecdotes:

"Ralph Vaughn Williams, the great English symphonist, was taught to read by his grandmother from the same book with which she had instructed her younger brother, Charles Darwin. There was a great kerfuffle among the family - like everywhere else - when On the Origin of Species was published, and Ralph, when he was about seven, asked his mother about it. His mother was extremely sensible. She said, "The Bible tells us that God made the world in six days. Great-uncle Charles thinks it took rather longer. But we needn't worry - it is equally wonderful either way."

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12. Following three items are from High Country News:

Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said goodbye to his employees with a slide show, reports Washingtonpost.com. He showed about 600 slides, "each picturing the distinguished secretary, many of them taken at a national park." One staffer who sat through the presentation commented, "It was special. That's all I should say."

(No ego problem here. Also, Kempthorne spent $235,000 of our money to renovate his office bathroom.)
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Lest it be outdone in the attacking-animal category, Boulder, Colo., can report that a "bitter bovine" attacked a Boulder biker. NewWest.net said a cow "charged a woman" on a trail and knocked her down. "The cow had left the scene by the time rangers arrived, but hikers coming down the trail were warning others about the rogue bovine."

(Mad-cow disease?)
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Not to be outdone in the oddball department, Idaho State Senator Gary Schroeder, R, has introduced a bill requiring his state to gather up its wolves and give them away, preferably to another state, reports the IdahoStatesman.com, though so far none has stepped up to tell Idaho that it's wolf-short. The bill unanimously passed the Senate Resources and Environment Committee, which met in a room festooned with a wolf pelt hung by Schroeder; now the bill moves to the Senate. "We have to protect the elk here and get rid of some wolves," Schroeder explained. High Country News

From Jay Leno:
"Senator Roland Burris, who was appointed by Governor Blagojevich, could be in trouble for perjury and for giving conflicting statements in his testimony about campaign contributions. That's the trouble with politicians. They think the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth are three different things."
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13. The following websites compare the sizes of the planets, then the size of the planets compared to the Sun, then the Sun compared to larger stars, then the larger stars to those that dwarf them, then others which dwarf THEM, and so on. Mercifully, they stop at the Milky Way Galaxy, and don't try to compare it to other galaxies. Whew! Unbelievable, yet true.

The first of these following sites talks much too fast for my brain to keep up with it, although younger minds may cope. The second, however, are stills which demand rapt attention. Not just once or twice, but...well, daily wouldn't be too much. It's a way to stretch your mind, and fill it with wonder. Print them out and paste them on your wall.

JAKE - Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL4cFjmnQT8
& http://dalesdesigns.net/small.htm

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14. A misfit in Vienna

Bruckner's 4th Symphony was played by the San Francisco Symphony this week, so I dredged up this item from my files. It is an excerpt from article on the symphonist Anton Bruckner by Michael Steinberg in San Francisco Symphony program notes. I value it because it is good writing (Steinberg is unexcelled in writing about music), and it casts light on the times, on Vienna (from whence flowed most of the great instrumental music in western history), and on the composer.

"...with his peasant speech, his social clumsiness, trousers that looked as though a carpenter had built them, his disastrous inclination to fall in love with girls of sixteen, his distracting compulsions, his piety (he knelt to pray in the middle of a counterpoint class when he heard the angelus sound from the church next door), his powerful intelligence that functioned only when channeled into musical composition or teaching, a Neatherthal male chauvinism that even his contemporaries found remarkable, his unawareness of intellectual or political currents of his or any other day, Bruckner was not a likely candidate for success in that compost heap of gossip and intrigue that was Vienna, nor indeed anywhere in a world where a composer's success depends on so much other than skill at inventing music."

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15. 1977's Empire of the Ants acknowledges the human susceptibility to pheromonic influence: "Giant ants...use pheromones to enslave the local human population and to compel the humans to operate a sugar factory for them." In Florida, this same phenomenon is called agribusiness.

Steve Mirsky in Scientific American, October 2004

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16. The following article by Howard Wong is truncated from Part I (of three parts), appearing in the newsletter of San Francisco Tomorrow, January 2009

Honoring Chinatown’s History
Chinatown is a thriving Chinese community and a living historical testament---honoring 160 years of Chinese in America. Moreover, Chinatown’s history is a means for its survival and vibrancy...San Francisco’s Chinatown is an architectural and cultural gem and it is not even protected as a landmark Historic District.

Chinatown Could Easily Have Disappeared
Many Chinatowns in the US have waned or vanished for social and economic reasons. Many urban Chinatowns today, such as Manhattan and Boston, are battling escalating land values and encroaching financial districts. Marysville, California was once the second largest Chinatown in California...In San Francisco, early Chinese pioneers were resilient and stalwart in preserving their community. Warding off powerful economic forces, Chinese-Americans organized, garnered political/ foreign support, emphasized Chinatown’s tourism strengths and revenue-generating potential and reinvented the neighborhood as a new Oriental City of exotic culture and “veritable fairy palaces”. Chinatown’s preservation is as much a testament to a civil rights struggle, as to perseverance and cultural strength.


Chinatown Gradually Being Nibbled Away
Chinatown remains a cultural hub for Chinese Americans, a gateway for recent immigrants, a regional tourist attraction, a marketplace, a generator of diverse small businesses, a link to community services and home to Chinese-Americans, families, foreign-born and elderly. But gradually, over time, nearly imperceptible because of its slow progression, Chinatown’s uniqueness and history is vanishing. Chinatown’s distinguishing architecture and exotic impact are being supplanted by a rush to modernization and clichéd commercialism.