San Diego School Bonds

Every election we are reminded that local school districts are required to shoulder a larger burden of their facilities. This November, San Diego County School Districts are asking the voters for over $3 billion in funds for school improvements.

• San Diego Unified School District $ 2.1 billion
  
• Grossmont Union High School District $ 417 million
• Southwestern College $ 389 million
  
• Escondido Unified School District $ 98 million
  
• Lakeside Union School District $ 79.55 million
  
• South Bay Union School District $ 59.4 million
• Lemon Grove Union School District $ 28 million

All of these bonds require over 55% of the voters in the school districts to approve them. In many cases the school districts are eligible for funds from the state if they have matching local funds.

I do think the absence of a website listing the projects to be funded is a bad sign for some of the bond campaigns. It may be just me but if I was going to approve a ballot measure, I would at least want to know what I am supporting.

New California Prevailing Wage Determinations Are Posted on the Web

California's Department of Labor Statistics and Research has posted the current prevailing wages on its website.

They can be found here.

UFO Museum???

Here is a lighter note from the Architectural Record:

It seems like Roswell, New Mexico is finally getting is UFO Museum. For those not familiar with the "incident", there was a supposed UFO crash in 1947. Since then Roswell has become a Mecca for those who believe that there is something out there. This legend has spawned bad television shows: Roswell and now I think it is spawning some "interesting" architecture. This will be a construction project like no other.

Below is a description of the exterior and interior:

“The concept is that this is a found object emerging from a file cabinet, kind of like information hidden in a drawer somewhere,” Schopfer explains, referring to the purported government cover-up of extraterrestrial evidence. “It’s meant to grab your attention and question what it is.”

The funnel represents a wormhole, he continues, which some physicists hypothesize is a shortcut between distant parts of the universe—and that ufologists believe extraterrestrials use to visit Earth. It’s a billboard building that “entices people from the roadway,” Schopfer admits, but it avoids the ubiquitous alien and UFO iconography common in Roswell, an isolated desert town whose name is synonymous with the alleged crash of a flying saucer there in July 1947.

What the museum lacks on its exterior it will contain inside. A large mock-up of a flying disc will hang from the ceiling in the lobby.

Good Opinion Piece About Labor Day

Another Labor Day has come and gone. I have heard some critics of organized labor express that unions are no longer needed and they are obsolete. Often what they forget is that unions' mission is to ensure that the rights of workers are protected. And what they also forget is that unions provide the standards for the working conditions of all workers, union and non union.

Sid Berg, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council penned a great opinion piece in the Eureka Reporter detailing the work that just this fall entails. Below is a quote from that article that outlines the work ahead.

Contrary to those opinions, labor has many struggles to solve in the future. Among those issues that need to be debated are the Free Choice Act (allowing workers to choose to have representation), prevailing wage legislation, universal health care (at an affordable rate), apprenticeship training, workplace safety and, ultimately, wage increases tied to the inflation rate, based on costs of energy and food. We also need to promote mutual understanding and create strong partnerships with employers so we can all remain competitive in a rapidly changing world.