SWCAMBORNE

Is it okay if a million people have to suffer a little bit so that a few thousand can keep thing the way they are? This is the situation with the 710 Freeway. The people of South Pasadena have successfully blocked completing the freeway for more than 40 years. The people of Alhambra have had to bare the brunt of the burden. But the residents of Pasadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, La Canada and many other cities in the San Gabriel Valley have had their commutes lengthened and the traffic increased a little in their neighborhoods so that South Pasadena can keep thing the way they were.

A special interest group with a lot to gain or lose can concentrate its effort on influencing the media and the politicians while a million people who suffer in the margin are not heard. A picture of a family who will “lose there house” makes good media but it is hard to picture the suffering of the million people whose daily commute is 5 minutes longer because the 710 freeway was never completed. This is one of the flaws of our democracy.

“There are three kinds of mistakes: accidental and intentional.”

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How old are those bottles of spices in your cupboard?

Did you know that they get old and lose there flavor? A few years ago we started to once a year write the year of purchase on the top of each jar.

After they are two years we throw them away. Wouldn’t it benefit us all if the spice companies would put an expiration date on their bottles? Why don’t they? It seems like a really good product differentiation idea that could command a premium price.

Thanks to Nurit for this idea.

I was amazed last week when I was driving down Orange Grove Avenue in South Pasadena to see that the improvements being installed do not include returning the road to four lanes wide. How can it be that South Pasadena, after stopping construction of the 710 freeway for 40 years, can get away with making one of the access roads to the 110 freeway permanently narrower?

South Pasadena has got to be one of America’s most selfish cities. But where are the city council people of Pasadena? How could they let this happen? What about fairness?

I propose that since the people of South Pasadena don’t want us to drive on a freeway in their city we do the only reasonable thing and not allow them to drive on the freeway in any city that there selfish behavior effects. All residents of South Pasadena should have their cars marked, maybe with a big “S” for selfish and they should not be allowed to drive on the 210 or the 10 freeways west of the 605. Fair is fair. They won’t let us drive on freeways in their town. We don’t want them on the freeway in our town.

Now what to do about the city council in Pasadena? It is time to elect some new people who will stand up to the Selfish South Pasadena crowd. Twenty years ago when Arcadia installed signs and bumps to keep the people from Sierra Madre from driving through their city to get to the 210 freeway. Sierra Madre sued and made them back down. What is the matter with our elected officials that they won’t put the interests of their constituents first?

We just spent a wonderful week in Wailea, Maui with our friends the Davids.

Click HERE to see a short slide show of our photos from the trip on Flickr.

We had some very good food and since Zagut doesn’t review Maui we prepared a chart.
The best food was at Ferraro’s in the Four Seasons Hotel. We had Cathy as our server and she was excellent. The best bargain was at Sensei in Kihei. We ate four or five cut rolls and the special hand roll and the entire bill was less than $60. The biggest disappointment was at Spago, the food was great but the service was quite bad. They made us wait in the lounge even though all of the tables were not full and then they took a half an hour to bring out our dessert. The manager never even came to the table she just left the server hanging. Matteo’s is just up from the Wailea shopping center and is run by the former chef from Ferraros. It fills an important niche in South Maui, a place like California Pizza Kitchen. Good food served promptly and with panache.
On a one to ten scale, ten being best, this is what we thought of the places we ate.

Restaurant: Service, Food, Ambiance, Price
Dinner
Joe’s : 7, 7, 6, $$$
Matteo’s : 7, 7, 5, $$
Sensei : 7, 8, 4, $$
Nick’s Fish Market: 9, 9, 8, $$$$
Spago : 4, 9, 8, $$$$$
Ferraros : 10, 8, 10, $$$$$
Lunch
Mama’s Fish House : 8, 9, 10, $$$$$
Café O Lei : 6, 6, 4, $
Tommy Bahamas : 6, 7, 7, $$$
Seaview : 5, 7, 9, $$$

The ranking are affected by the expectation, which are effected by the price. If the price is high the service should be impeccable.