Around Calif

Public Transport Blockbusters

Columnist Ken Garcia writing in the San Francisco Examiner pans "Crash," but without mentioning "Brokeback," which we can infer was his choice for Oscar.

"...(T)he worst movie I saw last year;" Garcia groans, "a film of such obviousness and sledgehammerlike subtlety that you could see the plot coming like a runaway Metro car. One Los Angeles critic rightly called its cliche-ridden story line 'vehicular metaphor slaughter.'"

This is a lead into a difficult but doable segue, as Garcia swiches his subject to the much lamented woes of the SF Municipal Railway, "a public transportation system which relies on a honor system of payment -- which to no one's surprise has turned out to be a clear case of honor among thieves."

He goes on to recount his own "descent into crime." Late for an appointment, he was running to catch the car at Montgomery Street, fare in hand. "Alas, there was no station agent in sight and the coin slots were closed."

The coin slots were closed?(!) No wonder the Muni is losing money. Garcia did what I would have done and used the unguarded exit gate, confident that he wouldn't be apprehended by one of the transit system's twelve (count 'em) fare inspectors.

Garcia concludes that since it's losing $50 million a year to stile jumpers, the Muni's decision to lay off station agents and fare cops was probably not the sharpest way to deal with fiscal pressure.

Angry Bill Calls it Quits

Republican congressman Bill Thomas of Bakersfield, one of the heavy hitters in the House of Representatives for many years, will not seek re-election in 2006. He's stepping down after a quarter century during which his biannual return to Washington was nearly automatic.

Thomas was one of the key figures helping Bush to get all the elements of his tax giveaway to billionaires passed. But because of the House's self-imposed term limits on committee chairmanships, he would have had to relinquish his influential position as head of the Ways and Means Committee had he chosen to stay. At 64, Thomas was ready to rest on his laurels and probably write that memoir which all his friends and associates will pretend to read.

Like his colleague in the Senate, Ted Stevens, Thomas has a notoriously ungovernable temper, and is famous for throwing pyrotechnic tantrums and epithets. He was also an extremely effective representative for the folks back home, as I found out first hand when I wrote letters on behalf of my wife's dad to try to get his disability status with the V.A. upgraded. The effort was successful, but would not have been without help from Thomas's office.

His departure is probably bad for Bakersfield but it's potentially good for the country. If you listen closely you can hear the Republican grip on Congress starting to slip and buckle, and they need another retirement like they need another Tom DeLay.

Never Put it in Writing

The University of California system has been ordered by a San Francisco judge to pay back $33 million in fees to graduate school students. The U. raised grad school fees after publishing promises in their catalogs that the fees for new students would be locked in "for the duration of his or her enrollment."

The ruling applies to nine thousand students who enrolled in 2002 or earlier, and also to some others who were informed of additional fee hikes in 2003 after they had already been billed.

The check's not in the mail yet, though. The University will appeal the ruling on the grounds that there was no signed contract.

Just because they said that doesn't mean they meant it.