”
Red Phone, you stated in response to the question about what is
up with the Golden Oak, ‘now that the economy has turned around and
recovering.’ This is simply not true.
“Red Phone, you stated in response to the question about what is up with the Golden Oak, ‘now that the economy has turned around and recovering.’ This is simply not true. Before you cite unemployment going down this wasn’t due to hiring, because we lost 20K jobs last month, it was due to the fact that more people are falling off unemployment support than are asking for it. Every economist I hear has said the ‘real’ unemployment rate is above 15 percent.
If you think we are in a recovery, talk to thousands of people who lost their job last week. The only people who think we are in recovery are the economists on the White House payroll, every other economist has said otherwise. I doubt you will set the record straight, but please Red Phone set the record straight about this economy.”
Red Phone: Dear Pessimist, the record is straight. Red Phone never said the economy was in recovery, it was a San Jose Earthquakes official who wrote that in a letter to the city requesting the permit extension to build a training facility. If a group willing to spend money says it’s in recovery, Red Phone prefers to look at the glass as half full. Another indication the local economy may be turning comes straight from City Hall, where they received 16 proposals to redevelop parts of downtown. More companies willing to put up money says something, right?
Light timing issue at Tennant resurfaces
“Dear Red Phone, every morning I get onto northbound U.S. 101 from Tennant and the light is long. It poses a threat to safety when people are going in other lanes to run the red light. I have been in two perilous situations because I refuse to run a red light. What is the city doing about this? Please help.”
Red Phone: Dear Tired of Waiting, Red Phone first reported on this issue last December. At that time, Bernard Walik, public information officer for Caltrans in Santa Clara County, said his staff supervisor would look into the matter. Then in January, he responded saying the staff supervisor opened an order for the engineering team to investigate the issue. Then, last week, Walik said Caltrans engineering looked at the signal and found that there wasn’t anything wrong.
“The signal is operating normally.” he said. “They extended some time for the left-turn; but it is limited due to the cycle length. Our engineer is working with the city of Morgan Hill in resolving the timing for the eastbound left-turn onto northbound U.S. 101.” The plan, good caller, is to put the signal on free-running.
Finally, it should be noted that staging for construction at that intersection has begun and work to widen the Tennant Avenue overpass over U.S. 101 and build new on and offramps will begin soon. All that will surely play some role in the timing of the lights. The work is scheduled for completion in May 2011, so if you regularly travel that corridor, you may want to take Condit Road or Monterey Road to access the freeway.
