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Editor's Desk: Sunny side up

by Don Frances

BRUCE KARNEY'S plan to bring bulk-rate solar to Mountain View — he's calling it the "Mountain View Solar Buyers Co-op" — is coming along nicely, it seems, after a huge turnout for last weekend's kickoff meeting at the Mountain View Senior Center.

"More than 220 people attended Saturday's meeting, which was more than twice as many as my most optimistic estimate," Karney wrote.

"I was particularly pleased to see individuals of all ages, from late 20s to late 70s, in the audience. It's the largest civic meeting I've been to in many years where people didn't show up because they were trying to stop a project."

Karney was inspired by the recent success of Portola Valley, which managed to strum up enough buyers — nearly twice the needed amount, in fact — to get a 30 percent discount from SolarCity, a Foster City company which installs solar arrays.

A discount of that size, Karney estimates, "brings the price of a kilowatt-hour of solar electricity down to about 10 cents — less than PG&E's lowest rate."

Not too bad. The next informational meeting will be Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Mountain View High School Theater. For more info on the company, visit www.solarcity.com.

MEANWHILE, OTHER locals are putting their can-do attitude towards a different, perhaps less modest goal:

"You are invited to hear Peter Phillips, Ph.D., present the rationale for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney on Friday, Feb. 16, at 7:30 p.m.," writes Fred Duperrault, committee member for something called the Silicon Valley Impeachment Coalition.

Phillips, a sociology professor at Sonoma State University, will speak at the Willow Park Clubhouse, located at Moffett Boulevard and W. Middlefield Road. The event is free. Write fredd@freeshell.org for more info.

THE CAN-DO attitude permeated everything this week. Darin McGrew, for example, wrote in with the following:

"Regarding your comment about the phrase 'analysis paralysis' used by Nick Galiotto, feel free to use it. It's been around for quite a while."

McGrew said he's most familiar with the phrase "in the context of board and card games. It refers to a situation where players spend 'too much' time determining the 'perfect' move, while everyone else sits around waiting for them to finish their turns. Consider the use of chess clocks in competitive chess games: They prevent analysis paralysis by giving each player only a fixed amount of time in which to make all their moves."

McGrew gives me an idea: chess clocks for council members. Each member gets a fixed amount of time to make his or her points. Whenever they're done talking — bang — they punch the clock. This could also come in handy, perhaps especially so, at school board meetings.

"WE ARE LOOKING for a JV badminton coach, immediately," urges Kim Cave, athletic director at Los Altos High. "Stipend comes with it." Call (650) 960-8857 to apply.

Don Frances can be reached at dfrances@mv-voice.com.