San Rafael dealership closes without warning

Does Rob Rogers live in Vacaville or Windsor ?

Everyone in Marin knows Ford is at the clock tower on EAST Francisco Blvd.

And Al Boro advocates automobile dealerships over green industry employers like Lucas Arts, the biotech industry, the solar industry, etc... forcing Marin residents to commute to the South and East Bay. Maybe we can now wrest control of the zoning and planning committee and convert all the autodealership land to useful real estate for Marin residents who want to build enterprises that will employ Marin residents and reduce carbon emissions.

Without Sales tax from luxury items the city will go broke.

I wonder if Ford will rethink its decision to NOT sell the 65 MPG diesel Fiesta in the US. There's nothing in their US fleet that's remotely competitive with the Prius. FYI Ford, Toyota is expanding their dealership in San Rafael.

"Read the sign," one employee growled, closing the dealership's gates.

Are you kidding me? I went there yesterday and found very gracious recently laid off employees who were helping me. I was not "growled" by any means. What I did find was liberal (easily derived by the numerous Obama and Peace stickers all over your yellow SUV) trust fund local Marin idiot who was shocked that her day of driving around aimlessly was interrupted when she didn't personally recieve a "we're so sorry" call from the Ford service department. The absolute gall of this one particular woman who was treated graciously by a service rep who had just lost his means to support his family was standard Marin. Get a friggin' clue! You are not always at the top of the food chain! Good luck to you guys in your search for new employment in these tough times and shame on you residents who put bitchin' about your minor inconvenience above the needs of others.

The other Joe wrote:

Without Sales tax from luxury items the city will go broke.

Not if Mayor Boro's policies of subsidizing illegal immigrants are discontinued.

Tinjar Michaelsen wrote:

<quoted text>
Not if Mayor Boro's policies of subsidizing illegal immigrants are discontinued.

How does the city subsidize immigrants?

1.) "wellness center" ($70 million)
2.) unnecessary Pickleweed park improvements (daycare center) & daycare staff ($13 million)
3.) preschool daycare at Bahia Vista when that school is supposed to be used for elementary school education ($gazillions)
4.) surtax imposed on parents whose kids use the school bus system to subsidize the Bahia Vista busing program ($30 per child per quarter)
5.) Carbon pollution imposed on citizens (especially bicyclists) because of the busing policy (too much for my calculator to tally)
6.) Police duty for the regularly-sceduled illegal immigration parades ($too much)
7.) Free school lunch program
8.) Forgone tax revenues because subsidized illegal immigrants are using public housing instead of market-rate housing (resulting in higher property taxes)...($$$ a whole bunch)
9.) etc., etc., etc.

They get all the freebees,and do not payinto IRS,SSI,or unemployment ins.
Thay get free med.and the rest of us have to pay for our ins.
Now the SENATE wants to put them on SSI services and McCAIN wants to cut my SSI in half-I sure would like to see him live on 350$ if a month if this gose thru.
I am retired and only get 700$ per month,am 76yo have paid in all these years,and they get it for FREE? somthing is realy wrong with this system,I loosing in the market and CEO,S still get the big BUCKS.

Tinjar Michaelsen wrote:

1.) "wellness center" ($70 million)
2.) unnecessary Pickleweed park improvements (daycare center) & daycare staff ($13 million)
3.) preschool daycare at Bahia Vista when that school is supposed to be used for elementary school education ($gazillions)
4.) surtax imposed on parents whose kids use the school bus system to subsidize the Bahia Vista busing program ($30 per child per quarter)
5.) Carbon pollution imposed on citizens (especially bicyclists) because of the busing policy (too much for my calculator to tally)
6.) Police duty for the regularly-sceduled illegal immigration parades ($too much)
7.) Free school lunch program
8.) Forgone tax revenues because subsidized illegal immigrants are using public housing instead of market-rate housing (resulting in higher property taxes)...($$$ a whole bunch)
9.) etc., etc., etc.

Sorry, your assumptions are incorrect.

1.) "wellness center" ($70 million)

This center is designed to serve all low income citizens of Marin. You have no data it serves non-citizens in numbers that would support your assumptions.

2.) unnecessary Pickleweed park improvements (daycare center) & daycare staff ($13 million)

Pickleweed is used by all members of Marin and San Rafael: Senior Bridge Clubs, Basketball & Soccer leagues, Martial Arts Classes, Vietnamese Classes, Community meetings, Library, Computer lab. It appears you don't really know what is going on at Pickleweed.

3.) preschool daycare at Bahia Vista when that school is supposed to be used for elementary school education ($gazillions)

This is a common practice in low income neighborhoods and has been going on for decades across the country.

4.) surtax imposed on parents whose kids use the school bus system to subsidize the Bahia Vista busing program ($30 per child per quarter)

The is a price we pay for having low income communities that serve the needs of local business. Society pay one way or another. You could choose to live in a cave and be self sufficient.

5.) Carbon pollution imposed on citizens (especially bicyclists) because of the busing policy (too much for my calculator to tally)

A few buses do nothing compared with 101 bumper to bumper single occupancy exhaust generators. You are exagerating the impact to absurd conclusions.

6.) Police duty for the regularly-sceduled illegal immigration parades ($too much) What "Illegal immigration" parades? What extra police duty?

7.) Free school lunch program

Again, these programs are nation wide for low income families.

8.) Forgone tax revenues because subsidized illegal immigrants are using public housing instead of market-rate housing (resulting in higher property taxes)...($$$ a whole bunch)

Go ask the landlords how much money they make from rent. There is no public housing projects in San Rafael.

9.) etc., etc., etc.

None of your absurd assumptions are correct and most don't even apply to the city budget if they were correct.

I think you are just racist and classist. If you don't like LOW INCOME, lobby your state and federal representatives to create living wage legislation

With the economic adjustment we are experiencing (which is not caused by the poorest in the land) we should see some changes that re-establish some balance to the greed and entitlements of the rich, who are really not that rich anymore now that values are being recalculated back to reality.

Don wrote:

They get all the freebees,and do not payinto IRS,SSI,or unemployment ins.
Thay get free med.and the rest of us have to pay for our ins.
Now the SENATE wants to put them on SSI services and McCAIN wants to cut my SSI in half-I sure would like to see him live on 350$ if a month if this gose thru.
I am retired and only get 700$ per month,am 76yo have paid in all these years,and they get it for FREE? somthing is realy wrong with this system,I loosing in the market and CEO,S still get the big BUCKS.

Get a grip! Your enemy is not your neighbors who are in the same boat as you. You should be complaining about the bailout and the continued money being spent on voodoo economics fixes that continues to funnel your money to the manipulators of wealth.

The divided will be conquered. The people of this country need to stand together against these corrupt manipulators.

Fact Checker wrote:

<quoted text>
Sorry, your assumptions are incorrect.
1.) "wellness center" ($70 million)
This center is designed to serve all low income citizens of Marin. You have no data it serves non-citizens in numbers that would support your assumptions.

We don't have data because Boro, et al. refuse to assay how many illegals are stealing from the system... instead they are content to give away the bank in order to buy a few votes...

Tinjar Michaelsen wrote:

<quoted text>
We don't have data because Boro, et al. refuse to assay how many illegals are stealing from the system... instead they are content to give away the bank in order to buy a few votes...

Whose votes is Boro getting. Boro is a Republican. Undocumented don't vote. None of the examples you gave have anything to do with funding imaginary city programs for the undocumented.

No one is giving anything away except to the companies building and expanding roads.

I'm not shocked at all. Your not gonna see any Honda or Toyota dealerships closing because engineers design those cars instead of Ford's cars which are designed by businessmen. Too bad those businessmen negelcted to take any serious science classes at college, then they might have seen this coming. Its good to see expeditions and suburbans arent selling well, they shouldnt. Toyota employs more Americans anyway.

how is it that one of their competitors is more symathetic to the situation than their customers? if anything it should be the other way around. in a time like this we need not point fingers and blame people. i myself was there for an appointment and could not have my car worked on. my heart breaks for the employees who are left to find jobs in this turbulant ecomony. i myself know where i can take my suv to be service. so they know how they are going to get by? my guess is no. maybe when you people are done looking down your noses at people you may realize that your concers are miniscule to those of the people who really may have a reason to be concerned.

San Rafael Mayor Al Boro in March called on California's U.S. senators, Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to push the immigration agency to change how it is enforcing immigration law because he believed children were the ones being hurt. April 22, 2007 news. Boro is a supporter of illegals in San Rafael.

There is no loss of sales tax on cars only parts. Car owners pay sales tax based upon city and county of registration. So no loss. The sale of parts is taxed at the source of payment. So yo can buy a carin SF but will pay sales tax on your DMV registration i.e. your residence.

This has nothing to do with illegals. This is
the result of really basic economics: ugly gas guzzlers=closed! If the mechanics who worked there
opened their own shop, and charged reasonable prices, it would be a success. The mechanics, even at dealers, are underpaid.
conned into buying overpriced snap-on tools.
bear the expence of staying current-the good ones.
I've never understood why you guys don't try to
unionize? I went to automotive school, but was
not going to work for twenty a hour.

Homey Says wrote:

San Rafael Mayor Al Boro in March called on California's U.S. senators, Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to push the immigration agency to change how it is enforcing immigration law because he believed children were the ones being hurt. April 22, 2007 news. Boro is a supporter of illegals in San Rafael.

the illegal are probably illegaly voting in our elections

we the wrote:

<quoted text>
the illegal are probably illegaly voting in our elections

Too hard to do.