Posted by where are the real journalists?, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:27 pm

Slow news day story....Why not report the corruption in the Bay Area Quality Management District? Why not ask why or how the district can determine a Spare the Air alert for the entire Bay Area when the Bay Area has hundreds of micro-climates resulting in climate conditions varying from city to city. What a fsrce. Maybe your news teams time would be better spent on the determining what the BAAQMD's motive is for creating air alerts.

Posted by all it it together, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Aug 10, 2012 at 5:39 pm

The Bay Area does have many different microclimates, but the prevailing winds collect all the pollution into large general areas. Just because your neighborhood isn't suffering right now, if you create excessive pollution, you will be contributing to someone else's suffering.

Posted by axel, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 12, 2012 at 1:20 am

I realize that out of political correctness, news media outlets run these Spare The Air alerts even though no discounts or free passes are given for public transit. But why aren't you posting Flex Alerts, which ask people to reduce their power consumption? We had such an alert on Friday, and the only place I read about it was in the Daily Post. The air quality here is pretty good, even on Spare The Air days, compared to the 1970s, before the catalytic was introduced. But Flex Alerts are way more important. If power usage isn't reduced, the next step is rolling blackouts. Nobody wants that. So I'd suggest that Palo Alto Onlne/Weekly get on top of the Flex Alerts from now on, in addition to the meaningless Spare The Air alerts.

Posted by daniel, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Aug 12, 2012 at 6:25 am

And at the same time dozens and dozens of gasoline leafblowers keep polluting the air because the ban isn't being enforced.