When abroad, it’s hard stay informed with The Union and its curmudgeon columnist

Our towns have outgrown The Union, as I’ve written before. When out of town, it’s easier to keep up with the local news reading Facebook, SacBee, YubaNet, Moonshine Ink and others.

I was astounded to read this column by George Boardman this morning about the effort to “Save the Bridgeport Bridge.” He writes: “For the most part, our elected officials at the state, county and local levels were following instead of leading.”

Huh? In fact, the local “electeds” worked together with the nonprofits such as SYRCL as far back as Fall 2011 to first “Save the Yuba River State Park” and then “Save the Bridgeport Bridge.” It culminated in Gov. Brown and the legislature budgeting money for the bridge repair.

All told, it was an excellent example of nonpartisan collaboration: Hank Weston, a staunch conservative, working with SYRCL, for example. Here’s a photo of Weston and Robert Bergman in Sacramento to “Save the Yuba State Park” in February 2012.

What an uninformed writeup. The Union needs to step up its game well beyond the “Hemig photos” on Facebook. It keeps drawing a smaller and smaller circle around itself. And it needs to dump Boardman, the curmudgeon columnist. The management should be embarrassed.

(Photo: Michael Weissenborn and SierraCulture.com)

Author: jeffpelline

Jeff Pelline is a veteran editor and award-winning journalist - in print and online. He is publisher of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine and its website SierraCulture.com. Jeff covered business and technology for The San Francisco Chronicle for 12 years, and he was a founding editor and Editor of CNET News for eight years, among other positions. Jeff has a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley and a master's from Northwestern University. His hobbies include sailing, swimming, and trout fishing in the Sierra. View all posts by jeffpelline