From Where I Sit 96 PAGES AND GROWING
	JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005

by Richard Koscher, Publisher

Our 110° Magazine is politically unaligned. We have personal political viewpoints, of course, but don’t discuss them in the pages of our publication. In our current issue we’ve done two articles about some East County politicians — long after the political race is put behind them.

Our apolitical editorial position seems to me to be logical for any publication not covering the news — and even those that are, for the most part. I could never understand why newspapers and even my beloved New Yorker magazine would stoop to endorsing a candidate.

I want to read a magazine or newspaper to learn about the world. I have no interest in learning about whether the publisher or editor is a liberal or a conservative.

How can people trust the information coming through any media if the channel of information is being used to communicate the publisher or program director’s personal opinions?

We’re serious about our position of neutrality. We turned down articles from both Millie Greenburg and from Mary Piepho this year because we didn’t want the pages of our magazine to be used in some partisan way by anybody seeking public office. And I have to say to the credit of Mary and Millie that when we explained our position, both candidates instantly agreed that we were doing the right thing.

We hope the two of them were being sincere in their agreement. In Mary’s case we know she was because she helped us understand and formulate our editorial policy, which excluded her from being in our magazine during an election period.

Our 110° Magazine will maintain its neutral political position as long as I remain at the helm. We will write stories about politicians and will give them a voice, but will do so in as impartial a manner as possible. We’ll let people with political points of view speak even if we don’t agree with what they say.

Most of us, I think, are willing to hear opinions contrary to our own, as long as they are stated in a reasonable and interesting fashion. It’s one of the ways that we broaden ourselves and grow intellectually.

The Ongoing Vasco Road Melodrama
Our editorial policy has admittedly not been very neutral regarding Vasco Road. We ran a major feature on that subject in our very first issue and, since then, have been running articles in every other issue, or so, in which writers have commented on the progress (or lack of) with that road.

We agree with those who say Vasco needs barriers in the near term and must become a divided four-lane highway at some point in the future.

I was a commuter, myself, on Vasco Road. On some mornings it took me a couple hours, or more, to get to the City or back. People die on Vasco Road, but everyone who drives that highway dies a little bit every day.

The irony behind the Vasco Road mess is that when the old Vasco Road was scheduled for burial beneath the waters of the Los Vaqueros Dam, the Contra Costa Water District offered to pick up the tab for any kind of road the county requested.

The decision-making process reportedly fell under the control of a clique of people who opted for the current insufficient two-lane road as an ill-advised method of limiting the growth in East County and conserving the area’s environment.

East County residents now are being maimed and killed in payment for the ignorance of a group of people who weren’t able to realize that our area would grow with or without transportation infrastructure sufficient to support the growth.

Another milestone this month is that this is our biggest issue yet. We’re 96 pages and growing! We have again put together a fascinating and interesting issue. While reading it, I couldn’t put the magazine down.

Good reading and Happy New Year to all!