The Californian from Salinas, California • 2

CMfornm Weekend, October 2-3, 2010 NEWS on Ed Mm teg SCuDCD tag TO HELP To report information, call Salinas police detectives at 831-758-7226. To remain anonymous, call the anonymous tip line at 831-775-4222, the We-Tip line at 1-800-78-CRIME, or text information with the code "SPD831" to "847411." on 'P 3 --T-itV, SUNITA VIJAVAN Shooting happened on AlisalHigh campus near Burke Street BY SUNITA VIJAYAN svijayanthecalifornian.com Police said a 15-year-old Alisal High School sophomore was fatally shot early Friday as he cut across the campus' athletic field from Burke Street, an east Salinas neighborhood. Cmdr. Dan Perez, who heads the department's investigations division, said the boy was shot several times in the torso about 7:53 a.m. on the back field of the school in east Salinas.

Police said a single gunman, described as wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and a red bandanna, approached the school on a paved walkway near Burke Street. The shooter passed several students, police said, then came upon Jose Daniel Cisneros as he and a group of others came off the pathway, heading toward school. Cmdr. Dan Perez said the gunman fired multiple rounds, wounding only Cisneros. Friday night football game to Hollister.

Friday's shooting comes about four months after a safety project was completed in the east Salinas neighborhood the boy had walked from. During the school year, residents, parents and hundreds of students from at least three schools use Burke Street as a shortcut through Del Monte Avenue and nearby sections of the neighborhood. The street, which dead ends at Alisal High School, underwent a several-month facelift spurred by the Jan. 12, 2009 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Juan Jose Perez there. The city of Salinas, Alco Water Co.

and the Salinas Union High School District were involved in the project. Besides better lighting, a walkway, wrought-iron gate and landscaping, two surveillance cameras were installed as part of the project. Deputy police chief Manny Perrien said officers will review the surveillance video to see if any information on the suspect, who wore a red bandana, may have been caught. "It appears he was the intended victim," Perez said. Police said the gunman then fled back down the path to Camarillo Street, where he was seen getting into a tan mid-size car and fleeing north.

Cisneros was taken to Natividad Medical Center, then flown to a Bay Area trauma center, police said. After undergoing emergency surgery, they said, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased. The homicide is being investigated as gang-related. 'If disheartening' Friday's shooting comes three days after 17-year-old Ulises Jacobo-Corona was shot dead while walking on the 1200 block of Del Monte Avenue, less than half a mile away. Perez, who heads the investigations division, said detectives have not determined whether the shootings are connected.

Police say a dozen of the 14 homi--cides they've investigated this year were gang-related. While Friday's shooting Emergency crews take an Alisal High School sophomore to an ambulance after he was shot multiple times on a school athletic field on his way to classes Friday morning. Friday to speak to students affected by the shooting, Burns said. In his six years as principal, he said, this is the first time a shooting has happened on campus. The school was placed on lockdown, he said, and students were hustled into the building.

"The teachers did a good job getting students in the classrooms and making sure they were safe," Burns said. Video may help Burns said he and an assistant principal were by the boy's side within a minute of being notified of the shooting. About an hour after the shooting, Alisal officials decided to move the school's took place at the "prime time" for students walking to campus, about 25 minutes before school was scheduled to begin. "A lot of students were walking to school and observed what happened, and it's sad that it happened at disheartening that someone would come into school grounds and commit an act like that." Counselors were available occurred on campus, Perez said, it in no way was a reflection on the school. "An overwhelming majority of the kids at the school are great kids," he said.

"A lot of the kids who go there have absolutely nothing to do with gangs, but they're affected by it. Friday was a perfect example of how they are affected." Alisal's principal, Dan Burns, said the shooting Hometown hero flies with Thunderbirds The men with the axes: The perverse subsidy of Monterey County real estate 4 ft J- I 1 rvf I 1 StOTT MACUONALD El Sausal Middle School Assistant Principal Raul Ramirez shows his sons Jacob, 6, left, Jared, 5, and Jason, 3, right a model of the jet he was about to fly in Friday at the Monterey Peninsula Airport as part of the Hometown Heroes program. The Thunderbirds selected Ramirez out of five Hometown Heroes, who were selected from hundreds of nominees for their contributions to the community. El Sausal Middle leader Raul Ramirez fulfills childhood dream We are now in the grip of the worst real estate downturn since the Great Depression. Home prices are now down more than 60 percent from their market high.

Yet developers continue to plan more construction. According to local development watchdog Landwatch, more than 22,000 homes are approved for building but as yet unbuilt in Monterey County. This suggests that in the next several decades we're going to grow the equivalent of two more cities the size of Marina (which has a population of about Approaching the real estate market conservatively, we should expect real estate demand to recover slowly. Basic economics suggests that building 22,000 homes will depress the real estate market further, or at least reduce genuine gains, by increasing supply in the face of that slowly growing demand. Building these homes will thus reduce homeowner's equity and increase foreclosures and home abandonment.

In other words, further real estate development will only hurt existing homeowners. The situation is the same in the commercial real estate markets. In south Salinas, the hulk of the abandoned supermarket at Palma Drive and West Alisal Street molders in the midst of thousands of potential customers. East Salinas gradually decays into what appears to be an intentionally planned Latino ghetto. Meanwhile, a developer is planning to build an entirely new supermarket venue at the intersection of Highway 68 and Corral deTierra Road, the Corral DeTierra Neighborhood Shopping Village, in the face of an environmental impact report which suggests that water is lacking, and disruption toToro Creek will be profound.

When I review the record of Monterey County real estate development over the past 30 years, I see the same cycle repeat itself over and over again. Urban areas ripe for redevelopment, and reuse are encouraged to degrade. And wherever there are resources in water, road access, or environmental attractiveness, these resources are PETER ANDRESEN Neighborhood Watch handed over to a relatively few developers by our local government officials. Whenever we taxpayers pay additional fees and taxes to develop a resource, the benefits of our investments are quickly parceled out to developers yet again. For example, when we increase water supplies, developments are quickly approved, and they deliver unto developers whatever surplus is created.

The benefits have accrued almost entirely to a landed few, an oligarchy of developers and landed wealthy. The agents of transfer have been the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission of Monterey County. How could this happen? How could a society of sane, progressive people destroy their own quality of life? As always, I turn to history and economics. Monterey County demonstrates an eternal principal from Econ 1A: the perverse subsidy. A perverse subsidy is when few citizens benefit at the implicit cost of the many.

In other words, a perverse subsidy occurs when a few enterprising individuals reap benefits which have large implicit costs for the rest of us. This can happen by accident, by simple lack of awareness, or due to kleptocracy. (As I wrote in last week's column, the kleptocracy theory holds that all elites, whether they are conservatives, liberals, stone age or high tech, will inevitably seek to enrich themselves or their immediate constituencies). The classic example of a perverse subsidy, taught throughout our educational system, is the Easter Island Paradox. Easter Island has no native trees, but apparently was well-forested in the past.

Why did the people of Easter Island cut down ALL their trees? The answer is that the benefits of cutting down a tree conferred See ANDRESEN, 5A IF YOU GO What: The 2010 California International Airshow Salinas Location and directions: Salinas Municipal Airport. North on Highway 101, take the Fairview Avenue exit, turn left and follow signs. South on Highway 101, exit John Street, turn left and follow signs. When: Today and Sunday; Gates open 9 a.m, flying begins 11:30 a.m. General Admission: $20adult, $15child Grandstand seats: $30 Box seats: $35 Flight Deck Club (includes admissioncatered meal): Parking and transportation: $15 at airport Free MST bus rides from Northridge Mall to airport begins 9 a.m., every 20 minutes, Line 48 Salinas Special assistance: Volunteers are available in the parking lots to assist with transportation.

Information: www.salinas airshow.com; 831-754-1983 OM-888-845-SHOW SCOn MACDONALD said. El Sausal students put up banners congratulating him. "He's like a rock star at the school. The kids have been looking up at the sky all day," Anne Ramirez said. During his flight, Ramirez experienced intense gravitational forces of up to nine times his body weight, and flew upside down for stretches.

"Flying upside down, the world was all around me," he said. "I saw Salinas and Greenfield. I saw my hometown from the heavens. It makes you feel very special." Even during the intense flight. "He had such a good time," said Captain Kris-ten Hubbard, the pilot.

"He kept laughing, and saying thank you. I think he found inverted flight easier than being an assistant principal." Plenty of El Sausal Middle School students will be at the Airshow, as the school received free tickets. The school decided to give them away to students in exchange for donations of canned food. "We wanted to do something positive for the community, and continue this positive momentum we have," said Ramirez. "There's a lot of good things going on right now in east Salinas.

I hope this inspires my students dreams do come true." BY SANDEEP RAVINDRAN sravindranthecalifornian.com El Sausal Middle School's Raul Ramirez had his childhood dreams come true Friday, as he flew with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds at more than 600 mph over Salinas. As the F-16 jet plane barreled through its practice run, Ramirez experienced all the maneuvers the Thunderbirds will perform this weekend at the California International Airshow in Salinas. "I'm in awe. It was the ride of my life," said Ramirez, an assistant principal at the Salinas school, after his flight.

"I just crossed off the No. 1 thing on my bucket list, the No. 1 thing I've dreamt about," Ramirez said. "As a kid, watching "Top Gun," this was my fantasy." Ramirez had joined the U.S. Army in the hope of becoming a pilot, but couldn't enter flight school because he wore glasses.

"He always wanted to fly," his wife, Anne Ramirez, said. But it was a secret only a few people knew, she said, and the students and staff who nominated him didn't know about it. Ramirez was selected by the Thunderbirds out of five Hometown Heroes chosen from hundreds of nominations from the community. "It feels like winning the lottery," he said, adding that he was humbled at being selected for the flight. "I've El Sausal Middle School Assistant Principal Raul Ramirez gives the thumbs-up from the seat of a U.S.

Air Force Thunderbirds jet Friday at the Monterey Peninsula Airport WEATHER Expect pleasant temperatures and clear skies for the California International Airshow in Salinas this weekend, said Austin Cross, meteorologist at the National Weather Service, Monterey. Overnight fog should clear by mid to late morning, and highs are expected to be in the low 70s on both Saturday and Sunday. town Heroes were Monterey firefighter Barry Perkins, student John Russo, Scotts Valley policeman John Hohmann and community volunteer Stephanie Loose. Ramirez brought an "I heart El Sausal Middle School" sticker to affix on the plane before his flight. He said the cheering and support he'd received from his students meant a lot to him.

"It makes me feel never had anything like this before. I only wish the other nominees could fly as well." Master Sgt. Pamela Anderson, public affairs superintendent for the Thunderbirds, said "Teachers, firemen, the police they're all heroes, but we look for the person who has that little bit extra." The other local Home-.