Most of us who live here agree that San Diego is America's Finest City, and that the entire county is a mighty fine place to be. But we also know that it isn’t a perfect place. We’re not America's Cleanest City or America's Kindest County, and the fact that we rank barely above the national average in traffic congestion only proves that the rest of America has way too much traffic.
    I’ve taken a nonscientific poll of my friends and colleagues, asking them what we can do to make our region even finer in the fresh millennium. Yes, we know the millennium doesn’t start until 2001, but I here and now declare 2000 as the year for soul-searching and preparation.
    Some of the suggestions are whimsical. Some are grievously serious. Some answers to our problems are free. Others solutions are costly. But one way or another, we’ll be paying the price, so we might as well do it soon and do it right.
    • Andrea, age 5, says we need to plant more flowers and gardens. She wants to live in a prettier, brighter world. One solution is to declare Arbor Day as "plant flowers on all freeway embankments" day. We already have some areas that blaze with the orange, purple and pink ground cover called lampranthus. Let's mobilize Scout troops, garden clubs, senior citizens' groups, doctors, lawyers and auto mechanics to organize on that day to make every freeway berm a colorful roadside garden. Drought resistant plants would serve best. We could call our planting day "Andrea Day.
    • A 39-year-old who identified himself as Thomas the Tank Engine (he must be a daddy who reads to his kids) says our mass transit system needs a lot of improvement, especially along Interstates 5 and 15. He was among a half-dozen people who complained about traffic.
    Yet have you ever looked at our county buses and noticed how empty they usually are? Although there are buses on major thoroughfares, people don’t always use them because they find themselves miles from where they actually need to go. For example, the North County Transit Bus through Del Mar only runs along the coast highway, Old 101. There is an east-west bus between La Jolla and Mira Mesa, and another that runs by the race track and out to Escondido, but for the five or so miles between, there is no bus to the eastern side of the community, which is up to 10 miles away. Students cannot take a bus to Torrey Pines High School, shoppers can’t go to Del Mar Highlands center, and workers cannot reach the ever-increasing number of medical and office buildings along I-5 north of the I-805 merge. No wonder that stretch of freeway is so impacted. Other parts of the county have similar problems. The solution might be a network of minibuses that connect major routes, especially during the prime drive times.
    • One San Diegan suggests traffic problems could be reduced by better street signage, similar to the large signs in Phoenix or Tempe. This is especially important considering the special lights used in our area to minimize glare so that Palomar Observatory can get a better view of the night sky.
    • To relieve some traffic tension immediately, how about a voluntary "wave don’t rave" policy? If someone irritates you on the freeway or on the streets, just wave (not a one-finger wave). Let it go. Furthermore, we could declare ourselves a "honk-free" zone, so that if you hear a honk you would know that either the situation was life threatening, or a friend trying to get your attention. Employers, please voluntarily allow employees to be up to three minutes late to compensate for drivers who lollygag and don’t shoot off the mark the very instant a traffic light changes to green.
    • Nicole, age 15, wants schools to provide lockers for students. Darn right. Not only is there no public transit running to Torrey Pines High School, a student there cannot have a locker unless he or she brings a doctor's note saying it is necessary for health reasons. Very few high schools provide storage areas. One school distributes its few lockers on the basis of grades to reward the top performing students. That's just another way of making ordinary students feel bad about themselves. No wonder so many kids hate high school. If you think this is a trivial problem, just drive by any high school and see the size of the packs youngsters must hoist on their backs. Perhaps if San Diego were nicer to kids, they'd be more serious, less hostile students.
    • Michael, 45, says there is far too much racism in our county. Regardless of the view a person takes on the Demetrius DuBose police-shooting incident in Pacific Beach, the public reaction should be a wake-up call that our county could be in for Los Angeles-style race riots. That's a frightening prospect. One small step in the right direction might be a "Better Way" award. Some local organization could give recognition to the police officer (or group of officers) who might have been legally justified in shooting a person, but who chose a smarter, more humane way of dealing with a problem. We all know that police usually are justified when they use their guns. But most of us are proud when law enforcers show heroic restraint, even closing a stretch of freeway down all day, resulting in justice served and the life of a distraught citizen saved.
    • Cara, 41, would like to see more Democrats in San Diego, more visionary leaders and most of all, a Jewish deli that knows what lox wings are and hand slices its Nova instead of getting it prepackaged from who-knows-where.
    • Lynne says that her big wish for San Diego is a new Downtown library. "Maybe library isn’t the right word," she says. "How about the 'San Diego Temple of Knowledge?' Forget those arguments that $100 million is too much to spend on a library. Make it $200 million and put it where it belongs, on Lane Field, where Maureen O'Connor rightly wanted to put it. Its architecture will rival the Sydney Opera House. It will have coffeehouses and bookstores and magnificent reading rooms — and of course, it will have tons of Internet-connected computers, free Lexis-Nexis and other e-library sources. It will have lots of free parking so everyone can meet there and have a great time socializing and using their brains. It should be a statement that beautiful San Diego isn’t as dumb as it seemed when its leaders couldn’t figure out how to build a new library."
    That's enough self-improvement for this year. Happy Y2K everyone.

Janet Lowe is author of several investment books, including "Value Investing Made Easy" (McGraw-Hill) and "Warren Buffett Speaks" (John Wiley & Sons).