“Politics is the art of the possible.”—Otto von Bismarck

“To open a show, I like to do one thing that is impossible.  So, right now, I’m going to suck this piano into my lungs.” —Steve Martin, wielding a drinking straw

The Half Moon Bay City Council majority bet $18 million of taxpayers’ money that it could suck the piano of AB1991 through the drinking straw of the California legislature.

Now, having failed, they’re angry—at “people from outside this community”, “people who had their lawyers and their lobbyists against us”, and “people that don’t want it resolved”.

“People from outside this community” didn’t pick this fight to hurt the city. By trying to sell out the Coastal Act as well as environmental and wetlands protections for cash, the city dared anyone who cared about the future of any portion of California coast to meet them in Sacramento for a rumble.

“People who had their lawyers and their lobbyists against us” are not at fault. Does anyone doubt that the city spent more on lawyers and lobbyists to support AB1991 than the environmentalists did to defeat it?

“People who don’t want it resolved” aren’t the problem. Those people don’t exist. Everyone who opposed AB1991 supported SB863, which was hastily thrown together to fill the gap left by the failure of AB1991. No one opposed relief for the city.

SB863 demonstrated that the city has more friends in Sacramento and the environmental community than they knew.  It’s too bad they hadn’t realized that sooner. Or yet.

Just wondering what it would be like to sit in my house with the windows open and a gentle breeze flowing through and to be able to hear the birds? All I hear are plane engines. I assume they are doing their take off and landing practice. I am not opposed to the airport or the planes, just would like to hear something other than engines all day long on beautiful days like today.

As I said, just a thought.

A unique blend of four-part guitar harmonies to jazz standards and original compositions from Perry Smith, John Storie, Brady Cohan, Matt Roberts.

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$30.  Tickets at the door. Reservations for members.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission.

Each year, the first rain event of the season washes urban pollutants off of the streets and into storm drains, eventually entering the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Critical Coastal Areas (CCA’s).

First Flush events take place up and down the coast from Carmel-by-the-sea all the way to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve CCA and Pillar Point Harbour (for the first time), tracking these pollutants. Your help is needed to collect water samples from storm drain outfalls in the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Critical Coastal Area and Pillar Point Harbor.
 
There will be a training session/dry run taking place on Saturday, September 13, 2008 from 9:30 to noon at the Moss Beach Ranch Laboratory. 1862 Etheldore (RSVP for directions) RSVP or info:  , San Mateo RCD and 650-712-7765

Sampling will occur on the first rain event of the season. Volunteers will be mobilized through a telephone tree.

A. Not proving in court that Beachwood always contained wetlands.

B. Failing to appeal the Beachwood decision.

C. Not working with environmental and other stakeholders to craft a bill that could pass the state legislature.

D. Making terms of the Beachwood settlement conditional on passage of AB1991.

E. Arbitrarily adding Glencree to the Beachwood settlement the day after Keenan optioned the property.

F. Misrepresenting threat of bankruptcy to Senator Leland Yee.

G. Getting Leland Yee to sign on to AB1991 without having seen the bill.

H. Delivering a settlement that required the state legislature to set a precedent for undermining decades of coastal, wetlands, environmental, and planning protection in exchange for cash.

I. Allowing, or not knowing of, Keenan’s sharing of the city’s lobbying expenses.

J. Spending six months and a million bucks trying to sell AB1991 in Sacramento.

K. Slandering Coastal Commission staff, who will rule on what the city can do with its newly-acquired Beachwood parcel.

L. Claiming that ABAG’s $5 million check could not be applied to the settlement cost.

M. Having no contingency plan if AB1991 were to fail, thereby wasting all of July and most of August.

N. All of the above.

O. None of the above—the city was ambushed by the nerds from the Sierra Club.

SB863, Senator Leland Yee’s bill to compensate Half Moon Bay with $10 million to buy Beachwood for parkland, failed to pass out of the state assembly before the end of the Labor Day weekend deadline, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. The city will owe $18 million to developer Charles “Chop” Keenan on June 20, 2009.

City officials have said the $18 million would take decades to repay. Contacted on Sunday, Half Moon Bay Councilman John Muller still hadn’t heard the news and reacted with sadness.

“I was afraid of that. I’m absolutely devastated, to be honest with you. We were working so hard for this, and we were anticipating that if we had to look for other funding to pay it off or declare bankruptcy, it’s going to take a long time to do,” said Muller. The Half Moon Bay City Council was expected to discuss how to proceed at a scheduled meeting tonight .

Adam Keigwin, a spokesman for Yee’s office, suggested there would still be time to pass another bill by June 30, 2009, when the legislative session resumes in December. But it would need to start again with new language, new hearings and new letters of support. It will also need at least one new sponsor — Assemblyman Gene Mullin, D-South San Francisco, who championed an earlier, failed Beachwood bill, will be termed out at the end of 2008.

“It’s not an impossible deadline,” declared Keigwin.

In 2007, 44% of California Coastal Commission votes were pro-conservation, according to an annual analysis by conservation groups.The score was 60% in 2005, and 76% in 1997. The analysis has been prepared annually for the past 20 years.

Of the appointing authorities, the Senate Rules Committee appointments out-scored the Commissioner appointments made by the Governor and the Assembly Speaker this year with 72% pro-coastal average score for Senate appointees, 35% for Assembly appointees, and 24% for the Governor’s appointees.

The voting chart was prepared by California Coastkeeper Alliance, Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, League for Coastal Protection, and California Coastal Protection Network. You can download the report, which outlines the individual issues and commissioner votes in 2007 from Coastsider.

San Mateo County will test the Princeton, El Granada and Pacifica tsunami warning sirens on Wednesday, September 3 at 10:00 a.m.  This test is different than our routine monthly tests in that it will be the first time the sirens have been tested at full volume and for a one minute duration. The sirens should be heard  by anyone outdoors throughout lower El Granada including Surfers’ Beach, all of Princeton, as well as Rockaway Beach and the Sharp Park area of Pacifica.  

We normally test the sirens monthly at the same time, but at less than half volume and only for 15 seconds.  This will probable be the only full volume test this year.  We picked September since it is National Disaster Preparedness Month.  More info on that can be found at http://www.Ready.gov.  

If the sirens sound anytime other than the routine monthly test on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m., people should leave the beach area and tune their radio or television to the Emergency Alert Station ( such as KCBS 740 am) for official instructions.  In case of a tsunami approaching from a distance location, the sirens could sound several hours before the tsunami arrives.  The purpose of the sirens is to capture the attention of people that are outside and who have not been notified of the potential danger by radio or other means.

In other tsunami siren news, a third tsunami siren for the City of Pacifica has been approved and will be installed at the LInda Mar Beach in the next few weeks.  Two additional sirens have been approved by San Mateo County Planning Commission with one schedule for Moss Beach, above the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, and the other for the town of Pescadero.  (We anticipate the siren in Pescadero will be used more frequently for flood emergencies, rather than tsunamis).  The Half Moon Bay Planning Commission finally approved tsunami sirens for the Miramar area and Half Moon Bay north of Kelly Avenue.  Significant testing restrictions were placed on the latter siren, to be located at the sewer treatment plant at 1000 North Cabrillo Highway,  to keep from impacting wildlife.  

Installation of all sirens is anticipated by the end of the year.  Sirens are being provided by Hormann America of Martinez, CA, a national public warning contractor.  Funding for purchase, installation and maintenance has been acquired by the Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services through Homeland Security/Emergency Preparedness grants.

Jim Asche
Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services.

It’s not too late the apply for one of the two open positions on the Midcoast Community Council, but it will be soon. The deadline is Tuesday, September 2. The two positions will be filled by appointment, due to the resignations of two elected members. You can apply online on the county’s website.

The MCC is an advisory body to the Board of Supervisors. The supervisors are the governing body for the unincorporated Midcoast, but since the supervisors are elected at large by the voters of the county, our voice counts for little in Redwood City.

The MCC has the potential to make the community’s voice heard on issues such as parks and trails, community center development, planning and zoning.

For more information you can contact Supervisor Rich Gordon’s assistant, , at 650-363-4528.