People who live in sprawling cities are more likely to report hypertension, arthritis, headaches and breathing difficulties, and other chronic health conditions, according to the Rand Corporation. A few weeks ago, Smart Growth America reported that sprawl makes you fat.

Sedentary, car-dominated lifestyles and air pollution appeared to be contributing factors, says co-author Roland Sturm, a Rand economist. The findings suggest that an adult who lives in a more sprawling urban area will have a health profile similar to someone four years older who lives in a more compact city [LA Times, registration required].

Sprawl is defined as poorly connected streets (such as cul-de-sacs), lower population density and widely separated areas for housing, schools, shopping and employment.

If you must live in sprawl, Sturm says activities such as walking a child to school or bicycling to a corner market can have cumulative positive health effects. This assumes that you live within walking distance of your child’s school.

In the coming months, I want to start putting this information in a Coastside context. I want to look at existing examples of sprawl on the coastside and explore what we can do to avoid it in the future.

Rev Wendy Taylor operates Puente de la Costa Sur (Bridge of the South Coast) to help build bridges between Latinos and Anglos in Pescadero. She helps farmworkers find literacy classes, medical and dental clinics, and transportation. She has distributed over 300 mountain bikes to workers and provided sleeping bags for the homeless. When ranches have closed down or families have been evicted, Taylor has helped them relocate.

Tonight, The San Francisco Foundation will award Taylor the John R. May Community Leadership Award at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. The award includes a check for $20,000 for Puente de la Costa Sur.

Build Day for the Moss Beach Park starts Wednesday, September 29 and continues through October 3. Everyone is invite to help build the new park. For more information see Coastsider’s earlier story, or see [url=http://www.mossbeachpark.com]http://www.mossbeachpark.com[/url]

I just found this remarkable plan for the new park on the Web site. It looks really exciting. Click on the image for a larger version, or go to the Web site.

UPDATE: Stephen Miller posted this comment, which I’m adding to the main story:

The park effort is in need of tools: hammers, saws, drills, wrenches, wheelbarrows, etc.  The complete list can be viewed at on the Web site If you are willing to loan your tools for the build, please bring them to the park.  Someone will check them in, tag each item, and you will get a receipt.  Alternatively, you can call Theresa MacNaughton, Tools Coordinator, at 563-9739.

Tools will be looked after, but if any are lost or damaged, the park has a budget to replace them.  See you at the build!

I stopped by the land that the Half Moon Bay City Council just bought to get some pictures of HMB’s newest parkland, on Oak Ave, just south of Pilarcitos Creek. This lot was purchased by unanimous vote.

There’s a lot of construction going on right now to build the southern footing of the bridge over Pilarcitos Creek. The third photo probably gives the best view of the lot.  Beyond the brush lies the creekbed.

Click on the pictures for a larger image.

A wildland fire broke out Thursday at the end of Loma Mar Ave. in Loma Mar, probably started by a downed power line. The fire was in difficult terrain.  The La Honda and Loma Mar Volunteer Fire Departments, as well as the CDF/San Mateo County Fire Department responded to the call at 2:53pm.

The fire burned nearly an acre and took nearly four hours for eight engines, one water tender, two hand crews, two helicopters, two air tankers and one air attack to bring under control.  Firefighters remained at the scene through Friday evening.

Chief Larry Whitney of the La Honda department reminds us that fall is the San Mateo County Coastside’s Fire Season. The wild fire threat will remain until the winter’s rains arrive in earnest. Over the last decade most all of the South Coast’s large acreage fires have occurred in the months of October and November. Keep defensible space around your home and report any sign of a fire immediately by dialing 911.

Click on the pictures for a larger image.

The body of a man, shot in the head, was found on Pescadero State Beach on Friday afternoon. The body was found hidden near the parking lot on the south beach, with the gun nearby.  Lt. John Quinlan says that it could have been a suicide, but that investigators are treating the case as a homicide.

Coastsider will be at the Half Moon Bay Wine Walk tomorrow night. We’re going to take lots of pictures, as we did at the Chili Cookoff, and try to post them live this time. If you see us taking pictures, say hello.

Last year’s event was a lot of fun, and we’re looking forward to doing it again. As I’m sure you know, the Wine Walk benefits Back to Basics, which raised $35,000 last year for local schools. This year, they hope to double their attendace to 4,000 to 5,000 people. I understand from organizer Amy Broome that the there will be a lot more food available than last year. The scarcity of food to go with the wine was our only complaint from last year. The event is Saturday night from 7pm to 10pm.

Why didn’t the Half Moon Bay City Council vote unanimously to buy the Nurserymen’s Exchange property [satellite photo] for a new park?  The deal seems sweet: $3 million for 22 acres, with an interest-free three-year loan from the Peninsula Open Space Trust. Is there a problem?

At the meeting, City Council member Marina Fraser and former HMB council member and Mayor Naomi Patridge spoke against the purchase. Their concerns were well-expressed in a “Matter of Opinion” column in Wednesday’s HMB Review by Fraser.  [I’ll link to it when the Review puts it online. As of noon on Friday, Wednesday’s paper is not online]. Her objections seemed thoughtful and prudent: has the city done sufficient due diligence to determine whether a park can actually be built on the site?

It’s difficult to understand the decision-making process. Negotiations and studies took place in secret. Nurserymen’s Exchange insisted on secrecy to avoid tainting the property if the deal fell through.

Marina Fraser told me that she didn’t anticipate all the issues with the project until the due diligence report came out two weeks ago.  Her principal objections are (1) there it may be difficult or impossible to rezone the land for a park, especially with a corporation yard, and (2) there might not be enough usable land once riparian corridors and habitats are set aside.

She understands these problems.  Half Moon Bay has been unable to develop Coastside Community Park since it completed the Environment Impact Report in 1997. She was a Parks and Recreation commissioner from 1998 to 2002.  Why didn’t she apply that experience to shape the due diligence process?

Fraser is certainly a supporter of parks. In running for City Council, Fraser said her top priority was to “Expand recreational/park opportunities for neighborhoods, and create safe pedestrian walkways/trails to downtown”. Where does she think the city should put its recreational areas? She told me they should go in CCP.

Patridge is rumored to be running for City Council in the next election. The controversy over this park will certainly be an issue. It will be interesting to see how opposing what will surely be a very popular park will look on her and Fraser’s resumes the next time they come before the voters. If the park becomes a boondoggle, the twin Cassandras will be hailed as visionaries.

I talked to council member and Mayor Mike Ferreira about Fraser’s concerns.  He pointed out that this is a very different property from the one purchased for the Coastside Community Park, which Fraser points to as a example of a park plan gone wrong.  Ferreira says there are no natural flora or fauna outside the area around the creek. By removing the current agricultural exemptions, creating a riparian buffer, and controlling vehicle access, you’re going to improve the local environment and bring the property into compliance with the local coastal plan.

Ferreira told me, “I have already walked the area with a former high official of [California] Fish & Game, he said it was a beautiful site at a good price and advised me to just be proactive with the state and federal agencies.”

Finally, I was impressed by the response of the neighbors in Cypress Cove. The City Council did survey some neighbors as part of their due diligence. Virtually all of the Cypress Cove folks at the City Council meeting expressed legitimate concerns about traffic, parking, and safety; and expressed a desire to work with the city to mitigate the impact.  What you don’t see is a knee-jerk NIMBY response. They know what a boon this park will be for their neighborhood.

However, one Cypress Cove homeowner did ask, “Would you like this park built right next to where you live?” Ummm...yeah. Please.

At last night’s meeting, the HMB city council agreed to buy both the Nurserymen’s Exchange property east of the city and the Oak Avenue property for much-needed parks.

This is really good news. I’m going to write some more about this once I’ve had a chance to review the tape of last night’s meeting.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the HMB City Council, there will be more parkland on the agenda than just the huge Nurserymen’s Exchange purchase east of town.

Also on the agenda is a parcel at the north end of Oak Avenue [Map], just south of Pilarcitos Creek and west of Highway 1. The area can also be seen in this satellite photo. City Manager Debra Ryan has reached an agreement with the seller and the Council will vote on the purchase. This is a wonderful plan to create a park for a neighborhood that could use some public space. The park would include the southern landing of the Pilarcitos Creek pedestrian bridge.

I parked at Strawflower Village and walked over to Oak Avenue yesterday to get feel for the space. The scary part is walking along Highway 1 in what must be a regular trip for anyone shopping at Safeway from the area. It’s a terrifying ordeal on a slanted, broken shoulder that dips toward the creekbed, over a narrow sidewalk on the highway overpass of the creek, and then a right turn through a trash-strewn lot into the neighborhood itself. You see adults and children walking along the highway to and from Strawflower Village every day. The pedestrian bridge across the creek will be a special boon to folks who live in this area. And it’s going to be even better because there will now be a park on the southern landing of the bridge.

The neighborhood is what passes for high-density on the coast, consisting mostly of small apartment buildings, especially as you go further north.  It’s especially nice to see parkland, and not more apartment buildings, on the borders of the creek and next to one of Half Moon Bay’s less-affluent neighborhoods.