Why is realism branded “surreal”? Just because planning is bad for our already overpopulated and overdeveloped local coastside communities, why accept the stupidity and projections that dictate even more problems and damage? If wider roads were the answer--and they never have been long-term in California because they haven’t been accompanied by a halt in growth--southern California and the freewayed greater Bay Area would be heaven. Bigger roads in urbanizing areas simply mean bigger traffic jams because they always go hand-in-hand with more growth and development. And if growth and development were halted and the coastside began the rational process of slowly ratcheting back to what can be sustained here, wider roads would still not be needed because traffic lightening would begin with direct, proven, non-automobile measures of the sort mentioned by Sophia Freer.
A minor item: the current backup-increasing traffic lights that have gone in on Highway 1 in recent years have been rationalized partly for safety reasons, especially after a number of deaths of people crossing the highway. Removing the lights and making the highway wider would make crossing by pedestrians and entry and exit by drivers even more difficult and dangerous than before.
Someone mentioned the freeway in northern Pacifica. Since it went in it has been a community-splitting disaster for many people, especially in the Sharp Park and Manor areas, and a number of local businesses now without close highway access and cut off from many of their customers. Knowing what they know now, there is substantial doubt it would be approved again by the citizens of Pacifica. In fact, bad experience with this freeway is one reason why Pacifica voters have twice, in recent years, turned down highway expansion between Vallemar and Rockaway to serve residential and commercial development in the quarry area--in spite of bad traffic on Highway 1 in that stretch (well, not so bad these days when the slide is closed) and in spite of the city’s perpetual need for commercial tax revenues.
By the way, my community is Moss Beach. People living elsewhere on the midcoast are in other communities. Highway 1 is plenty big in Moss Beach, though improvements providing safe crossings, preferably not lights, are needed and the turn lanes in the center are badly designed, useless for more than one car at a time turning off the highway in each location through town, and totally worthless for turning onto the highway.
Carl May
Wow, all the blind religious faith that roads must be widened and growth/development must occur--presumably as part of the natural progression of the universe? No one will ever accuse you desperate souls of understanding that sooner or later indefinite growth in any finite location will exceed what can be sustained. Look around you. This has already happened on the midcoast. Oops, I forgot my opening sentence--you are not able to look around you! Well, keep praying, and if you get your way, hope you enjoy the three- and four-lane traffic jams as much as you enjoy the current excuse to push for overexpansion.
Carl May
Still don’t want to turn off the artificially-contrived (for the benefit of a relative few) growth spigot, do you folks? Good to see you babbling on about road games that can only lead to more-laned congestion and greater crises due to more extensive destruction of already-overdrawn local resources. Why good? Because umpteen laws and contentious layers of approval and funding go with your innumerate insanity, and I’ll be dead before I have to suffer from the kind of foolishness encompassed in the pro-overdevelopment nonsense in the messages above.
Real, much faster solutions are available and made obvious simply by counting things. Not enough fingers? Get a clicker.
Carl May
Someone mentioned that a red-legged frog had been planted on the bypass (maybe the proposed bypass right-of-way) in ‘95. I’d love to have the reference or any other citation. All the environmental workup for the bypass was done in the 1980’s, and red-legged frogs are not mentioned as one of the species of concern. so I know it couldn’t be that.
What I’m guessing is that some environmental whacko was prescient and planted a redlegged frog somewhere a year before the species was even listed in June of 1996. I’d like to find this person and invite them on a trip to Reno with me to turn around my luck with the sports book.
Carl May
Anyone checked a respectable dictionary definition of “restoration” lately?
Carl May
Another disturbing migration:
http://tinyurl.com/h64zt [The Onion]
And routes to other facts:
http://www.fairus.org
http://www.npg.org
http://www.capsweb.org
Carl May
Julie,
The basic geology of Devil’s slide has not changed since the extensive analyses of the mid-80’s and mid-90’s. That Caltrans continues to try to get people to believe this is a landslide unlike any other is a testimony to the naivete of people around here. My neighbor in Montara who originally got me involved with the slide, Bill Bechtel, was a geological engineer who tried to explain the simple mechanics of Devil’s Slide to the public repeatedly for several decades.
I’m not a geologist, but any person who informs themself of the basics of landslides, who learns the elementary geology of Devil’s Slide as stated repeatedly to the public by independent geologists, and who informs themself of how highways crossing landslides and how disruptions of highways crossing landslides are handled *everywhere* except here will know they are being screwed by the money-grubbing, self-serving bureaucracy of Caltrans’s District 4.
However, you don’t have to know the first thing about geology to look at the simple fact that since early May there has been a driveable roadbed across the short stretch of the slide that slumped in early April. This roadbed has been used by heavy contractor equipment many times the weight of passenger vehicles. At every other place a highway across a slide went out on Highway 1 or 101 in California or Oregon coastal counties this year or any year in recent decades, the first order of business was to get traffic moving across the outage--often while it was still raining! (These highways cross hundreds, if not thousands, of landslides of one kind or another--somtimes continuously across multiple landslides for miles--so roads across landslides are a common feature of the highway system, not a rarity as Caltrans spin would have folks around here believe.)
All the upset, lost time, and extra expense coastsiders have undergone after the first few weeks following the roadbed failure this year has been largely unnecessary. Think about that the next time you see your politicians and media sources playing pitty-pat with Caltrans talking heads and bureaucrats.
Carl May
When all is said and done, it’s a gullible, easily spun public with no desire to examine the actual roadbed geologic issues and investigate how such matters are dealt with elsewhere that allows Caltrans to get away with “murder” every time Devil’s Slide slips a bit. Yes, do look at the pictures; this road has been driveable with traffic control while repairs go on since early May.
The favorable news that the project was half complete and on schedule that Caltrans got in the media yesterday was disgusting. The real news story is all the human time and local resources that have been unnecessarily flushed away by Caltrans’ imperious approach to keeping the road closed.
Carl May
How can Devil’s Slide be anything but “old news”? Caltrans spin won out over a gullible public once again, and they’ll spend their emergency repair money without the inconvenience of pesky cars on the highway. The roadbed has been driveable since early in May. That’s all you need to know. Everything else is just a bureaucratic and political game.
So what if letting automobiles use the road (what a concept--roads for vehicles) would have delayed completion of the repair scheme a few weeks? The overwhelming positive aspects of having the road open in terms of saved human time, fuel, reduced pollution, and improved local business would have made the delay a pittance by comparison.
Carl May
Timed lights? Obviously. But they, too, eventually get overloaded. School busing? Obviously. But the CUSD board has acted with cavalier disregard for years on matters of traffic in the communities it covers. Some saw the elimination of most school busing as punishment for not passing poorly conceived parcel tax measures.
A bikepath/trail paralleling Highway 1 would provide a safe alternate means of transportation for some locals some of the time.
And, hey, the Coastal “Trail” is, in fact, built and being extended as a one-lane paved road. Maybe there could be one-way local auto traffic (it couldn’t handle heavy trucks)on it--south in the morning and north in the evening? The CA DPR, which has much of the HMB stretch of the “trail” has rolled over for worse than that around here in the past. Smiley face or no smiley face inserted here--you choose.
Carl May
What will there be at the Harbor Village’s view-blocking, multi-story wall of development that would attract those of us from Moss Beach and Montara to shop there? And with the guaranteed greater traffic congestion in the vicinity of Capistrano and Highway 1?
Before the lights at Frenchman’s Creek and Coronado it was already better for people in MMB to drive to Linda Mar for real-world shopping that they cannot do in their towns. With the more recent lights, the only change is that more folks realize this.
Gee, where is all that long-running “Carmel” talk for HMB? Here’s a not-so-funny variation on an old joke: How do you live on foo-foo alone? Eat the arts and crafts.
Carl May
It’s obvious Big Wave, as it is being presented, is being used as an emotional Trojan Horse to get around yearly limitations on number of new units and to shoehorn in an office park.
First, it is just stupid to exempt affordable housing of any kind from yearly permit figures or design limitations. The midcoast is already overpopulated. Most of its governmental (including infrastructure) and community problems are those of an urbanizing area and tied directly to shifts in size and character that come with overpopulation and, in our case, an accompanying urban mindset. All additional population will increase the overall stresses on the coastside, so all planning for growth is planning for how much worse our situation can get before buildout.
I can’t imagine a group I would welcome more to the midcoast than developmentally disabled people in housing for independent living. Just stop the associated scam. Stop using the disabled as fronts for weakening restrictions that are already too generous. Simply count their units in whatever figure is chosen as the pace for getting worse, population-wise. Drop any cries for developer-serving exemptions and for associated commercial projects. If their housing uses up a year’s worth of permits, so be it. Why would the developers, contractors, politicians and others advocating Big Wave have a problem with that? From the standpoint of people with positive attributes and minimal negatives in terms of impacts on the midcoast, the permits for their units are guaranteed to be the best-allotted of any under the midcoast’s revised LCP.
Carl May
Like John Lynch, I want to be for this tax as a member of the school district community. The Wavecrest stupidity for the middle school was my biggest reason for not wishing to trust the CUSD board with more money in past parcel tax elections. Because parcel taxes are regressive, I’m philosophically opposed to them. I’m also unhappy with the need for parcel taxes for schools just because the state’s school funding system is screwed up and because schooling for the children of people in the U.S. illegally are costing California about $2 billion each year. But I had just about resolved to get over those personal gripes with the elimination of Wavecrest.
I am, however, surprised to find a number of details in, or not in, the measure that were also criticized in past parcel tax elections. These things would have been easy to fix, so what’s the deal? Can the CUSD board just not bring itself to give up little gifts to its cronies or to stop trying to buy votes with the measure?
Here’s my list of irritations:
1. Annual applications for senior exemptions. Either make oldies permanently exempt after a one-time application (based on clear, specific criteria) or forget it. No one gets younger so there is nothing new to be learned about their age each year. Among other things, it will be overlooked, a hardship, or not possible for some seniors to apply annually, as in the case of people with dementia (eventually 50 percent of all of us)who must have someone else take care of matters for them.
2. Annual applications for treatment of contiguous parcels as one. Anyone who wants their parcels treated as one should combine the parcels legally. We all know why parcels are kept distinct.
3. The consideration of parcels with manufactured mobile homes as “unimproved” property. This is a joke--I only wish.
4. A mere $30 per year for “unimproved” parcels. Unfair for the reasons Lansing stated above and a gift to those with multiple parcels held speculatively. If we had a government that firmly held the line on undevelopable parcels, then I’d soften for those only.
5. The absence of stated funds for school transportation. An omission that shows disregard for people harmed by local traffic congestion to which the absence of busing contributes. A slap in the face of parents who can’t afford to drive their kids or can’t drive them at the necessary times. There are also safety issues for children and the matter of loose kids wandering around or disrupting places like the library while waiting for their parents to pick them up after work.
So the old feelings of lack of trust in the board are back, else why these nagging problems in the measure? I’m more uncertain about voting for this than I’d like to be.
Carl May
SamTrans has never done a particularly good job of servicing the midcoast, why should they start now? Route 17 has been a joke since its inception, leaving out most of Moss Beach and all of Montara but going several miles south of Half Moon Bay proper to serve a smaller population.
Carl May
The debate over the LCP revision for the unincorporated San Mateo county coastside is not between no-growth and pro-growth. It is moderately fast growth (1 percent) and the steamroller of steady coastal environmental damage that is part and parcel of that kind of growth versus runaway, virtually unlimited growth (current draft of LCP revision with supes suggestions that poorly mask a sellout to developers) and its mindless, willy-nilly slaughter of coastal features and values.
Those who want a sustainable, healthy, nurturing coastside aren’t at the LCP party.
Carl May
My comments were also deleted. I suggest voting for nobody, since all of the candidates want to consolidate the district away in a merger with the Half Moon Bay district and, thus, do not want the job for which they would be elected: governing the Point Montara FPD.
Carl May
Barry et al.,
Please note that the Chronicle article began with a mention of an atmospheric afternoon featuring the Michael O’Neill Quintet plus Kenny Washington. Michael lives in Moss Beach and can be heard with other top-notch Bay Area jazz musicians several evenings each week at Cetrella.
Carl May
This overriding of scientific findings and governmental service of narrow economic interests is going on throughout the federal government, and not just against endangered species. This domination of politics over reality is what American voters wanted when they nominated the candidates for both major parties in 2004 and cast their votes in November. The blunt stupidity being exercised by government is the fault of all who encourage the kinds of politicians who have become standard in this country by voting for them.
Carl May
Amusing. Downtown HMB is what the property owners and most businesses wanted it to be. It had the kinds of stores people could use for their shopping needs before it set its cap to become a row of gift shops and boutiques and upscale places to eat. City and Chamber of Commerce leaders almost laughed when anyone complained that businesses were going under because of the higher rents or being sucked away by the peripheral shopping centers. There were the current kinds of businesses to replace them. Now, with Pacifica so much more convenient to the unincorporated midcoast to the north of HMB, thanks partly to the stoplighting of Highway 1--which will only get worse as more highway intersections get lights--there is no need to go to HMB for basic shopping.
You folks, Barry and Frank, seem to want what was consciously thrown away. There were lots of comments as downtown lost basic kinds of businesses and there were, already, the studies several times over on the future of downtown and on parking there. Few cared, least of all the movers and shakers. It’s one of those “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” situations, and you aren’t going to be able to turn back the clock or find sufficient people with an overview of transportation and access, parking, business mix, rental rates, and the rest until there is a massive shift in how the business community in the city of HMB views itself. There is a better chance of Wal-Mart coming to town than such a shift taking place.
Carl May
Controlling infrastructure works for controlling growth in Bolinas--and has for many years.
Carl May
Page 14 of 15 pages « First < 12 13 14 15 >
Ray Olson: Carl.. I’m just reading more pretentious discourse from someone that may not be living in… Posted 05/16 at 10:36pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Carl May: Ray, Let’s pretend you are as confused about the basics of ecological matters as your… Posted 05/16 at 10:16pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Anneliese Agren: Ray Olson is a troll. Posted 05/16 at 8:40pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Ray Olson: Oh Carl, it only took you a day for to write your VERY verbose, pompous,… Posted 05/16 at 8:33pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Carl May: It doesn’t hold true in all cases, but damage to natural features and values in… Posted 05/16 at 7:11pm in Opinion: Money is need for for Midcoast parks -- could Parks For The Future help?
Carl May: Ray, You are flailing. Of course I have seen these definitions. I have even written… Posted 05/16 at 6:31pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Jim Sullivan: Dave Holland moving on, I hope not.... for awhile anyway. I absolutely support Measure O.… Posted 05/16 at 8:57am in Opinion: Money is need for for Midcoast parks -- could Parks For The Future help?
Leonard Woren: Years ago the CCC approved the project, allowing 19 houses to be built on the… Posted 05/16 at 5:38am in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Ray Olson: Oh, and one other thing… My point about deciding that 20 homes can be built… Posted 05/15 at 9:10pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
Ray Olson: I’ve read the link that Francis has provided before, and I think I can count… Posted 05/15 at 9:07pm in Local Government Committee passes AB1991 -- next stop: Appropriations Committee
