Bobby Hutcherson lives in Montara. He’s performing at Yoshi’s this weekend.

While many jazz cats choose to stay close to the genre’s capital, New York City, this 68-year-old legendary vibraphonist prefers his rural one-acre lot in Montara, the anti-New York — a quiet town of about 3,000 residents located on the coast of San Mateo County, roughly equidistant from Half Moon Bay and Pacifica.

He bought his home in 1972 for $39,000, using money earned from the hit
single "Ummh," and he has never found reason to leave. Indeed, Montara has become a fortress of solitude for this super jazz man and his wife, Rosemary, one that offers a refreshing country counterpart to the busy lifestyle that comes from being a professional touring musician.

"Most musicians, at least most jazz musicians, won’t be found splitting wood in the backyard," Hutcherson jokes. "People ask me, ‘Do you go to a lot of jam sessions?’ I say, ‘No.’ They ask, ‘Well, what do you do?’ I say, ‘Well, Rosemary and I do a lot of gardening.’" ...

Hutcherson returned to California in the late ‘60s, settling first in San Francisco’s wild Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. During that time, he recorded one of his best-loved albums, 1970’s "San Francisco," which produced the hit single "Ummh" and provided him with the capital to buy his current home.

In Montara, Bobby and Rosemary raised three sons — Teddy, Barry and Jasiri, all of whom still live nearby. Hutcherson continued to work on what’s become one of the most satisfying catalogs in jazz. Many album titles were clearly inspired by his life on the San Mateo County coast — 1978’s "Highway One," 1999’s "Skyline" (a possible reference to Route 35, generally known as "Skyline Boulevard") and, most certainly, 1975’s "Montara."

I’ve owned a couple of Bobby Hutcherson albums since I first started to listen to jazz in the eighties. But I first met him at a Board of Supervisors meeting where he was speaking on proposed revisions to the Midcoast’s Local Coastal Program.

Caffe Lucca in Montara is holding open mike nights from 7 to 9:30pm on the second and fourth Fridays of each month through March: January 30, February 13, Feburary 27, March 13, and March 27.

Caffe Lucca
Hwy 1 @ 8th St.
Montara
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The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has announced the winners of its first annual digital photo contest.

Fifteen honorable mentions were also chosen from over 400 entries that spanned a wide range of perspectives on nature from minute details to sweeping vistas. View the finalists’ photos at: .

Using web tools like Flickr™, the contest provided a new way for the District to engage the public with its open space preserves and gave contestants an opportunity to explore the diversity of nature through photography. The only contest rule was that entries had to be taken on District land.

Grand prize winner Alex Stoll and second-place winner Eric Lew, both graduate students at Stanford University, heard about the contest through the Stanford Photography Club. "We like any excuse to go out and shoot photos," Lew said. Stoll captured his prize-winning shot at sunrise in the La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve. "Photos are always more interesting with people in them," he said. "You can identify with the picture more."

On Tuesday, January 27, the County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously (5-0) to restructure how the Midcoast Community Council will operate in the future. This was, unfortunately, not unexpected. Most supervisor’s votes appear to be "slam dunk" votes. It seems that they operate on the principle of "You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours."

This is such a minor restructuring as compared as what the BOS should do to get themselves on the same page as nearly all of the 58 counties in the state, including San Francisco.

They need to rethink how they should be elected to the board. A supervisor should only be elected to office by the voters in the district who they will represent…not countywide.

This would promote more discussion on issues and decrease the amount of "slam dunk" votes that currently seem to prevail.

My wish is that someone would fund a countywide initiative that would ask the voters two things:

• Should supervisors be elected to office only by the voters in the district that they will represent?

• Should any vacancies that occur must be filled only by the voters in the district where the vacancy occurs?

John Lynch
Half Moon Bay

A pilot was fished from the ocean after his single-engine plane crashed 7 miles off Half Moon Bay, reports the Chronicle.

The pilot had rented an Aeronca Champion - a two-seat, fixed- wing plane - to spend the day sightseeing. He had flown alone out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose. But just around 3 p.m., his engine failed and he issued a mayday alert before plummeting into the water, said Coast Guard Lt. Lane Steffenhagen, who coordinated the rescue efforts from S an Francisco International Airport. ..

A Coast Guard station in Point Reyes had picked up his mayday signal, and a Coast Guard helicopter in the area dropped a life raft, which the man was able to reach. Air National Guard helicopters out of Moffett Field were in the area performing training exercises. One of those helicopters released a cable with a sling on the end that the pilot was able to buckle around his upper body. They then raised him into the helicopter.

In all, the man was in the water about 20 minutes. Steffenhagen said the water temperature was around 49 or 50 degrees and that survival time in that temperature would be about an hour. He was suffering from severe hypothermia, and his body temperature had dropped to 92 degrees.

The pilot was treated for hypothermia by paramedics at SFO after it was discovered that Stanford Medical Center’s helipad could handle the Air National Guard helicopter.  There is video at the Chron’s site.

With a pavement condition index (PCI) of 59, Half Moon Bay’s roads are worse than those of just about every city in the county, except Millbrae and East Palo Alto, according to a ranking [pdf] by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The MTC classified the city’s roads as "at risk".

PCI scores of 90 or higher are considered "excellent." These are newly built or resurfaced streets that show little or no distress. Pavement with a PCI score in the 80 to 89 range is characterized as "very good," and shows only slight or moderate distress, requiring mostly preventive maintenance. The "good" category ranges from 70 to 79, while streets with PCI scores in the "fair" (60-69) range are becoming worn to the point where rehabilitation may be needed to prevent rapid deterioration. Because major repairs cost five to 10 times more than routine maintenance, these streets are at an especially critical stage. Roadways with PCI scores of 50 to 59 are deemed "at-risk," while those with PCI scores of 25 to 49 are considered "poor." These roads require major rehabilitation or reconstruction. Pavement with a PCI score below 25 is considered "failed." These roads are difficult to drive on and need reconstruction.

"All around the Bay Area, and especially in our rural areas and older cities," noted Dodd, "we see a lot of streets and roads with PCIs below 60, which is the point when pavement begins going downhill fast. One of our priorities is to make sure we invest in both preventive maintenance and in rehabilitation."

San Mateo County roads finished in the middle of the pack, but the roads in the unincorporated Midcoast are almost certainly worse.

Montaran Bill Dalla has just published a book on what he learned while doing two and a half years in San Quentin, reports the County Times.

"If you gave me one hour on this Earth to go anywhere, I’d want to go back to San Quentin and walk around the yard," said Dallas from his living room, where you can look onto Montara State Beach. "It was ground zero for me. It’s where I nearly lost my life and, ultimately, where I found it."

Convicted of felony grand theft and embezzlement, Dallas would curl up into a ball in that yard as inmates walked around him.

"I prayed that God would take my life," Dallas said Monday.

Last week, his book, "Lessons from San Quentin," was released.

Co-written by George Barna, founder of The Barna Group, the book illustrates 12 lessons intended to help people in tough times develop the character God wants people to have.

The Pacifica Riptide says that our mutual state legislative team (Senator Leland Yee and newly-elected Assemblyman Jerry Hill) did merely OK when committe appointments were handed out.

Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco, who served in the largely ceremonial position of Assistant President Pro Tem last session, again chairs no committee. The position of Assistant Pro Tem appears to be of such significance that the Senate’s central office couldn’t recall whether anyone had been designated for that title this session. Yee is a member of four committees: Business and Professions (considered a "juice committee"—good for fundraising from special interests), Budget, Labor and Appropriations, (the most powerful of all the committees because virtually every bill must pass that committee). He is not a member of a budget subcommittee. He was removed from the Health Committee, where he killed a bill last year that would have required approval of rate increases sought by health insurers such as Blue Cross, which heavily opposed the measure.

Freshman Assemblyman Jerry Hill doesn’t chair a committee either, although that’s the norm for new members, few of whom win chairmanships. Hill is a member of the Budget Committee, and chairs its subcommittee on Health and Human Services. He also serves on Government Organization, which regulates gambling (major "juice") and Natural Resources, chaired by a newcomer from Berkeley.

The Legislature will start voting on bills in late March.