SamTrans added Montara to its Coastside route on Sunday, July 1.  Route 17, which traveled Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Moss Beach, was extended into Montara. The expansion includes longer service hours, adding Sunday service, as well as additional morning and afternoon buses during the school year. Service is being funded by a grant which is expected to continue until Fall 2009.

The service expansion was made possible through a Lifeline Transportation Planning grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and was developed in conjunction with the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance and other members of the Coastside Transportation Committee (Coastside Hope, City of Half Moon Bay, Cabrillo Union School District, County of San Mateo, and City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County). The project seeks to reduce traffic congestion and create more access to alternatives to driving alone on the Coastside.

The San Mateo County chapter of Surfrider Foundation  will lead a post-July 4th beach clean up on Surfer’s Beach in Half Moon Bay.  Surfer’s Beach and the immediate surrounding area is the site of the coastside’s annual fireworks display held on July 4th, and is expected to bring hundreds of pounds of trash with the thousands of Independence Day revelers, who will converge on the area. 

All cleanup supplies are provided.  Volunteers are encouraged to wear closed- toe shoes, layered clothing and sunscreen and bring their own work gloves. Clean up coordinators will meet volunteers on the west side of Highway 1 at the Coronado Street traffic light. Volunteers should park in the lot off of Obispo Road in El Granada (on the east side of Highway 1) and cross Highway 1 at the Coronado Street traffic light. Info: [email protected], or call Steve at (650) 291-9428

Post Independence Day Beach Cleanup
Surfers Beach
Saturday, July 7, 10am to noon

An elderly woman was found dead Monday evening in Moss Beach.  According to Lt. Lisa Williams of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, a man saw the woman lying in a field at the corner of "Carlos and Lancaster" (Pearl and Lancaster? [Google map]) and called at about 6:30pm Monday.  The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel. Lt. Williams said the cause of death appeared to be natural, and that the woman had her cane with her, as if she had been walking.

UPDATE: The woman has been identified as Ella Scholtz, 79, of Moss Beach.

The Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary Advisory Council will meet at Point Reyes Station Thursday,  July 12, from 9am to 3:45pm. The meeting will be at the Red Barn Classroom, 1 Bear Valley Rd.

The Council consists of 21 primary members and alternates, including seven non-governmental seats — Community-At-Large for Marin/Sonoma, Community-At-Large for San Francisco/San Mateo, Conservation (two seats), Education, Maritime Activities (Commercial), Maritime Activities (Recreation), and Research — and four governmental seats representing the California Environmental Protection Agency, California Resources Agency, National Park Service, and U.S. Coast Guard.

Council members serve as advisors to sanctuary Superintendent Maria Brown. The sanctuary’s headquarters are located at Building 991 Marine Drive, Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco CA 94129. Phone is 415/ 561-6622.

Meetings of the Advisory Council are open to the public. Public comment is heard during announced times.

To see the agenda,

An reader sent us this photo with a note:  "Last year, we pulled down about 80 of these signs that some lowlife kept nailing to telephone poles between Highway 92 & Main in Half Moon bay and Linda Mar in Pacifica.  It took about six months before he finally gave up and stopped replacing them, but it was worth it.  This stuff is the visual equivalent of spam and it’s a particular nuisance in small communities like the Coastside. Here’s a tip: No matter how heavily these signs are nailed to the telephone pole, you can knock them down with a single solid whack with a broomstick or bat. It’s a lot more work to put these signs up than it is to take them down."

So, a week or two after I said I wouldn’t run a poll about anything important on Coastsider, I’ve decided to run a presidential poll. The project is part of NewsVine’s ElectionVine national Internet poll. I think it’s an interesting experiment and I’m going to be writing about electoral politics on the Web for my day job, so I thought it might be fun to try it out and see what happens.

Readers can vote once a month, and results are tabulated at the national as well as the site level.  I’m not sure what it means that Barack Obama is obliterating the competition at this early stage on the national poll, but I think this will tell us more about Coastsider readers than anything meaningful about the national election or even the state primary.

If you’re having trouble seeing the poll, you can see Coastsider’s results at the ElectionVine site.