Here’s a second issue of Voice of the Coast, a Coastside news publication that from the 1970’s. It includes a transcript of the Half Moon Bay City Council debates which focuses on…development issues.  When asked what the optimum population of the Coastside should be, the answers were "fifteen to thirty thousand", "thirty thousand" and "eighty thousand". It’s about 30,000 right now.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is undertaking a revegetation project to restore native plants and wildlife habitat on POST’s 119-acre Pillar Point Bluff property, near Moss Beach.  Approximately 15 acres of the southern portion of the popular property, has become increasingly crowded with highly aggressive, invasive exotic pampas grass plants.  POST’s restoration work will remove the pampas grass and enhance the growing conditions for native plants to flourish.

Click "read more" to see the press release, which describes the involvement of Go Native Nursery of Montara in the project.

A lawsuit by Terrace Avenue resident Richard Parness to block the settlement agreement between the city of Half Moon Bay and Ailanto Properties [HMB Review] has been rejected by a county superior court. You can download the decision from Coastsider.

The suit was filed under the California Environmental Quality Act, which allows 180 days for appeals.  The suit was filed after 180 days, but Parness claimed that he wasn’t given sufficient notice that the proposed settlement was the final plan.

The settlement says that Ailanto will be able to build 63 homes for its Pacific Ridge development, that Terrace Avenue will be used as the only access road for the development, and that a traffic light would be built at Terrace Avenue and Highway 1. Terrace Avenue is currently used by 48 homes.

The court said that this was published as a fact in the Half Moon Bay Review and that Parness said he had read it there.

The Coastal Development Permit and Environmental Impact Report processes for the project have not yet been completed.

Like most parents, the first day of school conjures up the usual images for me: flocks of kids dressed in their coolest new back to school outfits, spit-shined and smiling. Senior students comparing schedules and greeting friends, while anxious newcomers peer from behind Mom’s leg wondering how to find their way.  I saw plenty of those Monday morning at Cunha.

But one sign of back to school was on the roadside.  My son Alex burst out laughing, pointing to the sign pictured on the right; a speed limit sign reading 45 MPH and a speed monitor reading, “Your current speed is 0 MPH.”

In reality, the drive wasn’t too bad Monday – about 25 minutes door to door from Montara to Half Moon Bay. But as my very optimistic daughter Victoria reminded me, “Seacreast isn’t even in session yet!  They don’t start until after Labor Day!.” So with hundreds of students commuting to Half Moon Bay, and gas topping $3.00/gallon, take the time to connect with friends and neighbors and carpool.  From those of us doing the driving – we thank you!

Perhaps the welcome sign at Half Moon Bay High said it best.  Welcome back to Reality!

Ledward Kaapana performs live at the 4th annual Aloha in the Redwoods, a benefit for La Honda Educational Foundation,  Sunday Sept. 18, in La Honda Gardens, 8865 La Honda Road, La Honda. 

Award-winning Hawaiian musician, Ledward Kaapana was born in 1948 and grew up in Kalapana, a small village on the Big Island of Hawaii, where there was no electricity, no televeision, and not much radio.  Everyone in Led’s family played music to entertain themselves, often in shifts all through the night.  When one person went to bed, another would join in the kanikapila (musical jam) and keep the music going.  “You’d fall asleep to the music, wake up and the music was still playing.  That was the best alarm clock I ever had!  Even today when I play, I still picture all the ‘ohana (family) getting together and sharing their songs and their aloha,”  Ledward recalls. 

For the rest of the story and ticket information, please click "read more" below.

Apparently, a whale died in Half Moon Bay recently. The Chronicle is the latest to poke the body with a media stick. They cover the stinking whale-corpse from a tee of the Half Moon Bay Golf Links.

But Coastsider still gets the last word. Darin Boville braved the "No Trespassing" signs at Strawberry Ranch to get us a picture of the dead whale in its current state of decomposition. After which, he was escorted off the premises.

I’m not going to make you look at it, but you can click "read more" if you want to see the picture.

This week, the Sheriff’s Office didn’t have to look to far to track down their men. One rammed his car into a deputy’s car, another was on probation and a third was already in jail. There was one scary assault with a deadly weapon we already covered, three thefts, and a broken window at Pizzeria del Sol a couple of doors

Click "read more" for the details.

Imagine this:

A weekly newspaper covering the rural coastal side of a big Bay Area county gets into financial trouble. It turns out the publisher has been subsidizing the paper out of his own pocket for years—because he loves journalism and he loves his community. And now he’s out of money.

The community responds in a manner right out of It’s a Wonderful Life.

"Almost every day when people wrote in to renew their paper, someone would say, ‘Here’s an extra twenty bucks.’ We got lots of people who just gave us $100. Even people who didn’t hardly have two nickels to rub together stepped up and gave us $5.

"And then sixteen of them wrote in and said ‘Raise your cover price. Take it up to a dollar. We need the Light because we don’t have any city governments out here. And the Light is providing us with a forum for us to work out civic issues.’ "

Last year, I read the SF Weekly’s story about the Point Reyes Light’s financial problems. I saved article because the story of Light publisher David Mitchell was so inspiring.

Mitchell has been contributing to his community as a journalist for decades. He won a Pulitzer in 1979 for risking his life while investigating Synanon. And now his neighbors have rallied around this publisher who has given so much to his community. Now, that’s inspiring.

The deflated, stinking carcass of a dead humpback whale, which lay on a Half Moon Bay beach for nearly a week before being carted off to deeper water, is now in a rocky alcove just north of the Ritz, according to the Mercury News.

Victoria Ortiz is an eighth-grade student at Cunha.

Yes, it’s that time of year again: back to school. The only thing more fun than actually going back to school, is finding out which teachers you have, and what classes. Today, many students entering the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes got their schedules at Cunha Middle School. Things are a little different this year though, so surprises are not just for 6th graders anymore. Cunha is getting new teachers, old ones are leaving, new classes will begin, and some will stop.

I spent the morning interviewing teachers, parents, students, and one pesky gopher, and here’s what you need to know:

Q: Will there be anything different about Cunha this year?

A: Yes. The new 6th graders at school will be going through a skills study program for the first few weeks of school.  We’ve created this program to help new students transition to the culture and expectations of middle school.  The program will last for the first 3 weeks of school and will include study skills, using schoolloop (http://www.cunha.schoolloop.com) and one-on-one meetings with teachers, staff and counselors.  We are very excited about this new program and I’m looking forward to meeting all our new 6th graders. (For a more detailed list of topics that will be covered in the study skills program, click the "read more" link at the bottom of this story and see the end of this story.)

Q:  What did you do over the summer?

A: My family went to a lot of softball games with my daughter.  Her team qualified for regionals in Las Vegas, and then went on to the nationals in Washington.  It was all very exciting.

Q: What are you looking forward to about this year?

A: I am mostly looking forward to meeting the new 6th graders and seeing old faces. Also, I am looking forward to meeting the new teachers. One of the things I like about working at Cunha is that all the teachers and staff are very close. This year we had to say goodbye to Mr. Tretner, Ms. Phillips, Mrs. Zabo and Mr. Pittenger, however, we are all excited about the new teachers and look forward to working with them this year.  They are:

Raj Bechar: 6th grade math, algebra 1-A, and sheltered math.
Craig Bryant: Band
Carlos Iraheta: Special Education
Ken Murray: 6th and 7th grade science
Gerald Schwartz: 6th and 8th grade science.

Q: Will there be any changes at Cunha this year?

A: Yes. One change will be to the English immersion program.  In the past ESL (English as a second language) students had two classes daily, a morning before school class and then an afternoon reading/language arts period.  Nearly 40% of Cunha’s students speak Spanish, so this year, they will continue the before school class and then integrate with the rest of the school body during the day.

Click the "read more" link for more interviews and lots of pictures.