Five artists’ studios will be open this weekend on the Coastside as part of the Silicon Vallen Open Studios Program.  Here is a sample, statement from the artist and location for each artist. Addresses are linked to Google Maps. Artists’ names are linked to their websites. Each studio is open Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

We’ve added a link to each story that says "Email this story".  You can click on the link to email the story or just the headline, along with a personal message, to a friend. Please try it out and let us know how it works for you.

Kidsdata.org is a terrific web site with lots of great, well-organized information about kids in San Mateo and Santa Clara county. Kidsdata.org lists and tracks local information on 30 health topics for children, and shows comparable California and U.S. data where available. The site was built, and is maintained, by the Information Program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health.  There are separate areas for San Mateo County, Half Moon Bay, Moss Beach, Montara, Unincorporated San Mateo County, and Cabrillo Unified School District.

Statistics on the site include college readiness, demographics, domestic violence, high school dropout rates, juvenile arrests, languages, and more.

The following were my comments at the special PMFPD meeting, on 4/29/05. I have tremendous admiration and respect for my co-directors.  However, I feel the following:

1)  I went to the Fire Districts Association of California Conference to see some fire chiefs,  fire board directors, and seminar leaders. After my conversations and study, I feel we should go to the California Division of Forestry (CDF) and have a "cooling off" period between the boards.  We should take this time considering community input, the results of the Municipal Service Review, and the results of the Renee Mayne’s report.

2)  I really fear going into business for ourselves.  Half of the packet, at my conference, had to do with lawsuits.

3)  We could go with CDF and see how the community responds to this service provider. I feel that we are holding a bad hand right now and it would be prudent to go with an intermediary like CDF.

4)  The CDF territory backs up into our district;  they are overseeing the Slide and Tunnel.  So they would be a good fit.

5)  We, as a board, never studied CDF as a real possibility, for our district. We never solicited a quote from CDF.  The attorney from CDF is the attorney for the State of California.  This type of protection is invaluable.

6)  LAFCo has given us an opportunity to wait; to make this decision with public input.

7)  Tim Bateman, representing his labor group, said that the firefighters want us to stop the break-up of HMB Fire and PM Fire. He said it would be better to stay together rather than coming apart.  (Right now the cut-off date is 9/18/05).  (note: President MacKimmie and McShane asked the HMB Board for an extension of the contract; as, did Director Eufusia. The vote was 3 against, 1 for. Many things will be settled in the next few months: the LAFCo study, Renee Mayne’s Managerial Audit, and elections.

8)  I suggested to my board that a contractual arrangement/extension be worked out since all of this valuable information is forthcoming.

9)  The stakeholders are the Public, the Firefighters,  Management, and the Board, I feel that steps are being made at HMBFPD (Renee Mayne will start in May) to assist in correcting designated problem areas.

10) Rather than going back on our own, I feel we should ask for a contract extention.

11)  LAFCo wants us to wait.  The firefighters want us to wait. Now, maybe Half Moon Bay will reconsider the cutoff date. Right now, we (PMFire) are takng a parallel course. I will talk with CDF.

Ginny McShane
Vice President and Director
Point Montara Fire Protection District

EDITOR’S NOTE:  I haven’t been covering the Point Montara Fire Protection District on Coastsider, so this letter is missing a lot of context. I have uploaded the report from the San Mateo County Local Area Formation Committee (LAFCO) for additional background. Director McShane’s change of heart on the direction of the District is also examined in a front-page story in the Half Moon Bay Review. There’s a lot more to this, but it’s a beginning. I’m going to start covering this PMFPD more regularly, as it’s one of the biggest issues in the unincorporated Coastside.

Take Mom on a date, and bring the kids too!  Celebrate all the Mommies with The Sippy Cups at an awesome outdoor location on the coast. The party starts at 3pm, the band will play from 4 to 5. Tickets are at the door, $7 for adults and $5 for kids over 1 year. The show will benefit Cambodia Tomorrow’s school project for Cambodian orphans. It’s also sponsored by Pamela’s Products who are baking organic goodies for you to enjoy at the show. Take me to the Lighthouse!

Jim Larimer and Ken Jones are back again with another column in the Half Moon Bay Review on why we need Wavecrest and what developers can do for the Coastside.  ("Honey? Is this LAST week’s paper?") 

On Wednesday, their duet had backup vocals from a signed column by Review managing editor Clay Lambert. Clay amplified their point with the strawman argument that "developers aren’t devils", illustrated with a story about the mistreatment of a developer in Palo Alto, where he lives.

I’ve submitted a Matter of Opinion column to the Review on why Jones and Larimer’s idea of using development to fund the building of amenities is bad public policy.  I won’t spoil it by recounting that argument here.  I would like to take a look at why this idea hasn’t worked on the Coastside.

Jones and Larimer believe the Coastside should be developed the same way as everywhere else:

Communities across America use development as a method to fix existing infrastructure problems and expand community resources. Developers across America build public roads, libraries, schools, community centers, parks and sports complexes in return for the right to earn a profit by building homes and commercial properties.

That assumes we want the Coastside to be like everywhere else. Development-driven infrastructure creation is one reason for the increasing uniformity of American communities. Most of us live here because the Coastside is different from what’s on the other side of the hill.  It’s an accident of history that it hasn’t happened here already. If we’re going to keep this community unique, we need to find a model of development that is unique.

Jones and Larimer say that Wavecrest is a good model for development on the Coastside:

The original Wavecrest vision included mixed development that benefits everyone. The developer agreed to provide substantial ocean-front property for a community park and open space. The developer agreed to improve and then donate the baseball fields known as Smith Field to the community. They agreed to donate the land for a Boys and Girls Club, and sell the school district property for a new school at a discounted price.

That would be great, except the land is already open space. Wavecrest doesn’t plan to "provide" open space, so much as leave the wettest part of our existing open space undeveloped, after the rest of it is covered with houses and roads. If the community wants ball fields and a Boy’s and Girl’s Club, let’s pay for them ourselves. Yes, the developers did agree to sell us land for a new middle school, but the school district already owns a superior site for a middle school. It’s called Cunha.

Jones and Larimer say that Coastsiders are responsible for us not getting this great deal.

Our community needs solutions to problems not obfuscation and obstructionism. The next time you drop off your seventh grader in front of an inadequate 60-year-old school, think about what we could have with the $27 million we have in the bank.

Every time I drop my seventh grader off at our dilapidated middle school (and when I pick her up in the afternoon), I think about what $27 million could have done to make it a great place to go to school. Actually, it used to be $30 million, but that’s another story.

I agree that improvements to our middle school have been held up by obfuscation. Our school board stubbornly clung to the promises of a developer who couldn’t develop. Just last month, Wavecrest’s developer failed to inform the school district that it was delaying its wetlands delineation at the last minute for yet another six weeks.

A better middle school has not been held up by obstructionists. Wavecrest doesn’t have a problem with local frog-huggers. They have a problem with the California Coastal Commission, the California Department of Fish & Game, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act.

If you’re tired of seeing the same names and the same arguments in the Review week after week and want to see another, more positive vision of what the Coastside should be, it’s time to write the Review and tell them your vision of the Coastside. If you think the Half Moon Bay City Council is actually moderate, you should write the Review and tell them there’s a middle ground between the developers and the no-growthers. If you think the Review’s scrutiny of public agencies looks unbalanced write the Review and ask them to investigate what’s happening at the school board and the Coastside County Water District, and not just report what these agencies decide.

Finally, Clay Lambert missed the point of his own Parable of the Victimized Developer. Just because someone wants to kill you, it doesn’t mean you’re doing the right thing.

We’ve just added a sign-up form on the left column so readers can sign up to get email alerts when important news is posted to Coastsider. It’s the best way to make sure that you don’t miss any big stories as they happen on the Coastside.

Just enter your email address in the form and press "submit" to subcscribe to the list, or remove your name from it.  You can also get to the subscription page by clicking on this sentence.

The Sea Gypsy Kayak Race takes place on a five-mile obstacle course that includes Mavericks, making it "the scariest and most technically challenging sea kayak race in the world". The prize is a piece of lead covered with gold paint. According to the Mercury News, the twentieth and final race took place yesterday afternoon.

When Erin Tormey isn’t growing "wrong colored vegetables" at her farm on Irish Ridge south of Half Moon Bay, she’s helping run Coastside Certified Farmer’s Market at Cetrella in Half Moon Bay. The County Times has an interview with Erin by Amelia Hansen.  Choice quote: "Some woman will come up to me and say (in a whining voice), ‘Where are the tomatoes?’ I say, ‘It’s May. The tomatoes are in Guatemala!’"