Three different establishments have occupied what should be a prime location on Montara State Beach in the last ninety years: the Gallagher Montara Beach Hotel, Frank Torres’ Beach Hotel, and the Chart House. 

Gallagher’s started as a summer house in 1913 on Pacific Avenue in Farallone City.  It was converted to a hotel in 1921.  The owner Robert Gallagher, sold the building in 1940 to Frank Torres.

During World War II, Frank Torres’ place was used as officer living quarters for the gunnery school in Moss Beach.  Shortly after the war ended, the building burned.  Torres replaced it with a pink stucco building called Frank Torres’ Beach Hotel.  The specialty of the hotel’s restaurant was Peruvian cuisine.  Frank sold the property in 1978 to the Chart House chain of restaurants.

The new buyers tore down Frank’s hotel and built a new restaurant on its foundation. Twenty-five years later, the owners closed the Chart House in 2002 It was reopened by the property’s owner, Dave Andrews, as the Outrigger. At the time he took it over, Andrews said that parking by beach users made it impossible to open the restaurant for lunch and that this could have been one reason that the Chart House’s owners closed it down.

The Outrigger closed in 2004.

Michael Smookler is the author of Montara: A Pictorial History.

Congressman Tom Lantos plans to introduce a bill to add Rancho Corral de Tierra to the Golden Gate National Recreation area, according to the San Mateo County Times. This is the third time around for the bill. This measure is also supported by Seantor Dianne Feinstein. Issues include authorizing the money to pay the Peninsula Open Space Trust for the land and excluding the farmland in the parcel from the national park.

A vehicle was found by two alert State Parks Rangers near San Gregorio Beach on Highway One on Sunday, January 23. Whoever might have been in the vehicle when it went 50 ft. over the side had left the scene by the time it was discovered. The cause and circumstances of the accident are under investigation by the Highway Patrol.

Half Moon Bay High School did very well in the state’s Academic Performance Index scores, which were released last Thursday.  The performance of the District’s other schools was lackluster.

The API is a complex index created from the schools’ scores on multiple tests that are administered by the state. The statewide target score on the API is 800, and schools are rated based on their progress toward that goal. They are expected to increase their scores by five percent of the difference between their earlier score and the goal. If their API is 781 to 799, the annual growth target is one point. At that rate, a school would take more than 20 years to reach the state’s target score.

Schools are also compared to similar schools. For each school, a set of 100 similar schools is selected based on student demographics, teacher qualifications, class size, and other factors.

In 2004, Half Moon Bay High School blew away its five percent target, and its API is now nearly equal to the average score for similar schools.

Farallone View Elementary, the only other CUSD school to increase its API, is still far from matching the performance of similar schools. It’s 2004 score is 758, compared to 819 for similar schools.

El Granada, Hatch, and Cunha all declined slightly. But, then so did schools similar to Hatch and Cunha.

"You really have to look behind these scores," says Madaline Shearer, the District’s Assistant Superintendent/Curriculum and Instruction. "The Board has said many times that this is one score at one time and that you have to look at individual factors and individual students." Shearer also noted that Hatch has improved for the previous four years, while its number of English language learners has increased, and that this year’s redistricting is going to make it difficult to compare yearly performance in individual schools in the future.

As for HMB High, Shearer said that the District had felt for some time that high school students hadn’t been taking the tests seriously, because their score doesn’t really affect them personally. But, she said, the school has done a much better job lately of motivating the students.

What does this all mean? This stuff is fraught with significance, but the differences seem miniscule. Is it really important that Cunha’s score declined by three points instead of increasing by two as the state’s target would have it? It’s not even clear to me that these differences are more than statistical noise.

I don’t envy the District having to interpret this information, act on it, and report it to parents. 

Why did a drawing in Half Moon Bay’s park grant application merit a front-page story titled "Is park plan already in place?", a ready-made op-ed titled "Does plan already exist for park?", and an editorial that concluded "the planning process is merely a joke"?

No one connected with the process seems to know what the Review is talking about.

The Half Moon Bay City Council made a point of being public about its grant application and made it clear from the outset that any plans in the application were a "place holder". The Review knew about the grant application three months ago. On October 27, 2004, Jeanine Gore reported, "Rollie Wright, parks and recreation director, is applying for two grants, each worth $350,000."

Members of the park design committee continue to believe that the City Council is working with them in good faith, and resent the Review’s treatment of the story.

The park’s current project manager was never in any doubt that the plan in the application was anything other than a place holder. Richard Quadri was hired when Parks and Recreation director Rollie Wright went on leave. In response to questions from committee members prompted by the Review’s coverage, Quadri wrote a memo to dated January 21. He says he was never told the drawing was anything other than a place holder.

City Council was asked at its October 19, 2004 meeting to approve the application for these grant funds.  According to the minutes of that meeting council member Grady pulled the item from the consent calendar "so that the public could be made aware of the details relating to the grant requests".  Parks and Recreation Director Wright provided information for the Council.  Council then approved the application.

At the last Community Park Committee meeting (January 11), the City Manager discussed the grant application and noted that it was submitted as a "place holder".  Since there was only one opportunity to submit an application for these particular funds, it was thought better to submit the application and try to modify it after the design process, rather than let the opportunity pass altogether.

...

When I was hired last month to work on this project, I was told that the design process had not yet begun, and that a citizens’ committee had been appointed for that process.  I have passed this understanding on to all of the design firms that have been under consideration to complete the Master Plan.

Members of the park planning committee are baffled that the Review had made such a big deal about the grant application.

Committee member Ken King told me, "They’ve been very upfront about the grant application. Why would [the Review] attack you for going after supplementary funds? I trust the process. I’m confident that this has been done correctly."

King was very unhappy with the Review’s coverage. When he found out that I was doing a story on the Review’s coverage of the grant application, he went to his computer so he could read me his indignant letter to the editor over the phone.

Committee member Jessica Hopkins told me that she was at the meeting where mayor Mike Ferreira assured the committee that the plans were "only for the purpose of the grant application. I can either believe I’m being lied to or believe they acted in good faith. I can’t believe they’re hiring an architectural firm without using them to do the planning."

Hopkins has no reason to defend the plan in the grant application. She entered the planning process as an advocate for gardens in the park. There are no gardens in the plan that accompanies the grant application.

Hopkins was also baffled by the Review’s coverage of the plan, "Was Jeanine Gore, whom I respect, not in the room?  I’m a former journalist, and I thought it [her story] was irresponsible."

On Tuesday night at 6pm the City Council, Parks and Recreation Commission, and planning committee will review presentations from the three finalist architectural firms.  The proposals from the firms can be dowloaded from the City’s Web site, or from these links:

• Beals Alliance
• MIG
• David Gates & Associates

At the end of the evening, the proposals will be discussed and the City Council will select the firm with input from the committee. The selected firm will work with the committee over the next six to nine months to come up with the plan for the park. The committee members I talked to were looking forward to this meeting and to the process to come.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with a third member of the park committee,  Cypress Cove resident Steven Stauss.  While he said that he felt that "statements by city officials weren’t crisp enough," Stauss told me, "I’m confident that the city will go forward in an open way. I’m confident that the plan will be the one developed by the architects."

P. Shawn McGraw, director the Granada Sanitary District (GSD), resigned her position on the board on Thursday, January 20.  She cited a desire to spend more time with her family and a new job as reasons for needing to step down.  Her seat on the board would have been contested in the next general election in November, 2005.

The board will hold a special meeting on Thursday, January 27 at 6:30pm to decide how to fill McGraw’s position. According to GSD vice president Leonard Woren, the board must either appoint a replacement or call a special election with 60 days.  However, Woren believes that the next available date for a special election will be November.

At the regular meeting on Thursday, January 20, the board held its annual officer elections. Matthew Clark is now the Board President and Leonard Woren remains Vice President. Woren continues representing GSD on the board of the Sewer Authority Midcoastside and Ric Lohman replaces McGraw as the second representative.

If you haven’t read the editorial in Wednesday’s Half Moon Bay Review, don’t deny yourself this treat.

From its clumsy headline, "Council continues to be disingenuous", to its awkward setup, "Have you heard the one about the City Council that purchased parkland…", to its ham-fisted punchline, "it’s a pity that we’ve come to the point that the planning process is merely a joke", this unsigned editorial is an unintentionally entertaining window into the thinking behind our local paper. I can see why the word "disingenuous" came to mind.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the author had to squeegee the spittle off their computer screen when he or she was finished.

This isn’t the first time the Review has lost its cool and descended into junior high school snarkiness. In October, publisher Debra Godshall had to have the last word so badly that she responded to a column by city council member (and now mayor) Jim Grady on the opposite page of the same issue with "Grady ends his Matter of Opinion article in today’s paper on Page 5A by saying, "Doesn’t our community deserve better than that?" It does indeed, Jim."

It…does…indeed.

I’ve put together a reading list for the editors of the Review which I hope will improve their editorial-writing skills and knowledge of the dynamics affecting the Coastside. I’ve set it up as an Amazon wish list. You can go online and pay to have these books delivered to Debra Godshall at the Review’s offices. [Amazon.com]

Elements of Style, Strunk and White. Strunk and White admonish us "Do not affect a breezy manner". They would also advise us not to use the word "admonish".

Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape, James Howard Kunstler.  This is the book that made me understand what sprawl is and why it’s so awful. It’s a lot like the pill they give Neo in The Matrix—don’t read it if you want to remain contented with your surroundings. Not only is this book enlightening, it’s funny as hell.

On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. The best book ever written on writing nonfiction. This book made me understand why everyone needs an editor—even the editor.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs. Fifty years ago, Jane Jacobs explained how cities work, why it matters, and how easy it is to mess them up. It’s still the definitive work on the subject, and informs all modern thought about how we live in built communities.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert A. Caro. The astonishing biography of an idealist who tried to make New York into a paradise, only to destroy it with his hubris. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand how city planning really works.

The Press,  by A.J. Liebling.  This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone. Liebling, who wrote about the press for The New Yorker in the 1940’s, is famous for saying "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one"— but he also wrote "People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news."  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this indispensable book is out of print and not in the county library catalog. I’ve added it to the wish list in the hopes that it’ll come back. Liebling lived in an era when newspapers were manifestations of their publishers’ personal prejudices and commercial interests, and it makes you realize that the age of corporate journalism is not an unalloyed disaster.

What books would you add to the Review’s wish list? Add your suggestions to the list by clicking on the comments link.

I recently received a copy of the email newsletter from the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District. If you live in the rural areas of the County, or are interested in what’s going on there, you should check it out. The newsletter includes:

• Building Success in the San Mateo County RCD, Part Two
• Web Site Picks
• Drainage Tips for Hillside Homes
• RCD Staff Report, December, 2004
• Public Notice RCD Policy Committee meeting
• Agenda, RCD Board Meeting, January 18, 2005
• Calendar of Events and Opportunities

Click on "read more" to see the entire newsletter.

The Cunha PTA will host HMB High School Principal Susan Million and several members of her staff for a Half Moon Bay High School orientation. The orientation will be February 7 at 7:00 pm in the Cunha Library.

Million and her staff have already been asked to answer the following questions at the open house.

• What are AP (Advanced Placement) classes and how does a student qualify?
• What happens if a student gets a C or below and wants to enroll in AP classes?
• Please explain the math program.
• Can a student wait to take math/biology till their sophomore year?
• Why is there no freshman science?
• When can a student attend classes at CSM (College of San Mateo)?
• Please show a sign up sheet that is being sent home on an overhead. Explain what classes are mandatory and what isn’t.
• Can students from HMBHS qualify for the top universities?
• Which classes are college prep?
• What is zero period PE and who qualifies? Do certain programs get preference?

A group of Coastsiders is meeting Saturday 9:30 to 11:30 am at a Half Moon Bay home to look at the economic and technical issues around installing solar electric systems. Their goal is to reduce electricity use and maybe save some money. They’re also interesteed in following up with a solar tour to visit some solar-using homes and talk to the owners.

The agenda will include:

•   Introductions
•   A discussion of the various kinds of PV systems.
•   A look at the factors that affect the economic savings possible
•   Where to look for additional information

If you want to attend, there is a homework assignment: Take a look at your past PG&E bills and write down how many KWHrs you have used each month in 2004. If you haven’t saved the bills, write down how much money you have sent PG&E.

For directions contact Dennis Paull at [email protected], 650-712-0498