I’ll be interviewed on Pescadero radio station KPDO today.

You probably won’t be able to get 89.3 FM on the air in Half Moon Bay or the Midcoast, but you can always listen live on their website.

Open Street Maps is a self-described "Wikipedia of Street Maps": a complete set of local street maps that anyone can contribute to.

On Saturday, August 14, at 10am,  Bay Area OSM fans will converge at LaDiDa in Half Moon Bay for a mapping party [Meetup].  Bring your GPS or cell phone with GPS software—or borrow a GPS from the organizers at the event.

OSM’s goal is to create an open-source map of the world’s streets. Commercial street maps (such as Google, Yahoo, MapQuest, and Bing) are copyrighted by one of two companies (TomTom or Nokia). OSM got its start in Europe, where copyright restrictions made it impossible for developers to create new systems on top of existing map data.

I’ve been personally contributing to OSM for more than a year by cleaning up their maps of Montara and adding points of interest. Most of the Coastside maps have been created using US Census data and are already quite good, but parts of them are out of date, incomplete, or incorrect.

I’ve been using EveryTrail’s free iPhone app for my work, but there are other apps available for iPhone and Android. I recommend downloading a GPS app and practicing recording your tracks between now and the 14th. Or just bring a GPS or borrow one at the meeting.

You’ll get help uploading your tracks and updating the map based on your data.

San Mateo County 2009 Beachwater Contamination Results are the second worst in the state. Los Angeles County is the only County in California with more beach closing/advisory days than San Mateo County.

Closing or Advisory Days:

• Aquatic Park (117 days)
• Pillar Point (100 days)
• Lakeshore Park (98 days)
• Fitzgerald Marine Reserve (59 days)
• Oyster Point Marina (53 days)
• Pacifica State Beach (39 days)
• Venice State Beach (28 days)
• Dunes State Beach (23 days)
• Kiteboard Beach (15 days)
• Francis State Beach and Gazos Creek Access (both 13 days)

CGF opposes wide asphalt trail at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

The Committee for Green Foothills has written a letter opposing the county’s plan for a wide, paved trail inside the Fitzgerald Marine Preserve. The comment period for the proposed trail has been extended to 9am on Monday, August 16. The county has promised to put up stakes showing the coverage of the new trail by Friday, August 6.

The CGF notes that the proposed project is not in compliance with the county’s Local Coastal Program policies regarding environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA), particularly wetlands, as well as the master plan for the marine reserve itself. Among its objections:

• The marine reserve’s master plan says the county should "emphasize the sensitivity of the resource, to enhance the educational value of the Reserve, to manage visitation, and to limit use of the Reserve as a recreation destination."
• The marine reserve’s master plan says, “all trails and paths …shall be surfaced with pervious materials such as decomposed granite”, instead of the asphalt planned by the county, and that pervious surfaces can be ADA compliant.
• The CGF describes the proposed trail as "an overblown paved transportation facility that does not invite people to enjoy and appreciate the natural setting, and connect with nature."
• Changing the location of the existing bridge over San Vicente Creek would increases impacts on riparian vegetation and an archeological site.
• The proposed changes to beach access, including much more extensive rip-rap, will impact the beach.
• There is not enough information in the plan to judge the impact on environmentally sensitive habitat areas (ESHA).

Read the full letter after the jump.

Two cars were broken into at Montara State Beach this week. In one, a rear screen window was forced open. In the second, however, someone broke into a car at MSB, stole the car, and used the victim’s credit cards in some Pacifica stores.

In addition to the usual Coastside crimes (drugs, warrant arrests, commercial burglary), there was this:

On 07-23-2010 a vehicle was stopped for crossing over the double yellow lines. The driver was found to be unlicensed and had too many passengers in his vehicle without seatbelts for them. All of the passengers were under the age of twenty-one and there were multiple open and unopened alcoholic beverages in the vehicle. One of the juvenile passengers was on searchable probation. A vehicle search yielded a small amount of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, electronic monitoring devices, and burglary tools. All passengers and driver were placed under arrest for possession of burglary tools and booked into San Mateo County Jail and San Mateo County Juvenile Hall.

Details after the jump.

A freshly dead whale spotted near Farallon Island Sunday may have been killed by a ship, according to the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary

The whale was about 25ft long and had several large wounds: one to two feet long slashes on its flank and the base of its tail. It could not be determined whether the whale was wounded before it died.

At the same time, sanctuary biologists in the area on a research vessel reported that They had been forced to discontinue a cruise along a predetermined route because they encountered a group of feeding humpbacks directly in their path of travel and were forced to stop the vessel to avoid a collision. The humpbacks were feeding so intently they ignored the oncoming boat.

The Sanctuary warns boaters to be careful around feeding whales.

Assemblymember Jerry Hill is holding two events for the public to meet their state Assembly representative, Saturday in Pacifica and Half Moon Bay.
 

From 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Hill will be hosting “Java with Jerry” at Mazzetti’s Bakery in Pacifica.  Local residents are encouraged to share their ideas, questions or concerns about legislative issues affecting the state and community. Constituents are welcome to stay awhile or just drop by for a brief chat.  No appointment is necessary.
 
From 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Hill will be in Half Moon Bay at the Coastside Farmers’ Market as he hosts “Community Office Hours.”  Assemblymember Hill and staff will be available to discuss legislative issues and help constituents with state-related programs such as renters/homeowners assistance programs, consumer complaints, veterans’ affairs, unemployment and disability insurance, State Franchise Tax Board matters, tax relief programs, and various government forms.

 
At both events, Hill will be discussing proposals to balance the state budget.
 
For more information, visit www.asm.ca.gov/hill or call Hill’s District Office at (650) 349-1900.

The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council is meeting Thursday, Aug 12. The public is invite to attend for discussions about the biological and maritime cultural resources of the National Marine Sanctuary, the federally protected waters outside the Golden Gate.

Topics will include the BP oil spill impacts, vessel impacts on wildlife  (e.g. ship strike of whales, noise, pollution), and gray whales (a familiar species but one which is already showing impacts of climate change).

Details after the jump.