The Coastside Alternative Gift Fair will be Saturday, Dec 8 from 10am to 3pm at Ocean Shore Elementary School, 411 Oceana Blvd in  Pacifica [Google map].

The alternative gift fair features 10 to 15 nonprofits who have information tables on what they are about.  You can then purchase a "gift" (donate in honor of someone).  Last year I gave  funds to buy a goat in Africa (Heifer International) and several other charities.  They prepare a very nice calligraphy card and it is a wonderful alternative to buying yet another necktie, scarf etc.

Last year they had some nice baked goods and some Montara performers as well.

Price: Free. Phone: (650) 355-5193

Margot Lowry

You’re probably noticing that Coastsider’s a little buggy right now and that we’re not updating much.  We’re working on the problem and have taken some steps that will solve these problems and generally improve our reliability. More on that later.

In the meantime, if a page on Coastsider doesn’t load properly, hit "reload" once or twice and you should be able to see it.  "Reload" is control-R on Windows and cloverleaf-R on the Mac.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Things will get better.

Thank you for your patience.

Barry Parr

Now that the rainy season has begun, many of us have flooding on our minds.

The San Mateo County Midcoast Storm Drainage Committee is looking for some public input.  In particular, they want to learn about specific flooding problems that people are having in Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Princeton and Miramar.  If you need to use sandbags to protect your property from flooding in the winter, or if you have a neighbor with this problem, please contact committee member Steve Lowens [email protected].

The general public is invited to attend the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary’s Advisory Council meeting to learn more about the sanctuary, its resources, management issues, projects, and public programs.

Bodega Marine Laboratory      
2099 Westside Rd., Bodega Bay      
9:00 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Thursday, December 13, 2007

CLICK below for agenda

There will be a "storm spotter" meeting at the Adcock Center in Half Moon Bay Tuesday, Dec 11from 7 to 9pm.

At this public meeting, you learn how to prepare at home or away for severe weather, understand the strength of heat waves and winter weather, learn how to recognize dangerous conditions and how you can relay local weather information to the Half Moon Bay Police and/or directly to the National Weather Service.

Half Moon Bay is one of the many severe weather-prone areas in California.  Each year, we cope with rainstorms, high winds and even thunderstorms that cause flooding.  The City of Half Moon Bay will be able to help the National Weather Service and its weather and warning programs.

Spotter trained communities are better prepared to save lives from the onslaught of severe weather through better planning, education, and awareness. No community is storm proof, but spotters can help communities save lives. 

RSVP to the Half Moon Bay Police Department (650) 726-8288.

Vicky Mihara Avery, of Montara, was the first runner-up in a contest sponsored by the makers of Scotch tape. Avery received a $2,500 cash prize. Janet Smith, of Willow Grove, PA, was crowned "America’s Most Gifted Wrapper".  In the competition at Rockefeller Center, the competitors wrapped ice skates, a snowboard with boots and bindings attached, and a snowmobile.

Shortly after the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced they were buying Wavecrest, we started taping a series of conversations with people involved with the site.  We told everyone we weren’t interested in the past disputes and acrimony that were associated with the sites, and asked them to discuss the future of Wavecrest and what it meant to have this wonderful piece of wild landscape in the middle of the the city.

In this first installment, I talked to Audrey Rust and Walter Moore, President and Executive Vice President of POST; and Naomi Patridge and Marina Fraser, Mayor and member of the Half Moon Bay City Council.  Darin Boville taped and edited the conversation.

This Friday night , November 30, from 5 to 7pm , award winning filmmaker and photographer Susan Friedman will be at Moon News signing copies of her first edition volume of EQUUS, a limited edition of a collection of equine portraits that were exhibited at SFMOMA in September and October 2007.

Many of the portraits featured in EQUUS were taken on the ranches of the Coastside from a Rocky Mountain horse on Skyline, to an Irish Gypsy Cobb from Moss Beach to the regal "Cole", a stunning Tennessee Walker from Pescadero.   Several of the images that were exhibited in the SFMOMA show are now on view at Moon News. 

The Half Moon Bay Police Department scored a perfect 100 in a new audit of California law enforcement agencies’ responses to requests for public information. The audit was conducted by Californians Aware, a Sacramento-based group that advocates for transparent government and records access, reports the County Times. The HMB police bounced back from a dismal score of 35 last year to a perfect 100.

Written requests for information were mailed the day before oral requests were made. The agencies were scored on legal compliance and customer service, each on a 100-point scale. Legal compliance was scored on what information was or was not provided and copying costs, which by law is limited to the "direct cost of duplication," and whether an agency took more than 10 days to allow a record to be inspected.
...
Half Moon Bay Police Chief Don O’Keefe said his department was "very proud" of its score on the audit — a perfect 100, the highest mark in the county — but also criticized the audit for first giving the agency a low score of 35 earlier this year. The department only received the low score, he said, because the auditor was "abrupt," demanding" and "unclear" in his requests.

Nonetheless, O’Keefe worked closely with the city attorney and the city clerk to insure that the Police Department would better acquaint itself with state law to ensure that all public information requests would be honored.

The state has determined that local crabs and fist are safe to eat.  However, local fishermen are waiting until they can all set out together. And they’re still not particularly happy, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

"There’s no particular reason to hurry now that we’ve already lost our market," said Pillar Point fisherman Duncan MacLean, head of the Half Moon Bay Fishermen’s Marketing Association, who estimated that he could have lost as much as $20,000, or 30 percent of his revenue for the season. MacLean is a plaintiff in one of four class-action lawsuits circulating among fishermen at Pillar Point.

Losing the start of the Dungeness season also means Bay Area fishermen will have to accept a much lower per-pound price for their product from buyers once the season opens north of Point Arena this weekend. Before the Cosco Busan crisis, local fishermen were negotiating a selling price of $3.25 per pound, MacLean said. Now, their wares are more likely to fetch $2.15 per pound or less, MacLean said.

Meanwhile, a fishing boat based in Santa Cruz went aground on the rocks off Pigeon Point early Thursday.