Apparently in the recent past a student of the Cunha Intermediate School had an encounter with a moving vehicle along Kelly Avenue between the school and the Ted Adcock Center.  So today I noticed an armed police man standing at the drive way entrance to the Adcock center.  He was stopping kids from jay walking across Kelly Avenue.  The sentiment is nice, but it is not an effective or economical solution by all means. 

Does the city plan on spending tax dollars for this traffic control for the remainder of the school year; possibly in subsequent years?  I remember when the little girl was killed on Kelly by the school district office; the police were out in force for only one to two days.  Then the signs went up on Kelly and in the Miramontes district at the intersections leading to the school that were mostly traveled.  They were not erected at the lesser travel school intersections.

For the amount of money it takes to pay for the policeman/woman, a center block crossing could be installed.  One with ‘flashing’ ground lights that would require the traffic to stop when they are flashing or in other words when the crossing is occupied.  There is such a crossing in San Mateo on one of the main avenues in its down town area.  The kids are the ones we need to protect, ushering and ticketing children is not the answer!

I really hate to see a government only on a ‘reactive’ track instead of a proactive one.  Kelly Avenue really needs this mid-block crossing so that the children can access the ‘bus’ station across the street at the Ted Adcock Center.  This center is also an area for ‘after school’ activities such as ballet.  The church is also an area where the children collect after school and even though they are located at an intersection I know the children jay walk over there too. 

Another problem with Kelly is the convenience market.  It is located on the corner and with the drive way located near the intersection it does impact traffic.  What is needed is a ‘keep clear’ notation on the west bound traffic side in order to allow for left hand turns by the east bound traffic on Kelly.  This will help keep traffic from congesting inside the intersection. 

Now that I got it out I would appreciate some good government decisions and real solutions to these two problems on Kelly Avenue.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Midcoast Community Council features candidates for the Midcoast Community Council, the Montara Water and Sanitary District and the Montara Fire Protection District. Candidates will make a brief statement, followed by a question and answer period.

The meeting will be at 7:30pm at Seton Medical Center Coastside, Marine Boulevard & Ethledore, Moss Beach (Take Highway 1 to Marine Boulevard and follow hospital signs uphill). Attendees must park in the upper hospital parking lot as per hospital policy.

Tuesday’s city council meeting was short.  The council reviewed the city’s financial status and approved a resolution to create a park at 880 Stone Pine Rd (on Pilarcitos Creek). The city also agreed to accept an allocation of 276 new housing units from the Association of Bay Area Governments, which the city manager said would be consistent with slow-growth Measures A & D.

Proclamations and presentations [15 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Announcements [2 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Oral communications [5 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Council reports [10 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Staff reports [18 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Consent calendar [4 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections |

Resolution of intent to create a park at 880 Stone Pine Road [8 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections | Docs |

Finance department update [31 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections | Docs |

Review and approval accepting assigned housing growth share from ABAG [15 min]  | Quicktime High Quality | Flash  slow connections | Docs |

There will be a special meeting of the Midcoast Community Council Oct 3, Wednesday night, at 7:30pm where Coastsiders can meet the candidates for the Half Moon Bay fire district board. 

A representative from the League of Women Voters invited each candidate for the Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District to this meeting to make a brief statement followed by a question and answer period.  The public is encouraged to attend and ask questions. A representative from the League of Women Voters will moderate this session.

If you have questions for any candidate and cannot attend this meeting, you can send questions to Gael Erickson – [email protected]. They will be handed to the session moderator.

Candidates for the Point Montara fire board, Midcoast Community Council, and the Montara Water and Sanitary District are invited to the regular Midcoast Community Council meeting on October 10 for a similar question and answer session also to be moderated by the League of Women Voters.

The meeting will be at Seton Medical Center Coastside, Marine Boulevard & Etheldore, Moss Beach Take Highway 1 to Marine Boulevard and follow hospital signs uphill. Attendees must park in the upper hospital parking lot as per hospital policy.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that the Point Montara Fire Board candidates would be at the October 3 meeting.

This letter comes from the MontaraFlood Yahoo group, where you can find a copy of the agenda for the meeting

The San Mateo County Midcoast Stormwater Drainage Committee will hold its fourth meeting on Thursday, October 4 at 2:00PM at the Sheriff’s substation in Moss Beach. We are still in the "education" phase of our work, in which committee members are learning about stormwater problems in the Midcoast area as well as the State and County laws, ordinances and policies that govern County actions.

The main topic of discussion at this meeting will be "paper streets," that is, streets that are set aside for future development. We will include existing streets that are not on the County-maintained system, as these are governed by the same policies.

Supervisor Rich Gordon’s office will be holding office hours on the Coastside Thursday, September 27 from 10am to noon at the Midcoast Sheriff’s Substation in Moss Beach.

Reproduced with permission from Montara Fog. Videos by Darin Boville

The area often called the "Midcoast" (everything north of Half Moon Bay and south of Devil’s Slide) is one of the few unincorporated areas in San Mateo County. You can imagine how exciting it must be for the County Board of Supervisors to have to deal with us on a regular basis—how our micro-local concerns must seem to them when they are used to dealing with grander things.

Thus the Midcoast Community Council. That’s "MCC" for short. It was established in 1991 as a sort of local representation of the County. The Board of Supervisors had a way to learn more about what was going on on the coast and local residents had a way of being heard by the powers-that-be. Hurray.

But it has been tough times of late for the MCC. Small children, barely able to talk, can count how many members of the public attend the meetings. MCTV, the "community" access channel can skip televising a session or two and not a complaint is heard. The apathy extends to the Council members themselves—published reports earlier this summer noted that one member hadn’t attended a meeting in over a year—the remaining members suspect that she may have moved out of the area.

I’m not making this up, really.

But this year the MCC’s prospects are looking up. There’s a contested election—five candidates for three open seats.

To help the public get to know the candidates I offered to shoot a short introductory video of each. I set out a few basic rules, offered to shoot anywhere on the coast they wished, and gave them five minutes of screen time. The rest was up to them.

Pay attention to this race if you favor democracy here on the Midcoast.

Deborah Lardie
    Quicktime     Flash

Howard Lieberman
    Quicktime     Flash

Neil Merrilees
    Quicktime     Flash

Bob Ptacek
    Quicktime     Flash

Leonard Woren
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Barack Obama has received the highest environmental rating of all the presidential candidates from the League of Conservation Voters. Check out the results at http://presidentialprofiles2008.org

then…

Join other Obama activists at an important and enjoyable meet-up on Monday, September 24 at 7:00pm in Half Moon Bay. We will share reports on local campaign activities and graduates from Camp Obama San Francisco will lead an outreach training session, giving us the tools we need to organize the Coastside for an Obama victory. Come meet with other locals who are embracing Obama and his message of Hope, Action and Change for America. 

For meeting location, please respond directly to April Vargas at [email protected]

April Vargas

At its September 4 meeting, the Half Moon Bay City Coucil approved council member John Muller’s replacement planning commissioner Kevin Lansing with at-large commissioner Linda Poncini.  The council also introduced an ordinance to reduce the Planning Commissions from seven members (two at-large and five serving terms staggered relative to the appointing council member) to five members serving concurrently with the appointing council member.  It would also link Parks and Recreation Commission members directly to the terms of appointing council members. If a council member leaves office, the member’s replacement would appoint a new commissioner to both the Planning and Parks and Recreation Commissions

John Muller appointed Mary Levin Butler to the Parks and Recreation Commission to replace Leslie McCarthy, who resigned from the commission.

All videos courtesy of Darin Boville of MontaraFog.

Presentations | Quicktime | Flash  |

Council Reports | Quicktime | Flash  |

Staff Reports | Quicktime | Flash  |

Oral communications | Quicktime | Flash  |

Consent Calendar | Quicktime | Flash  |

Amend Mobile Home Park zoning to comply with Coastal Commission | Quicktime | Flash  | Docs |

Removal of Planning Commission Kevin Lansing and appointment of Linda Poncini | Quicktime | Flash  | Doc |

Terms and number Planning and Parks & Recreation commission members syncronized with election of city council members | Quicktime | Flash  | Doc |

Appointment of Mary Levine Butler to Parks & Recreation Commission | Quicktime | Flash |

Highway Project update | Quicktime | Flash| Docs  |

The anonymous letter-writer who has been hitting local government officials and media is back in action. The County Times has a good story on the latest anonymous attack, which is as ugly as anything we’ve seen so far.

The letter, faxed to City Hall, downtown merchants, Realtors, developers and members of local agencies, was written by "David Meir," the author of over a dozen missives since March. He accuses city officials of taking bribes from a local businessman who opposes the configuration of a gas station. He uses explicit sexual language to suggest a relationship between the city’s director of public works and city manager. Toward the end of the letter, he writes that he himself is in a sexual relationship with the director of public works and calls for his resignation.

On Monday, City Manager Marcia Raines issued a public letter defending her employees and challenging "Meir" to show his face.

The city’s letter reads, in part: "City staff respects a person’s right to their opinion under the Constitution, but the tone of the letters has become increasingly disgusting, and in some cases threatening, to both city staff and members of the public ... we categorically deny the allegations made about city employees and encourage those persons with issues or grievances to meet face-to-face with senior management staff."

Coastsider received a copy of the most recent letter. The letters do seem to be getting edgier.  The current letter moves in to some fairly personal territory and repeats the ongoing theme that the author is watching city hall and has informants in the building.