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Zoe Kersteen-Tucker was elected chair of the San Mateo County Transit District Board of Directors and board member Rose Guilbault was elected vice chair, in unanimous votes.
Kersteen-Tucker, who previously served as vice chair, is a public member of the board representing the Coastside region. Guilbault also is a public member of the board and resides in Burlingame.
Chair Kersteen-Tucker focused on the importance of transportation saying, "As a transit agency, we’re poised to lead San Mateo County to a more sustainable future."
Property owners on the Coast are not deterred by senseless attacks on their rights. My For Sale sign on the west side of Railroad Avenue and Filbert is back up again and now the most fortified For Sale sign the Coast has ever seen. It is now encased in over 230 pounds of concrete and proudly wears the number 3 indicating the number of times this sign has been righted. I considered other safeguards but took a more measured response for now.
However, I have retained a legion of Property Rights Protectors to help Tony sell his property. I am pleased to introduce to the Coast NP3, which stands for NO PUDS IN HMB. This is not t o be confused with others using these sacred letters as they defile PUDs up and down the Coast such as No Pooping, No Puking or even Not Pitching.
The Coast is truly fortunate to have someone of his caliber preserving their diminishing rights 24/7. NP3 graduated #1 in his class at Camp GITMO and has specialized in the highly controversial yet highly effective eco-terrorist fighting technique of weed boarding.
NP3 has also been given Executive Orders from VP Dick Cheeney to use this controversial technique to fight eco-extremism whenever he sees fit. VP Cheeney was also so impressed with NP3’s take no survivor attitude that he invited him to accompany him on a recent hunting trip so he could observe his tactics first hand.
NP3 is one tough dude. I understand his daily diet consists of wetland weeds and arcane HMB Zoning Ordinances. He’s a mean, green ordinance eating machine.
NP3 and his legion of Property Rights Protectors have spent the past week retrofitting the GREEN BUS that was parked in a Miramar field as their eco-terrorism fighting vehicle. They will be traveling up and down the PUDS at night looking for evil destroyers of property rights. For homeowners living near PUDS, they may hear the nightly chants of NO PUDS IN HMB.
The Grand Prize for NP3 is the thick and highly guarded volumes of Zoning Regulations at City Hall. This is not an easy target to get at. It is guarded by a high speed revolving door with a stampede of City Top Brass coming and going. To successfully penetrate this fortress of suppression of property rights, NP3 has asked for help from engineers at Cal Tech and Top Terrorist Crusader, Jack Bauer.
I hope to use NP3 and the NO PUDS IN HMB as the battle cry for the oppressed property owners here. Over the coming weeks, I hope to further develop this theme and our action hero. My son yesterday set up nopudsinhmb.com blog site so property owners around the country can share their experiences and frustrations.
So to those people whether they be eco-terrorists, eco-perps, eco-jerks, eco-drunks, eco-jd’s, eco-wackos or just wimpy weed whiners, destroying other’s property is not ok here.
On a serious note, my previous post (not POST) on Talkabout skyrocketed to the 2nd most commented topic in just 8 days. Its obvious that Property Right issues have legs (red of course) on the Coast.
Its not about a silly sign or self-promotion by a real estate broker, its about your rights and how they have been systematically destroyed over the years by a series of misguided punishing policies. Let’s make NO PUDS IN HMB and their action hero NP3 the battle cry for the oppressed property owners here on the Coast.
Perhaps something silly like this is needed to rally the forces against the failed and ruinous failed policies of the past. What do you think?
Steven Hyman
Much has been written in various bay area press outlets that has oversimplified and obscured the circumstances of the Beachwood case.
Below is the largely overlooked editor’s intro in the May issue of the California Lawyer magazine regarding that magazine’s article on the Beachwood judgment. It was overlooked because the Beachwood April 1 Settlement (rather than an appeal to the 9th Circuit—arguably the biggest mistake in the City’s history) - had already occurred at the time of publication. Here is the editor’s interesting statement about the case, which includes a fairly bold conclusion to have been made by a legal magazine’s reporter about a federal judicial decision.
However, the longer David P. Hamilton, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, worked on this story for us, the more troubled he became with Judge Walker’s ruling. "My experience is that when you come across a judge’s opinion as strongly worded as Judge Walker’s was, you naturally assume that the offending party was caught dead to rights. But as I dug deeper, I realized there was a fair amount of contradictory evidence that either didn’t make it into his ruling, or was dismissed out of hand."
Just as we were about to go to press with this story, the city announced a settlement offer in the case.
Mike Ferreira
Click below to read the full editorial.
The Montara / Moss Beach community is one big step closer to solutions for its long-standing water problems following Coastal Commission approval Wednesday of the Public Works Plan, Phase I, proposed by Montara Water and Sanitary District in January 2006. The approved plan includes the new Alta Vista Well, bringing 150 gallons per minute of safe and reliable water to meet community needs; an additional 1,100,000 gallons of water storage for emergencies; and additional treatment for water drawn from wells at the Half Moon Bay Airport.
The Alta Vista Well was commissioned in October 2007 and has been supplying high-quality water to Montara and Moss Beach customers during an environmental testing period required by the Coastal Commission. Based on those studies, which showed no adverse affects on nearby wetlands and riparian areas, the District may use this new well to provide reliable supplies that meet the needs of existing customers in the District.
Has anyone else been "invited" to Public Scoping Meeting regarding the building of a project for low income developmentally disabled children and adults. The project it to have housing and an office center to cover 19.5 acres.
"The project site is located in unincorporated San Mateo County along Airport Street, on the North side of City of Half Moon Bay, situated on the San Mateo County Coastline, with the Half Moon Bay Airport immediatley adjacent to the east.
"Further, various project-related business operations are included, which will be utilized to manage the above, as well as to generate income for the project services, such as: Big Wave (BW) Catering and Food Services; BW Energy; BW Entertainment; BW Farming; BW Water; BW Transportation; BW Recycling; BW Communications (Fiberlink) and BW Maintenance.
The meeting is November 18, 2008 from 7-9pm at El Granada School.
I received mine from the San Mateo Planning and Building Department yesterday.
Kathleen Muth
Posted on the intranet at work is San Mateo County’s public transit bulletin urging county commuters to participate in this week’s "I’m Pumped For Transit."
I like to be Green. I’d like to reduce my carbon footprint, as well as lessen adding one more car to the road.
I used the following websites to build a schedule for my public transit needs: SamTrans, CalTrain, and Google to search for the shuttle schedule, (because the link to the CalTrain employer shuttle via my employer’s intranet had changed and did not link). I filled a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper with penciled departure and arrival times for each station.
First I need to get from Half Moon Bay to Redwood City for work. I find I could leave from Main Street on the 294 at either 6:17 a.m., reaching Hillsdale CalTrain Station by 6:43 a.m., or leave a bit later by taking the 8:07 a.m. eastbound bus, arriving at Hillsdale at 8:35.
To then reach Redwood City, the easiest and fastest route would be for me to take CalTrain from Hillsdale to Sequoia Station. If I arrive via bus at Hillsdale at 6:43, then the next soutbound Sequoia Station stopping CalTrain picks up at 7:01 a.m. I’d arrive at Sequoia Station by 7:12 a.m. and wait for the 7:33 shuttle out to the business park where I work, arriving at: 7:51.
Almost 90 minutes of a commute. (Via auto: commute time averages 30 to 40 mins.)
If instead, I took the 8:07 departing bus from Half Moon Bay, I would arrive at Hillsdale Caltrain at 8:35 a.m. The 9:07 CalTrain would drop me at Sequoia Station at 9:12, I’d jump on the 9:23 shuttle and arrive at work by quarter to ten.
Total Cost to this one-way eastbound route: $4.50
Returning home I’d start with the 5 p.m. shuttle, (if I arrived at work early, 7:51 a.m.) and reach Sequoia Station at 5:16 p.m. I would have to wait until 5:57 p.m. for the next northbound CalTrain that would stop at Hillsdale. (All earlier trains are express with no Hillsdale stops.) Thinking positively, perhaps I’d do a little shopping at Sequoia Station to kill that 40 minutes of time, maybe I’d read a book.
The 5:57 train arrives at Hillsdale at 6:08, however, I would just miss the westbound 294 to Half Moon Bay as it departed at 6:00 p.m. Now I would need to wait until 7:32 p.m.(!) for the 294 to drop me off on Main Street at 8:05.
During that 80 minute wait, perhaps I’d finish the book I started at Sequoia Station, or choose to shop at the mall across the street?
My Commute if I participate in Public Transit Week:
6:17 a.m. departure from Half Moon Bay
8:05 p.m. return to Half Moon Bay
Total fares: $9.00
Cost to fill my 10 gallon tank: $33.00 (current price)
MPG with my car: 32
Cost to drive my car to and from work: about $5.50
Overwhelmed by the planning to and from work, I haven’t even factored the schedule to include the three nights a week when I am in class at San Francisco State University.
I won’t be participating in "I’m Pumped For Transit" Week. I’ll continue to drive my car. Anyone want to carpool?
Anneliese Agren
Senator Leland Yee has offered to sponsor a bill to allocate $10 million in parks bond money to the city of Half Moon Bay to assist in the acquisition of Beachwood from developer Charles "Chop" Keenan.
With the defeat of AB1991, the city is required by its settlement with Keenan to buy the Beachwood property from him for $18 million. The proposed bill, which Yee’s office says faces no opposition from environmental organizations, would provide the city with up to $10 million in Proposition 1C (2006) money to create a public park on the site.
Although this would prevent the city from building houses on the site, the city has already said that it would lose money if it had to build houses. In June the city released a financial analysis that claimed it would lose $35 million if it could develop as many as 50 houses on the site.
It is unknown how much of the site, which contains wetlands, could be turned into usable park space.
I spoke with Adam Keigwin in Senator Yee’s office and he said that although this was a new proposal, it was still possible to get the bill through the Legislature in the current session.
In June, the city received $5 million from the Association of Bay Area Governments insurance pool as a result of its loss of the Beachwood suit.
In today’s County Times, Julia Scott quotes developer Chop Keenan say that his payments to Half Moon Bay’s lobbyists were intended to support lobbying for AB1991. This is consistent with his statements to the Review, but not those to Capitol Weekly on Friday.
If he was paying for consulting, as California Strategies (and later Keenan) insists, he says he received a phone call every couple of weeks for his $50,000.
"I think it’s pretty clear that AB1991 is in both of our interests, so I don’t know where the conflict is. It’s not like the city or I am telling them how to do their job. Every couple weeks somebody calls (from the firm) and tells me what’s going on," said Keenan, who said he decided to support the city’s efforts at an early meeting with the city manager and representatives of California Strategies at the law offices of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the city’s legal team.
"It was very informal and I decided it was in my self-interest to put some horsepower behind California Strategies’ efforts," he said.
That’s a juicy new detail: the arrangement was worked out at a meeting at the offices of the city’s attorneys between California Strategies, city manager Marcia Raines, and Keenan.
Half Moon Bay Councilmember John Muller said none of his colleagues on the council knew of Keenan’s payments prior to Tuesday’s meeting, but that he was neither surprised nor troubled by them.
"It wasn’t like he was opposing us in the settlement agreement. We agreed he would support us in passing AB1991. That’s all in the agreement. It says he’s going to help us pass the legislation," Muller said.
Capitol Weekly, Aug 8:
Keenan confirmed Kinney’s version of his deal with California Strategies. He contracted for two and a half months of consulting services at $20,000 a month, for a total payment of $50,000. The deal expired on July 1. Lobbyist filings on the Secretary of State’s website disclose no lobbying payments from Keenan to California Strategies.
"It’s in the city’s interest to get AB 1991 passed," Keenan said. "It’s also in my interests. We have a community of interest. The way Jason characterized it is exactly right." When asked why he needed consulting services, Keenan said, "I’m just really not clear on how thing works up there. I felt I needed guidance."
HMB Review, Aug 8, 12:54 PM PDT
According to Keenan, he had no control over the firm’s activities. He said he would occasionally receive feedback on the legislative proceedings in Sacramento.
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