Montara artist John Andreas has a solo exhibit of photo realistic watercolors, glicees, and a moody photograph at the Half Moon Library through Sept. 30. He began painting and photography 15 years ago and began showing his work to the public in juried exhibits in 2003. His large format, color saturated paintings, often mistaken as photographs, have won several awards and earned a solo show at the Sanchez Art Center in 2005.

John paints from his photographs, not directly, but using the photographs as a reference for the "visual-emotional image" that resides in his mind when taking the photograph.  An example and description of his process is hanging next to the final painting in the Library show. John has published articles, edited a newsletter, and worked for a magazine in New York; written plays for the theater; and worked in the theater in Dusseldorf, New York, and San Francisco.  He’s lived on the coastside for many years, the last 10 years with his wife in Montara, and works in the Half Moon Bay Post Office. This show runs until the end of September.

The San Mateo League for Coastside Protection (aka "LCP") is one of the main political action committees operating Coastside.  Their motto is "We defend the coast by supporting those who uphold the spirit and substance of the California Coastal Act."  Sounds great in theory, but how does it work in practice?  Do the people that are not supported or endorsed by LCP not do that?  Furthermore, does LCP actively try to inform the community about issues and solutions?  Or does LCP simply force its ideals on the community through its anointed candidates actions?

What is LCP really all about?  It seems to me that the motto really should be "You will not be doing anything around here that we do not agree with because we will just get the Coastal Commission to stop you."  Seems that the Coastal Act is used simply as a tool to try to control City affairs from an "environmental" perspective.  If a candidate meets the "environmentalist" profile, will they try to get a new police station or library built?  Could they possibly be for a new Boys & Girls Club anywhere on the Coastside?

Coastsider is experimenting with fast-turnaround video publishing from local events. Our dress rehearsal was tonight’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting.  Tonight, Darin Boville recorded the meeting straight to disk, processed it on the spot and uploaded tonight’s clip to the Web from the Coastwave hotspot in front of La Di Da Cafe. Tonight, we present the public comments from the city council meeting still in progress.

Town Hall is an new, open forum where Coastsiders can start their own discussion topics.  Posts on Town Hall posts will not be reviewed before they are released. This should result in a faster and more open exchange of ideas than you can get in any other forum on the Coastside.

The most recent topics started in Town Hall will be featured at the top of Coastsider’s home page, right next to our Top Stories. You can click on the last link in the list for even more of the most recent Town Hall topics, or you can click on the "Town Hall" link under the Coastsider banner to get to the main site.

I’ve wanted to set up an open forum for some time and it was one of my main motivations for upgrading Coastsider’s software this summer. Sometimes people are reluctant to post their notes and questions to Coastsider because they aren’t sure what’s news. Town Hall is designed to lower the barriers that keep our neighbors from posting.

Once you’re logged on to Coastsider, you’re also logged on to Town Hall. Anyone can read posts in Town Hall. But to write a post, you will have to use your real name on your Coastsider profile and request access.  To request posting access, email Barry Parr, using the link in the left-hand navigation bar.

Town Hall postings will be reviewed after they go live. We expect all Town Hall users to follow Coastsider’s Terms of Use. Spirited discussion is expected, but so is civility. Posts that don’t meet that simple criterion will be deleted.

We’ve been working on Town Hall since the beginning of summer, and have been beta testing it for weeks. We’re very excited to open it to the public. If you have any unexpected problems, post a message here, or just email Barry Parr using the link on the left.

Coastsiders will have two opportunities to get hands-on experience with the new eSlate voting machines that San Mateo County will begin using this November. HMB Library will be hosting programs on Friday night, Sept 29th, at 7:00pm and Thursday morning, October 5th, at 10:00am.

A sample ballot will be loaded into the machine so that people can practice using it.  A representative from the County Eelections Office will be on hand to give a brief presentation and answer questions.  Electronic voting is a hot topic this year.  Come out and see how this county is handling it.

The California Coastal Commission has sent a letter to Concar Enterprises asking some pointed questions about the nature of the agriculture they’re undertaking on the site [pdf of letter]. Concar is the owner of the portion of Wavecrest that was disked on Wednesday, September 6.

In a letter dated Wednesday, September 13, Coastal Commission Enforcement Analyst Jo Ginsberg asks fifteen questions, including what they plan to grow, to whom they plan to sell it, what they expect to get for it, and what it cost for security monitors on the site.

Two years ago, Coastsider estimated that Concar could gross between $5,000 and $10,000 by growing hay on the land as they planned at the time.

I called Jo Ginsberg, but she declined to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The San Mateo County Health Department offers free stop-smoking services to help you quit. Free nicotine patches and one-on-one telephone counseling in English and Spanish  are available.

Group classes in Half Moon Bay  will be Thursdays, October 5 through November 16, from 6:00 to 7:30pm at the Coastside Mental Health Center 225 S. Cabrillo, Suite 200A (Second Floor, above the Coastside Family Medical Center).  Pre-registration is required. To register call:   (650) 573-3989

EDITOR’S NOTE: Seton’s Teddy Bear Clinic is one of our favorite events on the Coastside.

Seton Coastside in Moss Beach will host its 19th Annual Teddy Bear Clinic, on Sunday, September 24, 2006 from 11am – 3pm.  Every year for the past 19 years, Seton Coastside has provided this worthwhile event, introducing children to the emergency department and hospital setting, in a fun "pain-free" way.

To help create this positive experience, the children are encouraged to bring in their favorite toy stuffed animal as the "patient". The child and his or her toy then go through the entire process of the emergency visit in a non-threatening atmosphere.  First, they make an appointment, apply for "Teddy-Cal" insurance, and then have their toys’ vital signs taken along with the "patient’s" history.  From there, the children are directed to the radiology department (a copy machine), where an "x-ray" is taken, and onto the lab where a "blood sample" is taken.

Then it’s on to the waiting room.  Of course at the Teddy Bear Clinic, there is hardly ever any waiting time. The doctor, upon examination of the "patient", orders appropriate treatments like a cast, a shot, or possibly surgery and consults with the child and their stuffed animal.  Apples are given (an apple a day keeps the doctor away) and then everyone gets a nutritional consultation followed by a visit to the Physical Therapy department.

At a joint HMBFD and PTMFD board meeting 9/14, Ed Hawkins, president of fire fighter’ unions stated that "A 72 hour workweek is very dangerous to residents". Obviously attempting to insinuate a fact out of an opinion without supportive data in an attempt to influence board action.

It has always concerned me when facts and data are mixed with personal opinions and manipulated into a pre-desired outcome. Neither side of a discussion gains from that. Facts and data don’t lie. They may tell a story one doesn’t want to hear, but reviewing / analyzing them all will lead to the right decision for all concerned. Selective data usage benefits no one. It just creates mud slinging opportunities.

The attempt to imply 72 hour work week is dangerous for fire serive, offers absolutely not one iota of proof. It doesn’t indicate the contributing factors of a 72 hour schedule that would make it dangerous. Nor does it indicate what a non dangerous amount of hours are. Under what work schedule do the conditions that create a dangerous condition go away? And how do number of calls and type of calls enter into the dangerous calculations.

By itself the opinion offered by Mr. Hawkins has as much value as the much earlier opinion that "the sun revolves around the earth" It’s an opinion, and while we are all allowed to have them,  having them doesn’t make them the truth.

I truly look forward to the data Mr. Hawkins plans to present to board to find out what he considers the center of our solar system is.

The deadline for tunnel construction proposals was extended last month from September 19 until October 24 [FAQ for contractors]. THe project is estimated to coast $220 million. Caltrans says this was done because, "Several potential bidders of this contract requested that the State postpone the bid opening date due to the project’s complexity and the need to coordinate work among potential subcontractors." Caltrans does not believe this will affect the project completion date.

Caltrans has received questions from nearly 100 bidders on its inquiry site for the project.  If you’re an engineer, you might find these interesting to read.