Join us for our first annual Permaculture Design Course on the San Mateo Coastside. Participants in this inaugural event will play a critical role in creating a center for Permaculture as well as strengthening the permaculture community in the larger bioregion. Your efforts will help build a legacy of sustainability that will carry on for generations to come.
Permaculture is a holistic approach to land use design based on ecological principles and patterns. It will give participants the inspiration and the skills to apply the tools learned to any situation.
In this 72-hour intensive design course, you will learn tools to create a sustainable future in your backyard and beyond! These tools can be applied to any scale, from dense urban settlements to vast rangeland.
Class: 2-Week Intensive Permaculture Design Course
Instructors: Benjamin Fahrer & Doniga Markegard plus special guest instructors
Location: Tunitas Creek Ranch, Half Moon Bay, CA
Dates: July 7 - 19, 2008
Scholarship Deadline Extended to June 16
Click for details
Musicians, artists and craftspeople will join together in La Honda to entertain and exhibit at annual La Honda Faire and Music Festival. The Faire is held in La Honda Gardens, in the California redwoods of La Honda. It is a two-day festival of music, celebration, and community.
Admission is free. Proceeds benefit the La Honda Elementary School art and music program. Come soak up some sun, listen to great music, and meet some new friends. No pets, please.
A stellar musical line-up of local bands include: Gary Gates Band, Mama Pacho, Mark Reid Band, Jack Mullins Band, Lisa Kelly Band, Curtis Turner, Houston Jones,John Haverd Band, Seconds on End, This Way Up, And more…
June 14 & 15
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
La Honda Gardens [Google Map]
8865 La Honda Road
La Honda
Relay for Life meeting, Tuesday at HMB Firehouse
There will be a meeting Tuesday June 10 at 6:30PM at the Half Moon Bay Firehouse for everyone interested in participating in the Coastside’s first Relay for Life, to be held at Cunha Middle School on August 2&3 2008. Russ Bissonette of the American Legion and Clayton Jolley of the Coastside Fire Department are co-chairs for the event.
Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature event to raise awareness and funding to fight cancer. A victory lap recognizes local cancer survivors and a luminaria ceremony honors and remembers those who have faced cancer.
To register, form a team, donate money, purchase a luminaria or sign up as a survivor, contact: Emily LeDeau 650.773.9122 .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
SAM (Sewer Authority Midcoastside) first looked at recycling 2002, but the current drought is giving the idea new urgency, according to an extensive article by Julia Scott in the County Times
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, source of Hetch Hetchy drinking water for the Bay Area, is at 70 percent of normal this year and scientists predict it will be diminished by 60 to 80 percent by 2099 because of global warming.
In a neat bit of timing, the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside’s board of directors last week commissioned a new study on the feasibility and expense of producing recycled water for use by the large flower nurseries and thirsty golf courses in Half Moon Bay. The new water users would get a drought-proof source of water year-round, and Half Moon Bay would divert far less potable water to farmers, keeping some in surplus for future needs.
If Nurserymen’s Exchange, the largest flower grower on the coast, switched to using recycled water, it would free up 15 percent of the city’s available water supply from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, said Dave Dickson, general manager of the Coastside County Water District.
...In spite of the logic, the Sewer Authority has yet to commit anything beyond the funds to hire a consultant to prepare the latest feasibility study, the fourth such study since 2002. In 2005, the project gained momentum when Half Moon Bay voters overwhelmingly passed an advisory measure approving the use of recycled water to irrigate fields and supplement dangerously low flow levels in local creeks.
...
Sewer Authority Manager Jack Foley denied that his agency had faced any delays in formulating a recycled water plan. The new consultant will, among other things, seek a commitment from Nurserymen’s Exchange, local golf course managers Ocean Colony Partners, and other potential customers who, like them, have expressed strong interest. The Sewer Authority will also need to update its cost estimates and seek out state funding sources.
...
The latest feasibility study, in February 2007, spelled out two options: the $5.1 million option would produce 1.65 million gallons per day of recycled water in the summer, while the plant continued to discharge the rest into the ocean in the winter as it does now. The second, $14.5 million option would convert the entire wastewater inflow of 3 million gallons per day for reuse, including local stream flow augmentation.
There’s a lot more at the County Times.
In an obvious parallel to Half Moon Bay’s AB1991, a Los Angeles developer is attempting to get the state legislature to pass a special exemption so he can develop 229 homes on a golf course that the city wants to keep as open space. As a bonus, the law appears to be a gift to the developer in exchange for a campaign contribution, reports the LA Times.
The company, MWH Development Corp., wants to construct 229 homes to replace the 63-acre golf course in Tujunga, which is not in Fuentes’ Assembly district. The firm is headed by San Fernando Valley developer Mark Handel, who said former Los Angeles Building Commission President Scott Z. Adler is a partner in the project.
...
"I was disgusted," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. "We believe Sacramento should not be trying to dictate land-use policy on city matters. We also don’t believe legislation should be designed to benefit one developer."
...
Greuel said Handel’s true goal is not to develop the property but to sell it at a profit. At the same time he is pushing the legislation, he is talking to the city about a possible sale of the land to the city, which would maintain it as open space. Greuel says Handel wants permission for the high-density development to raise the property’s value so he can get a better price.
The Times says the bill "was written so it applies only to the city of Los Angeles and makes changes that would specifically address Handel’s wish to build on the golf course site."
Suzanne Black shares her reaction to the destruction of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Catholic Church in HMB ©2008
Before I even learned the words to the thrice-daily devotion to Mary called "the Angelus," I was taught to stand still with head bowed when the church bell rang a series of three solemn sounds repeated slowly three times. Bong. Bong. Bong. It tolled at 6 o’clock in the morning, noon, and 6 o’clock in the evening. I was a child in a high-church Anglican boarding school, and this is what everyone did.
When I first arrived at the school, led by my mother’s hand, I was not quite six years old. A kind lady in a long blue dress and wearing a stiff white veil gave us a tour of the school. She was called Sister Mary, as I recall.
She showed us the cottage where I would live with other children my age. She showed us the dining room where we would all eat together. She took us into the lovely stone chapel, which smelled both sweet and pungent and contained carved wooden benches where the children and the nuns would sit. She pointed to the majestic figures of a man on a cross and the women next to the cross. "Mary, His Mother," she said, "and Mary Magadelen."
I’d never heard of either of those Marys; they looked kind but sad. The only Mary I knew was in a photograph on the mantle in my grandmother’s room. That Mary was my aunt, tall and slim, with bobbed hair and an ingratiating smile. I don’t think I’d met her then, but I liked her from her picture.
We went outside, into a garden next to the chapel. Flowers were blooming everywhere. In a small grassy area stood a statue of a woman. "That’s Mary, the Mother of Jesus," she said. "We kneel and pray to her to comfort us when we are lonely or afraid."
I took the hint, kneeled in front of the statue, steepled my hands, and closed my eyes. I knew how to say prayers. And I particularly wanted my mother to hear mine about not wanting to stay there. I looked at her just as she snapped a picture of me on my knees. Shortly after, she left me and my small suitcase in the care of Sister Mary.
Click poster for MCC, click below for agenda.
Surfrider San Mateo County Chapter
invites you to our General Public Meeting
Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 7:00 PM - Free Event.
San Mateo Coastal Archeology ~ An Evening with Mark Hylkema Montara Lighthouse
In 1769, when members of the first Spanish expedition reached the San Francisco Bay area they encountered numerous tribal communities that lived in a bountiful landscape. Over a period of 10,000 years, a mosaic of tribal communities have adapted to several major environmental transitions. Archaeological research has found that tribes spread along the San Mateo and Santa Cruz County coast developed an early focus on marine resources, while neighboring tribes of the Santa Clara Valley and San Francisco Bay shore eventually transformed into more complex levels of social organization. By the time the explorers arrived, distinctive tribal boundaries and customs had developed. This discussion will provide an outline of the local prehistory and native lifeway up to the time of European contact. We will also review aspects of the Spanish, Mexican and early American periods and reflect on what it was like not too many years ago when grizzly bears and the Ohlone people dwelled here.
Mark Hylkema is a State archaeologist with 28 years experience in California archaeology and Native American culture. He has interacted with many different tribal communities, particularly in central and northern California. He did his graduate research on the archaeology of the San Mateo and Santa Cruz County coast and has directed excavations throughout the greater San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas. He works full time as the Santa Cruz District Archaeologist for California State Parks managing cultural resources in an area stretching from San Francisco to the Pajaro River; and has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at Santa Clara University, University of California at Santa Cruz, De Anza College, Ohlone College and Cabrillo College. A native of Mountain View, he currently resides in Sunnyvale.
Doors open at 7:00 PM
Meeting at 7:30 PM
At Montara Light House
Point Montara Light House
16th Street and Highway 1
Montara, CA 94037
Surfrider San Mateo chapter uses this very picturesque location for our General Meetings and other large meetings.
Please note that parking is very limited. Please carpool and invite your friends to the meeting. Please park only in the
upper lotwhich is nearest HWY 1.
The city of Half Moon Bay has released a financial analysis of the cost of developing Beachwood should the state legislature decide not to accept its settlement.
The city’s investment bankers, Piper Jaffray, estimate that the city will lose $48 million if 19 houses can be built on the site, and $9 million if 129 houses can be built.
We’re going to dig more deeply into these numbers in the near future, and we’ve already got some ideas about what to do, but tonight, you can download the Piper Jaffray’s analysis [pdf] and an Excel spreadsheet of their numbers from Coastsider.
What do you think of the city’s numbers? What would you be considering if you were presented with this analysis? Add your thoughts in comment to this story and we’ll add your ideas to our analysis of the city’s analysis.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS