On the last week of school, we captured some photos of the promotion ceremony at Farallone View and just-dismissed students from Cunha celebrating the end of school in downtown Half Moon Bay.

The schools are a core institution on the Coastside. Farallone View is the center of Montara, and Cunha and Half Moon Bay High School are part of the reason that downtown Half Moon Bay is a great place to be.

Farallone View’s ceremony was short and significant.  The passage from elementary school to middle school is a huge step.  One, less significant, part of that passage was a last opportunity to grab clothes from the lost and found bin, which were spread out in the center of the school for kids and parents to check out.

The main event was a trip through a balloon arch to receive a handshake and a certificate from principal Mike Bachicha and your teacher. This was followed by a lunch catered by Spanish Town Mexican restaurant. Everyone loved the wall of yearbook photos that showed the graduating class as they grew from kindergarten through fifth grade.

We caught Cunha students enjoying their first afternoon of freedom in La Di Da, checking out the yearbook their friends, and walking off to Main Street for the last time until Fall.

Have a great summer.

Click "read more" to see the rest of the album.

On Wednesday, a state senate committee appointed Manhattan Beach city council member Jim Aldinger to the California Coastal Commission, reports the Daily Breeze. Aldinger will serve for four years, beginning with a meeting next month.

Aldinger says he considers coastal development and access and preservation of environmentally sensitive habitats among the most important issues facing the Coastal Commission. Commissioners, recently, have been leaning toward allowing rather than curbing coastal development, he said.

"I understand it’s hard for one person to get in and make quick changes," he said. "But I think it’s definitely possible to bring about a change, although it takes time and a lot of hard work."

The Coastside Chess Club will hold 4 chess meets this summer at the Half Moon Bay Community Center. there will be both official and casual chess available from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sundays: July 3, July 10, July 24, and August 7.

At each chess meet there will be separate sections for youth and adult players, in separate competitions for ranked an unranked players. Trophies, metals, books, and other prizes will be awarded in all sections. The Coastside Chess Club is a not-for-profit organization and all participation fees are used to offset the cost of the event. The participation fee is $15 for unrated competition, $20 for official competitions with United States chess Federation ratings.

The events are held under the supervision of chess master Eric Schiller of Moss Beach, author of many books on chess. He will be providing coaching tips and general chess information between games.

This is a great opportunity for young Coastside players to meet each other and kids from all over the Bay area.

The 2005 summer season will be a bit short this year because Dr. Schiller has to travel to London as arbiter of the Staunton Memorial tournament, but Pacifica will be taking up the slack by hosting a competition on August 13.

Chess sets are available at most of the coffee shops and cafés on the Coastside. If you know of an establishment that does not have chess equipment, but would like some, the Coastside Chess Club will be happy to provide chess sets and boards on request.

Today is the twentieth anniversary of Mid-Coast Television (Chanel 6), the Coastside�s community access cable station.

In 1985 MCTV aired its first program, the Coastside Junior Rodeo. Today, MCTV braodcasts over 1500 hours of community meeting programming each year, including the Cabrillo Unified School District, Coastside County Water District, Granada Sanitary District, Montara Water & Sanitary District, and San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

Click "read more" to see the press release

Comcast will be bringing back 30 FM channels to its cable service, according to the Chronicle. The radio service will be available only on digital cable, which currently requires an additional charge of $5.

The loss of the FM service (given the terrible reception we receive here) had been a contentious issue for many on the Coastside, but the Chronicle’s piece highlights the concern in Marin county specifically.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  I tried to contact Comcast for clarification on the charges and whether the Coastside will be included in this plan. Comcast’s Media Contacts page has no phone numbers or email addresses for their "press contacts", only a link to a web form that sends mail to the appropriate contact. But, I clicked on the link for Tracy Baumgartner, the press contact for the West Division, and only got a bounced "no such address" message. It must be nice to be a monopoly.

The California state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Coastal Commission is constitutional. Two lower courts had said the Commission was unlawfully formed by the Legislature in 1976.

The Legislature had changed the terms of commissioners in 2003 to improve the Commission’s chances of being accepted bye the Supreme Court.  The court decided not to reopen earlier decisions decided under the earlier composition. The Court could have reopened 100,000 land-use decisions by the Commission.

You’ve seen the mural in progress on the side of Half Moon Bay City Hall, and now it’s finished.  Friday at 6:00pm, the Rotary Club, which commissioned it, and city council will dedicate the mural. 

One panel represents floriculture—a key element of the Coastside economy. The second is an idealized view of a Coastside beach with a windswept cypress in the foreground. The beach is based on the view looking south from Surfers Beach in order to capture the half-moon shape of the bay, according to the artist Doug Snow.  He added a cypress tree to the foreground for compositional reasons and removed some buildings from the view.

Cheri Parr

Cheri Parr

Click "read more" to see the press release.

The unincorporated Coastside will have even less money for road repairs in the coming year. 

Proposition 42 requires that gasoline sales tax revenues be used annually for state and local transportation purposes. But the state has used a declaration of emergency to take about $2.4 million from San Mateo County since 2003, according to the Examiner.

San Mateo County supervisors approved the street maintenance cuts earlier this month, reducing by 10 percent the number of secondary streets maintained at the "good" level, as measured by the Government Accounting Standards Board. Under the reduced maintenance plan, the county will be required to maintain 65 percent of the county’s 160 miles of secondary roads at a "good" level, as compared with 75 percent previously.

Midcoast Park Lands (MPL) is the volunteer organization that takes care of Quarry Park. MPL has two opportunities, one small and one big, for people who want to help the park.

Quarry Park is a 40-acre community park in El Granada. It features a tot lot, hiking, jogging, and places for horseback riding and picnicking. The views from the top of the park are spectactular.

This Sunday is Quarry Park Improvement Day. Volunteers will meet at the park from 10am to 2pm to paint the new fence, whack some weeds, and have a good time. Wear old clothes, and bring gloves, water, and a bag lunch:

Quarry Park Improvement Day 
Sunday, June 26
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

MPL is also looking for new board members who are willing to help support the park. The board meets every fourth Thursday.  There is a meeting tonight at 7:30pm if you’re interested in finding out more.

Midcoast Park Lands board meeting
Tonight
Thursday, June 23
7:30 pm
Granada Sanitary District Office
504 Avenue Alhambra (across from Avenue Balboa) Suite 202
 
For more information, call Sandy at 650.743.0524 or email [email protected]

This week, there were three cases of vandalism, one of which might be related to stolen goods, a warrant arrest, and a theft of some batteries from lot in Princeton.

Click "read more" to see the details.