Last week’s communication outage made it clear that the Coastside is connected to the rest of the world literally by a bundle of slender threads—a fiber optic cable in the landslide-prone hills along Highway 92.

Coastsider talked Lt. John Quinlan, who used to run the Sheriff’s Coastside substation in Moss Beach and is now with the Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, about the problems that we had with 911 emergency service for 24 hours. He told us that phone service has been disrupted four times on the Midcoast and one on the Southcoast before this. The usual cause is people digging in the wrong place.

Quinlan strongly recommends that Coastsiders program the number 650.363.4911 into their cell phones. All cell phone calls to 911 are routed through the California Highway Patrol in Vallejo, which transfers calls to the Sheriff.  But 650.363.4911 rings directly in the Sheriff’s office Redwood City.  I was able to reach a knowledgeable person in the Sheriff’s Office on that number calling from Palo Alto on the day the phones went out.

The substation in Moss Beach has a San Mateo prefix that is part of the Sheriff’s phone system. This made it inaccessible during the outage. But there is a phone connected to the fax line in the Moss Beach substation that is on a local exchange:  650.728.8507.

Quinlan also mentioned that the Sheriff had a radio operating on ham frequencies during the outage, and that Seton’s Coastside Medical Center and Coastside firehouses have radios.

A fire in a garage of a house in El Granada was caused by oily rags.  The Half Moon Bay Fire Department responded to a report of a structure fire in El Granada on the 400 block of Paloma Street Monday at 10:25pm.

Fire personnel from the El Granada Station, Captain Keith Roberts, Firefighters Kyle Smith and Randy Mullins, made an aggressive attack on the fire and with the assistance of Half Moon Bay volunteers and the Point Montara engine company extinguished the fire and initiated an investigation into the cause.

The fire was caused by rags discarded into a garbage can that were contaminated with a mineral oil stain. The oily rags spontaneously combusted in the garbage can and the fire grew to involve the back wall of the garage and cabinets. Two residential fire sprinkler heads inside the garage activated and controlled the spread of the fire pending the arrival of the fire department.

Firefighters responding to the call included two engines from the Half Moon Bay Fire District, one engine from the Point Montara Fire District, one engine from the California Dept. of Forestry/San Mateo County Fire Dept, and four volunteers from the Half Moon Bay Fire District responding to the scene.

Preliminary damage is estimated at approximately $10,000.  

Based on HMBFPD press release

I followed the protesters for two or three hours, trying to capture a little of the feel of the march. They went all over—from 92 all the way down Main Street to Highway 1 at the south end, turned around and walked all the way down Main the other way, crossed 92, and came in the back way into the Albertson’s parking lot. Then back up Main, down Kelly to the Catholic Church. After a short break they headed out again, down Kelly, across Highway 1, and then through the Baskin-Robbins Plaza, then off to the Longs/Safeway Plaza. Then back to 92 to line the road.

At 7:00 pm they were still going strong!

I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but I was told by two different marchers that the phrase they keep chanting ("Sí se puede") translates as "We can do it!"

The police in the video look a tad ominous, but according to the CHP officers I spoke with (who were watching and waiting to be called if needed—they weren’t) there was no advance notice of the march so the HMB police were scrambling to escort the marchers to avoid injuries. In the video you’ll see the marchers approach the police vehicle—that was the first encounter. There’s a part I had to cut out where a female marcher says something like, "Oh no, the police are waiting for us," and male voice says, "Don’t worry." If you listen close to the video you can hear the police officer tell the marcher to march in the right lane and they will protect them. Later (on video) a police officer stops and asks them for the next part of their route—this happened several times.

Anyway, the cops did an awesome job of keeping up with the marchers and their winding path.

How did the day’s events affect you?  Click "comments" to tell us.

Frank Long

Frank Long of Oasis Natural Foods, who took this photo of the demonstrators on Main Street, says, " I put a large basket of free (healthy) candy bars out on my sidewalk table for the marchers. Swarms of kids and lots of smiles."

Chris Carfi

The march proceeded down Kelly Avenue. Cunha Intermediate reported an additional 70 out of 750 students were absent.

Chris Carfi

Chris Carfi

Both Taqueria Tres Amigos in Half Moon Bay and El Gran Amigo in Moss Beach were closed.

Frank Long

Meanwhile, other Coastsiders celebrated the ancient Gaelic holiday Beltane outside Tokenz.

Did anyone else try to watch the A’s game Monday night on Cable 13?  For the second A’s game in a row, the picture was unwatchable.  Did anyone else have the problem, or is it just me?  Your answers may help me get past Comcast’s stonewalling.

A new nonprofit organization and companion political action committee have been formed on the Coastside.

Organizers will announce the formation of Coastside Community First,  a 501(c)3 (tax-deductible) organization, and Put Community First, a political action committee at Tuesday’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting. 

Charlie Gardner, who will direct the tax-deductible organization, is a director of the Cabrillo Unified School District.  The political action committee, Put Community First, will be headed by Ev Ascher, a director of the Coastside County Water District.

Gardner sent us the following mission statement:

Coastside Community First, founded by concerned Coastsiders committed to ensure that the best long-term interests of our community are always at the forefront of public decision making. Coastside Community First stands for a high-quality infrastructure sensitive to the environment; with transparent and responsive local government; and with all-inclusive, moderate political solutions that balance the various interests of our diverse community."

Gardner wrote Coastsider in an email, "It is our intention to provide educational information via web based access, and conduct various public outreach endeavors which will address public education, transportation, emergency preparedness, economic sustainability, and environmental sensitivity as these issues directly relate to our Coastside."

Gardner told me that the PAC would be able to to be involved in political endorsements, which was not possible for the tax-deductible organization he would be heading. As its first action, the PAC was endorsing Measure S, the school parcel tax.  "We were going to wait until after the parcel tax election to avoid confusing the issue, but we went ahead of schedule because of the Devil’s Slide closure." Transportation is a key element of the organizations’ mission.

The directors of Coastside Community First are:

• Charles Gardner, President
• Nathan Serdy, Treasurer
• Stephen Wilson, secretary
• Don Bacon
• Mary Bordi
• Terry Gossett
• Silvia Prewett

I asked Gardner if this was an attempt by one side of the local divide to shift the debate from the problems of development to the need for infrastructure, and if representatives from both sides were included in the organizational meetings. Gardner said that it was his desire to include all sides and that he would be asking members of the League for Coastside Protection to participate.

Red Ginger, a new pan-Asian restaurant, opened in El Granada last week.  Despite its proximity to the "end of the line" at Devil’s Slide, the restaurant has sold out its eighty seats every night since opening on April 22, even before its sign was up.  "The Slide being out has given us a chance to meet the local community,"  co-owner Dijeann Pasero told us. 

Spencer Gray, Executive Chef and also a co-owner, has put together a menu that is designed to be very light and farm- and ocean-to-table fresh.  "The American palate doesn’t associate Asian cuisine with farm-fresh food," said Pasero. "We’re excited to bring that to the Coastside." The restaurant is already buying seafood on the Coastside and has begun exploring relationships with local farmers.

Red Ginger is open every night, except Monday, for dinner. You can download Red Ginger’s menu from Coastsider. It sounds like you might need reservations: 650.726.2888.  Click on the link below to see chef Spencer Gray in the kitchen.

Two motorcycle injuries within a quarter mile and a couple of hours of one another demonstrate just how dangerous Highway 84 has become as a result of damage due to recent rains.

At 10:30am Sunday, the La Honda Fire Brigade was dispatched to a motorcycle accident at 11895 Highway 84. This single rider accident resulted in major injuries and the rider was transported by helicopter to Stanford Hospital. As La Honda Fire units were returning to their station, they happened upon a second major injury motorcycle accident not more than a quarter mile away from the first. This rider was also sent by air ambulance to Stanford Hospital.

The La Honda Fire Department warns that motorcycle riders should be particularly cautious in the area of Highway 84 between milepost 11.5 to 12.5. This is a stretch of road just to the east of the Town of La Honda and has been the scene of numerous major injury and fatality accidents in the past. At three points in this section of road the highway falls dramatically due to a massive land movement, part of the west bound lane has slipped away and the shoulder has been eaten away resulting in a dangerous turn that if missed will result in a fall of nearly 50 ft. into the creek below. Caltrans has marked all of this damage with signs, barricades and will soon activate a series of signal lights.

The cause of both accidents is under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.

Caltrans is taking the Half Moon Bay City Council, planning commissioners, staff, and interested citizens on a tour of its wetlands mitigation project in Montara on Tuesday, May 2.  Caltrans’s karma (OK, the law) demands that it provide new wetlands in exchange for wetlands taken by building the Devil’s Slide Tunnel.  It’s restoring and creating five acres of wetlands in Montara, across Highway 1 from the old Charthouse. This includes removing soil, adding native plants, removing non-natives, and creating seasonal ponds.  The tour group is meeting at 5:00pm at "the parking area on the ocean side of the chain link fence across the highway and the northern end of Montara", and will carpool from there.