The staff and clients of Coastside Hope would like to say a special thank you to the community for your donations and support of our Back to School clothing give-away.  Hundreds of low-income families were able to shop for both new and used clothes because of your generosity.  We’d also like to thank Torrid at Hillsdale Mall for their continued support and donation of brand new clothing, shoes and accessories for women and girls. 

For over 30 years Coastside Hope has been the primary provider of safety net services for the coastside community. We were formerly known as the Coastside Opportunity Center but we recently changed our name to Coastside Hope to better reflect what we bring to our clients and our community….hope for a better and more secure future. 

Be it through our monthly food harvest, emergency shelter and rental assistance services, crisis intervention and referral services, clothing vouchers, Christmas Adopt a Family program, or our citizenship services, Coastside Hope brings hope to the working poor, the needy, and to low income families and seniors. In so doing we touch the lives of well over 3,000 men, women and children every year.

Coastside Hope relies on the generosity of coastsiders who care about helping their fellow coastsiders for almost one-third of our funding.  Over 90% of every dollar given goes directly to goods and services for those in need. Without this support and the countless hours of time contributed by our many volunteers, we would not be able to continue to make the critical difference in so many lives.  If you are interested in supporting Coastside Hope, we’d love to hear from you.  Call our Executive Director Fatima Soares at 650-726-9071 or community advocate Cheri Parr at 650-576-8991.

Put your running shoes on! The 4th annual Pillar Point Half Marathon, 10K and 3K Fun Run is coming up on Sunday, September 16. This running event, held along the picturesque Coastal Trail, is staffed by volunteers and raises money for the non-profit Coastside Infant Toddler Center.

The half marathon (13.1 miles) and 10K (6.2 miles) begin at 8am. The 3K Fun Run begins at 8:30am. The course is well marked and volunteers will be standing by to provide water, energy gel, and energy bars during the race. The half marathon course is about 80% on paved trail or road and 20% on dirt trails, and all of it is fast and flat. Previous prizes included bottles of wine and gift certificates. The atmosphere surrounding the race is always friendly and upbeat, with onlookers cheering on the runners.

Ample parking will be available in Princeton by the Sea, at the corner of Hwy 1 and Capistrano Rd, near the pier. The races begin next to the registration area which will be at the entrance to the pier, adjacent to the public restrooms. Sign up by visiting www.coastsideinfant.org, or by showing up about an hour before the race.

A local running club, the Coastside Running Club, has had many members train for and enter this race each year and anyone is welcome to join. A group of our female members are currently training together once a week, led by the former half marathon winner, Julie Mell. The club meets every Saturday morning at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve (west end of California Ave.) in Moss Beach at 9am, for a relaxed 5 mile jog along the bluffs, down to Pillar Point Harbor and back. Email the author (and last year’s winner!) at [email protected] for more info.

The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival will showcase some homegrown artistic talent this year with a new attraction called The Golden Gourds.

A coastside youth talent showcase produced by local actor/director Michael Lederman, the event will be held on the Family Stage, located in the Bank of America parking lot, during both days of the festival, October 13-14, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

"The coastside is filled with tremendously talented kids who have not had the opportunity to perform at a major showcase event like the Pumpkin Festival," says Lederman, director of the Coastal Theatre Conservatory, which has an after-school program for local youth. "The Golden Gourds will give them a forum to do what they love most—getting on stage and performing for a big crowd."

The Golden Gourds will have a real "awards show atmosphere", complete with the presentation of gold-painted mini pumpkins to the performers. There will be 12 to 15 acts each day, with participants ranging from kindergarteners to young adults in their early 20s.

"We’re hoping to attract a wide variety of talent, from singers, bands and dancers, to improvisational comedians and maybe even poets," says Lederman.

Auditions for The Golden Gourds will be held on Saturday, September 15 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Coastal Theatre Conservatory, located at 1167 Main Street, Half Moon Bay.

The public is invited to view the auditions. For more information, call 650/726-0267.

There’s an opening on the San Mateo County Planning Commission for someone from the district that includes the Coastside.

Supervisor Rich Gordon has announced that he will be accepting applications for the Third District seat on the San Mateo County Planning Commission.  The seat coming available is currently held by Commissioner Jon Silver, whose term recently expired after 12 years of dedicated service to the County.

"Jon Silver has been an outstanding public servant and his knowledge and experience will be missed," said Supervisor Gordon.  "I will be looking for a candidate who will have the same dedication that Jon has shown – one who understands the delicate balance of development and the environment in San Mateo County."

The Planning Commission is responsible for reviewing the County General Plan as well as the development regulations and making recommendations for their adoption to the County Board of Supervisors.  In addition to being a county-level advisory body, the Planning Commission reviews and votes upon various development permit approvals or denials issued by the County. A seat on the Commission is a tremendous opportunity to participate in shaping the ‘look and feel’ of San Mateo County, and to participate in the governance process on crucial level. The job is demanding, however, with bi-weekly meetings (on second and fourth Wednesday mornings of each month) and extensive review of proposals outside of meetings.

The Planning Commission position to be appointed would serve a term expiring on December 31, 2010.  Applicants must live within the boundaries of the Third Supervisorial District of San Mateo County.  Please see attached map for district boundaries.  Applications can be found on the County website at www.co.sanmateo.ca.us under the "Boards and Commissions" category.  Any applications must be received by Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 5 p.m.  For additional information please contact Supervisor Gordon’s office at (650) 363-4569.

District Three includes the incorporated areas of Atherton, Redwood Shores, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, San Carlos, Portola Valley and Woodside; and the unincorporated areas of Devonshire, El Granada, Emerald Lake Hills, Harbor Industrial, La Honda, Ladera, Loma Mar, Los Trancos Woods/Vista Verde, Menlo Oaks, Montara/Moss Beach, Palomar Park, Pescadero, Princeton, San Gregorio, South Coast/Skyline, Sequoia Tract, Skylonda, Stanford Lands and West Menlo Park.

So, earlier this week I had a troupe o’ Tucson troubadours staying ala mi casa for a layover on a summer long tour that included a spin through Canada, a slingshot back to Seattle followed by a jag out to Wisconsin, a subsequent haulass back to the Left Coast arriving just in time to do some laundry, then jump on a flight to the UK for the next go-round.  Great fun was had by all as 3 large men with larger hats and substantial boots piled into the Market Van along with a minimum of 15 instruments, and suitcases stuffed with the requisite amount now clean socks and other dude-ly unmentionables, parts of a banjo and a mic as big as a canary melon.

Having been on the road for months and roaring through places without decent tortillas and stuff to put in them, and with a month of travels through Holland, England, Ireland and Wales directly ahead, the mandolin player was desperate for something, anything resembling a real taco. The Guapango maestro and the Big Man with the Penny Whistle are so smitten with tortillas that they sing a love song to them. I am not kidding.  I have proof.  Anyway, the gents in question here are from Tucson, where they know from tacos.  Lucky for them I am from the Coast, know a thing or two about the stuff that goes in a taco , knows who grows and catches same, and know where to get it, so happiness and great satisfaction was achieved.  Cause let me tell ya something. You simply cannot get a decent taco in Wales.

Volunteers are still needed to donate or help distribute clothing to low-income families for back-to-school.  On Friday, August 17th from 2pm - 7pm,  at the Coastside Hope Warehouse (214 Harvard, Pillar Point Harbor) we’ll be sorting clothing into gender and sizes.  On Saturday, August 18th from 3pm - 6pm, at the warehouse, we’ll need help giving clothing away.  You don’t need to stay all day, feel free to come for just an hour.  Any time you can give will be a big help.

Friday is the last day to donate. Coastside Hope is collecting clean, used clothing and shoes to share with low-income families in time for back to school.  We’ll happily take clothes that have been laundered, shoes in usable condition, and coats and jackets. Clothing can be dropped off at our main office at 99 Avenue Alhambra (next to the El Granada EZ Mart) during office hours, M-F 8:30 - 5:00pm. We are also accepting any backpacks, and school supplies for kids heading back ot school. Call Susie Maya at 650-726-9071 if you have any questions.

Coastside Hope is a 5013(c) non-profit and your contributions are tax deductible.

Cheri Parr
Montara

Half Moon Bay firefighters Monday appealed the decision by a county superior court judge to throw out their referendum on contracting firefighting services, reports the County Times.

[Duane] Reno [one of two attorneys representing firefighters’ interests]said Judge Weiner was wrong about the statutory requirements for referendum language, overstating the language needed for an accurate petition. He was confident an appeals judge would agree.

"The judge has not interpreted this statute realistically. She’s saying we have to do more than what the statute says," he said.

If an appeals court rules that the firefighters had the right to a referendum all along, the results could be messy. Were the Half Moon Bay fire district permitted to proceed with a Cal Fire contract in spite of the case being heard in court, the fire district could be required to reconstitute itself and then hold the referendum, according to Reno. Alternatively, voters could face a new kind of referendum question on whether to undo the Cal Fire contract decision once it had already been done.

And things could really get complicated (or perhaps a lot simpler) if firefighters are able to put a majority of their supporters on combined Half Moon Bay and Point Montara fire boards.

Click below to see a copy of the judge’s decision.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the owners of Wavecrest to purchase the contentious site.

Wavecrest is a 216 acre property located at the southern end of Half Moon Bay, between Highway 1 and the ocean. "Wavecrest is a breathtaking window to the Pacific Ocean," said Audrey Rust, president and CEO of POST, in the press release. "This agreement will help preserve the rural coastside character of the Half Moon Bay area for countless generations to come."

Wavecrest has been planned for development since 1947, but the current era began in 1995 [timeline] and picked up steam when the school district decided to build a new middle school on the site. The site was the center of wrangling between pro-development and slow-growth forces until November 2005, when the district finally acknowledged that it couldn't afford to build there. However, the real blow to Wavecrest came a year earlier in August 2004 when the site was determined by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to be California red-legged frog habitat. The project became mired in the federal endangered species habitat process. It became clear that the site was a long way from being developable, regardless of what happened in Half Moon Bay.

"Economic considerations, environmental concerns and community input led the sellers to approach POST about purchasing this land," Bruce Russell, CEO of Kenmark Real Estate Group and representative of the land’s sellers, said in the same release. "It’s the best plan for all parties involved, including the sellers, the city, residents and visitors. The community can enjoy the land for recreation today and in the years to come while protecting a unique natural environment."

POST noted the recreational qualities of the site. It's a link on the California Coastal Trail. It is also the site of the Smith Field ballfields, which the city has been leasing from the owners.

Wavecrest is so big that it's difficult to represent in a single picture. Here we see the site from directly above in a satellite shot, photographed from the air over the ocean, and as the owners envisioned its development in 2004.

Google Maps

Wavecrest is a huge piece of Half Moon Bay. Click for the interactive version on Google Maps.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Kenneth & Gabrielle Adelman, California Coastal Records Project.

Wavecrest in 2002. Click for more views of the adjacent properties on the California Coastal Records Project.

The Wavecrest development as planned in 2004. Much of the land needed to be set aside as open space and the middle school was in the northeast (upper right) corner.