Supervisor Rich Gordon’s monthly office hours will be at the Moss Beach Sheriff’s Substation on Thursday, January 22 from 10am until noon.

"If I owned the Quarry", a big if, but that was the headline of the Pacifica Tribune’s 12/3/08 article outlining my Pacifica Quarry suggestions and interests.

Today I’m encouraging community leaders to take proactive measures against another divisive land use fight. In my opinion, the best measure is to present the quarry owner, Mr. Peebles, with a citizen sponsored land use plan that is desirable, feasible and profitable. Here are three uses I believe meet these criteria.

Consider senior housing. Baby Boomer demand for better senior housing will grow for the next twenty years. Senior housing doesn’t impact schools and generates little traffic. This site is ten minutes from Seton Medical Center. A wide range of prices including below-market units can be provided. Local jobs will be created.

Next, there’s the three star conference oriented hotel. It will provide coastal conference facilities costing less than Half Moon Bay’s Ritz Carlton. It will meet inland summer demand for cool coastal weather. A city transit occupancy tax will benefit the community. Local jobs will be created.

A linksland style Golf Track (my invention) will be the catalyst for the project’s success. A combination of a golf course and a driving range, the Golf Track will provide a fast, affordable golf experience where everyone can improve their skills. For the quarry site it will need about 25 acres to duplicate the tees, greens, fairways and other features of regular golf courses. Players uses standard equipment to hit operator supplied balls to interior target fairways and greens from a perimeter teeing course. The teeing course is landscaped with natural lies consisting of slopes, level areas, long and short grass, sand and hardpan, etc. Virtually every golf shot can be duplicated including short game shots to putting greens interspersed along the teeing course. The Golf Track can accomodate players of all skills simultaneously learning, practicing and competing.

I envision extending the existing bike trail to loop around the Golf Track site. The linksland style landscaping-rather like the new Half Moon Bay golf course-will be aesthetically appealing to hikers and bikers, as the players never leave the teeing course to enter the interior area. The Golf Track will be a green facility using treated water from the nearby sewer plant. It will mitigate other project environmental issues. The Golf Track will appeal to seniors, their relatives and friends, to hotel guests and conference organizers, to the public and Pacifica residents, who will enjoy discounts. The Golf Track will become a community center for wholesome teenage and family recreation. Local jobs will be created.

Other suggestions have included a playground, some rental apartments for young people who work at the facilities and apartments for not-yet senior Boomers who want out of home ownership chores, repairs and taxes.

I’m a Half Moon Bay resident who has commuted through and shopped in Pacifica since 1976. Please contact me with your ideas and questions at 415 928 4400 or [email protected].

Dwight Pate

The Midpeninsula Open Space District (MROSD) is considering purchasing four properties totally 1,300 acres that will connect its Skyline Ridge property with the sea, reports Palo Alto Weekly.

The district’s board will meet at 2 pm Thursday, Jan 22, at the Elkus 4-H Ranch Retreat Center at 1500 Purisima Creek Road. The meeting will be followed at 3:15 p.m. by public tours of the properties. Reservations for the tour must be make by Wednesday by calling Jean Chung, real property administrative assistant at the district, 650-691-1200.

The properties lie due east of the Cowell Ranch State Beach. At the upper end they connect with MROSD’s 3,361-acre Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve that touches Skyline Boulevard just north of Swett Road.

At the lower end they connect with properties over which the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has an easement, completing the link to the Pacific Ocean.

The combined value of the lands is estimated at between $10 million and $12 million, although precise costs are still being negotiated, according to Rudy Jurgensen, the district’s public affairs manager.

The largest of the four parcels is a 450-acre upper portion of the Elkus Ranch property owned by the University of California, which would retain control of the Elkus Ranch facilities.

Two properties, the 340-acre Lobitos Ridge and the 260-acre Blue Brush Canyon, are owned by POST, which acquires lands and turns them over to public agencies.

The final property is 250-acres of the uplands, non-agricultural portion of the Guisti family’s Purisima Farms.

In the arms of a Texas woman: It was Dec 3rd and I got the tree up and the lights plus all the top ornaments.  Di could do the rest.  There was still a couple of hours left and Fred and Jackie needed to run. It was too cool for shorts.  As I got dressed Fred and Jackie figured out what was happening and started to whine. Tethered as always the three of us went up Farallone to the P.O.S.T where I unhooked them.  We headed for the grammar school and then turned left to the bench and then right up to Old San Pedro Road.

There’s a path to the top of that mountain starting 30 yards below the 5 posts used to keep cars out of the park. The kids, Fred and Jackie, love that ascent ‘cause I have to push my bike up to the top to reach the eucalyptus trees and they have time to investigate every thing.  We all had water at the top.  The path down is steepest at the top but rocky and less slippery than the second leg.  Even though I’ve done that path forty times I always stop for "a breath" before that decent and wait for the kids to catch up.  I always check to see my feet are squarely on the pedals before releasing the brakes.

My next vision or sight was the sky,  with no memory in between that and my feet on the pedals.  I was in real pain and flat on my back.  I couldn’t get up on my own.  I was able to dig in my heels and push up where I could reach my bike and use it as a crutch to get up and using the brakes got down to a shallower trail.  Oddly my bike was inline with me and on its right side.  I knew my wife didn’t know the park and would never find me.  I called Vic and he was there.  As soon as he answered I said "Vic, I took a bad one and don’t think I can get home.  Can you come and get me?" He said "maybe we need the paramedics and it might be better if you called".  As the phone slid out of my hand I said "Vic, I just made my last call" and pitched forward on the trail.

Tonight is the only training on the Coastside for the San Mateo County homeless census, at the Bloom Lane community center, 9 Bloom Lane,  [Google Streetview] from 6:30 to 8:30pm

The laughter of children mingled with music and lawnmowers as volunteers gathered at Bloom Lane to pay tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Responding to Barack Obama’s call for a day dedicated to public service, Coastsiders ranging from the age of from 3 to 68 spent today helping low income seniors at Bloom Lane by weeding gardens, cleaning kitchens and hauling debris to the dump. Add to that a healthy dose of rare sunshine, and the result was a community event that was as much social as service. 

In 1994 Congress designated the King Holiday as a national day of volunteer service. Instead of a day off from work or school, Congress asked Americans of all backgrounds and ages to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy by turning community concerns into citizen action.

This year, president-elect Barack Obama asked Americans to celebrate is inauguration with a day of service in honor of Dr. King.

The Coastside Democrats and the Community United Methodist Church contributed to a day of service the Bloom Lane senior housing project.  Over 40 volunteers—even a few from over the hill—spent hours on projects ranging from pulling weeds to pruning a 30-foot tree that was in danger of falling.  And, yes, we even did windows!

The biggest surprise at Wednesday’s meeting to discuss eligibility for the Midcoast Community Council was how many members of either the Montara Water and Sanitary District or the Granada Sanitary District have served on the MCC in its twenty-year history. And most of them were at the meeting.

Supervisor Gordon was unmoved by the outpouring of support [Montara Fog’s video of Gordon’s summary comments] for allowing members of our water and sanitary boards to represent us to Redwood City.

I can understand why it might not make sense for there to be a majority of GSD directors on the MCC. It’s less clear why there shouldn’t be at least one member of each of the Midcoast’s only real government agencies among the seven who represent our needs to the Board of Supervisors.

What did become clear as the evening wore on was that everyone in the room knew that the MCC has no power, no budget, no voice, and no staff. And that its wishes are ignored in Redwood City. What’s amazing is that anyone would want to serve on the MCC. Ironically, because of this, we’re even more grateful to them for their hard work in their service to the ideal, if not the reality, of a voice for the Midcoast.

The split in the room was no surprise either. The slow-growth Midcoast establishment showed up in droves in support of their man and the principal of voting for their own representatives. And their growth-boosting opponents demanded that the Supervisors give them a change they haven’t been able get at the ballot box.

This rift cannot be healed by more talk. And the Supervisors have neither the wisdom nor the authority to split the difference.

The Midcoast will never be free until we have sovereign authority over who speaks for us, how our money is spent, and how our community is planned.

We’re adding real estate listings to Coastsider, in partnership with Trulia.com.

In addition to a feed of recent listings, recent sales, and upcoming open houses on the right column of every page, we’ve added an entirely new section that will give you full access to Trulia’s listings.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by adding a comment to this message.

Since mid-November the El Granada Elementary School has been closed for major renovation. The project involved removing existing turf, leveling the field, repairing the sprinkling system, covering the field with mesh for gopher control and putting new sod on the entire area.  Since the start of work, the playfield has been fenced off. This past Thursday, just past 8am, the fence was opened the children returned to the field.

The renovation project involved strong collaboration between the Cabrillo school district and San Mateo County Parks.  The organizational cooperation and the funding (approximately $100,000) were essential.  The drive to make it happen, came from El Granada resident and parent, Amy Broome.  Amy was the focal point for mobilizing the local contractors, organizing volunteers and monitoring the project from start to finish to insure all details were handled.

Funding came from the "Park Mitigation Fee" established in 2003.  The fee on all new and re-model construction is used for parkland development on the unincorporated Midcoast.  Local residents, working on a committee led by San Mateo Parks director Dave Holland, met in 2007 – 2008 to develop the Midcoast Action Plan to prioritize the use of the fees for local development and improvement projects.  The El Granada field improved was one of the projects in the plan approved by the county supervisors in May, 2008.  Next for the team addressing playfield improvement is the Farallone View Elementary School field.

On January 29, The San Mateo County Human Services Agency’s Center on Homelessness will conduct an observation-based point-in-time street census of homeless persons in all San Mateo County census tracts. The census is an essential element used by HUD, the County, and local communities in determining service needs for the next two years.

The key to a successful census is the use of community volunteers paired with trained homeless workers to conduct with the street count.  Experience indicates this method results in a more thorough and accurate search than could be possible by individuals who are less familiar with the homeless community.  Prior to the enumeration, the Center on Homelessness will conduct outreach efforts to County homeless service providers for the purpose of recruiting homeless workers and community volunteers.

During the month of January, Center on Homelessness staff will conduct multiple training sessions for both homeless workers and community volunteers. These 1 ½ hour training sessions will cover methods for the street count, shelter count, and homeless survey. Click to download the training schedule.

On the day of the census, trained homeless workers will be teamed with trained volunteers at twelve deployment centers throughout the county and assigned census tracts to enumerate. The Center on Homelessness will provide clipboards, pencils, enumeration forms, and all other materials necessary to perform the street count. The enumeration will be performed in the early morning hours on January 29, 2009,  preferably between 5:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M. Conducting the enumeration during these times will decrease the likelihood of duplication, and will allow our enumerators to more easily identify the homeless living outdoors.

Who: 200 community volunteers (matched with staff and homeless navigators) will conduct a census of homeless individuals and families

What:  A biennial census of homeless persons throughout San Mateo County, coordinated by the Human Services Agency’s Center on Homelessness.  1½ hour training sessions will be held throughout the month of January.

When:  January 29, 2009, 5am – 9 am

Where:  Volunteers will work out of 12 coordination sites throughout the county

Why:  Census results will be used by HUD, the county, and local communities to prevent and end homelessness

Get involved! Contact Tish Birkby, Volunteer Coordinator, at (650) 802-7656 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)