Comments by Barry Parr

Did you read about Coastsider in today’s Chronicle?

I think the story did downplay my credentials a little too much. I know Steve Outings and respect his work. Here's the direct link to Steve Outings' piece: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=83444 Here's the reply that I posted on Steve's item: ------------- Steve's absolutely right that the SF Chronicle, which is ahead of the industry in many ways, should allow comments on its website. He's also right that I'm not a novice in the news business, and I did make that clear to Verne when he…

Should the Coastside be more like Foster City?

There are some fundamental problems with Foster City. The number-one problem is that it's built for cars, not people. That's why moving the middle school from Cunha to Wavecrest is a problem. Traffic flow is a big driver for that decision and it will certain decrease the number of kids walking to school. FC's shopping is inhospitable to pedestrians, unlike HMB's downtown. Foster City is all about strip malls, which is a huge planning blunder rooted in its 1960s origins. Another issue is that you…

Pillar Point Harbor’s beaches among the most polluted in California

I was riding my bike on the western edge of Pillar Point Harbor last weekend and saw a couple of families whose kids were wading at the beach. There were no warning signs that I could see. I never really thought of the harbor as a place for swimming because it's a harbor and for all the reasons that Mike mentions. But clearly other people view it differently.

Biased survey of Montara Water customers yields predictable result

I have received a footnote to the Kentucky takeover campaign. The anti-takeover compaign fielded a slate of candidates who took over the city council. From the Lexington Herald-Leader, courtesy of Felton FLOW <http://www.jgpr.com/Calam/heraldleader.html>: In all, candidates who oppose condemnation far out-raised their opponents, $243,673.98 to $148,751.99 as of Oct. 18, the most recent campaign finance reporting date. Only a small portion of that money was donated directly by employees of Kentucky…

Cypress Cove board attacks park funding

That's a point of view I haven't heard expressed in the public meetings or in the Review. Everyone seems to be talking about the process or the grant applications for sports fields and not that they don't want a park on the site at all. I'm not sure if I'm talking to Jim or Nancy, and I don't know your last name. But if you're interested in writing a full-length opinion piece or a letter the editor for Coastsider, I'd be happy to run it on the main page.

Cypress Cove board attacks park funding

I'm not sure if this was directed at me, but when the city was discussing whether to buy the park, I wrote: Finally, I was impressed by the response of the neighbors in Cypress Cove. The City Council did survey some neighbors as part of their due diligence. Virtually all of the Cypress Cove folks at the City Council meeting expressed legitimate concerns about traffic, parking, and safety; and expressed a desire to work with the city to mitigate the impact. What you don't see is a knee-jerk NIMBY…

The Coastside’s middle school site is in play again

Not so much through the site as beside it. There would presumably be a road, a light, and a widening of the highway for the school. It might be more expedient to connect Pacific Ridge to that road than to connect it to Terrace Ave. It never occured to me, but the folks in Highland Park have appararently figured it out and seem to love the idea. Assuming, of course, they are properly insulated from our offspring.

The Coastside’s middle school site is in play again

Also, once you play around with the point allocation and scoring you realize how arbitrary these kinds of systems are and how they tend to make your analysis look more objective than it really is. I agree with the point Bayless made at the meeting that ten-point differences are probably not terribly significant due to the limitations of the methodology.

The Coastside’s middle school site is in play again

Thanks for the link to the Google map. I was wishing Dr. Bayless had put those in his overheads instead of the confusing maps he had used. The typo in the story has been corrected. The links to the criteria are very welcome. It's interesting that under the new point system that Wavecrest does a lot better if you use the same scoring they used in 1996.

Jones and Larimer blame Coastsiders for our own lousy middle school

As far as I know, Jones and Larimer and were published because they took the trouble to write. I've submitted two opinion columns to the Review and both were accepted. The second one is in the queue. Larimer/Jones got a color mug on their piece. I got a color mug on mine in December. However (1) this L/J column is a rehash of their last one, and (2) columns get different treatment depending on the author. Clay wrote a column supporting the Larimer/Jones piece in the same edition, and Debra write…

Supervisors’ vision of the Midcoast is a work in progress

I suppose the other alternative would be to attach the cost to new development by putting it into the connection charge and preselling connections. That's what CCWD did by pre-selling connections to the Crystal Springs project. How does a $30,000 connection fee for a new house sound? That's what CCWD connections are going for in the open market. And of course everyone on a well would have to be required to buy a connection.

Supervisors will discuss their “vision for the Midcoast” Tuesday morning

Thanks. Terry gave me a copy of the letter when I ran into him at the hearing today. I've got the site and letter linked off the main story today.

Spring brings Sweet Peas back to Montara

Oh, my God! The Monford piece is brilliant. We're awash in this overload in lots of ways and it's really hard to understand until you step outside of it for awhile. It reminds me of when I stopped automatically salting my food for a few weeks and I began to realize how much salt was added to everything I was eating. It wasn't that long ago that I thought the supermarket was America's cornucopia. But they're giving us meaningless choices (scented bleach) while sucking all the real choices out of the…

Maps and satellite images of the Coastside

You're right. That's amazing. I can see my car in that photo. Nice & creepy.

MROSD buys a million-dollar shack, and not everyone is happy

I don't agree with Terry on the District, and I understand he has some history with them that I don't. But he clearly isn't speaking as a taxpayer advocate here. Furthermore, he has opposed allowing the MROSD to buy land from willing sellers on the Coastside. The Merc could have picked a better critic of this particular purchase.

County to decide if extensive Montara/Moss Beach property will be open space or houses

Fighting for open space for the Caltrans bypass isn't working against the county. That's the recommendation on the table from MCC. The plans are already in place to upgrade the highway with a tunnel. This is something the communities of Montara and Moss Beach put on the table a long time ago. The goal of keeping the bypass as open space is to make sure that the tunnel improves transportation without altering the character of the community.

Highway 92 billboards begin to come down

Thanks for the correction and comment. I have updated the article. I agree that it would be good if locals could set up temporary signs for nonprofit community events. There is an exception for temporary agricultural signs ("fresh produce ahead"). But along the 92, the sheer number of such signs is becoming a problem.

Pacifica wants to widen Highway 1 north of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel

The price of housing on the coastside is set by supply and demand for the entire bay area. We can't make housing affordable by increasing the supply because the demand is so huge. Housing needs to be smaller and denser if it's going to be affordable. This also helps create the critical mass necessary to support retail. However, it's a mistake to take land that should be kept open for housing. Montara and Moss Beach need parks, not just open space. I'd like to see the bypass property turned into a…

Pacifica wants to widen Highway 1 north of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel

I'll field that one, since Bob got it from me. I added it to the story to give the midcoast a little perspective on the project. The property that Caltrans was going to use for their original freeway bypass of the Slide runs through the back of Montara. It is a large area of land (the width of a freeway) that has not been built on. The Midcoast Community Council has recommended that it be zoned as Open Space. SAMCAR wants it reserved for building houses . I'm going to be writing more on this later,…

Wavecrest is still seeking permit from Army Corps of Engineers

I received the following clarification from Holly Costa at the Army Corps of Engineers: From your March 4 article: "A couple of weeks ago, the Corps told me that they thought the application was only for the wetlands, and not for the entire site. It turns out that, as I had originally written, Wavecrest's developers are seeking a permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which would allow them to build on the non-wetlands portion of the property and mitigate this with California Red-legged…

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