Comments by Leonard Woren

Coastal commision unanimously rejects county’s proposed LCP Update

December 10, 2009
Let's hope the Board of Supervisors does the right thing and accepts the modifications. What the Commission did is the normal procedure: they cannot themselves make changes in a submitted LCP amendment, so what they do is first move to approve it as submitted, recommending a "no" vote. Then when that motion fails, they make another motion to approve with modifications, generally as recommended by their staff. If that passes, they are essentially "pre-approving" the modified version if the submitting…

CUSD’S “Push Poll” for a Parcel Tax

November 25, 2009
What definition of "senior" does the proposed CUSD parcel tax use? And I can't be the only one who has a problem with people who are exempt from a tax being allowed to vote for it. (Even though I guess I'll soon be eligible for such an exemption.) If we're going to exempt seniors, then this needs to be a landowner-vote and only the landowners who would pay the tax get to vote. As a relevant side note, I have to say that I always vote against any special cases to Prop 13 because Prop 13 was and remains…

Coastsider operating out of Caffe Lucca. How’s the storm affecting you?

October 16, 2009
I was one of the on-call volunteers for First Flush water sampling. We got the call a bit before 6 am to mobilize. I must say... I've never before in my life been that wet with my clothes on. (I'm going to have to take the suggestion to buy some waterproof pants at REI.) You can't truly appreciate what a storm that was unless you spend an hour outside in it, and I don't mean in a car. I was somewhat boggled by the amount of water coming out of the Isabella St drainage outfall onto Surfer's Beach,…

No election for MCC, MWSD; Elections for CFPD, CCWD, GSD

August 17, 2009
My candidate statement itself makes it crystal clear that I'm an incumbent. If it were allowed, I would have put "software engineer / incumbent", but it's not allowed. (Note that in the 2005 election I put "software developer", basically the same thing. I don't remember what I put in 2001 and I lost those materials in a disc crash in 2002.) Anyway, I figure that any voter in GSD who doesn't know that I'm on the GSD board either recently moved here or is very carefully avoiding following local politics.…

County policies lead to failing wells

August 07, 2009
The result of too many private wells will be widespread irreversible failures. The "head in the sand" approach that Steve is pushing, where we keep allowing new wells until there's a problem, is criminally negligent. It's much more important to keep the existing wells from failing than it is to ensure that vacant property owners can develop their properties on a well. Regarding salt water intrusion, I'll steal an analogy from Paul: if we have a bunch of people in a lifeboat, and everything appears…

El Granada Traffic & Trails concept plan to be presented, Tuesday

July 01, 2009
The fact that "protect view corridors" came in a very close second should mean that Dave permanently abandons his idea of putting a restroom building on the stub of Mirada Road, right smack in the middle of the view corridor at that side of El Granada. It should also mean that the grandiose plan presented at the end of the Tuesday night session with a pair of buildings at the foot of Avenue Portola is DOA. As to the "landscaping" on the El Granada Waterfront, because that strip is immorally within…

Traffic and trails on the Midcoast: What would you do? Workshops June 25-30

June 26, 2009
I just noticed that MCTV (ch 6) has the video of Thursday night's meeting scheduled for 7 pm tonight and again at 9:30 pm tonight. It's worth watching.

Governor recommends closing parks to save money

June 02, 2009
Every time money is tight, politicians always cut or threaten to cut the sacred cows which are important to **tax paying voters** in order to try to blackmail voters into approving tax increases. Note how many special taxes there are for fire protection and schools. Fire protection should be the last thing cut, yet it's typically one of the first. Ever see a special tax for any of the so-called "entitlement" programs or any other "social services"?

Letter: Why was Pillar Ridge moved from Moss Beach to El Granada in 2008 census?

May 20, 2009
You're surprised at something that CalTrans did or didn't do? Get real. Now they're going to have to do a $200,000 study to determine what the sign should really say. I think my personal favorite is that SFO isn't in SF. Not even close. Dare I say it's in another County? That's it for today's mixed drink of sarcasm and cynicism. Getting serious for a second, is there any way to make sure the Census Bureau has a clue for the upcoming decennial count?

Letter: Why was Pillar Ridge moved from Moss Beach to El Granada in 2008 census?

May 20, 2009
Whatever silly thing the Census Bureau did has no effect on which local jurisdictions the neighborhood is in, so there would be no effect on property tax division. Q: "Calling a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?" A: "Four -- just because we call it a leg doesn't make it a leg." Pillar Ridge is still in MWSD and not in GSD. I always wondered why the original name was the "El Granada Mobile Home Park", when it was never anywhere near El Granada. I.e., that name never made any sense.

Letter: Why did MWSD appeal lawsuit?

May 13, 2009
Steve, could you enumerate the lawsuits covered by your statement "*As far as my comment about the endless litigation goes, I was referring to the Coast as a whole where untold millions have been wasted.* I'll make it easy on you. You can leave out lawsuits involving the City of Half Moon Bay. The unincorporated Midcoast is not Half Moon Bay. Also, please be sure to include only lawsuits which you think were wasteful.

Montara Fog publisher demands an apology from MCTV director

February 14, 2009
Brown Act requirements cannot be circumvented by meeting serially; the Brown Act calls this a "serial meeting" and it is just as illegal as meeting together outside of a noticed public meeting. And by the way, if the council members had thought they were doing anything wrong, why did they do it in a very publicly visible venue? The issue here is that Darin and Neil refuse to recognize that a quorum of the Midcoast Community Council is 4 members (check the [MCC bylaws][1] and the [Brown Act][2]),…

Supervisor Gordon will be at MCC to speak on Midcoast representation, Weds

January 13, 2009
There is no "conflict of interest" in serving on multiple boards. The California law [(Political Reform Act)][1], administered by the [Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)][2], specifies what is a conflict of interest. Distilled down, a conflict of interest exists when an official would be affected financially by a decision made by that official. This has nothing to do with serving on multiple boards. Serving on multiple boards is covered under the [common law doctrine of incompatible office][3].…

Letter: Eco-terrorism on the Coast—Part 2

January 12, 2009
The reason it's impossible to discuss is more fundamental -- some people appear to be pushing the concept that anyone who opposes any development in any way is an eco-terrorist. As the saying goes, ["That's not right. It's not even wrong."][1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong

Letter: Eco-terrorism on the Coast—Part 2

January 12, 2009
Satire's tough. Keep your day job.

The Supervisors must stop treating the Midcoast like a colony

January 08, 2009
Cutesy retort but ultimately useless. To pursue that nearly pointless discussion, we would need to start with trying to come to agreement on terms. I start at m-w.com. Looking up "community" and "neighborhood", I can pick amongst the definitions to make my case, and Darin probably could also make his case. So let's shift gears to the fundamental issues: * What do the citizens of the unincorporated Midcoast want and need for their local government? * What's appropriate? * What's viable? * What are…

The Supervisors must stop treating the Midcoast like a colony

January 08, 2009
"Two communities"? Barry, if you can recognize that HMB and the unincorporated Midcoast are separate communities, then why is it such a leap to understand that there are actually at least 5 separate communities in the unincorporated Midcoast? They even have their own names: Miramar, El Granada, Princeton, Moss Beach, Montara. And if I can't convince you that it's 5, certainly south of HMB Airport (El Granada, etc) is different from north of HMB Airport (Montara, etc). While the differences between…

Coastal Commission approves MWSD public works plan

November 20, 2008
Ken, you are comparing tangerines with rotten apples. A private industry company in a government-enforced monopoly position cannot be compared to a government agency. CUCC/Cal-Am was never a free market scenario. Regulation of such companies is a farce. A free market would require competition. Do you think that Comcast's rates would be as high and their service as bad if there was another cable company to turn to for service if you're unhappy with Comcast? Do you think that we would have 8 hour electric…

Coastsider endorses John Moseley for school board

October 22, 2008
While I understand why Barry has taken the position that he has, I don't agree with it. Here's why. First let's assume that everyone votes for John Mosely -- doing so is a no-brainer. Then if you agree that Charlie Gardner is not an appropriate school board member, the arithmetic of 3 candidates for two seats is that if you vote only for Mosely, clearly he'll win and we have to analyze what happens with the other seat. Charlie is obviously popular for some reason, so Ken is the underdog from the…

Letter: MWSD not affected by county financial fiasco

October 19, 2008
My understanding is that county pooled funds are totally separate from the State LAIF. However, because GSD does not use it, I know essentially nothing about the SMC pool. But I don't think it's referred to as LAIF -- I've never heard that.

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