Comments by Carl May
July 28, 2007
As was already obvious, Peebles is just another self-absorbed developer so engrossed in enriching himself that he is incapable of learning anything about the world beyond the end of his nose. He spent "evil" amounts of money trying to con Pacifica's voters into a terrible deal that would have, without question, worsened their quality of life. After reading his select comments, I can't imagine any Pacifican who voted against changing their local regulations to allow his self-serving scheme will be…
July 27, 2007
The overall landslide is longer at road level that where they bolted the retaining walls to rods pushed into the hillside. One point is that this and other kinds of roadbed stabilization *together* with removal of the excess storm water that makes the slide slide might well have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in twin tunnel construction, hundreds of thousands to millions per year in operations and upkeep of the tunnels, acres of environmental disruption, years of time, etc.--to say nothing…
July 25, 2007
Darin et al., Some may not have been paying attention, and the old HMB crowd refused to pay attention, but the geology of the major landslide on Devil's Slide was extensively studied and then explained almost as extensively for more than two decades. Local geological engineer Bill Bechtell of Montara did a beautiful job of explaining landslide dynamics and relating them to Devil's slide in public meeting after public meeting. He drew on both the large geologic field of landslide studies and engineering…
July 06, 2007
The problem is not the extension to Montara--Route 17 is a coastside farce without including the communities of Montara and the northern 2/3rds of Moss Beach. The problem is the route. It does not go through the commercial area of Moss Beach. It only touches the edge of the commercial area of Montara for one block. These commercial areas need bolstering to be of greater service to the communities, not bypassing. It is several blocks away from Farralone View school at its closest point, meaning unnecessary…
July 05, 2007
Anyone know how this weird route into Montara was determined?
Carl May
July 03, 2007
Sadly, there is nothing in this poll that I can see that allows a preference for anything but the single two-sided political machine that runs the country. No "none-of-the-above," write-in, or other party preferences permitted. Thus, the purposeful political independent or other-party advocate is "disenfranchised" by the poll and the poll perpetuates the deadening impression it is the money-grubbing Demopublicans or nothing.
Carl May
June 15, 2007
Identifying the population one wishes to sample with a poll, determining a statistically valid sample of that population, and wording questions for the sample so that they produce objective, relevant information is some of the stuff of polling. Entire companies are built on developing and implementing polls that produce reliable results. The sad part is that the sloppily-created, unreliable polls on local controversies that the Review has conducted from time to time are presented and read by many…
June 13, 2007
Joel, You may be part of a community that cares about the park; but you are not a citizen of HMB nor are the HMB politicos responsible to you. You can't vote for them, and they are making decisions on city property involving city money according to city land use regulations and city policies. In other words, you have no standing and no juice regarding the park. Overall, this is a good thing if we can use the same principle to keep HMB government out of the affairs of the unincorporated midcoast.…
June 12, 2007
The points about community are that there are many kinds of communities based on numerous, often interacting, factors (geographic, social, religious, ethnic/national origins, governmental, and beyond) and one cannot impose their assumptions and particular sense of community onto others. Where there are not commonalities, people will not associate in the same communities. By this token, one cannot expect those outside their personal communities to support their community-centric ideals and activities.…
June 11, 2007
"You also seem to resent folks from the Midcoast poking into the city’s business. We’re not all one city, but we are all one community. " Over thirty three years of making my home in Montara and Moss Beach, I have never considered myself to be a member of a Half Moon Bay community nor of any of the several different communities in HMB that some define. Not even when I had an office in the Miramar district of HMB for 19 years. In fact, I have never considered myself to be part of El Granada or…
June 07, 2007
Politics in the City of HMB have always been high schoolish, with sporadic movements to detrivialize city affairs eventually subdued by the old ruling clique.
Carl May
June 06, 2007
And some still wonder why most of us who have lived a while in the distinct unincorporated communities to the north don't want to be annexed to our southern neighbor, HMB, in spite of long-time- bad government by the county.
The fire is not an attractive alternative to the frying pan.
Carl May
May 31, 2007
Could they possibly figure out how to spend more money unnecessarily (unnecessary in view of what would have been more reasonable fixes for the landslide)? How about a suicide barrier where the green-phase retaining wall will take the roadbed out over the current edge? (The Golden Gate Bridge authority can recommend a consultant for any agency with money.) Or maybe an eight-foot-high mosaic Caltrans logo in gold nuggets on the wall for all the fishing boats and ships to see?
Carl May
May 29, 2007
Rally the community? Sorry, Leonard, I only have one life to waste. It would, however, have been interesting to see how the MMB community would have voted (without rallying cries) at the time in the late 90's that the partially unelected three-member board started the Point Montara District on the road to dissolution into HMB/EG's district. You know, before the squirming around with the "neighbors" managed to eliminate some options and help work the district into a tighter straightjacket. Carl May
May 29, 2007
Mine is not revisionist history. We never had these troubles in Point Montara until a couple of boards in succession got goofy with district management after we voted a substantial tax on ourselves in the 90's. One of these boards voted an insane (for the small district) jump in management salaries after the tax was approved. The next board, with one member out of three who was appointed and not even elected by the citizens, then decided to solve things by abandoning the district through a several-stage…
May 28, 2007
Richard, In the end, you'll probably end up with at least a narrow "ad hoc" trail down that landslide. That will be better than the casual road that once went down there--is the car that couldn't make it out still visible down there, or is it completely covered? In any event, I'd prefer a casual trail there. Many people would not like the route, anyway, as there is often a real soft muddy place the last few feet down to the beach where the landslide drains. You may have noticed that, like most state…
May 28, 2007
Let's not forget that the unhappy situation is largely the result of mismanagement by the boards and the officers they hired over the past decade, creating an unhappy situation for the people, the firefighters, actually doing the work of the department. Before all the board shenanigans that disrupted the operations of long-enduring districts and led to the push for consolidation of the coastside districts, a firefighters job was one of the better local ways to earn a living. So now the boards have…
May 28, 2007
Darin, Every year at the north parking lot of Montara State Beach we have ravens that have learned to perch on the edge of the garbage cans and pull up the poly bag liners until they can get at what was dropped to the bottom. (Can't help but notice your shot is in a place where birds might be exploiting a human-created situation.) The raven aerobatics (plus those of other birds) above the ridges of Montara Mountain can be sensational. Throughout the coastside, smaller birds often harrass (notorious…
May 25, 2007
May I suggest that you get a copy of the material being circulated that describes what POST is proposing for the property rather than getting your information from the Review? Access to the property, which is not the entire ridgetop north from the tracking station to the houses, would not be lost by any stretch of the imagination. I don't necessarily endorse the overall plan and believe a lot of the proposed money would be wasted on such things as the parking area and new trail up from airport road.…
May 17, 2007
Given the possible inside knowledge, might this be one or more local HMB whistleblowers trying to avoid the "kill the messenger" consequences that often befall such people?
Carl May
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