Comments by Carl May
March 14, 2011
Yep, Brennan certainly beat the odds and the political fixes at this hearing. With all that was lined up against her, including the Commission's staff report, she deserves great credit for the decision finding substantial issue in her appeal. As we all should know, this isn't the end of it. Bad ideas never die when someone stands to profit from them. Especially when degrading our surroundings and lowering our quality of life can be pooh-poohed away by those standing to gain financially. The next…
March 02, 2011
And, given the concocted multi-use necessity that helps justify wasting orders of magnitude more money, how could the approving authorities fail to notice it is a harrowing, severely bumpy ride down for wheelchairs? And one heck of a muscle burner and balancing act for them to get back up.
February 28, 2011
If you have been paying attention to local midcoast dealings with the county's would-be dictators over the years, you learn that the midcoast situation is twisted to the benefit of the rulers not because the overdevelopment-pushing county is not hearing from coastsiders (including thousands of hours of input from members of the MCC when it was more representative and less capitulative), but because the county, from the supes through most departmental staff, can get away with what they wish because…
February 23, 2011
All this recent Highway 1 hoo-rah over the past few years is simply in service of the county's desire to urbanize infrastructure in order to support greater midcoast overdevelopment. Just as the county rejiggered requirements for membership on the MCC to serve its political desires, handpicked county committees are chosen to operate with a range of options that serve the county's unsustainable overdevelopment agenda. Should such a committee stray from the county's desired outcome; represent most…
January 28, 2011
So many errors and omissions in Holland's writeup, especially regarding the CCT, that one hardly knows where to begin. The biggest misstatement is that this completes the CCT in Fitzgerald. (With tongue planted in cheek) apparently the fellow knows nothing of the place, as the CCT, and an adequate trail at that, through this part of the reserve has existed since long before the CCT became a state formality. To call this county request for state grants in order to degrade Fitzgerald irresponsible…
January 27, 2011
Whoosh. Count Kevin among those who wishes the physical realities of our material world weren't so.
January 24, 2011
Bill, Every year or two those of us who walk Montara Mountain in McNee Ranch SP almost every day do casual counts of dogs on-leash and off-leash. But, first, even with the large number of people with dogs, most (easily more than half) of those using the state park do not have dogs along. All kinds of facts fall out of the simple dog counts, and they have been consistent over recent years. A larger percentage of dogs are on-leash in the park on the on the weekends and holidays than on weekdays. More…
January 21, 2011
Bill,
If more dog owners were responsible in places like McNee Ranch State Park and on local beaches (and thanks to the half or fewer who are), following leash laws and picking up after their dogs, do you suppose the feds might have developed a different outlook for the CdT lands?
January 21, 2011
Look at the pension deals state legislators, other elected officials at the state level, and top appointed bureaucrats get. And the high-paying job gravy train they are on--Crane exemplifying this. You expect sensible laws and regulations for the masses of state workers, union or not, from such people--especially when, through deals, the worker collectives are big supporters of the politicians? So far, the cornucopians show no waking up from the notion all the stuff ever-increasing numbers of people…
January 21, 2011
So, if $13 million translated into 48 hypothetical state park closures, can we say the $6.5 million to be spent by the state on acquisition of Little Basin, to say nothing of the addition money need for ongoing overhead on the piece, could translate into keeping approximately 24 parks open? And this is just one piece of real estate. Who knows what other state park acquisitions, especially expensive developed properties or ones that will require expensive capital improvements for intended artificial…
January 21, 2011
$6.5 million for a developed parcel that will require expensive ongoing maintenance beyond what POST will cover from a state parks agency faced with closing many dozens of existing parks due to the current budget crisis? Where will the money come from? Certainly not the overdrawn general fund. From bonds? That is still a huge financial drain on government beyond the purchase price due to the interest on bonds over the years. Due to irresponsible (or naive?) borrowing (often approved by the state's…
January 05, 2011
Again, the beach isn't the problem. It's the overengineered design of the project, which involved unnecessary digging away at the bluff on either side of the stairs. (Not that this was an entirely natural situation, anyway--note the iceplant on the bluff.) It only took a few modest storms for the reworked bluff on the "south" side of the stairs to fail. But, hey, don't despair. Now the county can waste even more money trying to fix the mistakes by making more mistakes. These buffoonish mistakes for…
January 04, 2011
No biggie. Sand is washed off our beaches in the winter and redeposited in the summer. The degree to which this happens depends partially on the number and size/intensity of winter storms. No rigid artificial structures built onto beaches can be tuned to all possibilities. Look at the aerial survey of the California coastline for (at least) hundreds of examples.
December 23, 2010
Given the mismanagement, misallocation, and waste in various departments, why would anyone in San Mateo County believe the "lack of funding" line. For just one recent example, ask yourself how much in county funds was spent helping the private developer on the Big Wave EIR and on helping the developer move the scam through hearings? For another, how much staff time/department money has been wasted on planning and pushing unnecessarily overdeveloped and destructive segments of the California Coastal…
December 18, 2010
After Measure T, it wasn't Caltrans' prerogative, Leonard. If our urban environmentalists didn't roll over for two tunnels instead of one and for an overall tunnel project twice as big and at least twice as expensive as it needed to be, we wouldn't have had a fill this big, disruptive, and noisy(!) in our face for the past several years. But, hey, what's a few hundred million and a few years wasted when you have the nearby Bay Bridge fiasco for comparison.
December 15, 2010
It'll be interesting to see if these "new kids on the block" are more responsible than the (minority of) renegades who cut unauthorized trails through native vegetation in the state park on Montara Mountain, creating large erosion gullies and running through the edge of endangered species habitat. One thing is for certain, there will be problems if they try to mix hikers and mountain bikers on single-track trails. That has *never* worked well anywhere in the Bay Area, including, somewhat locally,…
November 30, 2010
The process so far and this decision should be instructive to those earnestly involved in the issue who have arrived on the coastside within the last 10 to 15 years. Plodding from one fixed, pre-determined ciunty government decision to the next is how open-space property values are multiplied and the "path is paved" in spite of the LCP and the Coastal Act and to the detriment of the well-being of the local citizens and their life-supporting coastal environment. As individuals, you can testify on…
October 25, 2010
Regarding the area at the top of the staircase with the signs, what do the money-sloshing designers of this project have against natural surfaces?
October 25, 2010
Not to take concern away from the sham that is being perpetrated with county assistance (as usual), but this is the sort of thing that should be filed (along with support for paved roads and wide bridges in the place of trails, etc.) for reference the next time county government claims it does not have enough money for its operations. Given who will be doing the management and spending, is anyone fully awake voting for the measures on next week's ballot that would gather and direct more money for…
October 25, 2010
http://www.food.com/recipe/squirrel-stew-like-grandma-made-76112
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