Comments by Carl May
August 17, 2006
Pacifica's government has long suffered due to a gross imbalance of budget-draining bedrooms over budget-supporting commercial enterprises. This development can only make that situation worse. The commute-hour traffic at the lights at Rockaway and Vallemar is already terrible and destined to get worse due to whatever new commuters from unstopped development on the midcoast south of Devil's Slide add to it. Another situation that can only be made worse by development in the quarry area. If they become…
August 16, 2006
Why the constantly pushed idea that the two districts should merge (consolidate) before farming out of operations to either CDF or San Mateo? Why can't the two districts be kept separate, maintaining community control over the provision of emergency services, and simply sign on to the same arrangement? Given whatever financial realities, why isn't the employee group not in favor of farming out operations allowed to present a proposal for locally-controlled operations? Wouldn't these people have some…
August 10, 2006
Might we surmise a "consolidation consultant" is a wee bit biased in favor of consolidation processes? Was Olsen hired as someone who had a neutral record for recommending both for and against consolidation, depending on circumstances? Haven't noticed anyone around town speaking with folks in the community about consolidation--what community values are in the mix?
Carl May
August 24, 2006
It's Italia, for sure, but the remaining Toto's in San Bruno somehow doesn't come up to the Toto's that was closed in Daly City. Does Chez Shea have pizza?
Carl May
August 24, 2006
If one claims to care about the quality of life, preservation of positive values in one's surroundings, sustaining one's life through the most trying times, and leaving a future for one's own species (including one's children), then one cannot avoid the realities of population, resources, and subsidies for life provided by the natural environment. Blind faith in myth and magic, when in support of growth where further growth cannot be sustained or any other artificial and invented agenda is wrong…
August 24, 2006
More hardscaping cannot alleviate the problems already caused by excess hardscaping. Greater disruption and obliteration of natural geographic features and ecologic systems can only degrade remaining natural aesthetics that some find appealing on the coastside. The growth ethic, the notion that growth is good and inevitable, is, in the US, largely a socioeconomic fabrication of the post-WWII era, when it was (ignorantly) decided to make growth and development a cornerstone of enlargement and profit-making…
August 21, 2006
There is much less traffic on Highway 1 between Montara and southern Pacifica because a big part of the Highway 1 traffic in southern Pacifica is generated by the resident population of southern Pacifica (about the size of the population of the entire midcoast from Montara through Half Moon Bay) and by people visiting southern Pacifica from the north. Highway 1 from Montara to Pacifica is not currently congested in either direction. No need for four lanes. Because the midcoast has already exceeded…
August 11, 2006
Leonard, Now you have gone and done it--quoted material that would be such a joy for some to discover on their own. Much-referenced Section 30254 of the Coastal Act is just one of the many parts of that set of laws that would have been blatantly violated by the above-ground bypass. A roadbed capable of holding five to six lanes plus shoulders would have been gouged into Montara Mountain. Initially, only three to four lanes (depending on location) plus shoulders would have been paved. Do recall, however,…
August 10, 2006
Refusing to look at the plain language of the Coastal Act that requires Highway 1 to be a two-lane road in scenic rural areas, and refusing to look at the traffic load for the highway on Devil's Slide that does not require more than two lanes for either capacity or safety reasons (the bottlenecks are the lighted intersections on Highways 1 and 92, not on Devil's Slide), and refusing to look at the human carrying capacity of the midcoast (the sustainable human population at the levels of consumption…
August 09, 2006
Leonard, The walled areas in which cars and trucks drive in the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 are, in fact, narrower than the finished bores in which traffic will drive in the Devil's slide tunnels. Same goes for the roadways in the two bores of the No Name Tunnel on I-70. The roadways in the two bores of the Hanging Lake Tunnel on I-70 are about the same size as the roadways in the Devil's Slide tunnels. The point is, tunnels designed for a major, multi-laned interstate freeway are roughly the same…
August 09, 2006
Imagining further growth will solve the multitude of current problems caused by overgrowth is like imagining more crack cocaine or meth will solve a person's drug-induced behavioral problems. Yes, the impossible growth ethic has been firmly planted in the minds of true believers, chosen as an economic engine for the US after WWII, but no one has yet come up with a method for sustaining it in the real, finite world. And then there is the little matter that it is the law that Highway 1 is supposed…
August 08, 2006
A little more for the uninformed: The actual wall-to-wall dimension in each of the bores of the Hanging Lake Tunnel on I-70 in Colorado are undoubtedly less than 40 feet, as anyone who has driven the tunnel with its two lanes and modest shoulders on either side knows--or, easier, just check out the pictures of the existing tunnel. More striking are the actual spaces where cars travel in the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70. Confined by panel walls in the bores on either side, the traveling area in each…
August 07, 2006
Please, anyone incapable of staying in a 12-foot lane, whether or not they are driving through a tunnel, should turn in their driver's license for the sake of others on the road. Redi-Wheels and Redi-Coast are "redi" to help the directionally challenged.
Carl May
August 04, 2006
No worry about a "Little Dig." This tunnel project will be two-lane in lie only. Each bore of the two tunnels will be big enough for a two-lane tunnel with room to spare. The two tunnels taken together are as big as tunnels on interstate highways--the two bores of the Hanging Lake Tunnel or the two roadways of the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70 in colorado, for examples. As for tunnel fumes, huge jet fans costing enormous amounts of money to install and maintain will be part of a ventilation…
August 24, 2006
Here's a great way to get a parcel tax of whatever wording and size passed in CUSD: buy votes by figuring out a set of exemptions that will excuse every property owner in one way or another. Get it labeled "Measure O" so voters will misread the "oh" as "zero." The campaign slogan can be "It won't cost you a cent"! This will also promote greater citizen unity in the school district, as no voter will have cause to resent a break other voters are getting. Oh, sure, some of the "I'd rather fight than…
August 07, 2006
Some folks would do themselves a big favor by reading the words that are actually written in a forum like this rather than jumping to the same kinds of fuzzy conclusions that tend to be applied repeatedly to the CUSD parcel tax situation. I never claimed that some people voted against Measure S because they believed they could not make as much money on developing North Wavecrest without the middle school . I merely suggested this kind of speculation is as good as most of what one sees in this…
August 04, 2006
Ray, You will do yourself a big favor if you look at all the recent parcel tax measures for CUSD on a precinct by precinct basis. A lot can be learned about the leanings of the different communities that way--as well as the communities of the midcoast with something in common. There is no fixed remaining 3% or 1% or whatever percent because the leanings of the electorate can, and sometimes do, change from election to election--overall, community by community, and precinct by precinct. Half Moon Bay,…
August 04, 2006
There has long been a readily observable general increase in concern among voters for positive values in our physical surroundings as one goes north from Half Moon Bay through Montara. Look at any common vote (these are usually on a county-wide basis) on any so-called "environmental" measure over the past 30 years to verify this--measures on open space, development, alternatives to landscape- and community-destroying freeways, and so on. Better, go to the results from all the individual precincts…
August 03, 2006
This thread has declined into the inconclusive nature of a previous post-mortem just after the election. Fact is, no one has gathered the information to say with any certainty what factor or factors caused Measure S to fail. Barry has shown several things that were not responsible, in spite of claims by some letter writers. It is very difficult for some who prefer to shoot from the hip to recognize there are ways to get more reliable information that has a much higher probability of hitting the mark.…
August 03, 2006
Ray, Please check out the facts. Go to dates and documents for the frog. Go to the water figures for California. Not liking facts does not make those facts propaganda. And all, I know some people have trouble coming to grip with the impossibility of the growth ethic and the destructiveness of further growth in places that are already overdeveloped and overpopulated. But the physical world is finite and measureable. When use of physical resources, notably water in overdrawn California but also equally…
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