Comments by Carl May
October 22, 2010
So, Measure E wasn't about funds needed for education after all?
August 27, 2010
Wow, is it difficult to listen to Mr. Holland talk about the California Coastal Trail when, by lack of reference, he seems to have no idea of the founding concept of the trail as a long-distance trail in the manner of the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. He seems to have no concept of the ideal physical nature of the trail as lateral access to the coastline, meaning the route should be as close to the ocean as feasible without being impassible or causing damage to coastal features (the…
August 21, 2010
If the article gets it right, the disaster to the local area and the coastal trail concept remain undiminished. In fact, it looks like they might twist the opportunity into using another inappropriate artificial surface that will enlarge the waste of money by 15 percent. Not a silk purse out of a sow's ear but a 15 percent larger sow's ear. Obviously they won't get it anytime soon. And with the county's record of pushing for more urbanized recreation that will accommodate more unsustainable overdevelopment…
August 20, 2010
For those new to the minutiae of California Coastal Trail babble, this paragraph from the State Senate staff analysis of Chesbro, SB 908, may provide a lead-in. " ANALYSIS : According to background material provided by the author, advocates for the California Coastal Trail (CCT) wish to construct a trail along the entire California coast linking the Oregon border and Mexico. This goal was first articulated in legislation in 1975 in the California Coastal Plan, which called for the establishment of…
August 20, 2010
Got a reference to that report that we can all see, Kevin? Unless they designate the existing blufftop trail as the California Coastal Trail, there will be plenty of cause for objection at the Coastal Conservancy--if funds for that specific state trail are sought there--and at the Coastal Commission--because the route where the asphalt road would have been does not meet the criteria for the CCT nearly as well. Development for urbanized recreation can be just as harmful to a place as development for…
August 18, 2010
As with the proposed road through the reserve, pavement on the slope down to the beach is entirely unnecessary. There are other stable, permeable, all-weather surfaces that would do just fine. Pavement is so 20th century developer. The massive negative off-site impacts due to the energy, mining, processing, and transport of paving materials involved are seldom considered but are often even greater than the negative effects where cement or asphalt is laid down. This is part of why the reason negative…
August 07, 2010
Ridiculous. For many years the California Coastal Trail route in this stretch, one that lives up to the mandate of this particular state trail, has been established through preliminary scoping and then through two published editions of "Hiking the California Coastal Trail, Volume One" by Lorentzen and Nichols (Bored Feet Press).
This push for a paved road on a different route is much ado about something else.
August 07, 2010
A "wide paved trail" of this design is not a trail. It is a road. If you can drive a vehicle on it, it is not a trail. If it is built with heavy equipment, it is not a trail. If it wipes out what users want to get close to, it is not a trail. Beyond the most important point, which is that this project is not even in the right location--which is where we already have an existing and long established California Coastal Trail on the blufftop--the "urban-think" design of the project concocted to spend…
August 05, 2010
Someone just made me aware of a (to be generous) specious article written by Castoria that appeared in the HMB Review on the subject of wheelchair access to the portion of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve where the county is trying to force a misplaced, oversized segment of the California Coastal Trail. So I spewed an oversized reply, as is my wont. Then I thought to myself, "Why burden only one person when I can irritate an entire blog's readership"? So... 1. There is no official requirement that the entire…
July 03, 2010
Oh, I think they got the message. Which was "we will have to railroad this thing through with as little wiggle room for public dissent as possible."
July 03, 2010
Wrong size for the wrong project in the wrong place. Design and location of the thing indicate San Mateo County and its rubber-stamping local parks committee found something for out-of-work freeway bypass designers to do. If state and local governments are chronically short of money and unable to budget for what they want to do, shouldn't they spend their meager funds on public needs rather than wrecking places the public uses (freely, one might add) for revitalization and enjoyment? There is plenty…
June 14, 2010
I note that during the campaign, many who previously opposed this kind of tax on well-considered principles were silent. The principles haven't changed, so I can only guess that some, like me, were weary of repeating themselves time and again. I know others are simply bored to sleep by the plodding nature of repeated parcel tax measures. Then there is the specific aspect of dumping money into the poorly-directed, dollar-pulverizing mess of the CUSD. The measure and campaign was, essentially and once…
March 22, 2010
Again, look at the numbers in the link for 2008 that Lowens gives. Pacifica numbers for either end of the proposed six-lane segment are well past double the 20,000 figure. Capistrano is pushing it and at that figure for a peak month. But daily numbers are only a rough guide. For dealing with our local traffic backups, you need to know peak hours and peak days of the week. As we know, weekday trafic on the coastside occurs in pulses due to commuter and school traffic, not evenly distributed over the…
March 18, 2010
When you put everything suspect to you under the umbrella of a "bogeyism," this is what you get.
March 18, 2010
Have a look at the numbers in the Lowens message and 2008 link above. The intersections at either end of the possible widened section in Pacifica are already way beyond roundabout possibilities, it would seem.
And it looks like Capistrano numbers (El Granada/Princeton) are already pushing the limit. What I don't get out of the link Stephen provided are hourly numbers, which would seem to be the most critical for the kinds of heavy periods we have when traffic backs up the worst.
March 15, 2010
No, Route 1 does not become a freeway north of Reina del Mar in Pacifica. There is side traffic from the police station, the orchid nursery/GGNRA trailhead, Mori Point Road, and, especially, the dangerous intersection of Westport after RdM. Then the highway becomes the freeway that created high noise levels in places, disrupted communities, and killed a fair amount of business in the northern half of the city. The 2008 traffic figures add some real numbers to the mix. Though trips to Vallemar School…
March 12, 2010
Given the well-known effect of school traffic on traffic congestion from the midcoast through HMB, possible busing in Pacifica would seem worth studying. Vallemar School is a K-8 campus with a good record of achievement, and at least some parents in the elementary school district who prefer that scheme drive their kids there. At the other end, Fassler is a route for the kids heading to Terra Nova High from the north. I'm not sure state highway monies can be transferred to school districts for busing.…
March 11, 2010
People interested in the California state trail known as the California Coastal Trail, especially what kind of a trail (or trails) it might be, can get into it by Googling "California Coastal Trail SB 908 Chesbro." Chesbro, out of Arcata, is an interesting state legislator in that he was first a state senator who is now a state assembly member. One might say his future is past? We once met him at the abandoned townsite of Wheeler on the Lost Coast, where he was backpacking with his sons. That was…
March 11, 2010
"Many of your neighbors don’t care. They want a bike and foot path, as it provides access to some coastal and community features in our area." For those who don't get out except to go from their car to their front door, and to those so separated from their world that they think pavement is in the natural order of things: There are already bike and foot paths where the recreational roads are proposed and being paved on the midcoast. Nothing is being accessed that isn't already accessed. California…
March 08, 2010
With Sabrina's examples, which are among the dozens, and possibly hundreds of different ones available, the same old problems for our midcoast remain: All but one of the examples show a suburbanized, scene totally dominated by development and not a scene that fits our coastal context. Where ya gonna put 'em in the context of a two-lane highway in our actual place with our actual intersections? Fine for carrying light traffic, not encouraging and with guaranteed continued backups for heavier traffic.…
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