Comments by Carl May

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

Having failed to read well enough to see I did not "equate" roundabouts with traffic circles, Tim continues to confound by several times referring to HMB and not our midcoast where all the crappy road suburbanization under discussion would go. He simply can't deal with the subject meaningfully without dealing with the locations where the bothersome intersections are and where any roundabouts would be. And he has no clue what adequately-sized roundabouts would cost here once Caltrans takes over and…

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

The four-lane freeway through the northern half of Pacifica certainly does speed traffic. But it screwed the neighborhoods and business districts that it bifurcated. Very few locals use the two pedestrian overpasses a mile apart. I'm real touchy today on the subject of places shafted by highway development because we just got a notice that our convenient, accommodating, even friendly branch of First National Bank in Eureka Square will be closing permanently in a few months for consolidation with…

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

Again, Tim, I posted no misinformation on roundabouts. All my examples exist. The circular device, whatever it is, must be scaled to the traffic, and I get the feeling you seriously underestimate our traffic load and jams here on the coastside due to overdevelopment and visitors combined. Safe crossings of the highway are a critical factor, and at-grade crossings would be impossible at any kind of roundabout with the constantly moving vehicles approaching from whatever direction. Heavy coastside…

MCTV MIA on tsunami: “No one called us”

Maybe MCTV thinks the big Mavericks waves they have been showing almost incessantly for the past few weeks cover the subject adequately?

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

Again, Tim deals in idealized notions that are not applicable as solutions in general to the realities of our existing situation--not applicable to when and where our heaviest traffic occurs; not applicable to our non-vehicular needs on the midcoast, especially highway crossings; not applicable to many intersections with the highway due to lack of real estate that could be used without damaging positive features of our current communities, including highwayside residences and businesses; not applicable…

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

Not to worry, friends, I actually enjoy seeing the predictable urbanite/suburbanite rollover for wider roads, more pavement, and community degradation in favor of the more artificial, built environment preferred by many disconnected from nature. Let me remind all that most of the preferences for idealized development behave as if the proponents are starting with a blank slate, not a specific place with the natural attributes that make a place coastal--with the ecosystems, geologic land and water…

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

Barry put a roundabout photo at the top of this item, and that is one of the abstract ideas that would need a lot of study before it might be considered appropriate for Highway 1 on the midcoast. Roundabouts, also called traffic circles when they are big, need to be sized appropriately to handle traffic flow. That's obvious. But, as examples, pictures of suburban roundabouts are highly suspect when it comes to the midcoast traffic load on 1 during commute hours and, especially, on sunny weekends…

Consultants’ plan for Hwy 1 lacks awareness of our environment and community

As usual, Kevin's attempt at ecofreak baiting misses both the person and the issues it tries to deride. Like the outside consultants for the highway and trails in the El Granada area, some of our would-be local community redesigners and pro-urban-development ideologues would benefit from getting out and spending some time experiencing their coast's features and learning about the coastal resources and ecosystems that support the human population and its way of life.

CUSD lays out $2.5 million in school budget cuts

Ah, yes, the board's usual CUSD parcel tax campaign threat. Predictable.

Traffic and Trails - Report and next steps, Weds

Absent from this outside consulting effort last year were 1. An awareness of the coastal environment in general--what it means to be "coastal"--and our local coastal environment in particular. 2. An awareness of the California Coastal Act and our LCP. 3. An awareness of the history and character of our local communities. 4. An awareness of the numerous past considerations of vehicular and non-vehicular transportation in our area. 4. An awareness of the essential natural and financial resources of…

Help save California: circulate petitions for the Majority Vote Initiative

"Reeks of Barney Frank complaining about the filibuster power in the House, when things don’t go his way." As a sidelight, tell us more about these filibusters in the House. Or is Barney just doing one of his flashbacks to before 1842?

Photo: Pacifica’s Nurdle Beach

There is no beach on the California coast not subject to styrofoam pollution. Even the most remote beaches of the Lost Coast, sometimes said to be the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the lower 48, have it to some degree, especially after storms, though not to the intensity of the above photo. Maybe Kevin is trying to say why worry about a monster concentration of pollution in one region of the Pacific when acidification and temperature change are likely already affecting the whole darn…

SFPUC may ease recreational access to Crystal Springs Reservoir property

Not much more to it for the Sweeney-North Peak stretch (Whiting Ridge, if memory serves) than opening it up. It's a road, for gosh sakes. A bit of signing at the gates might be in order--the watershed is a designated Biosphere Reserve, among other things. It would be a simple matter to ban horses, but equestrians already had--may still have for all I know--special access to the watershed for years in the form of privileges given to members of the Sheriff's mounted patrol. The main issue would be…

A more open process is needed for the county’s Charter Review Commission

Took one look at the makeup of the Charter Review Commission, saw the deck was stacked, and moved on to more positive, interesting, and productive subjects. The group doesn't have the potential for making fundamental improvements becaause it is "owned" by the status quo.

Big Wave “trails” are hardly worthy of the name

If you can drive a vehicle on it, it isn't a "trail."

CUSD’S “Push Poll” for a Parcel Tax

The regular reapplications for the senior exemption required in past local parcel tax measures are a hassle anyway. It's easier for a senior to just say "no" at election time if not having to pay is important.

A Solution for Surfers Beach in Sight?

Re-sand the beach and the bluff retreat will slow way down. The logical, least expensive, most enduring approach to this lets nature do the work by re-establishing longshore drift southward of the sand now piling up in the harbor. Geologic engineers should be able to figure out how to open the breakwater in spots without losing its major protective benefits. Restoring flows in the harbor might also have pollution-dispersing benefits, depending on the design of the project. This suggestion has cropped…

Current HMB City Council’s slate sweeps the field

I must have blinked, because I missed the notification that the same old guard philosophy and the same old guard gang members that have been making a mess of HMB for all but a few of the past 50 years, as they use the town for their own narrow self-gratification, has somehow become enlightened and is now going to do a 180 to make city government more honest, more responsible, and more supportive for its citizens. How can one claim a "mandate" in any election when most registered don't vote? (Yes,…

Coastside election results 2009, GSD still too close to call

Not only is the tallying of different kinds of votes going slowly, much slower last night for the precinct votes of yesterday throughout the county, but voting itself is an insanely slow matter on the electronic machines. I stood there for minutes twirling the dial and pressing "enter" to vote for exactly one person for the fire district. I could have finished at least half, and maybe all, of a long ballot from the prior hand-marking, machine-reading days in that time.

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve improvements meeting, Saturday

We already have a much used and much loved coastal trail that would do very well as the California Coastal Trail (CCT) through that part of Fitzgerald. With a bit of sprucing up in a couple of short stretches, which is all that the bluff-edge trail in Mirada Surf needed, it could easily be wheelchair accessible. There is no need for a paved bike path in Fitzgerald. Any money for that should go to the bikepath we need parallel to HWY 1. As at Mirada Surf West, wrong route, wrong size, wrong surface…

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