Comments by Frank Long

What’s wrong with downtown Half Moon Bay?

March 17, 2007
It's encouraging to see such a strong response to this issue. As a co-author of the 2005 survey, I'd like to restate some of the data from that survey. It brought out that 72% of the responding store owners had to take out loans, dip into savings, take a second job, or rely on their spouse having an income, in order to keep their doors open. Also consider the following: While 82% claimed that HMB was a great place to do business. 48% declared that they'd been struggling for the last three years.…

Letter:  Why hasn’t anything been done about the evening commute?

July 12, 2006
This morning (12th) I left Coral Reef at 9:10 and got to HMB at 9:55. My partner left at 9:30 and turned around at Isabella at 10:20. And school is out, no less. I watched as three people blatantly ran the red light at Coronado while the county sheriff's car was parked right there at the light (probably having his third doughnut). I realize that everyone is frenzied, but being rude and ignoring the signals is not going to solve any problems. Reminds of the 1960 TV episode "Alas Babylon"; to quote…

Letter:  Why hasn’t anything been done about the evening commute?

July 12, 2006
Barrett Krieger and Tim Pond are right on target. As a downtown business owner, I had co-authored a survey with Madeleine Sausotte, last year, to get a sense of why Downtown was financial struggling. It was bleak. 72% of the respondents had to rely on their spouse or partner to stay in business, all the while, the residents were having to trek 15-20 miles to buy a pair of underwear or a tie. Too often, cute little frou-frou shops displace the genre of shops that normally keep a functional community…

Who should replace David Gorn?

July 06, 2006
As long as developmental interests see any piece of real estate without pavement as a potential dollar sign, whether that property may have had any history of esthetic value for the entire community or not, or whether it might be still better utilized do something novel like actually helping to feed the local population, communities are doomed. To that extent you can define me as an extremist because, given the current set of geographical and infrastructural contraints in this area, we have already…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 20, 2006
I attended the Chamber/City/DMA meeting this morning. The possibility for having Gottchalks (sp?) Department Store was very, very appealing. But, in the end, it's up to the landlords to determine who is going in there. The City admitted it has no say in it. Since the landlord family that owns Albertsons was portrayed as a dysfunctional, non-communicative, and argumentative lot, and let's not forget "absentee", alot of the profits spoken of here (to Trader Joe's and to the landlords) is money still…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 20, 2006
Thank you, Barry. I realize that Ray's request was to stay on topic, yet much of what has been discussed leads to the very crux of the issue over Trader Joe's. My apologies for my continued lack of brevity. In parting on this thread, I'm going to leave a quote from the book, The Fatal Harvest Reader - The Tradgedy of Industrial Agriculture (2002) Pg 39. "We currently live in the economy and culture of the 'one-night-stand.' Industrialization has provided us innumerable commodities, amusements, and…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 19, 2006
Ray stated that: "Businesses on Main St cater to tourists mainly, since most of the shopping is for Art, Books, and specialty items. There needs to be a conscious effort to try and bring more tourists into the downtown area ................." Ray's first part is true, but what Madeleine Saussotte and I tried to do with our business survey last year was to ascertain how successful (or not) current businesses in HMB were, in following the current tourist focused business model. The second part, I disagree…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 19, 2006
Tim, it was never my intention to have you feel insulted, here. I have often enjoyed your wit when you've responded in the Review. Relative to the Harbor, though, someone was clearly asleep, whether it was at the county level, locally, or whatever. And lets not forget the developer who still saw fit to challenge an already taxed system, almost thumbing a nose at all those who have to wait in that two laned parking lot every day on the way to work. I've yet to see any developer work toward preserving…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 18, 2006
If someone believes that review boards and courts are looking out for their best interests, they have a right to believe that. I, personally, have some trouble with that concept. We are supposed to trust the FDA, yet it has been in bed with the pharmaceutical industry for years. Remember, they brought you Vioxx that killed 51,000 people. And let's not forget Aspartame. Your boards and courts saw fit to favor big business.Then the courts ruled that pharmaceutical companies couldn't be sued for Thimerasol…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 17, 2006
If your still struggling to understand how development and franchises go hand in hand, then keep pushing this button and watch how fast this community continues to go down the tubes. As it is now, we have nearly unconscious representation in HMB. The 1% growth restriction we did get is barely stalling an all but totally unconscious group that has yet to understand the ideosyncracies of sustainability. Sooner or later, every one in office here gets wined and shmoozed into a stupor, they walk away…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 16, 2006
Let's not get fooled here. Trader Joe's is a business. It runs on a business formula like all other franchises, unlike independents, who might too often be in business following a particular dream. While you can often get great deals on Tom's of Maine toothpaste at TJs, its the house brands you have to watch out for. That's were business gets dirty, where they contract a vendor to produce a product under the TJ label, because the vendor might not yet have enough name recognition or sufficient distribution…

Letter: Sign and distribute a petition to Trader Joe’s

June 15, 2006
How anyone can think that the Coastside would be able to preserve any semblance of its character, after Trader Joe's moves to town, is beyond me. Whatever you people are smoking, pass it around. It could be argued that whatever council members allowed for Regency to develop Strawflower, that was the beginning of the end of Half Moon Bay, that point where franchises would get their foot in the door and independent stores would be slowly muscled out. As it is now, Regency is just tolerating independents…

Album: Rock the Block shines through a rainy day

May 21, 2006
It was really looking quite gloomy there for a while; rain, drizzle, clouds, more rain. Then a few minutes before 7:00, just when the event was set to begin, the heavens opened up, the clouds parted, and we all had a starry sky to celebrate under. Now, how can you beat that? Frank at Oasis

HMB Review waves its petard about, with predictable results

May 20, 2006
A year ago, after the Review's publication of "Sweet Science", a poorly researched representation of the topic covering both artificial and natural sweeteners, I submitted a rebuttal that I was told was turned down because of its length. After shortening the article twice, it was still never printed. The main source of information for that article, upon close examination, was some rag run by a group of nobodies who've taken it upon themselve to redesign consumer protection on the internet. As much…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

October 06, 2005
My theory is this: In my store (Oasis), people often put their items on the counter rather than use a basket, sometimes as many as three different customers. I think what happens is that people "want" to have that small town feel; they don't feel comfortable being just another number waiting in line. My store is small enough so that they can get away with having that luxury, but no one would dare try that in Safeway or Albertson's. Of course, if I ever get a larger facility, I mighht have have to…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

September 29, 2005
Darin Boville brought up many points that the survey addressed. Personally, I feel that a number of people were hiding behind propped up smiles of "everything is doing just fine", all the while hoping like hell that some miraculous buyer would pop out of the woodwork so they could bail out of here. When I did my requisite run through HMB in the spring of 1997, while still living back east, either things were much better here then or everyone was just being tight lipped. Darin said, "I think what…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

September 28, 2005
Foggyfish wrote: "There has been a real lack of creativity in drawing people downtown." I agree. One survey respondent offered that HMB has to work TWICE as hard to make itself appear "charming" since the weather can easily disuade people from making the trip over here. That and the fact that, as you say, "...People think SAFEWAY is downtown HMB", coupled with whatever ridiculous constraint CalTrans has on HMB wanting to put up signs in its own town, and you can see why this place is still struggling…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

September 27, 2005
Mike Ferreira commented: "Setting the record a little bit straighter I’d like to point out that the City did, indeed, extend the parking hours downtown from two to three hours a couple of years ago ......... Boy, was that wrong." We're talking apples and oranges here. You're focusing on time limits, I'm talking about PARKING SPACES. Extending parking times when we are short of spaces is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Its no wonder everyone was in an uproar. What about the vacant lot on Johnson…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

September 26, 2005
For the record, while I discovered HMB in the '60s, it was while I was stationed over the hill. I didn't move here from back east until 1997, so however Downtown became dysfunctional is before my time here. I watched my quaint New England hometown lose itself between the glitz of tourism and the blitz of developers, to the point where it lost its character altogether. It was no different than any other tourist trap in New England selling cute little carved wooden fishing boats that were made in Taiwan.…

We need a common vision of downtown Half Moon Bay

September 23, 2005
While I agree that adopting a pedestrian mentality could beneficially transform Downtown, I don't see that happening in the immediate future. We need more cooperation from the City before that happens. Coastsiders from outside HMB still need a place to park their vehicles, and what is all too readily apparent is that Downtown can reach a parking saturation point long before the majority of stores are doing a good days business. This is particularly so on sunny days, like today, as I write this response,…

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