Comments by Mike Ferreira
April 20, 2008
Settling an outrageous award for an amount that is still claimed to have the potential to break the city cannot be viewed as "closure".
April 19, 2008
"Settling" for $18 million while claiming it would bankrupt the City, irrevocably dropping the appeal, and then crying to the legislature for unprecedented exclusions from major state laws to save the City from its own decision is a very high risk gamble. The appeal route was a much, much lower risk.
April 18, 2008
Like the $18 million cliff the City just self-propelled themselves over without a parachute?
Steve Hyman wrote: "I’m glad the City has finally woken up and stopped listening to the same people who would lead them off the cliff."
April 18, 2008
Adam Lindgren is a fine attorney. He and his firm had an excellent record in court for HMB until they ran into an activist ideologue in Federal court. Given the tortured and inconsistent string of findings in Walker's decision which disregarded better evidence it is unlikely any attorney could have prevailed with him on this case. As the letter from the Coastal Commission (posted on this site) discloses, the California Attorney General would have been at our side during an appeal. That counts for…
April 18, 2008
The settlement was illogical. The original award was over the top and would easily have been reduced to something less than $18 million because the project hadn't received final approval.
We should not lose sight of the fact that an appeal with good prospects was dropped in favor of this high risk approach.
April 18, 2008
Mr. Gossett's quotations from Walker's decision are irrelevant to the California Court decisions regarding the "vernally wet" definition. Walker's decision concedes that the City was right in its application of law but then concludes - in a legally adventurous string of findings - that the City "took" the property by muffing a drainage project in 1984. The City Council of y2000 - Naomi Patridge, Toni Taylor, Jerry Donovan, Debbie Ruddock, and Dennis Coleman - voted unanimously to support denial of…
April 17, 2008
The "vernally wet exception" was the crux of Yamagiwa's original lawsuit and is precisely what the California Appellate Court flushed and the California Supreme Court refused to hear. That's what led to the termination of the Beachwood map.
I'm surprised Mr. Gossett doesn't seem to know that. Given his involvement in land use issues, he certainly should.
April 11, 2008
I think it's time to be specific, Steve. Walker's decision was that City staff created the wetlands by actions taken in 1984.
So, why don't you tell us what the City Council was supposed to do differently in 2000 considering that the Law didn't give them the right to fill those wetlands even if they agreed that the City caused them?
April 10, 2008
In the year 2000, a Council that was split between 3 slow-growth members (Taylor, Ruddock & Coleman) and 2 pro-growth members (Donovan & Patridge) voted 5 to 0 – that’s 5 to 0 or unanimous - in support of the denial recommendation presented to them by their generally pro-growth staff - the City Manager (King), the City Attorney (Truxaw), and the Planning Director (Curtis). Why? Because: 1.) both the staff and the Council believed the Law required them to do so when the developer refused…
April 08, 2008
In the second week of September, 2001, the Coastal Commission reduced the quantity from 83 to 19 due to the extensive wetlands found on the site - several of which were not connected to the ones Judge Walker construed as being the Cities responsibility. Why Walker had no curiosity about those is an interesting question.
April 07, 2008
There was plenty of time to wait for the legislation to be passed, or not. Dropping the appeal and swallowing an $18,000,000 poison pill without waiting is incomprehensible.
April 03, 2008
Congratulations yet again to Audrey Rust and the wonderful P.O.S.T. organization.
And special thanks to Kathy Scutchfield for being so generous on both sides of the transaction by supporting P.O.S.T. as well as donating the easement.
Remarkable people. All of them.
February 22, 2008
Thanks for posting this, Barry. It's gteat to hear Peter Douglas nail this decision for what it is - "bizarre".
January 31, 2008
Darin Boville has just put up a video of Barry's interview with Bruce Russell on the Wavecrest site at http://www.montarafog.com/
Mike
January 31, 2008
Kind thoughts are always appreciated, John, but there were no negotiations with Kenmark by me after leaving the Council. The parties - POST, Kenmark, and the owners - came together quite on their own, although I'm sure there were lots of folks encouraging them right up to the finish line.
Mike
January 31, 2008
It's really great that POST, Kenmark, and the owners have pushed through to conclusion. This is going to mean a lot to future generations of Coastsiders.
Mike
January 14, 2008
Wikipedia - The Caldecott Tunnel is a three bore highway tunnel in Oakland, California, United States. The east-west tunnel is signed as a part of State Route 24, and connects Oakland to communities in Contra Costa County, through the Berkeley Hills. The tunnel is named after Thomas E. Caldecott, mayor of Berkeley from 1930-1932, and president of Joint Highway District 13, which built the first two tunnels.
.....
January 12, 2008
The period of minority status was 1994 through 2006.
January 12, 2008
It was no small feat for Congressman Lantos - as a member of the congressional minority from 1994 through 1996 - to secure the funding for the tunnels (and for GGNRA, for that matter). We've all read how difficult it was for the minority party to get things done during the Gingrich/Hastert era. He's been a good representative for coastal issues. He let the community decide which alternative it wanted and he went to work to make it a reality. He deserves recognition. The way history gets rewritten…
October 03, 2007
Cord's father was a great admirer of Cordell Hull, Franklin Roosevelt's 11 year Secretary of State who wrote the United Nations charter and received the Nobel Prize for his efforts with the U.N., and so he named Cord after him. Cord would joke and roll his eyes about how his dad had tried to influence his life through his name. Although Cord never attempted such a lofty career path he was a tireless donor of his time and money to idealistic and community causes not just on the Coastside but in San…
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