Outsiders are not to blame for the Beachwood bailout failure

"Politics is the art of the possible."—Otto von Bismarck

"To open a show, I like to do one thing that is impossible.  So, right now, I’m going to suck this piano into my lungs." —Steve Martin, wielding a drinking straw

The Half Moon Bay City Council majority bet $18 million of taxpayers’ money that it could suck the piano of AB1991 through the drinking straw of the California legislature.

Now, having failed, they’re angry—at "people from outside this community", "people who had their lawyers and their lobbyists against us", and "people that don’t want it resolved".

"People from outside this community" didn’t pick this fight to hurt the city. By trying to sell out the Coastal Act as well as environmental and wetlands protections for cash, the city dared anyone who cared about the future of any portion of California coast to meet them in Sacramento for a rumble.

"People who had their lawyers and their lobbyists against us" are not at fault. Does anyone doubt that the city spent more on lawyers and lobbyists to support AB1991 than the environmentalists did to defeat it?

"People who don’t want it resolved" aren’t the problem. Those people don’t exist. Everyone who opposed AB1991 supported SB863, which was hastily thrown together to fill the gap left by the failure of AB1991. No one opposed relief for the city.

SB863 demonstrated that the city has more friends in Sacramento and the environmental community than they knew.  It’s too bad they hadn’t realized that sooner. Or yet.