Midway through a wearying New York Times story on the fate of the federal Freedom to Vote Act last week there is a concise explanation of Republican concerns with legislation aimed to ensure all Americans have access to the ballot box. I had to read it twice:
Dear Editor: Friends and patients have asked me, since Omicron is a milder version of COVID-19 why not just get it? The best response I've seen is from Dr. Leana S. Wen. She says there are at least four reasons not to do so.
Stage Road has no yellow line or reflectors down the middle. It is barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass in opposite directions. It is the old stagecoach route to Woodside and Redwood City, enjoyed by bicyclists, motorcyclists, and weekend drivers escaping the city bustle. It has no si…
Dear Editor: The unmitigated gall of a small group of people (I’m talking to you, Half Moon Bay City Council) taking it upon themselves to dictate to our community that future building shall be all electric. It boggles the mind.
Older adults are at greater risk from the threats of both COVID and climate change, and so Senior Coastsiders is doing everything possible to keep area residents safe, prepared and aware. Through another year of trying to find our new normal, we have seized the opportunities that grew out of…
Dear Editor: In your article about the commercial crab season finally opening, (Review, Dec. 22) you referred to humpback whales as “endangered.” Fortunately, humpback whales are not listed as endangered or even threatened on the Endangered Species Act list.
By any measure, these are extraordinary times in our public schools. And you don’t have to look very far to see extraordinary effort to keep it all together.
“Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Chapter, the Main Street Bridge’s historic, visual and physical integrity, (including appearance and character) shall be preserved intact, and its demolition or physical expansion prohibited …”
Dear Editor: The recent rainstorms have highlighted the inadequacy of current sewer systems on the coast of San Mateo County. Pacifica had a 3 million-gallon spill during the storm of Oct. 25, in spite of adding storm drainage capacity awhile back. At Sewer Authority Mid-coastside, thanks to timely expansion of the wet weather storage, we avoided such a spill by 6 inches at the Burnham Strip Wet Weather Storage Facility.
Dear Editor: After 50 years of working in government in multiple administrative roles, it's taken our move to Half Moon Bay four years ago to have an experience with the complexity of city government. There are some edifying descriptions of city government available, but after reading the Wikipedia pages describing the history of the city of Half Moon Bay, it is apparent that it has struggled over the years.
I’ve worked with the homeless community for three decades now, and although I’ve seen a lot, I certainly haven’t seen it all. Abundant Grace is founded on the vision of accompaniment — of walking with, making common cause, listening to, and acting together — with our neighbors experiencing h…
There is now broad agreement: Our climate is changing and something must be done about it. Preferably, something somewhere else, that won’t affect me even a little bit.
Looking back on 2021, it was a year full of hurry up and wait. Whether it was waiting for what seemed like forever to get our turn for a vaccine, or worse yet, trying to procure an appointment for a vaccine and later a booster, it was all stop and go. It was the same with face masks. After w…
Dear Editor: In our incipient utopia of Half Moon Bay, it has been decided by our enlightened City Council that by banning our use of natural gas the world will be saved from the dire consequences of climate change. This decision has been made even in the face of the admission that it would not pass a vote of the citizens.
Why should the good people of Half Moon Bay be interested in ditches? Well, we are very dependent on them for storm water drainage. They include, from north to south, the Roosevelt (aka Naples Creek), Pullman, Frenchmans (aka Creek), Pilarcitos (aka Creek), and Kehoe ditches. Three of these …
We still have lots of questions but not many definitive answers when it comes to the cause of all the trouble related to stormy weather on Dec. 13. That is, we know the immediate cause was a somewhat unexpected drenching, an act of God as the insurance world knows it. But why did a day of ra…
Dear Editor: How are Half Moon Bay employers going to operate with no power? As I sit in my office, I am unable to join a scheduled conference call due to the fact I have no power or internet. Due to the geographic location of my office, phone service is not reliable. This is unacceptable!
Dear Editor: Why is the work on Highway 92 being done in the daytime rather than at night? The wait times are as long as 45-plus minutes; westbound traffic is backed up from Crystal Springs, and eastbound traffic stopped almost from Main Street.
It stinks to be in the cannabis industry in California right now.
Just as we were hoping to become complacent about a coronavirus that is no longer quite so novel, along comes omicron. The good news is that it doesn’t seem to be as deadly as some earlier variants, but that is offset by the bad news that it is spreading like wildfire. The first case in the …
Dear Editor: The Half Moon Bay City Council does not get it. For those who voted for electrification you have lost my vote and I would support a recall.
Dear Editor: On Sunday, I drove past the Johnston House property. The parking lot was full and I could see that the old train station was full to capacity. It’s some big event I thought to myself.
Dear Editor: My wife and I have tried very hard to stop the alien invasion into our neighborhood. But the evil Eucalyptus trees keep slowly and insidiously creeping into our yard. We’ve spent tons of money chopping them down only to have them grow back worse.
With the holiday season underway, California retailers and shoppers have been horrified by continued acts of looting, theft and burglaries. Videos on social media depict lawlessness.
WAR. That was the headline on the Half Moon Bay Review (and Pescadero Pebble) 80 years ago this week. The Coastside newspaper hit the streets four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and it’s no surprise that the second world war of the 20th century was on the mind of everyone.
Dear Editor: San Mateo County Superior Court would have us believe this pandemic is over. On Nov. 22, the Superior Court announced on its website that Remote Access, which enables the public to listen via telephone to courtroom proceedings, has been discontinued, effective immediately.
Many of us in Half Moon Bay support the pursuit of equity and diversity, important pillars of our local persona, both of which will take an unnecessary hit should the City Council approve its proposed “electrification ordinance” without an exception for local agricultural businesses and cert…
It’s December. Let that sink in.
Dear Editor: Jim Larimer is correct in that California underfunds K-12 education (Review, Nov. 17). The latest data shows average spending per pupil of roughly $12,700. That amount is equal to the U.S. state average, but barely half of the top state New York ($23,300). However, the focus on Proposition 13 as the cause of this shortfall misses the big picture.
Dear Editor: I urge the city of Half Moon Bay to refuse the measure called an electrification ordinance. The main effect of the ordinance is to launch the collapse of the existing natural gas service to the community by forbidding new and upgraded gas service.
At the Nov. 16 City Council meeting, I watched our elected representatives and our city staff engage in a headlong, remarkably data-free, and risky rush to try to pass legislation (which I call the “Electrification Mandate”) that would impose extremely large costs and a nightmare of implemen…
We must stop this electrification ordinance now!
The city of Half Moon Bay is preparing to take a significant leadership role in protecting the health of our community and planet by phasing out fossil fuels through a proposed building electrification ordinance. The ordinance would create a path for Half Moon Bay to electrify all homes and …
Regarding the story headlined, “Cameras to be installed at HMB skatepark” (Review, Nov. 3), Half Moon Bay Deputy City Manager Matthew Chidester was quoted as saying that “this is our facility” and if people don’t like the cameras they can essentially stay away. I would like to remind him tha…
Perhaps more politically savvy Washington watchers were not surprised by U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier’s announcement last week that she would not run again, this time for an eighth term representing California’s 14th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. The rest of us were rattled.
I recently had a wide-ranging discussion with an elected official on the coast that turned to the costs associated with mitigating climate change. He suggested that, while virtually all of us see the need to turn off the gas (so to speak) before we all bake (as a figure of speech), few of us…
Dear Editor: Our recent experience serving on the above referenced advisory commission was challenging and rewarding. We also strongly believe that certain changes are now past due, and implementation will significantly enable future district lines commissions to responsibly guide the process and drive a transparent outcome that we all will be proud and supportive of.
Dear Editor: The Friends of the Half Moon Bay Library are very pleased to announce that we can now receive used book donations from the community! We’re in great need of your ‘gently used’ books to boost our stocks, which have fallen significantly during the COVID pandemic. For example, we have a very low supply of fiction books.
Slowly transforming the city residences from a reliance on gas appliances to fully electric ones makes sense if you agree that we have a climate change problem that needs to be fixed. In the long run, it will be a lot cheaper to start adapting our residences and businesses now, rather than w…
Two recent letters suggest that the funding problems our local public schools face are due to priorities in Sacramento and not a result of Proposition 13. They ignore the reality that in the 1970s, before Prop. 13 limited property taxes, California had the best public schools in the nation w…