Nothing elicits a collective gnashing of teeth on the Coastside like our frustration with traffic on daily commutes, during pumpkin season or on those special days when it seems like everybody from the Central Valley needs to escape the heat. This is not a new problem and lots of smart peopl…
Please allow me to share a few thoughts about Freya McCamant, a 12-year veteran of Cabrillo Unified’s school board whose last meeting is Nov. 10. She has no knowledge of this being written and will be reading this at the same time as you.
There's a big push by both the federal and state governments to convince you to give up your gas-powered cars and gas appliances and go all-electric. They are offering you tax credits and interest-free loans to get you to convert. But this is somewhat deceiving.
“Have you dipped your toe in the water yet, Douglas?”
A few weeks ago, I stepped out from behind the curtain to share my perspectives on the Review and Tribune, and I asked for your support — and feedback — as we continue trying to deliver sustainable local news here on the San Mateo County Coastside. I’m happy to report that we have received l…
Several of my Coastside colleagues represented the Tribune in Pacifica’s Fog Fest parade over the weekend, enjoying the great fall weather. Meanwhile, I lay apprehensive but bored in the Kaiser emergency room in Redwood City, being subjected to a battery of tests, which was a good thing.
A comment posted on the Review under the moniker “Perspective” claims a 2017 agreement to recycle water was scuttled when Half Moon Bay decided to sue the other two members of the Sewer Authority Mid-coastside. The suit is a disagreement over who should pay for a forced sewer main. Perspecti…
The Coastside community is facing several problems today: traffic congestion, a housing shortage and the impact of droughts on our water supply. Of these three, only the future prospect of annual water shortages due to the increasing frequency of droughts is an existential threat to life her…
“You bought what?” asks a friend. “A small-town weekly newspaper,” comes my reply, followed by “it’s obviously not about making money.” “Why then?” comes the follow-up. “Because democracy is important, and community is important, and a local paper is an important part of all that.” “So, how’…
Government is expected to plan ahead. Our county version does sometimes, and seems to look long, as in the Coastside traffic plan that has been approved but will take 17 years to implement.
The other day I was dropping a return package at the UPS Store and I ran into our city manager, Bob Nisbet. "Is it true? Are you leaving us to live in Santa Barbara?" I asked.
This year the Coastside County Water District is celebrating its 75th year of service to the Coastside. It began in 1947, founded by locals who saw the need for a reliable and safe public water system. In the beginning, CCWD served a little more than 400 customers. Today it has over 7,000 se…
In February of this year, the city conducted a survey of residents asking them how they feel about public safety and the job the Sheriff’s Office does interacting with residents and keeping Half Moon Bay safe.
There are a few things missing in the debate about Half Moon Bay's 2023 budget that is playing out in the pages of this paper: about $200 million of them.
It was almost exactly a year ago that the city of Half Moon Bay came within one vote of altering the oversight of our police force by establishing a management structure to prevent the copious failures of transparency from the Sheriff’s Office in the recent past. The triggering event for thi…
The heat of the day had begun to settle in on an uncharacteristically humid afternoon in Half Moon Bay. A thick fog clouded the sky as I walked onto the Hatch Elementary School campus.
On May 17, Bill Balson drafted a letter to the Half Moon Bay Review stating that legal and accounting principles “appear” to have been violated by the city of Half Moon Bay’s management of sewer funds. While he acknowledges he does not have the legal or financial authority to make this claim…
Fundamental legal and accounting principles appear to have been violated by the city of Half Moon Bay’s management of sewer funds. I say “appear” not because I lack confidence in the conclusion but because I am not a certified public accountant nor an attorney. Moreover, my requests from the…
A renewed focus on water recycling is welcomed news. Recycling can help our community weather droughts better than any other measure we could implement including using less water altogether. We are already below the EPA’s WaterSense standard for daily per capita consumption of water sold exc…
When hip-hop legends performed at this year’s Super Bowl, it’s no surprise that much of the imagery of Los Angeles was iconic to viewers around the world. California has always been where the future gets made and the geography of groundbreaking music is etched into its landscape — from Malib…
Life is tough for poor people in California — particularly the working poor who are trying to pay their way but must deal with the state’s very high costs for necessities such as rent, gasoline and utilities.
My 43-year friendship with John Kolbisen was shadowed these last five years by the knowledge that the disease he had was untreatable. The disease took him on Feb. 16, but he never let illness cast a long shadow; nor did he ever take his foot off the gas.
In March 2020, the United States got hit hard with COVID-19. Everything across the country just shut down. We didn’t know what to expect, primarily because nobody living today had ever experienced anything like it.
Were I to write another book about California politics — which is very unlikely — it would be entitled “Unintended Consequences,” detailing how political policy decrees mutate to have unforeseen effects.
The legal battle, Half Moon Bay vs. Montara Water and Sanitary District and Granada Community Service District, is concluding, but the problem that caused it is not. No court ruling can change the fact that the Joint Powers Authority that created Sewer Authority Mid-coastside is fundamentall…
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…
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…
Recycled water will be a significant issue in the future of California and the Coastside. The existing drought makes this an even more important issue. There have been two recycled water projects discussed at the Sewer Authority Mid-coastside.
The Cabrillo Unified School District like other urban school districts in California is contemplating building housing for teachers. This is the canary in the coal mine for a problem that grows larger every year in California. Prop. 13, which took effect in 1976, is one of the primary reason…
All good things must come to an end. And, somewhat sadly, the party is over.
The unvaccinated have stolen Coastsiders’ Pumpkin Festival through their reckless irresponsibility, like some infectious “Grinch Who Stole Fall.” At least, so we were told in an op-ed published in the Half Moon Bay Review on Sept. 15 and authored by David Eblovi, of Half Moon Bay. Not only i…
For the last 6 ½ years, I have been living in different medical facilities, recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Because I have a severe case of the muscle-nerve disorder, I am limited in what I can do.
During the last school year, in the fog of COVID-19, the entire library at Pescadero Middle and High School was removed. It was replaced by a “social justice library” with the caveat that only “approved” books could be added. Obviously, this draconian action has been met with some resistance…
While the Latinx success data in the recent Half Moon Bay Review article headlined “Latinos 5 times as likely to fail at Cabrillo schools” is disheartening, it is neither new nor entirely surprising. As an educator for more than 20 years and an unapologetic advocate for the economic upward m…
How would you like to help enhance the livability of the Coastside for older adult residents of our area? San Mateo County, with the support of Board of Supervisors President David Canepa and his colleagues, have started a countywide effort to encourage local cities to launch “Age Friendly C…
Last week I submitted my resignation to the Main Street Bridge Advisory Board. My action was certainly not because of the workload from serving, even though I was elected to chair the board. On the contrary, of all the civic boards and commissions I’ve served, this project of our oversight s…
California has often been criticized for lacking a comprehensive, holistic approach to housing and homelessness. When investments were made in the past, they were often scattered in their approach and design, with little strategic relation to other investments.
It occurred to me after reading the opinion pieces here last week by Jim Larimer and David Eblovi that a possible scientific solution to the persistent housing crisis might be at hand. I should point out, however, that the housing crisis has several root causes among which are the cost of ne…
The availability of potable water is not a reason to oppose development in drought-threatened California. The view that water should limit development is one of the false claims made by Not-In-My-Back-Yard organizations that want to stop the future. The NIMBY mantra that new development pose…
I have to ask, gentle reader, if there comes a point, any point, when you will accept your responsibility for what your decisions have wrought upon your community? In an age of personal non-accountability (with President Bill Clinton as the era’s poster-child) the current phase we are in app…
Legalizing cannabis was supposed to be about social justice. About ending mass incarceration of people of color for possessing a small amount of marijuana. About safer legal access.
Nearly $2 trillion in federal funding is flowing to state and local governments as part of the American Rescue Plan, which is more than what President Franklin Roosevelt spent on the New Deal, even after accounting for inflation. With billions of these dollars being funneled to broadband inf…
Inflation is on the rise all around the country, but in California we are paying the highest prices for gas in the nation, and the state’s median home prices are projected to climb 13.1 percent this year, compared to a 9.8 percent rise in 2020. As prices go up, it is more difficult for worki…
As millions of renters stare down the end of California’s eviction moratorium, we can clearly see the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic on Californians. It has crystallized just how many Californians decide whether they can pay rent or buy groceries, despite living in the wealthie…
California being what it is — a very large state with a complex social and economic matrix and a unique political structure — it generates an endless stream of analysis and criticism.
Eight months ago, following the murder of George Floyd by former American police officer Derek Chauvin and nationwide protests of police brutality against the BIPOC community, Half Moon Bay commissioned the painting of a Black Lives Matter mural on City Hall. In doing so, the city showed sol…
A few months ago, after the cancellation of Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival was announced, I penned a short opinion column in this paper with a simple message: COVID vaccines work, so it doesn’t make sense for us to stay afraid and disrupt important events in our lives. I’m a Ph.D. vi…
The state’s staggering budget surplus and historic unemployment rates illustrate the split between California’s haves and have-nots: A $76 billion chasm separates wealthy elites from underpaid workers. Vulnerable Californians were hit hard by the pandemic, and our colleges and universities m…
California’s new budget makes it clear that Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature’s dominant Democrats are favoring a cadre of local district attorneys who favor leniency and rehabilitation for lawbreakers in their political duel with traditional, punishment-oriented prosecutors.
At the June 15 Half Moon Bay City Council Meeting, Harvey Rarback submitted a motion for a “new model for policing and public safety, with accountability to the people of Half Moon Bay” that would create a new Half Moon Bay Public Safety Department. Most significantly, this would fundamental…