Pacifica Riptide

EVENTS

Rare Color Video of London in 1927

Transport Yourself to 1927 London

Pear Energy: Go Green on Your Electric Bill

Switch to the Clean Alternative

Open Space Committee Survives — For Now

By Dan Underhill, Riptide Correspondent

In 1989, Pacifica City Council recognized a need and instituted the Open Space Committee to advise the council on open-space issues. Those council members recognized that none of them had the expertise or the time, with all their other responsibilities, to develop and maintain the mind-set necessary to properly understand open-space issues in Pacifica.

The Open Space Committee never really had any teeth and has operated mainly in an advisory capacity, helping council understand issues that might not be immediately obvious unless they were one's primary focus.

For the past two years, council has failed to appoint new Open Space Committee members to replace those who had died or resigned, which led to speculation that council was opting to let the committee die of neglect. Without sufficient members for a quorum, the committee could not function.

The only reason I could think of (please pardon my cynicism) for council eliminating the committee (or replacing it with a new committee severely limited in its scope) would be for plausible deniability of serious ramifications of some terribly ill-advised project or projects.

No Open Space Committee means no official notification of council on these issues. There are always moneyed developers ready to build as shoddily and densely as they possibly can get away with. The imagination reels.

Luckily, it is not as bad as many of us had feared. I got in on the tail end of last week's council meeting via Pacifica Community Television (TV26), and was pleased to hear in the final moments that council is willing to give it further thought and not eliminate the Open Space Committee.

It may be that particular functions (for example, interfacing with GGNRA and the National Park Service) will be handled by a subcommittee of the Open Space Committee rather than being the fig leaf that covers intentional elimination of the committee. We can all thank and encourage our council for this.

OffShoots @ Surf Spot, May 23; Plastic Onion @ Chit-Chat, May 24

The OffShoots Band plays indoors at the Surf Spot, Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m.

The Plastic Onion Band is back at the Chit-Chat Cafe for the all-Beatles fun time. All ages welcome. Friday, May 24 from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

Siemens Sacramento Makes Amtrak Locomotives for East Coast

Jim's Jams: Jim Grantham Jazz Quartet @ Monkey Forest Road

Jim Grantham Jazz Quartet plays every Thursday night from 7:30 to 10 at Monkey Forest Road, 3265 Grand Avenue in Oakland. No cover. Wine bar. Coffee bar. Indonesian art gallery. Riptide's favorite jazzmaster Jim Grantham says, "Everyone seems to like the new venue. It is very nice and the music is hot. Hope you can swing by sometime. The music will be real, interesting, and varied. We'll feature different musicians and guest artists. No Thursday will be the same." Check them out online at Nightbird Music.

Magic Spell

Burlingame Restaurant Mokutanya Stops Serving Lion Meat

Update: No More Lion Skewers

Get the Outrageous Story Here

Flame Mokutanya on Facebook and Twitter. Anyone serving or eating cat should choke to death on a hairball.

Weed Warriors @ San Bruno Mountain, May 24-25

Get Details Here

Founder's Hike on San Bruno Mountain, May 25

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