Pacifica Riptide

Fresh & Easy Still on Ice: Ditto for Adjoining Space

IAN BUTLER PHOTO

Clarification: If you call the leasing agents listed on the sign think, they will tell you the 1,785 square feet for sublease (as it says on the sign) is the extra space carved out when they created about 13,000 square feet for the Fresh & Easy grocery store space.

Dangerous Surf: Sharp Park Beachwalker Drowns

KILLER WAVES AT SHARP PARK BEACH

Pacifica native and experienced beachwatcher Jim Alex, who forwarded the news link above, notes: "Be especially careful at Sharp Park Beach, where the ledge drops off some 5 to 10 feet about 10 feet out from the water line. The trough there is brutal."

Wild Boar Shot and Killed

San Mateo County Times reports the wild boar was shot and killed: GET THE STORY

(posted earlier) An approximately 350-pound wild boar has been seen in the Grandview Terrace area south of Devil's Slide. According to the county alert service, boars tend to run in packs. If you see a wild boar, do not approach. Call local police immediately at 650-726-8286 or dial 911. (Coastsider.com)

Still Life with Boardwalk @ Mori Point GGNRA

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE: Boardwalk crosses wetlands and ponds at Mori Point GGNRA south of Sharp Park Golf Course. In the distance is the levee (berm) holding back the Pacific Ocean. (Bob Pilgrim photo)

Close Encounter: Satchel Paige and Joe DiMaggio

It's a rare day when I send a sports-related STORY, but this one caught my eye. When I was a boy, I was a baseball fan and I always wondered what history would have looked like had great ballplayers like Satchel Paige been hired to play in the Major Leagues.

LIONEL EMDE, RIPTIDE CORRESPONDENT

 

San Bruno Mountain Watch Defends Habitat

SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN WATCH KEEPS UP THE PRESSURE ON DEVELOPER

They Came from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

BOB PILGRIM PHOTO

Tell Congress: Corporations Are Not Persons

Corporations truly ARE NOT natural persons and it has been devastating for the law to say that they are. It is essential that Congress act swiftly with a constitutional amendment, while it is not made up entirely of corporate shills, because it will be if Congress fails to act swiftly enough.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

HOW THE SUPREME COURT GOT IT WRONG

Historian-Activist Howard Zinn Dies

Howard Zinn, Historian who Challenged Status Quo, Dies at 87

January 27, 2010
By Mark Feeney and Bryan Marquard
Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/howard_zinn_his.html

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as "A People's History of the United States," inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.

Pacifica Climate Group: Keep Studying Sharp Park

BY IAN BUTLER, RIPTIDE CORRESPONDENT
 
The Pacifica Climate Committee, a citizens group working since 2007 to study the local impact of climate change, has written to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Recreation and Park Department, urging them to “commit to long-term planning for the impacts of sea level rise and climate change on Sharp Park, and delay any planning decisions regarding Sharp Park until such planning is complete...The recently released Sharp Park Conceptual Restoration Alternatives Report omitted any analysis of sea-level rise and climate change impacts...therefore, the scope of this report is too narrow upon which to base long-term planning decisions.” The letter is dated December 21, 2009, and signed by Committee member Cynthia Kaufman.
 
The committee has been involved in climate change-related activities in Pacifica, such as creating an inventory of Pacifica’s non-municipal greenhouse gas emissions, celebrating International Climate Action Day on October 24, developing a “low-carbon diet,” and hosting the Community Climate Forum at Council Chambers on June 18, which featured Assemblymember Jerry Hill and then-Mayor Julie Lancelle.
 
Councilmember Lancelle was surprised that the City of Pacifica, which has been working with the committee, was not sent a copy of the committee's letter. She pointed out that “the City Council approved the formation of a Pacifica Climate Action Plan Task Force at the request of members of the Pacifica Climate Committee...Without a doubt, we are very concerned about the long-term effects of climate change.” The city is conducting interviews for the task force this week.
 
Dawn Kamalanathan, planning director of San Francisco Rec & Park, which prepared the alternatives report, echoes those sentiments. “The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department is absolutely interested in and committed to exploring the long-term impacts of sea rise on Sharp Park.” Dawn stated in an email response to the Pacifica Climate Committee letter, “Our intent is to conduct this exploration in full partnership with the County of San Mateo and City of Pacifica, as the potential impacts of sea rise on that region extend beyond the boundaries of Sharp Park.”
 
But at Pacifica Council Chambers on December 11, David Munro, one of the lead authors of the Rec & Park report, indicated that the report focused primarily on helping the highly endangered San Francisco garter snake recover in the short term. He said, “We’re looking at a planning horizon that takes into account events that will happen before sea level rise becomes too significant.”
 
For Celeste Langille, Pacifica planning commissioner and Climate Committee member, more long-term planning is needed. “You need to do all the analysis before you decide on a course of action,” she said. “Because the alternatives haven’t been studied, I don’t know what would be better for flooding for the neighborhoods. That’s why there needs to be planning for 50 to 100 years out.” Although the Rec & Park report included a no-golf alternative, a 9-hole alternative, and its preferred 18-hole alternative, it chose not to evaluate the feasibility of phasing out the levee or turning the property over to the National Park Service and GGNRA.
 
A separate study done by ARUP International, an engineering firm, looked at the condition of the levee. It recommended repairs costing between $6 million and $14 million, and requiring annual maintenance of 1 percent of initial cost. It estimated such repairs would result in “low to very low vulnerability to overtopping or breach” for 50 years.
            
Bob Battalio, Pacifica hydrologist and coastal engineer who helped develop the FEMA Pacific coast flood study guidelines, estimates that an effective long-term levee repair could cost closer to $30 million, and would not necessarily help. He said, “The risk of flooding from rainfall runoff is greater than the risk of flooding from the ocean. Therefore, the levee is counterproductive.”
 
Battalio has offered to help develop an alternative plan. “I think we can develop a plan that is sustainable, can enhance endangered species habitat, maintain our beach, and can even allow golf for at least the next few decades. Unfortunately, the existing plan has fundamental flaws inconsistent with better solutions.” He fears it would endanger the very species it is designed to protect. “Their plan places salt-sensitive species right behind the levee where they are at risk from saltwater overtopping and groundwater intrusion.”
 
Lancelle said she would welcome an informational meeting with Battalio, perhaps along with Councilmember Jim Vreeland, who she said is “very well versed in coastal planning.” But she urged that “the long-term planning effort should not delay what needs to be done soon to maintain the coastal trail and golf course at Sharp Park and, most important, protect the endangered species habitat there.”
 
Unfortunately, the City of Pacifica has its hands full. As Commissioner Langille put it, “Pacifica has a lot of coastal planning to do besides the golf course. Just look at Esplanade.”