Pacifica Community TV to Run Half Moon Bay TV?

CLICK HERE FOR COASTSIDER STORY ON PCT26 TAKING OVER MCTV

CLICK HERE FOR COASTSIDER CRITIQUE OF MCTV

Comments

[Carl May]

PCT, from viewing it, seems to be generally better managed and more serving of its community than our narrow and weirdly parochial MCTV, but where would the knowledge come from to conduct a public access station for the county's midcoast?

Note how the county-city combine suggests punting on first down rather than trying to do something to fix at least some of the well-known problems with MCTV. The county's approach to governance of the unincorporated midcoast has long been to impose the will of outside forces, usually favoring its pet developers and contractors, or to push consolidation with incompatible outside agencies. This rather than governing the place for what it is, for its intrinsic communities, environment, and other values.

So, much of the decades-long problem with the midcoast cable television monopoly approved by the county and city (MCTV is an element) is due to the impossibly bad contracts made with the (single) corporate cable providers over the decades. With good government of the sort the midcoast hasn't had for decades, if ever, the personality-dominated management and unrepresentative board of MCTV might not exist and, likewise, the desire of our contemporary incompetent officials to outsource it rather than deal with it.

Another element to consider is the overarching desire of the county, elected officials and bureaucrats alike, to urbanize what remains of the semirural midcoast. Some of the tactics being employed include revising the LCP to encourage greatly increased hardscaping development (and the unsustainable overpopulation that goes with it), calling in outside consultants to come up with ideas for suburbanizing streets and roads, paving a one-lane road and calling it a coastal trail, etc. Things that have already happened in much of Pacifica's bottom lands and coastal terrace. Public access TV with more urban management and editorial policies would fall right in line with the county's developer-serving uberquest.

This is not to say a true, well-considered partnership could not work out between PCT and at least the unincorporated midcoast part of MCTV (screwball Half Moon Bay is something else, again), if the character and interests of both constituencies are fully considered and if management reflects the full spectrum of the constituency covered. Many of us in Montara and Moss Beach, and some from El Granada and Princeton, who can't get various things locally, already do much of our shopping for necessities and eating out in Pacifica. And between us is shared open space.

(As a side note, I see Pacifica is one of the outside agencies considering taking on the outsourcing of the City of Half Moon Bay's police work. Given Pacifica's existing financial shortfalls, serious consideration should be given to taking on a major operation from a city in even worse shape and even less able to pay for basic services. For the sake of the city in which I work and spend as much time as at home, I hope the usual Pacifican watchdogs take a close look at any deals proposed.)

[Ian Butler]

PCT taking over MCTV would be great for the Coastside.Years ago I offered MCTV to air my Laugh Locally episodes, and found them to be a pain in the butt. First, it took me a few months to even get hold of a real person there, and then the manager didn't want to air something from Pacifica, even though many of the guests were from the Coastside. Then she insisted that she had to personally watch each episode to see if it was appropriate, and she didn't have time to do that. Eventually I got her to play the first 10 or so episodes, but it was too much work and I stopped trying. (Strangely enough, those first 10 shows apparently still air once a week!) Judging from my experience, they don't understand the meaning of the term "public access." As Marty Anaya, manager of PCT, puts it, his job isn't to decide what content gets on the air, but how to get it there. MCTV could certainly use a dose of that philosophy.