June Morrall – Page 96 – Half Moon Bay Memories

June 23, 2006

Moss Beach Shrink Psychoanalyzes “The Coastsider” In 1980

In 1980 I interviewed Moss Beach psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Zietz for “The Mystery of Half Moon Bay”. Her office was located in her home, a modern redwood house overlooking the sea.

Dr. Zietz arrived on the Coastside in 1959 and when I met her 20 years later, she said not much had changed.The Coastside was still relatively isolated, with many reminders of its rural past. The passage of Proposition 20 had limited development in the old Ocean Shore Railroad towns.

Most important, Dr. Zietz told me that the people hadn’t changed either. They were still “Coastsiders” as they once were.

“There’s no government here, no sense of community,” Dr. Zietz said. “No sense of neighborhood…Each small community is autonomous onto itself,” Dr. Zietz said, not complaining.

She added, again not complaining, that the “Board of Supervisors is not as aware of us as they might be. Things go on here that are not tolerated in Redwood City…We don’t want government interference, that’s what this country was based on….The old frrontierism is an attraction. On the Coastside there’s a chance to be free of things the urban person has to conform to…”

“Half Moon Bay and Pacifica are very different. Pacifica has a very identifiable government, their choice. We resist that in the true tradition of American spirit. We resist that. We don’t want a six-lane highway.”

“A highly socialized person could not exist here,” she told me. “There are no planned activities–that’s why we’re here…The person who chooses to stay does not need great contact with other people. There’s not much communication between people, nothing to join– yet there’s joining.”

In Dr. Zietz’s opinion, a society showed true maturity when the people could live without structure.

June 23, 2006

Summertime On The Coastside

June 23, 2006

I’m Still Asking: Tell Me More About The Shuttle

And again I ask:

I don’t understand this story: tell me more about the shuttle. Is it crossing Devil’s Slide? Going from Montara directly to Pacifica? Will we be able to see what construction crews are doing? Can we keep our cars on the Pacifica side and get a free ride over the Slide to Half Moon Bay? What will the shuttle look like? Air conditioned for those hot summer days? Who are the drivers? Will you be hiring local drivers?

In the story, we are referred to a phone number that belongs to someone who does not live on the Coastside. Why is that? Wouldn’t Coastsiders be better served by someone who lives here and knows our problems?

Here’s the story from the SF Examiner

(From S.F. Examiner, June 16, 2006)

“County plans shuttle to, from coastside
July-September route meant to alleviate closure issues

Relief by way of shuttle is coming to San Mateo County coastal residents burdened by ongoing traffic snarls caused by the closure of state Highway 1 in April.

San Mateo County officials approved the use of $160,000 in emergency funds to help develop an emergency shuttle service for coastal residents.

State Highway 1 between Pacifica and Montara was closed April 2, after heavy rains caused a landslide that compromised the thoroughfare.

‘This shuttle service will enable commuters and students to travel to and from the coastside comunities that are both north and south of the Devil’s Slide closure,’ Pacifica Councilman Jim Vreeland said in a statement.

Parking Company of America will provide the shuttle service, and the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance and SamTrans will develop the shuttle route and schedule, whic is expected to begin in July.

‘While the shuttle service won’t alleviate much of the travel time needed for their commute, it will take some cars off the road and allow these residents to sit back and relax,’ Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Naomi Patridge said.

Funding for the shuttle service will be provided through September, at which time the closed section of the highway is expected to open.

For more information on the emergency shuttle service, contact Christine Maley-Grubi of the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance at (650) 588-8170.”

June 23, 2006

A Short History Of The Ocean Shore Railroad (Part III)

As told to me in 1980 by Randolph Brandt, whose father was an investor, a stockholder, in the Ocean Shore Railroad:

âOne night they had some kind of convention or big picnic down near Granadaâanyway, the train was heading back to the City with a whole bunch of people on it.

âAnd around Pt. Rockaway, a big boulder came down. Right on the tracks. The train saw it and they stopped but they couldnât get the boulder off the tracks.

âThe train crew decided to back the train to the Pedro Valley. And they backed it down there right in front of Danmanâs Placeâthe old saloon there. They spent the night in there. Eatinâ, drinkinâ, making merry.

âI understand they practically cleaned the place out as far as booze and grub went.

âRelatives and friends were disturbed when the train never showed up in San Francisco. They sent a work train down, got the boulder off the track, got the train back to the city. It was 18 hours late, I guess it was a big deal.

ââ¦Tunitas was the end of the line and there wasnât much of a station there.

[referring to the railroad ride] âThose 20 miles there was hell on earth if you know what I mean. I mean it was really rough going. Anybody riding on it today would say, âNever againâ. They probably never wanted to do it a second time.

ââ¦the old county road, as far as going along the oceanâit didnât even exist in those days. It was all in back of the hills, sort of sandwiched in between the mountains and the skyline. It wound and twisted, a narrow road with hardly a straight stretch in it.

âThe railroad took up the entire area all the way from Westlake clear to Sharp Park. When they did put the highway in about 1934, they took over the entire railroad right-of-way in order to bring it to the edge of the cliffs. When you got down into Montara you were out of the cliff areas.

âIn my opinion, it was a pretty lousy road, frankly. It would never do for these high speed cars today. Definitely not a road for high speed.â?

June 23, 2006

A Short History Of The Ocean Shore Railroad (Part II): Read The DEJA VU

âThere were landslides from time to time. The Pedro Pt/Devilâs Slide area was a particularly bad section. On one occasion, I think around 1915, as a result of some fairly torrential storms, about a mile-and-a-half or two miles of right-of-way track just suddenly dropped from right under and fell into the ocean…”

As told to me in 1980 by Randolph Brandt, whose father was an investor, a stockholder, in the Ocean Shore Railroad:

âIn 1907 they got a train into Rockaway, no Vallemar. I think the first train rolled into Vallemar around 1907. They sent an engine down there with two coachesâand a load of people, a lot of promotion and activity.

âPeople were assured that this was going to be the new âConey Island of the Westâ. All sorts of grandiose plans and promoters were springing up. And these communities along the way which were yet unnamedâwere coming to life like Granada.

ââ¦The depot in San Francisco was located at 12th & Mission Streets. â¦

âThey even invited people to go down on weekends to give âem a free ride down thereâand a free lunchâand then when you got off the train down there, all these salesmen were there busy. Sales slips, you know, sign on the dotted line to buy lots.

âThey assured people the railroad would be finished within a year or twoâand have wonderful rapid transit right into the heart of San Francisco. Business was so good for awhile that they didnât have enough coaches so they dragged out a bunch of flat cars and put benches in them, you know, and people rode flat cars with benches down there.

âIf any of you have eer driven in an open car along here [Devilâs Slide] when itâs pretty windy, you can imagine how some of the ladies must have felt having their hats blow offâand I donât know what else especially when theyâre going around Pedro Point and Devilâs Slide.

âIt gets pretty windyâespecially looking over the edge of a flat car and seeing the ocean down below on the edge of the cliff.â?

Randolph Brandt smiled and laughed.

âMust have been quite an experience.

âLuckily, there were no trains in the area at the time.

âIt disrupted service for awhile. They ran trains as far as they could go to where the right-of-way caved offâenough space left, apparently, and then brought in a train from the south and passengers got off the train, walked along the edge of cliff âtil they got to the other trainâand then ran the train backwards all the way to Tunitas [south of Half Moon Bay]

âAnother problemâthe boulders came off the cliffs every once in a while onto the trackâ¦.â?

â¦To be continuedâ¦

June 22, 2006

A Short History Of The Ocean Shore Railroad (Part I)

As told to me in 1980 by Randolph Brandt, whose father was an investor, a stockholder, in the Ocean Shore Railroad:

“He, like a number of other people in the days when the stock was being offered to the public market, thought it was a good thing and it apparently was.

“There are a number of banks and prominent people—quite a number of people, well-heeled financially that invested money in it. Mr. Downey Harveyt there, was one of the original promoters of the line and he dropped, I think, around $2 million in it. Of course, he was one of those people that inherited the money, you know, didn’t have to work for it.

“And another man who was pretty well-off financially, too, was Mr. Foelder of the well known Foelger Coffee Company, and he dropped quite a bit of money into it—somewhere between a million and a million-and-a-half.

“In those days, a million was not considered pennies.

“When they got this thing started—it was just before the earthquake, well, 1905, well, railroads were springing up all over the place, up and down the state—from one end to the other they were starting to build…

“Why not a line down the coast to Santa Cruz?

“One of the reasons was tht they figured if they built the line through to Santa Cru they could take a lot of the business away from the SP [Southern Pacific], which had the monopoly up ‘til then by going the other way.

“Look like a good proposition. No one else was in there. They started work from both ends with one crew working from San Francisco south, another crew starting from Santa Cru, working north.

“Got along fine until a certain day in April 1906 when they had an earthquake. One of things they didn’t’ anticipate was a good deal of construction equipment, particularly in the area around Mussel Rock tumbled off the right-of-way and down into the ocean.

“A considerable financial loss.

“And part of the right-of-way, likewise, followed the equipment into the ocean—more financial loss—and additional expenditures the promoters hadn’t figured on.

“Recovered from that somehow and they pared down the project a bit as a result of that. One of the shortcomings of the original promoters was that they were a little too grandiose in their ideas. They started out—it was planned as a double-track electric, actually, to run from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, via Half Moon Bay.

“Better off if they’d started out with a single-track steam line. Then as business justified it, then extending to double-track, they might have succeeded. When you grade for a double-track along the line it actually costs you more than if you grade for a single track, so it means more money out. Since they never used the double track, well, it was just money wasted…”

Photo: Randolph Brandt

…To be continued…

June 22, 2006

Coastside Has History Of Shuttle Buses

The Coastside has a history of shuttle “buses”. This one shuttled passengers from San Gregorio, Pescadero and Swanton to Santa Cruz and back. Note the conductor sitting on his perch.

I wonder if our new shuttle be as colorful.

Photo: Randolph Brandt

June 21, 2006

Ed Bauer Talks About Growth In 1980

Ed Bauer moved to Half Moon Bay in 1960 where he became the publisher and editor of the Half Moon Bay Review for about 25 years.

(In 1980 I interviewed him for my documentary, âThe Mystery of Half Moon Bayâ?. Here are some quotes that did not air).

On Growth:

âThe community was essentially rural [when Ed arrived in 1960]. A rural community with an emphasis on agriculture. And it was just beginning to change from an agricultural area to a commuter or suburban area.

âWhen I came here they were building 9-10 houses a year on the whole Coastsideâthat would be from San Gregorio into Montara.

âAnd the cost of lots in Montara was from $300 to $400 which was less than the sewer assessment for the lot. So it was still pretty muchâ¦Iâd describe it s a rural area in transitionâ¦.

â…In the 1960s I made a statement that I didnât want to see Half Moon Bay become another Pacifica. We wanted balanced growth. We didnât want to see ultra-high density population and rows and rows f houses with no open space.

âWhat we were looking for was balanced growth. Thereâs enough area over here for a balance in the growth.

âI think this is what the City of Half Moon Bay has been attempting to accomplishâof having a balance between open space and housing.

âOne of our biggest concerns was the people of San Franciscoâwe could see them pouring into Pacifica which had this ultra-high population density. And, with this came problems in schools, crime, and traffic, public activities and taxes.

âYou get whatâs called a âbedroom communityâ which has an economic imbalance.

âWe want to have some agriculture. We wanted to have some fishing. We wanted to have jobs for people who live hereâ¦â?

On the Coastal Commission

âParts of coastal communities in California are exempt from the Coastal Commision: L.A., Santa Cruz, San Francisco, exempt. By political pressure they were able to get special concessions because they have more political muscle.

âThe Coastal Commission is one law for one group, another law for another group.

âHalf Moon Bay, because of the lack of political muscle, couldnât stand up to the Coastal Commission the way other cities could on the coast.

âFrenchmanâs Creek is a typical example. Quite a few homes were bought by people who lived in the area, then they made a return on their houses at Frenchmanâs Creek. Some of
the very same people have gone to the Golf Links.

ââ¦I donât think Montara Mountain is going to be packed with house side-byside. I think even if the Coastal Commission hadnât been in effect, there are certain pressures operating, just like they operated against the Ocean Shore Railroad.â?

June 21, 2006

Hwy 92: “Unofficial” Survey Results Are In

Half Bay Memories & the El Granada Observer has commissioned an unofficial survey of the number of big commercial trucks and big rigs traveling to and fro on Highway 92.

And the numbers from this unofficial âeye countâ? are in.

âApproximately every sixth vehicle,â? according to the ‘eye count’ survey, âis either a large commercial vehicle or big rig sandwiched in between commuter and passenger cars and smaller working trucks traveling to and from the Coastside during daylight hours on the weekdays.â?

Well, there you have it. Every sixth vehicle is a large truck or big rig.

Are they all going to Devilâs Slide, to help fix the broken road?

Are they going to the dump?

Where are they going?

Should they be on the road during daylight hours while Devilâs Slide is closed, making life miserable for commuters and almost impossible for those who would come to shop and visit the Coastside?