Ghetto Vallemar, when will a city council fix the problem?

Pacifica Tribune Letters to the Editor, 2/6/13.  "When is enough -- enough? by Rick West

"Editor:  Vallemar is treated like a ghetto. We are not second class citizens but residents of Pacifica with the same ordinances and laws governing the structure of our state responsibilities. What has been the return on those dollars for normal consideration of our valley's infrastructure? Maintenance of what is crumbling here — that is all.

Our Vallemar infrastructure is crumbling

Now, after reasonable time for thought, we will lose our palm trees because the government and the utility cannot afford to go underground like they are forced to conform elsewhere in the city during change. It is another kick in the gut for the ghetto. The city has decided to accommodate the utility and not the infrastructure for the citizens.

From the school eastward, Reina Del Mar has not been paved in over 30 years then trenching began 30 days after the paving by TCI, the cable utility at the time. Some roads, you can't call them streets, are still gravel from the 1950's development. We have street signs that have been replaced with misspelled names that cannot be changed because they are on the national registry through a convoluted process too tough to deal with.

"No money" is the city structure 

We have accepted housing knockdown remodeling building by city code while road setbacks, sidewalks and curbs are not practical. We walk and visit with our pets in the road. We drive down the center of a non-striped Reina Del Mar for the smoothest path getting to Route 1. We politely and patiently stop and go along the way navigating around public, commercial and private services serving the citizens and the city without complaint. We know the first names of those on the city's monthly pothole patrol.

Status quo solution?

The wooden poles that carry power and communications are older than the citizens that live here. Most are leaning from stress of age and line tensions. Some have climbing spikes decades out of use. Some are connected to stumps remaining in place from trees already removed to support their remaining erect. For those on slopes, they lean away periodically pulling the service wires from the house. You cannot get the utility to mitigate the issues. The onus is on the homeowner to trim trees that have nothing to do with gravity forces. It is time for PG&E to get into the century so no more of us are forced to house generators in the valley. The city could help administratively and present some plan before the citizens.

Now it is principle, as another edict comes down and our palms will go. We, like every homeowner in Pacifica, pay thousands in property taxes a year. Why can't Vallemar citizens get some consideration for our standard of living by a government we cannot control? Why, in the 21st century, with all the resources and technology our representatives cannot find a way to work around a few palm trees and get the citizen's roads paved into streets? Why is this?  There is so much we can forgive if we are shown some consideration for what we pay to be citizens here. Twelve Snowy Plovers are being given more consideration than the residents of Vallemar. There is something not right or balanced.

Why do we need to have another mass meeting with the council at Oceana High School into the middle of the night for another "Lighting and Landscaping Assessment" debacle that caused so much anguish all around? Where is our representation? When is enough — enough?" 

Posted by Kathy Meeh