ABC 7 Science News/Wayne Freedman, 5/19/15. "Crews start burying two dead whales in Pacifica."
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| Who knew dead whales would stink, etc.? Duh. |
.... So Tuesday started the beginning of a three-day project to bury the whales on the beach; out of sight, out of mind, and more important at this point, out of the breeze. Anyone who was there will tell you about the stench. ... Recreation and Parks appears to be taking a logical approach on this. In the morning, they began work on the fresher carcass. They plan on moving down the beach for the other one later in the day. "
Related article - San Francisco Chronicle, 5/19/15, "Burial near sea: getting rid of rotting whales a big project/Steve Rubenstein. "When a whale gets buried, it’s not six feet under. It’s more like 15 feet under. The deeper the better, according to the whale undertakers who were wearing face masks on Tuesday for the first double seaside cetacean service in Pacifica history. ... The big dig at Sharp Park State Beach is expected to continue through Wednesday and will cost Pacifica and San Francisco taxpayers about $40,000. San Francisco was on the hook because it maintains the property, while Pacifica was on the hook because its residents objected to the stench." For prior Fix Pacifica article reprints, search: whale
Note: photograph by Steve Rubenstein from the San Francisco Chronicle article, #2 of a 22 slide archive.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
54 comments:
What's Pacifica's share of the $40,000 bill?
Maybe it's just me but, I find I it very weird that anyone with brains and a nose thought it would be OK to let the creatures decay in place on a popular beach close to residences and businesses. Further why was the acting police chief used to relay public messages about the status of the situation and not the City Manager or Director of Public Works? The whales didn't commit a crime!
I think it's 50-50.
Sharon
The answer to the fist question you asked is easy. The City of Pacifica is all but broke so no money to move or bury the whales and S.F.P.&R. can neither see nor smell the whales from their offices.So unless someone makes a stink (pun intended),why do anything?
The answer to your second question is not so easy. Maybe The City Manager just did not want to answer any question about why it took so long to deal with this.
This council never fails to amaze. I guess they felt it best to have an armed, uniformed authority figure act as messenger on this one. Can't say I blame them. Good grief, can these people do anything right?
Sharon, you want brains AND noses from this council?
Tom
A road trip to army navy surplus and some C-4!
Tom
If the city is so broke how are they paying all the new hires?
Why the f--- is the police department involved with any part of this?!
Next up: Meals On Wheels spearheads the forensic audit of the city's finances.
This city is the pure, concentrated essence of failure. God damn.
Thanks for the dialog folks, it's just frustrating and amazing to me in that the whole situation was handled in such a poor manner. I think people are reasonable and realize it's not easy to dispose of the huge creatures and the City Manager just needed to be more forth coming with updates about the negotiations, a post on the blogs and city's website and in the Tribune would have been helpful. You can't treat the citizens like we live in the dark ages, for heck's sake..
9:47
Cause giving tickets and guarding dead whales is easy police work.
Maybe they should start going after the tweakers and wasters around town.
They way I understand from talking to Steve Rhodes. I went to him and asked to have those old rusty metal pipes from the sewer plant removed. He said it was a complex agreement between Pacifica and SF when they raised the levees on maintenance. Steve said its bureaucracy but he would get it done. Steve emailed me a couple months later and he said the pipes will be gone.
That was a huge liability to the city due to the rusty metal pipes. Kids would climb up on them and I can just see a kid getting sliced up.
Sharon
If someone asks you for a hamburger today and says,"I will gladly pay you Tuesday"
You just gave away a hamburger.
The city didn't have the money, bottom line.
Anon 9:36 P.M.
My best guess is funds for personal slots left vacant. The City is woefully understaffed.
947 Meals on Wheels is one of the very few things this city does that actually works and matters. Due entirely to the program mgmt and staff. Working on the side of the angels so don't let those frauds at city hall muck it up!
9:47
This city IS a fucking mess. We are broke and can't even fake our way through. We are suffering from decades upon decades of NIMBY rule. It took a long time to get us here and it's going to take us a long time to get us out of this poverty caused destruction.
The city needs revenue pure and simple.
The faux enviro geniuses who think they know everything do NOT have even a remote understanding of this concept.
When I read that Lancelle and others of her ilk are standing in the wings waiting to pounce on an opportunity to regain control of our disabled city, it sickens me.
These are the very people who got us here. The results of their mental illness will never be any different than it has been all along.
It's time for true progressives in this town to stop diluting their votes with multiple candidates at election time. It's time to pull together and stop giving these poverty lovers a stage to act on. We are down to three brave council members trying to make something out of nothing. They aren't perfect and they are susceptible but they're all we've got and they need our support.
The 'alternative' gang members won't stop until they've turned the whole place into a frog habitat.
Oh brother. 948 Keep the focus on the number of your candidates and you'll lose again. You just don't get it because you just don't get Pacifica. You have a common sense message, but you can't even modulate your message well enough to get elected. Suckered into untenable positions and fights you cannot win and MIA or worse on the issues you could dominate. Hobbled by cringe-worthy champions and spokesmen. Experts at snatching defeat from victory. Oh and those three brave council members that are all you have? You don't have them. The saddest misguided mess in Pacifica today isn't the hippies and nobies. It's you.
Modulation is the job of politicians, that's what they are elected to do.
First you need to fire up the electorate so that they don't sit at home and watch TV.
This town is hurting badly and it is completely unnecessary.
I get Pacifica and I get what it can become. Sadly most of the people who could make a difference tire of the whole mess and move away (with their equity).
So Pacifica picks up a $40k tab because the whales were stinking up SF's golf course? All you fiscal conservatives should be screaming bloody murder nut you won't ...it's golf.
It's time for a third "political" party in Pacifica.
1124 Golf? The tournament later this month may be part of the reason the whales are being buried. Fine by me. Walking the levee was enough to make you gag. Oily, clingy smell you can take home with you. Neptune, no more, please.
1109 No finer use of equity. Clearer all the time that Pacifica is not going to make it in its present form. City expenses will continue to increase and we have done nothing to increase revenue. No game changers because we have neither the political will nor the popular support to create financial stability--if such a thing is even possible in this time and place. Even the most viable among the solutions touted by pro-development won't solve our cash flow problems, although someone will make money. Not their job to save a city and we're fools to expect them to. The next serious hiccup in the economy will finish Pacifica. Bankruptcy doesn't create revenue and our problem is revenue. However, a transition to the county would be invisible for most Pacificans in neighborhoods that are connected even now in name only. They'll still have their quiet small coastal town, slightly shabby with pockets of affluence, and a feeling that it's a special place. Services provided by the county are as good or better than current and we'll see county investment in infrastructure and social services, even housing. Heresy, I know, but it's where we're headed. A city that outlived its time and gave away its future.
Wrong headed, selfish people have stolen Pacifica from all of us.
The only people who don't care about this travesty is the, "I got mine's". Their legacy is a big pile of dog shit smack in the middle of a beautiful ocean front meadow.
The irony is that the county probably will do a better job of running this place but the trade off is, we lose control of our community.
I'm sure the "I got mine's" don't even understand the negative implication of that either. As long as someone else is paying their bills it doesn't matter to them. True poverty thinking.
Gee....... then Lancelle can run for a county position.
Too bad her pal Vreeland couldn't hang on long enough for this opportunity.
12:53, I agree with you. I've thought long and hard about it and have come to the conclusion that Pacifica just cannot function on its own. Everyone and every squabbling faction in this town has their part in this, but at its core, the city is simply unable to govern itself on a structural level.
Let's work towards as pain-free a transition back to county oversight as possible before things become even worse for ourselves. We've already outsourced almost all our services (save police, and that's coming too), so why not outsource our governance while we're at it?
For those of you who woulf point out that we wouldn't have local representation, I'd ask what it's gotten us so far. Mountains of debt, a 4-million-dollar diappearing trick that would make Houdini proud, a collapse of our local businesses, and the continuing commitment of millions of dollars to extravagant infrastructure projects (coastal trail) that we don't have the $$$ to pay for and no clear path charted to even GET the money.
Oh, the county will pay for it? Uh, huh, sure. We told ourselves something similar just prior to the Linda Mar Beach rehab, but the money never magically appeared and we were on the hook for the bills. Here we are, a few years and a few fund transfers later, missing $4 mil and unable to proceed on some vital infrastructure projects.
Don't know if I want to stay around to witness the collapse and experience the pleasure of paying a $2,000 sewer tax each year. I mean, Pacifica's a beautiful place, but when it comes to my family's financial future and safety, Pacifica doesn't offer much stability, and my family comes first.
Pacifica is in for some dark days ahead. I only hope the county takes over before our city leaders do something REALLY stupid out of irrational desperation to stay afloat, selling Pacifica's soul int the process.
RIP
The damage has been done. Too late to turn it around although we can probably linger for years on the sewer fund and other inter-fund lending while we argue about housing as if it matters. Messy city finances just mean a bigger mess when the plug is pulled. Blame the old hippies, today's nobies, the apathetic, the gullible and don't forget the ineffective opposition. The I got mines and the I want mores. None of us got it right. Such a dismal day.
Control of our community? That's an illusion. This city is a beggar relying on the charity of strangers.
250 Yup. If you focus on the underlying problem and tune out the screeching from both sides, it's the only conclusion. The revenue problem is insoluble. Doesn't matter why. No way out for a city that's nothing more than a bedroom community for moderate incomes opposed to more taxes. And all the screeching is about stuff that won't save this city no matter who prevails on an issue or wins an election. I sure hope we don't go out like those whales, rotting in place, but it wouldn't be a surprise given Pacifica's habits of denial and procrastination.
Did you forget the part where key professionals have recently been hired to fix this City. And 250, 311, 342, that means City survival.
156 makes an interesting point. Should the City fail, NIMBIES would continue to drag down our default unincorporated land at County level. Then, there would be a City disincorporation balance due paid by parcel owners, (affecting all residents).
Moral to this story: keep, defend and improve this City-- and do what we can to make it work.
Unless the "key professionals" can print money they're just extra pallbearers here to tell us what we already know--even if we refuse to admit it. They'll come in handy keeping track of the hits to the sewer fund and the escalating rates endured by Pacificans to keep that life line going. Just the thought of council with that credit card is enough reason to pull the plug.
Kathy
Caltrans paid professionals to build the Bay Bridge.
Not to be a kill joy but Pacifica needs 50 million for a new state of the art sewer plant. Which means it will cost 80 mil by the time its done
740, yes building the Bay Bridge is a very complicated endeavor. Caltrans bought some bad rods from a vendor. Such things happen in construction.
Caltrans also builds other bridges, and all the highway roads in California. Try not to live so much with fear. The studies and funding are in place to fix traffic through the two (2) congested intersections through this City.
Kathy If it were just a matter of a few bad rods but it is much much more. Road decking that does not align, broken rods, leaking guard rails, misaligned cables, water filled/ungrouted sleeve with rusted &broken bolts, and a foundation that has cracks, leaking salt water that will damage the re-bar that holds it all together. No Kathy it is Caltrans failure start to finish an it will bleed money for years to come. Millions if not billions.
The heroic CalTrans of the post-war era
that built the freeways, highways, and bridges that made California great, is no more. Thank God they're not building power plants or gas distribution systems. Can you imagine if they got together with PG&E?
"Did you forget the part where key professionals have recently been hired to fix this City?"
Did you forget the part where we don't have any money and that the rate of growth of our expenditures exceeds that of our revenues?
You can hire all the pros you want, but we simply don't have the seed money not for any capital projects and pretty soon won't have enough money to keep the lights on.. And let's not forget that this city is run by the type of folks who are currently pushing forward with a Beach Blvd project centered on a Library anchor despite their own polling from three years ago indicating that the necessary bond measure doesn't have enough support to pass. Not even close!
A bond measure aimed at a very specific REVENUE GENERATING project might...MIGHT... have rallied the community, but the city dropped its pants and took a wet, steamy crap on that possibility by trying to ram a cell phone tax up our arses and forgetting where it put four million of our United States dollars.
I hope they hired Merlin The Magician because that's the only way they're going to get blood from the stone that is Pacifica.
But why direct our focus on existential issues when we could be blah-blah-blahing for the millionth time about some dumb stretch of highway like rubes. Seriously, stop your inane squawking about the widening because it's nothing but a distraction from the real issues this town refuses to acknowledge and come to grips with.
RIP
Tom 906, some whacked-out NIMBY comments such as that of 740 deserve a simplistic response, rather than unabridged detail. (Now that's just from my view, which I'm entitled to.)
How does 740 like that Devil's Slide tunnel, didn't Caltrans build that? Where's the praise?
Might Caltrans widen a road through two (2) highway intersections in "special" Pacifica without running over NIMBY protestors? Probably.
The track record of Caltrans building highways and freeways in California is pretty good. Trust professional Caltrans research? Of course. And vs what, NIMBIES in this City who want Nothing? Duh!
9:51: Thank you very much for reminding those making a pit stop on Fix Pacifica that: Measure V was an Utter Failure!. As we approach the second anniversary of Measure V's defeat, (when I take out my best wine to drink and proudly display my No on V sign on my lawn) we must be on guard for the future Library Tax measure which I heard is in the works. This tax will cost Pacificans hundreds per year.
951 So true, every word.
Back to the whale. According to someone who knows, in 2008 it took 7 months for SF to bury a rotting whale carcass on that same beach. Same kind of jurisdictional debate occurred between SF and Pacifica with SF finally admitting it was theirs. 7 months of stink. If the beach was SF's in 2008, it still is. So any excuse about jurisdiction is phony. IMO pathetic Pacifica just couldn't convince SF to bury it. Bet we're paying the whale's share of that bill. Where's that guy who scans the check runs? Wake him up.
Kathy Meeh said, "How does 740 like that Devil's Slide tunnel, didn't Caltrans build that? Where's the praise?"
Frequently selective memory is brought up by the host of this site, Ms. Meeh. Wow, here's an extreme example -- thinking that Caltrans came up with the tunnel project as their first choice versus the community-based campaign that made the tunnel happen. Thanks though for showing us again how community CAN and DOES come up with great solutions, and that we CAN engage to make things happen.
Troll 1135, there was a 35-45 year delay fixing Highway 1 traffic along the "Devil's Slide" coast. Meantime as a result of the delays, there were many traffic accidents ongoing: people were injured, some died. (Imagine how that impacted these individuals and their families.)
The pragmatic, cost efficient approach to fixing that road 35-45 years ago was to cut a 4-lane road through the hill and be done with it. That didn't happen.
And, planning for the future, shouldn't the tunnel be 4-lanes, rather than 2-lanes? Nice tunnel, but reflects a little of that "too little, too late" syndrome.
No doubt you are also against the 2-intersection highway 1 widening to fix our local traffic congestion. Got a 35 year delayed tunnel plan for that one too?
Sorry, I haven't read all the comments but why couldn't we just tow the dead whales out to sea like they did in HMB? Seems to me it would have been cheaper.
Chris
Cause the currents can bring them right back to the same beach. You have to blow it up!
Chris, doesn't Recology do whale disposal? It's compostable.
I will guess that the whales were on the beach so long because it wasn't San Francisco's problem. The whale on the HMB beach was HMB's problem, so they were motivated to do something about it.
It has to do with the levee maintenance agreement. When the City Of Pacifica and City Of San Francisco agreed to raise the levee they agreed to split the cost 50-50.
Sinai, are you stoned or just babbling incoherently?
Why does it have to be one or the other?
305 Nah, they set the course for Pacifica.
Pacifica's financial woes would be helped greatly if a lot of the long time complainers would sell and move on. Then the new owners will be paying 2015 level taxes for their 2015 services and not paying 1970s and 80s rates (or less) like the old timers. So stop complaining, and start packing!
554 So you say. I read something the other day (will try to find it) that said that property tax revenue in CA today was much higher than in pre-Prop 13 days. Much. Makes sense. Home prices are higher today, population has grown, more housing stock. Americans on average move every 7 years. Not sure that your theory about longtime owners significantly depressing property tax revenue is valid. We can see right here in Pacifica that city expenses have far out-stripped the ability of a town of 40,000 to pay them. A little more churn in home ownership won't change that. We're overly dependent on property tax because we have never developed any other sources of revenue. What were we thinking?
Whatever you pay in taxes, dead whales stink.
554, when are you leaving. We'll all have a party!
Think! The City needs a lot more revenue, better city infrastructure, and a savvy, balanced Community.
The numb-nuts "move out" solution is yours, so follow your star.... (or not, who cares as evidenced by the callous, flip nature of your comment). If this City is to survive, it must move forward in spite of your Gang of No drag on progress.
I bought my place in 2013 so I'm paying modern level taxes. Only one other property on my whole block has changed hands since 1994. But I agree with the need for more retail development. I'm tired of driving over the damn hill to give other cities my money. The perfect mix would be 1/3 each of property tax, hotel tax, and sales tax revenue. Burlingame has this and last year brought in 55mil in general fund revenue when their budget needs only 40mil.
1004, what an astute brain you have. Thanks for your comment, and welcome to this economically dysfunctional city.
Hopefully the new City Manager and her financial/economic team (hired by the 2012-14 City Council) will bring-in some significant improvements to this City.
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