Monday, May 11, 2015

Recent Chamber Board changes; and Jim Wagner's build-up of PBC PAC


Pacifica Tribune/Jane Northrop/Staff Writer, 5/5/15.  "Two resign from Chamber of Commerce board." 

Image result for highway 1, Pacifica, Ca picture
Update: Highway 1 highway safety,
and traffic mitigation repairs
Image result for Beach Blvd Project, Pacifica, CA picture
City improvement: Beach Blvd project,
and Palmetto revitalization
"Two prominent business leaders resigned last week from the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce executive board. Chris Porter Gabrielli, general manager of Recology on the Coast, resigned the Chamber board last week due to personal reasons, she told the Tribune. She was the Chamber representative on the city's Economic Development Committee and president elect of the Chamber executive board. She had served as a board member for the last eight years, said Courtney Conlon, CEO of the Pacifica Chamber of Commerce. 

Jim Wagner, mortgage loan officer with WJ Bradley, also announced his resignation from the Chamber board last week. He had served the board for the last four years. ... He is slowly building up his own political action committee (PAC). "I will be concentrating on the Pacifica Business and Community PAC.  .... There are many items on the agenda for Pacifica coming up. The highway safety and traffic mitigation repairs, the Beach Boulevard project and Palmetto Avenue revitalization. ...  Read more.

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Reference, Pacifica Business and Community PAC. "The Pacifica Business and Community PAC (PBCPAC) is a political action committee organized to ensure growth and economic development, preserve fiscal responsibility, maintain community standards, promote the ownership of real property, and help businesses achieve success on the City of Pacifica." 

Reference, Pacifica Chamber of Commerce. From About:  .... "The Pacifica Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to:  Strengthing the local economy; promoting business and community, building business relationships and providing networking opportunities; representing the interests of business with government."  Facebook. 

Reference, PBCPAC focus, example two pending projects - City of Pacifica - Beach Blvd Project.   CA Dept. of Transportation, District 4/Calera Parkway Widening. 

Note photographs with articles by Brendan P. Bartholomew, San Francisco Examiner:  Old WWTP/City Council Chambers, 1/20/15;  Highway 1 traffic, 5/11/14. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

83 comments:

todd bray said...

Awww, the Little Rscals are all groud up

Anonymous said...

1:05

Shouldn't you be over on Riptide?

Anonymous said...

Hey Bray, you should join the Chamber and get on the board. That would be a hoot.

Anonymous said...

7:01

Coffee is for closers!

Anonymous said...

First place is an SF Garter snake. Second place is a Red-Legged frog. Third place is you're fired!

Anonymous said...

1:53

You forgot the two beached whales!

Anonymous said...

You're right. My bad, 2:19. Forgot the ABC rule.

ABC...Always Be Cracking better jokes.

Anonymous said...

What's the Chamber doing now? Just the book and parties?

Anonymous said...

hey half the hotel subsidized biz improvement district goes to chamber salaries. Someone's pocket. They are busy!

Anonymous said...

645 If the chamber listened to you, what would you have them do?

Anonymous said...

That's not how it works 11:09 and is an indication of what's wrong. You become a chamber member because of the perceived value of doing so, not because you owe it to the chamber. So it's up to the chamber to continue to advertise its ongoing value to its members.

So...you tell ME. As a small business owner, what does the chamber offer me on a day-to-day basis? A telephone book and a highway widening? No thanks!

Anonymous said...

If only there were a governing body that could guide the Chamber's actions instead of having to ask on a blog about what to do. Like a board or something. With presidents and other elected positions even! I dunno, just thinking out loud here.

Anonymous said...

139 The highway widening is like those whales. No one wants to touch it. A chamber without a directory? Does that happen?

Anonymous said...

Nobody uses a print directory anymore. It's all online. If you're not online, you don't exist.

Anonymous said...

These parties at Nick's aren't going to pay for themselves. Pay your Chamber dues, people!

Anonymous said...

Business owners are banding together in order to confront the city about the sad state of the shopping areas and general business climate. They have to do this on their own because the Chamber of Commerce is nowhere to be found on this or any other maje-or-break issues business owners are facing in Pacifica.

The Chamber is a goddamned joke. Enjoy your crab sandwiches, you frauds!

Anonymous said...

A printed cofc directory, a new library...it's all so Pacifica...out of touch, out of time and out of money.

Anonymous said...

I doubt poster at 1:39 PM is a Pacifica business owner. Maybe retired, gets up at noon. Or just doesn't care. Hwy widening improves commerce among many other benefits. Hard to attract tourists when they are stuck in traffic or can't drive above 7 mph. I meet too many visitors over morning coffee because they are trapped. That's a bad business model. Bad community model too.
Don't know what else the chamber is doing. Don't have time for or interest in ribbon cuttings.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, sure 448. Go sell a house.

Anonymous said...

I dunno 448. Would those trapped, morning visitors have stopped for any other reason? Other than your magnetism, of course.

Anonymous said...

Anyone know if they've engaged on the general plan under discussion? Seems that would be important to business.

Anonymous said...

I smell a Bray anonymous post.
Maybe if we looked for ways to improve this town and not thrash Realtors we would have some progress. Oh, wait, can't have any of that with the gang of no lurking. Thanks for nothing. I mean it, nothing. I hope the chamber is paying attention. The gang of no is.

Anonymous said...

"Hwy widening improves commerce" - by closing businesses? Splain to me how that works.

Lord of the Hippies said...

Traffic jams are good for business.

Anonymous said...

OK -- we all know 4:48 is not actually having morning coffee in Pacifica with "too many" visitors who are "trapped" by traffic, but let's pretend for a moment that he is telling the truth. Is 448 saying it would be better for Pacifica if those visitors were able to escape the "trap" and have that morning coffee elsewhere, as opposed to spending their breakfast dollars in Pacifica?? In other words, if what he is saying is actually true (it isn't) and people are truly "trapped" by traffic into stopping in Pacifica to have their morning coffee --instead of driving straight through town to enjoy coffee elsewhere -- then HWY 1 traffic is helping -- not hurting -- those few local businesses which are actually open during the morning commute hours.

Anonymous said...

905 You betcha! Ask 448.

Anonymous said...

Traffic jams are great for business. Overheated cars need work. People have to go the bathroom. People get hungry and thirsty.


Stuck On Highway 1 Again said...

I am still looking for the Pacifica Civic Center. I see the sign on highway 1.

Anonymous said...

Wow, lotta hyperventilating about hwy 1, off topics rants and asking questions with known answers. Hwy congestion traps that are fixable annoy everyone, or almost everyone. Tourists who desire to leave town early to make their visits get annoyed. Hence I assume the coffee observation. Gee, just like annoyed and hassled Pacifica residents stuck in traffic.
If you are a visitor using Pacifica as a hotel base to visit, say, SF or anywhere else, you might not return based on the hassle factor. No magnetism involved.
And all of 2 local businesses are slated to be relocated with compensation from Caltrans. These 2 biz have known the widening was planned for the past 30 years..

Rational Randy said...

Can you see the gang of no picketing on the highway at vallemar at 7:30 with signs that read "DON'T FIX THE HIGHWAY" "SAVE THE FROGS/CARPOOL"
"TRAFFIC IS FINE". They would probably not be met with the most warmth and acceptance by those who just spent 15 minutes to get from Fassler to Vallemar. Of course, those that would be picketing at 7:30AM aren't working so the traffic doesn't bother them at all!

Tom Clifford said...

It is at the corner of Crespi & Highway one.

enough is enough said...

"traffic jams are good for business"......
War is good for the economy.
Same logic. Same outcome.

When are we going to get thoroughly fed up with all of these faux-enviros whose only real motive is " I got mine."

Loeb is just the tip of the iceberg. He and his comrades would rather see a completely broken city rather than share this beautiful place with anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Loeb and his goons number about 50.

The new breed of nimby are the Pedro Point Noobees. They are better educated, have more $$, and have access to attorneys.

Thus the future of Pacifica is more of, what you see, is what you get!

enough is enough said...

All you need in Pacifica to derail a project is $100 for an appeal and a complicit local attorney to bring it to court.
The Loeb gang has mastered this strategy.

Anonymous said...

Was all that this morning's dose of gerbil gibberish? Utterly self-serving and wholly disingenuous? Not at all. Who isn't moved by the altruism of people who just want to "share this beautiful place" with others? And, speeding those trapped tourists on their way. Why, that's like the biblical Good Samaritan. I'm humbled. These are giants. Get another paper bag. I think I may hyperventilate.


Anonymous said...

@1037 Fine Americans, every single one.

Anonymous said...

Waaawaaawaaa. The nobies have a $100 and an attorney. They're not tone-deaf, they get Pacifica, and they work together. No fair.

Anonymous said...

LOL. The concrete lovers can't even keep their own arguments straight. When an anti-widening petition was signed by out-of-town visitors, the concrete lovers claimed it was bogus because (according to them) out-of-town visitors should not have a say on this issue.

Now, however, they are citing to an anonymous person's fantasy about having morning chit-chats with irate out-of-town visitors "trapped" in Pacifica due to traffic (hard to even write that with a straight face) as a basis to support a wider highway. Can't wait to see their heads explode when the people of Pacifica finally get to be heard on this subject and their answer is a loud "HELL NO."

Anonymous said...

anti hwy 1 gang pretty corrosive. Gerbil, concrete lover--- about time this town takes a positive view on community improvements and ignore the abusive minority.

Anonymous said...

11:24 That "anti hwy 1 gang" just elected a city council member. You are the minority.

Gerbil of Pacifica's Density said...

H1A alternatives peeps, please start circulating your ballot initiative. We need to focus on other issues in this town and give a message to our Council, who like agile intrepid surfers try vigously to keep upright on the waves before ultimately wiping out.

Anonymous said...

Gerbils are adorable.

Anonymous said...

1206 dear dear gerbil don't worry. council walks on water.

Anonymous said...

The Hell No Gang easily elected 2 council members. Third one coming soon. Maybe a fourth?

Kathy Meeh said...

110 wishful thinking. Hopefully next election we'll remember to run only the number of candidates to fill the existing city council vacancies. Even with all your dirty NIMBY tactics, when that happens, we win.
What most of us do not understand is why your Gang of No consistently rejects City economic and infrastructure improvement. Think about it, improvement benefits all of us, something wrong with you?

Chris Porter said...

Kathy, your post is right on. The business group ran too many candidates last time and split the vote. I am assured that will not happen again/

Anonymous said...

Julie Lancelle wants back on city council.

Take all your money and go to Vegas because it's a stone cold, lead pipe lock she is going to win.

Anonymous said...

Chris Porter,

I heard a rumor you were going to bolt from Pacifica to try to get on the San Mateo County Harbor District.

Any truth to the rumors?

Anonymous said...

Good that you're getting an early start Chris. You guys just need to raise those big bucks, make the highway issue disappear, get Harmony well past the bomb crater stage and it'll be a race. I've always wished you'd run, but I think you're too smart for that. Maybe this time around you can keep them from stepping in it. Just one of the anonymi.

Anonymous said...

Please continue in the belief that all you have to do is limit the field to win a council seat.

Kathy Meeh said...

326 its not "belief" as in NIMBY magic, its numbers as in progress applied science. 1+1=2 -- even with rotten NIMBY tactics.

PS: 250, 304 (one and the same person), should Chris Porter run for any elected office she'll have a whole lot of well deserved support. (At this time your comments make no sense though-- probably just because they make no sense.)

Anonymous said...

Pacifica has a PAC and a Super PAC a couple guys who think they are Cheney and Rove, we have a bunch of ribbon cutters down at the chamber.

We have the stench of decaying whales hiding the stench of a decaying city.

Please proceed with caution!

Anonymous said...

Not enough thinking men around Pacifica.

If people around town didn't have their heads up there arses we could have had a Burning Whale Fest at Sharp Beach. At midnight on the last day, we could have set both whales on fire.

Presto!!

Anonymous said...

2:09 Lancelle or Jeb Bush, same thing. Stupid voting stupid.
Bush and buddies completely fucked up America.
Lancelle and buddies completely fucked up Pacifica.
Expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.

Anonymous said...

Kathy

With all due respect.

Len wanted to be Pro Business and Pro Pacifica Economy until Mary Ann, put her voodoo spell on him. Thus the reason why he left after one term.

Council are and have been puppets of the no growth goons. Mary Ann's base is a who's who of noobies nimbys and hippies. Karen, was told to run by Mary Ann, and is Mary Ann's lap dog.

Chris Porter said...

Thanks for the vote of confidence from a few but I am not running for the Harbour District or the City Council. Thanks for even thinking I could handle the responsibilities....Lots of very important issues coming up for both groups.

Anonymous said...

858 Voodoo, Nihart? IMO a very pragmatic politician and a natural bureaucrat. Rule #1 is get elected. Good at that, but a lightweight in office. A moderate can become an obstruction or, more often, irrelevant. I like to think Stone's businessman-side was appalled at the financial ineptitude and just didn't want to be associated with it. Maybe Nihart's instinct to sit on the fence was a buzz kill for him, too. He didn't sit on many fences.

Kathy Meeh said...

858, I was talking election math only, more candidates than offices to fill dilutes the vote.
You're talking about elected City Council control once in office, that's your view (which I don't necessarily share).

The last City Council brought-in Goals (thanks then Mayor Len Stone), the financial audit findings, and City Manager Lori Tinfow.
City Manager Lori Tinfow fixed the City Budget, and has brought-in new key Economic Financial staff positions, (brava to her for that effort and accomplishment).
Such improvements do not happen by magic, so to the extent City Councilmember MaryAnn Nihart was involve-- that is to her credit. She was also involved with moving the Beach Boulevard project forward, working with prior City Manager Steve Rhodes; as well as promoting City infrastructure upgrading and beautification.
Mike O'Neill, Karen Ervin and MaryAnn Nihart, all tend to vote together on critical progress issues for this City. Mayor Karen Ervin clearly has her own intelligent views, manages and directs City Council meetings with grace, practicality and reason. (She also reads and understands the issues put in front of her).

FMV an anonymous name calling others is lower than a snake's belly. But, possibly similar to you, I acknowledge the slow and limited pace of progress and future potential left in this city is frustrating. And since NIMBIES are the cause of this near failed City (and have expressed in word and deed little concern for City survival), the need for City Council majority to move forward is essential, imperative and urgent.

Anonymous said...

Got a couple newer planning commissioners who'd make decent candidates. Pro-development and heavier hitters than what we usually see. Voters, particularly younger voters, might be ready for someone who is pro-development but not part of this town's past or aligned with the tired old wannabe kingmakers. A new kind of pro-Pacifica candidate. Of course, the same could happen on the other side. New voices with no baggage would be nice.

Anonymous said...

Kathy

When are you going to stop being an apologist for the son of bitches that bankrupted this city?

Kathy Meeh said...

622, your comment would more appropriately target the 2002/2006 elected city councils: Vreeland, DeJarnatt, Digre, Lancelle-- not the current City Council or the one prior.

Of course you surely know someone's got to clean-up that prior "our environment is our economy", faking-it financial gap mess.
And, you must also know I'm no "apologist" for city council actions which are contrary to best practices, including the balanced interest of this City, and the people who live here.
So, the question is why would your comment be misdirected to the discovery City Council, rather than the prior cause City Council?

Anonymous said...

The "discovery city council". Yeah. That's how I think of them. Intrepid explorers every single one.

Anonymous said...

What have the last 2 city council's done?

The town is worse off now!

This city council is just spending more money they don't have!

Kathy Meeh said...

929, well this City Council has hired employee professionals to fix the City revenue and accounting problems. This "spending more money" is a prudent, structural personnel investment. Be happy!

Anonymous said...

You know a proactive Chamber of Commerce like HMB has could go a long way in driving a positive agenda in this town. Who's left on that board?

Anonymous said...

Kathy

The City had pretty good people on city council right up until Save Our Hills and the first group of noobees and nimby's started up. Peter Loeb and Fred Howard were puppets of John Curtis and did everything he said.

At one time the city had 2 car dealerships, Seaview Theatre etc.

Linda Mar Beach looks much better now but that was done with scandal and cost over runs.

The city has always been a zoning nightmare. Wrecking yard on the bluff by the sea on a very valuable parcel. Corp yard on the side of the Freeway!

It's a sad pathetic state that our city leaders give such great clout to guy who has mooched off the system his whole life.

Anonymous said...

713/715 You have a real gift for making
a legitimate gripe sound like nothing more than a very personal and very old grudge. That's not a growth strategy with voters who value those saved hills and all the rest of the scenery. How ironic.

Anonymous said...

9:31

You need new glasses. The majority of the city looks like a third world country.

You must like living in a shanty town, and your probably a hobo.

Anonymous said...

LOL 7:54. The hills and open space are the only things keeping 100% of the city from looking like a shanty town.

Pedro Point and Vallemar have third-world style roads (most are so poorly paved they are barely streets at all), but what they lack in smooth asphalt, they make up for in gorgeous scenery (which includes hills). If third-world roads are the price to pay for hills, so be it.

One of the biggest problems in this town is that it seems the majority of its residents don't give a damn about their neighborhoods. A little cleaning, some yard work, fewer junk cars, and some pride of ownership would go a long way towards beautifying this town.

The commercial landlords are just as bad. The rundown, dirty strip malls are abominations.

And yes -- the fact that valuable beach-front property is used to house wrecking yards, etc. only makes things worse.

You could triple the size of HWY 1, but that won't do anything to class up the joint.

7:13 -- HMB has some sense of style (for example, contrast their quaint small bridges with the ugly, unimaginative concrete/steel thing that passes for a pedestrian bridge in Pedro Point) and the town imposes certain basic conditions on its commercial residents, so that downtown HMB doesn't look like a slum. Try doing that here, and the same people who would sell a kidney for a wider highway will scream that requiring commercial entities to adhere to any basic community standards is un-American.

Anonymous said...

The majority of this city looks like open space, hills, beaches, and the ocean. If you can't see that, you need to live elsewhere.

Kathy Meeh said...

830, 854 widening the 1.3 miles of highway 1 through Rockaway and Vallemar will add function (driving safety and efficiency) to this City-- which might also lead to City prosperity through Rockaway quarry development tax revenue. So, therein is the "shanty town" alternative.

1116, the natural land structure landscape doesn't go away, even if it were now possible to build more in this 30+ year stunted City. And of course we all live here, we're not going away; and, a better balanced City would advantage all of us.

Anonymous said...

You know what? If you want to be close to the most beautiful beaches in Nor-Cal West Coast you have to slow down. And if getting stuck in Pacifica and ending up walking on a well maintained safe trail on the beach, wine tasting, eating crab sandwiches, a margarita at La Playa's, chow main from Tam's, hot dog on sat at Chit Chat Pier and you have to still complain, well then nothing will make you happy. Go use the bathroom maybe you will feel better. Don't widen highway, fix it. Build Big Library at WWTP. No Hotels. Apartments. WWTP. Pacifica is awesome. And Chamber missed a tax opportunity but seems to think only taxing property owners is better. Chamber should come out in support of Library, or has it? Apartment building around new library is perfect. Do it. Support it. Quick.

Anonymous said...

@8:39: "Don't widen highway, fix it." That's a bit like telling somebody that they shouldn't paint their house - just change the color.
From Fassler to Vallemar is like going through a funnel with a narrow neck - to fix it IS to widen it!

Anonymous said...

8:39
Go away!
You're everything that's wrong with Pacifica.
No class.
Flea markets rule!
Fair food is haute cuisine!
Shopping in bedroom slippers rules!

Mark Thomas said...

Just a suggestion, rather then widening the highway to another short merger lane which will just have people merge back into the second lane causing more delays, why don't Caltrans fix Linda Mar Blvd. Hwy One first then work on a realistic observation of why there is so much backed up traffic Northbound on Hwy.1 Why doesn't the School Dist. start schools at a little later time let's say 20 minutes in the morning, to get the majority of the kids going to Vallemar School that live in Linda Mar Well it really makes sense yeah right .What happened to Linda Mar Cabrillo, Ortega Schools may I ask? Before we expand causing animosity on the local road could we try this simple little task. Let's deal with the Hwy 1 Linda Mar Blvd Intersection first you know after the Salmon Spawning season in the creek of course...what a bunch of B.S. Afterwards let's investigate this Communist regime of Kimco Realty that seems to own everything in town driving out local businesses with High $$$$$$$ demands from their renters or those leasing a building in this city.

Kathy Meeh said...

Kudos to the Chamber of Commerce for supporting Highway 1 widening, and for doing that at the NIMBY "anti-highway fix" celebration (audience and podium 4, or 3 1/2) at the Planning Commission last night.
What are 4 or 3 1/2 Planning Commissioners who oppose development doing on the Planning Commission (of 7) again? Doesn't this Pacifica conundrum of placating NIMBIES and self-imposed development failure ever change?

Anonymous said...

110 The words class and classy are not used by people who possess or recognize the real thing. The rest of your list makes me wonder how on earth you ever settled in Pacifica or why you stayed once your refinement was complete.

Anonymous said...

Council members can't get elected without the nobie vote. What kind of PC do you think they'll appoint? This council is 2 declared nobies and 3 nobie-lites. It's like kubuki theater.

Anonymous said...

Mark

Linda Mar Blvd. Is not maintained by caltrans. The city of Pacifica.

Kimco is charging market rents. Supply and demand. Simple economies. They own over 100 malls they don't care. Either pay the rent or leave they can care less.

Anonymous said...

Exactly 732. All the drama about Kimco at city hall is for show. Look people, we're doing something.

Anonymous said...

Yup. All theater. Pacifica can't do squat about how KIMCO chooses to operate their malls and the city can't put an ordinance together which doesn't also affect smaller biz properties equally. So obviously the solution is to dig 3-million gallon sewage pits on the last remaining properties in our business districts. How such a dumbass idea didn't immediately get laughed out of the room is a testament to the level of indefatigable incompetence pervading all levels of our podunk government.

Anonymous said...

1:10pm I am everything that is right about Pacifica. If you don't like it here than LEAVE! I like the small town feel. I love our beaches and coastal mountains. We need a NEW LIBRARY. We need apartments. Young people are making money and are holding off buying homes. We need apartments. Too bad that cell phone tax failed. More renters. Missed opportunity. Chamber missed opportunity to support that tax. I don't like how only property owners are taxed. Not fair. We can fix the highway and build a wider shoulder for emergency. We are a town that lives very close to the ocean, we need people to slow down from fassler to vallemar. Big deal. Get over it. SMH.

Anonymous said...

934 Somewhere in the Original Book of Hippie there must be a chapter on advanced techniques to prevent development. Therein would be advice on how to save land from threatened development in the event it had somehow escaped becoming permanent open space. Powerful tools would be discussed, such as the use of public buildings (new library), advocacy of extreme low-density development (Harmony), use of poop (quarry and Linda Mar Blvd). Use of poop is like a hippie grand slam because it draws regulators like flies, but developers not so much.

Seriously, look at this town. Most of us value the environment. We want to live in a pretty and peaceful place but Pacifica is a prime example of a town made sick and weak by an ideology gone too far. The symptoms of the illness are unmistakable, but no one has been able to sell the cure to the voters. That's a fact. Is it what we're selling or who's selling it? Product or pitch? Or pitchers?