New Year's Eve Celebrations: Happy New Year, 2016!

New York

San Francisco

London

BBC News, 1/1/16, "New Year: Celebrations mark start of 2016," with photographs, and fireworks show videos:  around the world 2:27 minutes; and from  London, 11:31 minutes.

"Earlier, European cities ushered in 2016 - despite heightened security measures in some countries - along with parts of the Middle East and Africa.
In Japan, people released balloons by Tokyo Tower, while South Koreans celebrated with traditional bell-ringing.
Revellers in Australia and New Zealand were among the first to welcome 2016.
Crowds counted down at Auckland's Sky Tower in New Zealand, with a laser show and fireworks display. Fireworks also lit up Sydney harbour in Australia.
In London, more than 100,000 people watched the fireworks display by the River Thames with thousands of extra police officers on duty.In the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, the traditional Hogmanay party received a New Year message from British astronaut Tim Peake who was broadcasting live from the International Space Station.

In Berlin, fireworks were held at the Brandenburg Gate, with one million people estimated to have attended the countdown. The celebration took place as police in Munich warned of a planned terror attack and asked people to avoid crowds.

Hong Kong

Toronto

Tokyo

In Paris, the traditional fireworks display was cancelled to be replaced by a five-minute video performance at the Arc de Triomphe just before midnight. The screening was relayed on screens along the Champs-Elysees.The city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said the video was intended to send "the world the message that Paris is standing, proud of its lifestyle and living together''.  Read more.

Related article, local.  ABC7 news/Katie Marzullo and Tiffany Wilson, 12/31/15,"People begin pouring in for San Francisco New Year's Eve Celebration." " SAN FRANCISCO (KGO). Security is being beefed up in the Bay Area for tonight's New Year's Eve celebrations. No parking signs and barricades are up along the Embarcadero where at least 200,000 people are expected to catch San Francisco's big fireworks show at midnight. These just some of the preparations to keep people who want to watch the fireworks safe. If weather permits, we'll be streaming the fireworks live on abc7news.com. Check back here to watch live!" 

Related articles, world.  This year. Huffington Post/Paige Lavender/Chris McGonigal,12/31/15, "See all the incredible New Year's celebrations around the world." Last year. Huffington Post/Andrew Hart, 1/1/15, "Amazing photos of New Year's celebrations around the world."

Note photographs. New York, 2016 by iStock from Traveller, Au,"New Year's Eve celebrations around the world: Best cities," #1 city named for fireworks: Dubai.  San Francisco/Pinterest from She Knows/Maria Mora. London fireworks from BBC, 1/1/15,YouTube, 11:24 minutes, it's noisy.  Hong Kong celebrators from  ABC7, 12/31/15.  Ballons by Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty images from the related Huffington Post, 12/31/15 article (above), "People release balloons to celebrate the new year at the Prince Park Tower in Tokyo on Jan. 1, 2016. More than 1,000 balloons were released, carrying with them new year wishes." Toronto face page form New Year's Eve live stream. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

El Niño forecast renews worries about Pacifica cliffside homes

It takes more than a spectacular, vertigo-inducing view down a crumbling cliff into the crashing

waves to make Bart Willoughby flinch.

The planning specialist hired to monitor erosion along the cliffs next to seaside apartments in Pacifica leaned out into a driving rain above the dizzying drop last week and pointed to a pile of fortifying rocks that he said are preventing the bluff from collapsing.

The question, he said, is whether those rocks will prevent violent waves driven by El Niño storms this winter from undermining the building’s increasingly precarious perch.

“The bluffs have been maintaining themselves over the years since they’ve had the rock revetment, but there are places in the revetment that basically have got slumps in them and the waves overtop them and take out some of the sand,” said Willoughby, gesturing 80 feet downward from the back patio of the apartment building he oversees at 310 Esplanade Ave., which is still occupied. “Eventually it’s going to be a problem.”

It has certainly been a problem for two adjacent apartment buildings, at 320 and 330 Esplanade, which were evacuated in 2010 after the cliffs eroded and left them teetering on the edge. Those buildings are now awaiting demolition.

Read more...

Posted by Steve Sinai

San Mateo County discussions to lease Sharp Park Golf Course

The Daily Journal/Staff/12/29/15. "County eyes public golf course lease: Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica operated by City of San Francisco."

"Doing the same thing over
and over" produces genius!

Sharp Park Golf Course continues.
If our County manages the site
-- well, that should be okay too.

"County Manager John Maltbie and his legal team will sit down in closed session with San Francisco officials to discuss possibly leasing the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica.

 .... The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in 2012 to explore the possibility of taking over management of the golf course, which takes up about 120 acres of the 400-acre park adjacent to the ocean and south of the Pacifica Pier.

Officials with both counties started to negotiate a 30-year lease for San Mateo County to manage the golf course but a lawsuit by environmental groups alleging that San Francisco failed to maintain the habitat for the red-legged frogs and San Francisco garter snakes slowed those talks. A judge has since dismissed the lawsuit. .... The closed session is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 5, 400 County Center, Redwood City."  Read article. 

Reference, San Francisco Recreation and Parks/Sharp Park Golf Course, "Sharp Park Golf Course is an historic seaside links, designed by the preeminent architect Alister MacKenzie, who also designed Augusta National (home of the Masters Tournament), Cypress Point, and many of the world’s most esteemed courses.  Sharp Park is one of MacKenzie’s rare public links."

Note photographs. Note: Golfer by Horace Hinshaw, face page to his Pacifica Tribune article/Horace Hinshaw, Sports Editor, 5/15/12.  High five by Brad Knipstein from San Francisco Public Golf Alliance/Richard Harris. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh

New Mayor of Daly City hopes to improve business growth

San Francisco Examiner/Brendan P. Bartholomew, 12/27/15, "New Daly City mayor says fostering business development is 'crucial'."

Mayor Sal Torres, Daly City

Pacifica's economy, that's scary.

Sal Torres, sworn in as mayor of Daly City earlier this month, says 2016 will be his final year on the City Council, capping two decades of service. But before the political veteran passes the baton, he hopes to expand his town’s commercial sector. 

Fostering business development in Daly City is crucial, Torres, 55, said, because the town’s residential developments so heavily outweigh its commercial footprint. And while residential development grows the city’s population, placing additional burdens on staff and infrastructure, the revenues from residential property taxes are unsustainably low. “Daly City needs to focus on one thing and one thing only,” Torres said, “We’ve got to drive more revenues to the city, because we’ve got a severe revenue challenge.”

Given the Bay Area’s ongoing housing crisis, Torres’ pushback against new housing development might seem counterintuitive. But the mayor said Daly City wouldn’t be doing the potential occupants of new buildings any favors if it couldn’t provide them with adequate services, stable infrastructure, and a growing economy. “When you see these proposals for 500-unit buildings, you’re talking about taxing the workers and the city budget too much,” Torres said, “Without business growth, you cannot sustain residential growth.”  Read more.

Reference - City of Daly City, City Councilmembers, and City Manager.  Note photographs. Sal Torrres speaking from Hispanic Executive, a link which did not open. What Sal Torres did not say about Pacifica image face page to Google/Sal Torres.

Posted by Kathy Meeh