I’m in Monterey for my family’s annual trip. This time we’re staying at the Otter House, a cottage in Pacific Grove owned by some Buddhist religious group. There are inspirational sayings in every room and on every windowsill. Lots of eastern spirituality books. To think that years ago sardine packers probably lived here with cheap rent.
….
The tunnel bypassing Devil’s Slide appears to be nearly completed, though I don’t know the time line. Smart growthers generated a rare victory there as the developer interests had preferred a four lane bypass and had already lined up federal matching funds for it when the voters sent them packing and instead began construction on a two-lane tunnel. There should be a plaque to those activists, among them Moonshadow who posts here often.
….
Back in San Francisco, at 19th and Taraval, Zim’s Burgers is long gone. They made terrific burgers back when I was a kid, then doubled in price and halved in quality in my young adulthood before sliding into mere memories of dying SF nostalgia. The location was iconic, though they had other locations as well. It was where some of us as teenagers went for a late night meal following a concert at the Cow Palace or a movie at the Balboa. You met all sorts of colorful people there, both positive encounters and bad.
A couple of restaurants have since occupied the premises without long term success. The latest tenant is Sushi Raw.
Fortunately, the elderly company running the Bay Bakery dim sum nook just down the street are alive and well and inadvertently and quietly resisting the cultural homogenization with class and grace. Contrary to the speculation of my last report, the make their own stuff. I watched them doing it. While we were waiting for our large order, they offered up free coffee and offered samplings of their rice cake and something which reminded me of mochi balls of Japanese origin, but with bean paste inside, and coconut outside. Delish.
….
The New Leaf Community Market, a Santa Cruz based mini-chain of natural food stores along the lines of Eureka Natural Foods. It’s in the spot which was occupied by Alpha Beta during my childhood. No way would this new store have survived back in the day. We had a few hippies, but barely enough to support a small health food store in Montara, which eventually failed.
It was packed yesterday. I have mixed feelings, though the gentrification is just about completed anyway (see my past whining about it). Parts of the coast side of San Mateo County are borderline gated communities, and there isn’t a home there for sale for much less than a million even now. On the other hand, New Leaf preempted Whole Foods, and that’s always good news. Too bad they didn’t make it south to Monterey in time.
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February 20, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Moonshadow
Oh Eric . . . you give me too much credit. I was just one among many many activists on the Coastside of San Mateo County.
The tunnel is expected to open sometime in Early 2012.
You can learn more at the CalTrans page for the project.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/dslide/
February 20, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Anonymous
There was a Zim’s in Corte Madera for awhile. Didn’t sweep me off my feet.
February 21, 2011 at 7:03 am
Doc
As Wolfe said, you can’t go home again. The world changes. Nostalgia is an indulgence, an attempt at asserting a privilege from place-based experience that one really doesn’t have in the first place.
As a fifth generation Californian with family roots that extend back before statehood, I’ve been hearing this sort of whiny nostalgia all my life. So you remember the 70s — great. How about nostalgia about Santa Clara county when it was agricultural?
Change comes, the new displaces the old. That’s the way of the world.
February 21, 2011 at 8:23 am
Lodgepole
One of the owners of New Leaf is a former Arcata COOP employee, who I think is also part owner of Wildberries.
February 21, 2011 at 8:50 am
Eric Kirk
Doc – yes, but not all change is good. As I said, the introduction of the New Leaf to HMB’s local economy is a good thing, but it comes on the heels of pretty much every working class family having been run out of the area by economic forces. I’m actually not one hundred percent nostalgic about my experience there. At the time it’s where some of the more troubled elements of the working class lived, and as a kid who didn’t fit into the “redneck” mold it was hard to get home from school each day without getting into a fight. I’m certain that element of coast side society is gone – driven into the valley, or out of the state completely.
The question is whether the change had to be so dractonian and whether the entirety of the original community had to die so that there is nothing left of the old community (where for instance the old Feed and Fuel used to be the hub of local agricultural commerce is now a theme shop selling trinkets as a Fisherman’s Warf type tribute to the displaced community). And of course, the question is whether a lesson can be learned for Humboldt County, which is probably what you are driving at in your objection to my post.
February 21, 2011 at 8:50 am
Moonshadow
Ummmm Doc . . . I don’t think nostalgia is whiny at all nor is it an assertion of privilege per se. It is something we all do to place ourselves in time and personal history. It is also a way of sharing our history with others as you did when you stated, “As a fifth generation Californian . . . ”
Eric did not spend his youth in Santa Clara County so much as he did on the Coastside of San Mateo County hence one is of more import and relevance to him than the other. Something he shares with us from time to time.
As for change . . . that’s my 25¢
February 21, 2011 at 9:11 am
Moonshadow
Eric . . . while I agree that much of the old Half Moon Bay has gone it is still there should one care to look for it. You can find the old fishing harbor at Princeton if you wander away from the tourist driven shops that cluster around the docks. It is still there tho’ hanging on grimly not so much because of the changes in HMB as due to the collapsing fish stocks.
The Feed and Fuel is still a very functional feed store that has had add the other stuff to survive in an era of rising rents. The agriculture on the coast has held on largely due to conservation easements and the land preservation trusts. Much (tho’ not all) of the ag land you must have spotted on the trip down Hwy 1 is protected. The valleys that range east from the ocean have organic farms, brussel sprout farms, and the odd cattle operation. Just south of HMB is the Toto Ranch (owned by the Peninsula Open Space Trust – POST) where good grass fed beef is still raised by the Markegard Family under a long term lease with POST.
There is so much still there if one takes the time to look . . . most just breeze through not realizing what is still there if they’d take the time to explore.
February 21, 2011 at 9:13 am
Moonshadow
oh . . . and a bit further south up the valley that La Honda is in you can find La Honda Creek Open Space Reserve that is owned by MROSD. It was formerly the Driscoll Ranch and is still operated as a cattle ranch by the Driscolls under a long term lease.
As I said . . . the old is still there . . . overlaid with the changes of the current era.
February 21, 2011 at 12:05 pm
anon
i don’t know exactly what it is about nostalgia that i like so much…maybe its being in a static community like this one, SoHum, where nearly all the people i started with 30-40 years ago are still here? or maybe its because my life has been so fucked up and dismal generally that i harken back to the past, a fallback position, share the old stories with old chums?…or maybe its just an easy conversation to get into , an easy thing to talk about…some have left and i always wonder where are they now?…
but yeah Monterey…
etc…
February 21, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Random Guy
“but it comes on the heels of pretty much every working class family having been run out of the area by economic forces. I’m actually not one hundred percent nostalgic about my experience there. At the time it’s where some of the more troubled elements of the working class lived…”
Sad but true, business as usual, today’s headlines to be assigned different footnotes in the future, just as yesterday’s headlines are given poor light today. The headlines will write what the community had been out of history. Literally, like it wasn’t there. The reason for this always amounts to “what’s the point in arguing about it now, after the fact?” Like houses have always cost a million bucks in beverly hills…and if fate has dealt you a different hand, the growing standard is to assign small living quarters to working class families at a rate of 25 households per acre for not less than half the occupants’ takehome pay.
Nostalgia is a legitimate way to remember the past as entirely as possible, to help better understand today…another discussion I guess.
February 21, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Bruce Ross
Eric,
Have you considered the relationship between the work of the “Smart growthers” whom you applaud and the fact that there isn’t a home for sale for less than a million?
February 21, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Dave Kirby
Who’s to say that the folks living in the upscale neighborhoods aren’t the kids and grand kids of the blue collar folks of the past. Jeeez this aint India upward mobility still exists. And as for Eureka other than old town the business district is one butt ugly place. The neighborhoods are the interesting part with very well kept examples of virtually every architectural style of the last 100+years. I drove down H street today and was struck by how many interesting houses I passed. 101 is a 50s trainwreck starting from K mart north.
February 21, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Moonshadow
Bruce . . . and perhaps Eric . . . there are many homes on the San Mateo Coastside for under a million. In fact MOST are under a million. I’m also not sure where the reference to “gated communities” comes from as there are none that I am aware of other than the one out at the Golf Course where the Ritz Carlton is.
February 21, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Eric Kirk
Who’s to say that the folks living in the upscale neighborhoods aren’t the kids and grand kids of the blue collar folks of the past.
There aren’t. Of my graduating class at HMB high school two families remain (according to a friend who attended the 25 year reunion). Two out of a class of about 2 to 3 hundred.
Have you considered the relationship between the work of the “Smart growthers” whom you applaud and the fact that there isn’t a home for sale for less than a million?
Yeah, and there’ve been a number of studies on the matter with mixed data. The natural assumption is that smart growth policies lead to fewer homes and thus the supply/demand curves drive prices upward, but that’s not the case in most situations (though it may have been the case for Tiburon in Marin County, but those prices were in the stratosphere well before the zero growth policy which probably put it out of reach even for the moderately wealthy). On the coast side there was only going to be so much water and space available for further development even if you turned it into Daily City, so the additional major development proposed for south of HMB (and killed by ballot measure) would not have provided enough supply to significantly loosen up demand.
But while there is correlation between smart growth and increases in prices, causation is a bit more of a question since prices are usually climbing before the measures come into effect.
In some cases increased development counterintuitively actually drives prices up, particularly when it is high end. And in HMB, the prices did go up significantly when the the high end golf course development was finished, though I think the prices in HMB were going to go up anyway as it is a beautiful ruralesque community a half hour from SF and just over the hill from the dot.com craze.
Of course there’s also a deeper irony at work here. Development begets smart growth. As I’ve pointed out in the past, if those of you pushing the development defeat people like me, the net result is that you will bring into the community more people like me. Lots of them.
February 21, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Eric Kirk
Moonshadow – the reference to a gated community came in response to my cousin’s experience in your old community of Moss Beach. He was working a construction job and biking to his temporary place of residence when he was pulled over and questioned by officers who didn’t feel comfortable with the way he was dressed and taking a bike through the now swank neighborhood. The experience creeped him out, and when I mentioned it to others, they said it’s a common occurrence.
I don’t know what the prices are now, but in 2006 or 2007 when we were thinking about returning to the Bay Area due to my MIL’s health issues, I looked at the coast side. Every home for sale in Moss Beach was over a million. I found one Montara home at 800 thousand. I don’t know what the market collapse has done to the prices since, but in that one search I wrote off the whole area as a possibility.
February 21, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Moonshadow
Eric . . . in 2006 my old house (3 br / 2 1/4 ba – 1,200 sq ft) in Moss Beach was selling for $625,000 about 200,000 more than I sold it for in 2002. You must not have searched too hard.
What swank neighborhood are you talking about? There’s nothing “swank” in Moss Beach or Montara!
February 21, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Eric Kirk
It’s all swank by comparison to what it was. Streets are all paved now. Beemers all over the place.
I checked homes.com at the time. Just checked it again, and yes, most are listed under a million, and some are even below half a million. There’s even one below 400 grand, though I suspect it’s a foreclosure listing. It was much different when i looked previously. Still way beyond anything I could afford.
In Montara there’s a 4 bedroom house for 2,350,000. But there is a two bedroom shack for $275,000, which from appearances would be worth more if it was a vacant lot. And there are two homes under half a million, but I suspect those are foreclosures as well.
Still, much less crazy than it was when I looked.
February 21, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Moonshadow
Eric . . . as I said before you must have been looking at the wrong listings, because I can’t recall any of the properties on the block I was living on ever going for much more than $650,000 – $700,000.
Swank by comparison??? You’ve been smoking too much of the SoHum product man! And you still have not said where you saw gated communities other than the Ocean Colony development around the Golf Course south of HMB.
You seem to be exaggerating a fair bit.
February 22, 2011 at 12:11 am
Eric Kirk
There are no literal gate communities Moonshadow. It was hyperbole based upon the way the police react to scruffy looking outsiders now that a wealthier set are in place.
Your home was in the flats right near the highway, so while it is valuable, it would probably be on the lower end in terms of location.
When my parents sold our Sierra Street home in 1979, it was for $125,000. The purchase price three years before was $70,000. The purchasers sold it for over $500,000 in the mid-1990s. I have no idea what it would sell for now, or a few years ago at the height of the cf the craziness. But I suspect the four bedroom house came close to a million if not over based on what else I saw.
February 22, 2011 at 12:20 am
Anonymous
Moonshadow’s house increased in value 50% in two years! If that isn’t crazy, what is?
February 22, 2011 at 6:42 am
Moonshadow
Eric you are so full of hyperbole and crap. You haven’t lived or spent any real time on the coast in so long I highly doubt you really know what the situation is here. While I no longer have a permanent address here because of my traveling in the RV I spend a significant amount of time here. In fact I wintered this year at the RV park in Pacifica so I think I still count as a Coastsider.
The picture you paint of “gated communities” attitude or otherwise is pure unadulterated BS. If the sheriff has been stopping some people they’ve probably had good reason given the fact many of the car break-ins, thefts, burglaries, and the like have been perpetrated by individuals from outside the community.
You go on and on . . . but where are the facts? Where’s the meat as the commercial used to say? Is there some reason you have to cut down a nice community filled with good hardworking people? There are people over here still that have lived here for generations. There are people over here who live simple lifestyles in simple homes that cost way more than they should have, but that’s a discussion for another time.
My breakfast is ready . . . so I’m going to shut up . . . but I think for an attorney you sure aren’t relying many facts.
Call me a loyal and pissed off San Mateo County Coastsider.
February 22, 2011 at 7:22 am
Moonshadow
Here’s the 10-year chart of median home values for 94038 (Moss Beach)
94038 Zillow Home Value Index94038 Home Values – Interactive chart
February 22, 2011 at 7:24 am
Moonshadow
Arrrrrgh . . . that should have been the 10-year chart . . . but you can tweak the chart using the menu column on the left side.
February 22, 2011 at 7:33 am
Moonshadow
Here’s a link to a Zillow map of homes for sale in Moss Beach
February 22, 2011 at 8:56 am
Bruce Ross
What’s wrong with “people like you”?
February 22, 2011 at 11:58 am
Eric Kirk
Moonshadow – no, I haven’t. It’s second hand from people who have had the experience, including my cousin. It is apparently a common discussion at the high school reunions. The people who live there, or used to.
It’s a little hard to describe the rapid changes which we saw taking place during the 1980s and 90s, but I can tell you that for those of us who were there in the 1970s the distress over the changes – more than just cosmetic – is pretty much universal. It isn’t about badmouthing the hard working people who liver there. I’m sure there are plenty of nice people. And as I’ve explained, and you apparently have missed, some of the changes are improvements from my point of view. I am certain there are fewer fights in the schools.
As to whether there is good cause to profile according to appearance of class, that’s above my pay grade. I am saying that it’s not something that happened when I lived there as there were plenty of scruffy looking people on bicycles so that it wasn’t an unusual sight. Back then we had break-ins and theft, but most were by people within the community. I suppose that is one upside of the gentrification – at least the perps now have to drive there.
I didn’t mean for this to lead to an argument. It’s still a beautiful place down there, largely because of the smart growth policies which groups like Friends of Pacifica fought for back in the 1980s and eventually represented the majority sentiment. And you’re right. I haven’t been there for an extended period of time since the late 1980s. But I do have the experiences of my friends and classmates who are spread all over the country and whose parents could not afford to stay in the community even with the prop 13 protections in place.
I see that the Cozzolino Brothers are still there and quite successful in their wholesale nursery business. They are twins and were my classmates. Cameron Palmer still owns the fish and chips place on the south side of HMB. He was a year behind me. And the Damatos still manage to live there although their restaurant went under some years ago. It was a bit greasy for the new crowd, but they had the best Italian sausage sandwich I ever had and I was sorry to see it go. It’s a California cuisine place in its place now, one of many. And Ketch Joanne’s is still there, though it’s not the fisherman hangout that used to open at 3 in the morning. But the coffee is much better for my yuppie tastes, and the food is better for you.
But I don’t know that I have the words to capture what was lost – and so quickly. Maybe I’ll put some effort into it later.
February 22, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Eric Kirk
What’s wrong with “people like you”?
Sorry, I should have provided some context, which I posted in a previous thread. My comments extend from a conversation I had a couple of years ago with an “old timer” at a GPU meeting in which he complained that all of the objection to the current development proposals are coming from “newcomers.” It’s not exactly true, but I joked (though there is a ring of truth to it) that the irony of the situation is that if the “old timers” win the result will be that more “newcomers” come in to vote for smart growth policies, and that once we have the majority we will push for stronger policies whereas at the moment we are in a position where we have to compromise.
This happened in Pacifica, but only after the major condo development in Linda Mar had been muscled through. Smart growth advocates are often fighting a rear-guard battle, but again the irony is that it will bring in more equity refugees from the urban areas who tend to be politically and culturally liberal.
In other words, the free market system of local development contains the seeds of its own destruction. Or to quote Marx, “the capitalist will sell you the very rope by which you intend to hang him.”
February 22, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Curley
Next time you’re at 19th and Taraval grab a couple of the Bar B Qued Pork Buns at the Bay Bakery Dim Sum place and take them to the Shannon Arms a couple of doors up, have them pour you a pint of Guiness and enjoy both. Friday after work they have free sandwiches at the Shannon- it’s mainly Irish blue collar workers there. Treat yourself. You won’t regret it.
February 22, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Erasmus
Lenin said that, not Marx.
February 22, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Eric Kirk
Curley – I’ve driven by Shannon Arms, but never gone in. Thanks for the tip.
There’s also a great burrito place a few blocks to the west. Can’t remember the name.
Erasmus – my Google search agrees with you, however, yahoo answers attributes it to Stalin.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081026045834AAaWgbZ
And as I think about it, it does sound more like Lenin than Marx.
February 23, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Still living in El Granada
Most of Montara’s roads were paved in the early 1990s. But some of the residents of El Granada who preferred the rustic lifestyle resisted the county’s efforts to pave those roads. They and budget constraints probably saved those dirt roads. There aren’t many of them left.
Those towns have also resisted annexation from Half Moon Bay. Perhaps they should think of incorporating themselves.
There are some old families remaining here Eric. Not many, but there are a few. Unfortunately the Portuguese community pretty much upped and moved. But those who are left continue the Chamarita tradition even if Portuguese are hard to find in the crowd.
http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/?cat=110