Half Moon Bay is the civic center of the San Mateo County coast. Many commuters well beyond city limits wind their way through town on their way to work. It is the shopping, dining and cultural hub for the entire Coastside. The management of Half Moon Bay is important not only to the city's 12,000 residents but to nearly everyone reading these words.
For those reasons and more, we would like to recommend incumbent Jim Grady, former Mayor Naomi Patridge and political newcomer Steve Skinner to city voters this time around.
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Grady was elected in 2001. It is currently his turn to be mayor and he has blossomed in the role. He has taken extraordinary steps to meet the local school board halfway, participating in informal gatherings with other elected officials and speaking up at Cabrillo Unified School District board meetings. Among his priorities: improving traffic and safety on Highway 1, developing a recycled water program for the coast and finding money for a new library - worthy goals all but ignored by some other candidates.
And lately he has exhibited a rare quality in elected officials: he owns his mistakes. In meetings with the Review, he called the ongoing Local Coastal Program update "the most frustrating thing he has ever done." He now realizes the fallacy of attempting to synthesize the entire land-use document in a matter of weeks and takes aim at layers of stifling bureaucracy from City Hall to the California Coastal Commission.
We certainly don't agree with him about everything. He stops short of admitting the city was wrong to hide an appraisal of recently purchased parkland. Instead he says he should have asked for a third appraisal in an attempt to get to the bottom of the true worth of 21-plus acres on the eastern edge of the city along Highway 92. He said he would support a dusk-to-dawn parking ban prohibiting tourists' vehicles in beach neighborhoods. The trouble is, the beaches belong to everyone, not just the voting bloc lucky enough to live near them. And we note that the Coastal Commission has made clear that providing parking permits for residents is unacceptable.
Despite these disagreements, Grady has emerged as a thoughtful leader who does not simply turn a deaf ear to political opponents.
Patridge seems to be a friend to virtually everyone in the city. At 65, the nearly lifelong resident of the Coastside has been involved with more good causes than we can possibly mention. She was a council member for 16 years before leaving office in 2000.
She says she is running now because she perceives a lack of balance on the council. She thinks those who question the policies of the current council majority are sometimes dismissed out of hand. We've noticed that, too.
Patridge is a longtime youth softball coach; her commitment to recreation and Coastside kids is beyond reproach. Yet she says she would not have committed $3.1 million to the city's new parkland. She said that money could have been better spent on a new police station. That doesn't mean she plans to obstruct current plans for the park. She promised to accept the work that has been done so far by the City Council, its advisory committee and the city's design consultant.
Patridge has a number of ideas to increase communication between city staff and the citizens, all of them good. She would open City Hall one night a month, hold town-hall meetings and promises to be more responsive to citizens who approach the council for help.
Skinner, 47, is a promising relative newcomer to Coastside politics. He is a Southern California native who has lived in Half Moon Bay for eight years. He is a member of the city's Architectural Review Committee. He has two children who attend local public schools. He speaks Spanish - which should be very important in a city like ours - and has an interesting professional background. Skinner worked in high-tech industries during the boom. Now he is a Realtor. Those disparate careers should lend insight into the dynamics of life in a hot real estate market during an otherwise drab economy.
Like Grady, Skinner is part of a slate presented by the League for Coastside Protection, a political action committee devoted to upholding the Coastal Act. He doesn't appear to be an ideologue beholden to a special interest.
Skinner told the Review that he sees economic as well as intrinsic value in open space. We couldn't agree more. The stunning beauty of our coastline is a major key to the happiness of our populace and health of our economy. Other candidates undoubtedly understand that too, but none made it so clear. Too often they fall into the tiring us-versus-them prattle that will undoubtedly turn off many city voters entirely.
Skinner supports the park purchase. He says the Review was correct to ask for the due diligence report compiled prior to the land deal. He says he supports an open government.
Skinner may be unique among the six candidates in one respect: He is an outsider who appears to be interested in healing the rifts that exist instead of exploiting them for political advantage. We wish him well.
- Half Moon Bay Review
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