Half Moon Bay Memories & El Granada Observer

Really, do you want to drive through a long, boring, tunnel with nothing to see on the blanko walls? No stimulation? We, in the 21st century, are a strong visual society.

I have said this before, we need art and video on the walls of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel.

MOVING images, perhaps of the Coastside’s “wonders” to come. The flowers, the beaches, the cliffs.

Who would sponsor it? How about Hewlett-Packard, Intel, etc., the “trusts” that have been buying up Coastside land, to save it from spiralling growth. With so many creative people on the Coastside, we can do it.

And I have found hope in the “Tunnel” commercial by Honda

Just what I imagine for the interior of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel—giant sunflowers on the walls, deer leaping about the walls, sunshine and the great Pacific Ocean. There’s music too: Hold On Tight by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Please check out the “Tunnel” commercial here

Both lanes on Hwy 92 are open now–but it took Burt 1 hour and ten minutes of waiting on the road–due to a big rig fire which closed down the highway.

Burt says the fire occurred on the west side of 92 in east-bound lanes. “The truck was completely burned, the cab was burned. How could that have happened?”

He saw one firetruck and numerous CHP (California Highway Patrol) vehicles at the scene of the fire. The remains of the truck have been pulled to the side of the road (we haven’t heard what happened to the driver…we hope he’s okay).

“The traffic was just horrible,” says Burt who sat in his car behind two garbage trucks. “The trucks made it impossible for me to see what was going on.”

Now that both sides of Highway 92 are open again, Burt says he sees hundreds of cars backed-up waiting to head west to Half Moon Bay.

A “fully engulfed” big rig fire closed down Highway 92 in both directions
beginning at 10:11am, according to the Highway Patrol, according to Coastsider.com

…Coastsider.com reports that Caltrans officials at a press conference yesterday announced that Devil’s Slide will reopen on August 4th.

Praise the Lord!

Our gratitude is overwhelming…Thank you to the engineers and working guys at the Slide who beat the schedual, thank you to all the officials for whatever role they played.

Hey CalTrans, one more thing….the poor slugs that sit on Hwy 92– two-three hours per day– may not even get this good news…How about spreading the word on all the printed signs and new electronic boards that give the number of minutes to and from Hwy 280 & Hwy 1….

…And one last thought: If on August 4 there is a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Slide’s reopening– in addition to the smiling bureaucrats and politicians– PLEASE make sure a couple of commuters are represented at the ceremony, too.

(Photo: Commuters raring to go when the Slide reopens).

P.S. Re-opening of the Slide is a headline story in the San Mateo Times

We’re delighted to learn that financial reimbursement is being made by the feds to some local non-profits whose resources have been stretched because of the closure of Devil’s Slide.

That’s great–but, as usual, the commuter doesn’t seem to count.

Let’s examine the cost to the commuter:

(1) Never have gas prices been so high.
(2) A car/truck is one of the most expensive items a family or individual owns.
(3) There’s wear and tear on the vehicle. Repairs to be made.
(4) Time lost sitting on Hwy 92
(5) Stress leading to illness (A well known county cardiologist, with homes on both sides of the hill, says that sitting in traffic on Hwy92 , is one of the huge factors that can lead to heart attacks).

And how do you measure the significant cost on the family?

Don’t forget not everything is measured in dollars. I’d just like to see one time– the worn-out, beat-up, poor sucker who is stuck on Hwy 92 for torturous hours every day–be first on the list of assistance.

(Photo taken in front of Half Moon Bay Bakery, Main Street).

I was driving south on Hwy 1 near Safeway when I pulled up beside one of the Coastside’s “solutions” to the closure of Devil’s Slide.

There might have been more than one passenger but I don’t think so. Seconds later another one of these Parking Company of America jitneys pulled out of the shopping center. This one was empty for sure.

Hopefully, more folks will use these buses–otherwise we’ll just have more vehicles adding to traffic on Hwy1 In that case the $160,000 put out for the service might better have been allocated to finishing the repairs at Devil’s Slide a minute and nine seconds faster.

….IT TAKES FOREVER TO FINISH…..

Today I read an online report that a Half Moon Bay business has created a “Devil’s Slide Cocktail”:

The problem with the cocktail is– it takes two hours to complete and when you’re finally finished you’re more sober than when you started.

Commuters heading home to Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon, the 10th of July, were stopped in their tracks near Half Moon Bay Nursery. Burt and I were two of those commuters, some 300 yards away from what–at a distance– looked like debris on the road. I wasn’t able to see what was in the road nor were any of the other drivers in front of me.

All of us were baffled. If it was an accident, where were the cars?

As we waited emergency vehicles arrived, including two ambulances. We waited, straining to see.

All we could see was something lying on the road. Something dark. Radio news didn’t know yet. I called 511* for traffic info but the man on the recording said there was a “delay between Skyline and Skyline” on Highway 92, but cars were moving at 35-40 mph. No way! And, where’s Skyline & Skyline?

I decided to find out the old-fashioned way: I called Half Moon Bay Nursery, and asked Brad, who answered, if he knew what had happened.

“Two motorcycles were struck by a vehicle,” he told me.

“Thank you, Brad.”

(Meanwhile two ambulances left the scene, heading east.)

I called KCBS and the story was aired seconds later. “Avoid 92,” the traffic reporter said “92 is a parking lot…”

We were near the front of the line and passed the endless line of cars, standing still, stretching from the scene of the horrible accident west to Highway 1–It’ll take at least a couple of hours to clear this up, I thought.

I didn’t want to imagine how far the line stretched, all those cars at a standstill, in the opposite direciton–and, there are very very few places to turn around on Highway 92.

And again I ask:

I don’t understand this story: tell me more about the shuttle. Is it crossing Devil’s Slide? Going from Montara directly to Pacifica? Will we be able to see what construction crews are doing? Can we keep our cars on the Pacifica side and get a free ride over the Slide to Half Moon Bay? What will the shuttle look like? Air conditioned for those hot summer days? Who are the drivers? Will you be hiring local drivers?

In the story, we are referred to a phone number that belongs to someone who does not live on the Coastside. Why is that? Wouldn’t Coastsiders be better served by someone who lives here and knows our problems?

Here’s the story from the SF Examiner

(From S.F. Examiner, June 16, 2006)

“County plans shuttle to, from coastside
July-September route meant to alleviate closure issues

Relief by way of shuttle is coming to San Mateo County coastal residents burdened by ongoing traffic snarls caused by the closure of state Highway 1 in April.

San Mateo County officials approved the use of $160,000 in emergency funds to help develop an emergency shuttle service for coastal residents.

State Highway 1 between Pacifica and Montara was closed April 2, after heavy rains caused a landslide that compromised the thoroughfare.

‘This shuttle service will enable commuters and students to travel to and from the coastside comunities that are both north and south of the Devil’s Slide closure,’ Pacifica Councilman Jim Vreeland said in a statement.

Parking Company of America will provide the shuttle service, and the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance and SamTrans will develop the shuttle route and schedule, whic is expected to begin in July.

‘While the shuttle service won’t alleviate much of the travel time needed for their commute, it will take some cars off the road and allow these residents to sit back and relax,’ Half Moon Bay Vice Mayor Naomi Patridge said.

Funding for the shuttle service will be provided through September, at which time the closed section of the highway is expected to open.

For more information on the emergency shuttle service, contact Christine Maley-Grubi of the Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance at (650) 588-8170.”

As told to me in 1980 by Randolph Brandt, whose father was an investor, a stockholder, in the Ocean Shore Railroad:

“One night they had some kind of convention or big picnic down near Granada—anyway, the train was heading back to the City with a whole bunch of people on it.

“And around Pt. Rockaway, a big boulder came down. Right on the tracks. The train saw it and they stopped but they couldn’t get the boulder off the tracks.

“The train crew decided to back the train to the Pedro Valley. And they backed it down there right in front of Danman’s Place—the old saloon there. They spent the night in there. Eatin’, drinkin’, making merry.

“I understand they practically cleaned the place out as far as booze and grub went.

“Relatives and friends were disturbed when the train never showed up in San Francisco. They sent a work train down, got the boulder off the track, got the train back to the city. It was 18 hours late, I guess it was a big deal.

“…Tunitas was the end of the line and there wasn’t much of a station there.

[referring to the railroad ride] “Those 20 miles there was hell on earth if you know what I mean. I mean it was really rough going. Anybody riding on it today would say, ‘Never again’. They probably never wanted to do it a second time.

“…the old county road, as far as going along the ocean—it didn’t even exist in those days. It was all in back of the hills, sort of sandwiched in between the mountains and the skyline. It wound and twisted, a narrow road with hardly a straight stretch in it.

“The railroad took up the entire area all the way from Westlake clear to Sharp Park. When they did put the highway in about 1934, they took over the entire railroad right-of-way in order to bring it to the edge of the cliffs. When you got down into Montara you were out of the cliff areas.

“In my opinion, it was a pretty lousy road, frankly. It would never do for these high speed cars today. Definitely not a road for high speed.�

“There were landslides from time to time. The Pedro Pt/Devil’s Slide area was a particularly bad section. On one occasion, I think around 1915, as a result of some fairly torrential storms, about a mile-and-a-half or two miles of right-of-way track just suddenly dropped from right under and fell into the ocean…”

As told to me in 1980 by Randolph Brandt, whose father was an investor, a stockholder, in the Ocean Shore Railroad:

“In 1907 they got a train into Rockaway, no Vallemar. I think the first train rolled into Vallemar around 1907. They sent an engine down there with two coaches—and a load of people, a lot of promotion and activity.

“People were assured that this was going to be the new ‘Coney Island of the West’. All sorts of grandiose plans and promoters were springing up. And these communities along the way which were yet unnamed—were coming to life like Granada.

“…The depot in San Francisco was located at 12th & Mission Streets. …

“They even invited people to go down on weekends to give ‘em a free ride down there—and a free lunch—and then when you got off the train down there, all these salesmen were there busy. Sales slips, you know, sign on the dotted line to buy lots.

“They assured people the railroad would be finished within a year or two—and have wonderful rapid transit right into the heart of San Francisco. Business was so good for awhile that they didn’t have enough coaches so they dragged out a bunch of flat cars and put benches in them, you know, and people rode flat cars with benches down there.

“If any of you have eer driven in an open car along here [Devil’s Slide] when it’s pretty windy, you can imagine how some of the ladies must have felt having their hats blow off—and I don’t know what else especially when they’re going around Pedro Point and Devil’s Slide.

“It gets pretty windy—especially looking over the edge of a flat car and seeing the ocean down below on the edge of the cliff.�

Randolph Brandt smiled and laughed.

“Must have been quite an experience.

“There were landslides from time to time. The Pedro Pt/Devil’s Slide area was a particularly bad section. On one occasion, I think around 1915, as a result of some fairly torrential storms, about a mile-and-a-half or two miles of right-of-way track just suddenly dropped from right under and fell into the ocean.

“Luckily, there were no trains in the area at the time.

“It disrupted service for awhile. They ran trains as far as they could go to where the right-of-way caved off—enough space left, apparently, and then brought in a train from the south and passengers got off the train, walked along the edge of cliff ‘til they got to the other train—and then ran the train backwards all the way to Tunitas [south of Half Moon Bay]

“Another problem—the boulders came off the cliffs every once in a while onto the track….�

…To be continued…