SLO Cal Fire Opens Fire Stations
The Story behind California’s Powerful Coastal Commission
From UC Berkeley News: (https://news.berkeley.edu/story_jump/the-story-behind-californias-powerful-coastal-commission/)
No feature defines California like its 840 miles of coastline.
And that’s no accident, said Todd Holmes, a historian with the Bancroft Library’s Oral History Center who has long studied California’s coast.
“There’s a reason we don’t look like Miami or the Jersey Shore,” Holmes said. “It is because of the California Coastal Commission.”
Holmes is the creator of a new podcast from the Oral History Center about the commission, a powerful — sometimes controversial — state agency created by voters in 1972 to protect California’s iconic coastal redwoods, golden beaches and rugged cliffs.
Each of the 15 episodes will examine a particular moment in the commission’s history, from efforts to preserve San Francisco Bay to a fight over the Hearst Corporation’s plans to build a golf resort in Big Sur.
“So much of what the commission does you don’t see,” Holmes said. “All these developments that didn’t happen.”
The project started when Holmes and his colleagues began to interview the men and women involved in the creation of the commission for the Oral History Center, which collects firsthand accounts of major moments in California and global history.
Holmes realized the long interviews could be crafted into a narrative about the commission’s work.
“This way, people can hear the story of why the coast looks the way it does,” he said.
The first episode, about a fight over development at Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz, is available now, and the remaining 14 episodes will be posted over the next year, Holmes said.
Eventually, he hopes placards along the coast will point people to the audio histories.
“You could be in Santa Barbara and hit a QR-code with your phone to listen to a story about the fight over offshore oil drilling,” he said.
Every Californian has a connection with the coastline, said Holmes, who grew up outside of Sacramento and still remembers spending a day on a Los Angeles beach with family when he was four years old.
They picnicked, played in the water and gathered together to watch the sun go down before driving home.
“I’ve been a fan of sunsets ever since,” he said. “There is no better place to watch a sunset than the California Coast.”
Big Sur Marathon
Today’s Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2019
District: 05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa
Cruz Counties
Contact: Susana Z Cruz (bilingual) or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3138 or 549-3189
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BIG SUR INTERNATIONAL MARATHON BEGINS THIS SUNDAY, APRIL 28
MONTEREY COUNTY (CARMEL/BIG SUR) – The Big Sur International Marathon will take place along Highway 1 on Sunday, April 28 beginning at 7:00 a.m.
This event will begin in Big Sur and will end at Rio Road in Carmel.
Traffic on Highway 1 will be restricted from 6:00 am until 1:30 pm from Sycamore Canyon Road to Carmel Valley Road. During this highway closure, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) will use the northbound lane to lead caravans of traffic in alternating directions at three different intervals during this time.
The CHP will also manage a closure for left turns from Carmel Valley Road onto southbound Hwy. 1 from 3:30 am until 1:30 pm.
Approximately 4,700 people are expected to participate in this marathon with another 3,000 participating in shorter events.
Caltrans reminds motorists to move over and slow down when driving through highway work zones.
To find out further information about the marathon, please call (831) 625-6226 or visit the official race website (http://bsim.org)
For more information on this project and for traffic updates on other Caltrans projects in Monterey County, residents can call the District 5 toll free number at 1-877-448-6771 or
can visit our website at: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist05/paffairs/release.htm#mon
# # #
Jim Shivers
Caltrans District 5
Public Information Officer
We welcome your feedback:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RNBZG55
Tourist Tuesday on a Wednesday, 4/23/19 (A day late)
From the World Travel & Tourism Global Summit:
SEVILLE, Spain — As the travel industry prepares for a world facing overtourism and concerns about environmental sustainability, the goals of tourism ministers and marketers are changing.
For example, Fred Dixon, CEO of New York’s official marketing arm, NYC & Company, said at the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit here earlier this month that his organization has shifted the way it measures success.
“We got caught up in the race for bigger numbers,” Dixon said. “We realized over time that the true metric for tourism is the economic and social impact on the community: job development, economic impact, neighborhood impact. If you don’t bring locals with you when you’re invigorating or building a destination, you’re missing an important part of the equation.”
Marketing success, Dixon added, is not “just about visitor volume. We as an industry should grapple with that more.”
Steffan Panoho, head of Auckland Tourism, echoed that sentiment. He said that over the past two years, New Zealand’s largest city realized it needed to revise its tourism strategy to incorporate “destination management versus just pure destination marketing.”
“Traditionally, we’ve talked about visitor numbers and arrivals and hotel nights,” he said. “Now, we have a whole new set of imperatives: sustainability and looking after our communities. There’s a whole new set of metrics we have to look at and quantify before we can make a call on whether we’ve been successful.”
For the rest of this article see: https://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Government/Changes-in-destination-marketing-a-topic-at-WTTC-Summit
Lost Dog found!
The dog, Susie, missing from Partington Ridge since late Saturday afternoon was found today. Another happy ending! Thank you all for helping our fur kids stay safe.
Earth Day 2019
From the River Inn:
Tips for visiting the Sur with care:
We all love the rugged and wild beauty of Big Sur. It is something that after 85 years of being in business, even the River Inn is continually surprised at how dynamic and special each sunrise and sunset can be. With Earth Day approaching on the 22nd of this month we are putting out a reminder to make memories and take photos but
leave no trace…
What does that mean?
1. Big Sur is beautiful and rugged. Big Sur is not littered with public restrooms, they are located at the major state parks. The drive can either seem wonderful and picturesque or stressful because you are looking for a restroom. Don’t make your poor planning a mess on the coast, the land in Big Sur is no place to defecate.
2. The wildflower blooms across the state have been fantastic but in many places folks have been ignoring trail signs and disrespecting the wildlife by leaving the trails and even laying on the plants themselves, which, besides ruining the view for folks this year it can also damage the plants to the extent that it hinders future spring blooms.
3. Though we have had a great rainy season, the fire danger is always present. There are plenty of places where you can enjoy a fire, make sure that whenever and wherever you light a fire it is an approved campfire spot.
From https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/endangered-species/earthday2019/
“In nature, nothing exists alone.”
— Rachel Carson, 1962
Nature’s gifts to our planet are the millions of species that we know and love, and many more that remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, human beings have irrevocably upset the balance of nature and, as a result, the world is facing the greatest rate of extinction since we lost the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. But unlike the fate of the dinosaurs, the rapid extinction of species in our world today is the result of human activity.
The unprecedented global destruction and rapid reduction of plant and wildlife populations are directly linked to causes driven by human activity: climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, trafficking and poaching, unsustainable agriculture, pollution and pesticides to name a few. The impacts are far reaching.
If we do not act now, extinction may be humanity’s most enduring legacy. Here are some quick facts on the current wave of extinction and additional information about this problem here.
All living things have an intrinsic value, and each plays a unique role in the complex web of life. We must work together to protect endangered and threatened species: bees, coral reefs, elephants, giraffes, insects, whales and more.
The good news is that the rate of extinctions can still be slowed, and many of our declining, threatened and endangered species can still recover if we work together now to build a united global movement of consumers, voters, educators, faith leaders, and scientists to demand immediate action.
Earth Day Network is asking people to join our Protect our Species campaign. Our goals are to:
- Educate and raise awareness about the accelerating rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.
- Achieve major policy victories that protect broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats.
- Build and activate a global movement that embraces nature and its values.
- Encourage individual actions such as adopting plant based diet and stopping pesticide and herbicide use.
Lost Dog – Reward
Went missing yesterday April 20th from upper Partington Ridge around 4pm – sweetest little gal named Susie.Reward for helping to bring her home safe!Please contact Linda 667 0241Thank you!
More Tidbits on Gamboa Trail
From Sylvia Trotter Anderson: The Californian, Salinas, CA 27 Oct 1916
The Californian, Salinas, CA 19 Jan 1917
Photo Sunday – Happy Easter, 4/21/19
From Dan Danbom:
Big Sur Saturday Tidbits, 4/20/19
Nov 24th 1916 Monterey American – Forest Trails Being Improved
Persons who travel frequently in the mountains of the Santa Lucia range within the Monterey National Forest will no doubt remember the “sore spot” in the Gamboa Trail on the seaward side of the main coast ridge just over the summit. The trail crosses north of Cone Peak, dips down into a fork of Big Creek, and then climbs up again to “La Jollita,” running for a distance of about two miles on grades ranging from twenty-five to forty percent.
Since many of the people on the Monterey coast are obliged to pack their supplies in and driver or pack their produce out by this route, the steepness is a serious matter.
Forest Supervisor H. G. Merrill has secured authority from District Forester Coert Dubois in San Francisco to rebuild this stretch of trail on a grade of about fifteen per cent, provided the land owners who are interest will co—operate. Already George Gamboa, Aaron and Paul Harlan, Santo and Tim Boronda and Ty Dani have pledged themselves to help and Ranger Robert Finley, who is in charge of the Forest Service trail crew, says he will have the project completed by New Year.
(Provided by Sylvia Trotter Anderson)