After I raised serious concerns with the Central Coast Blue water recycling design-build contract in public comment (below in italics), the city council voted unanimously to approve it without changes. Watch the video here. The slide below, from a presentation at the meeting, indicates that less than half of the funding for the project has been secured. Even if all grants are obtained, ratepayer are still on the hook to pay for the rest via loans - and if the $15M recycling f

Video of the September 30th candidate forum can be viewed here.

My comments at Tuesday's city council meeting are below. The council voted unanimously to lock in the 5-year contract with no changes. Not LA. Not the Bay. It’s more than just a slogan. It’s what I hear from many residents: they want Pismo Beach to keep its small beach city feel. So why is the City Council poised to lock in a 5-year contract with the organizers of the huge LA Auto Show, who plan for over 75,000 attendees when 2025 saw 50,000? Are the city’s fiscal and staffin

As detailed in the city's recent draft Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment Update, the Shell Beach bluffs are eroding, with undercutting by waves as a primary cause. Infrastructure, homes and hotels are at risk. We can't stop the sea, but we can slow it down. The usual approach for shoreline stabilization is armoring: sea walls constructed on the bluffs, sometimes with large rocks placed at the base. These are temporary band-aids that crumble over time, and they cause adv

On Tuesday, September 29 from 5:30-7:30 pm, the City will hold a workshop at the Veterans' Hall on Bello Street to discuss planning documents including the Safety Element (last updated in 1992, this addresses hazards including wildfire, flooding and coastal erosion) and the Parks, Recreation and Access Element (last updated in 2013). These Elements were excluded from the General Plan/Local Coastal Program approved by the City Council earlier this year. More information and RS

At Tuesday's city council meeting, I made this statement in general public comment: We had a scare Sunday afternoon when the Brava fire started not far from here. My phone lit up with messages from concerned neighbors and pings from the Watch Duty app. I kept an eye on the smoke plume and started thinking about what we needed to take if we had to evacuate – I’ve been remiss in creating a go bag. Thankfully it didn’t come to that. We’re all grateful that firefighters were able

The California Zone Zero fire safety rule for Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones (VHFHSZ),* as originally proposed, would have required homes and other buildings to create a defensible space by having no flammable materials within 5 feet. After opponents stalled the rule for years and against the advice of many fire safety scientists, the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection recently adopted a watered-down rule reducing the clear zone to only 1 foot with some pl

Recently I sprained my ankle stepping off stairs onto uneven ground. The doctor said I could run on the beach after two weeks but warned me against walking on variable surfaces like soft sand; if I rolled my ankle again, it would take even longer to heal. So Sunday morning I checked out one of the city's beach wheelchairs from Sandcastle Hotel to get to the ocean's edge. It did not go well. First there was a parking issue. The hotel has no beach access parking and the parking

Accessibility Cambridge Dictionary the fact of being able to be reached or obtained easily (of a building, etc.) the quality of being able to be entered and used by everyone, including people who use a wheelchair, people who are blind, etc. The City Lacks an ADA Transition Plan and Accessibility Planning Since 1992, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act in 28 C.F.R. § 35.150(d)(3) has required the city to have an ADA Transition Plan: The plan shall, at a minimum— (i)

I take seriously the role of mayor as advocate for everyone in Pismo Beach, and I'm running to make it a city that works for all of us. On August 4th, I withdrew as a standing witness in San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper v. County of San Luis Obispo, No. 2:24-cv-06854-SPG-AS (C.D. Cal. filed Aug. 2024) because continuing in that role might seem like a conflict of interest with the responsibilities of mayor, and even the perception of bias could hinder my ability to engage in import

Nowhere is the city's reliance on hope and band-aids more apparent than in hazard planning. A prime example is its response to wildfire evacuation. Wildfire Evacuation from Pismo Heights For many years, there was only one way out of Pismo Heights: down Longview Avenue to Wadsworth Street. In 2022, a secondary evacuation route was formally documented in the Pismo Beach Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). This alternate route is a dirt road that winds through wildland to

At Tuesday's meeting, the city council received an update on Caltran's upcoming relinquishment of Highway 1 (a.k.a. Dolliver Street, Price Street and Pacific Coast Highway). This means that the state would turn over ownership of 2.15 miles of Highway 1 from Mattie Road to the Butterfly Grove to the city of Pismo Beach. The process began in 2017 and is nearing its final stages. What that means is that we will have local control of this main artery running through the heart of