Not long ago, San Mateo County Supervisor Adrienne Tissier broached the nearly unthinkable: With 70 percent of the county’s landscape made up of beaches, parks, forests, meadows and other forms of open space, maybe it’s time to consider building housing on some of that land.
After all, runs the theory, the local housing crunch apparently has reached a critical stage, and there appear to be more than adequate construction options available here.
Not so fast.
If anything galvanizes the voting public in these parts, it’s any sort of threat, real or imagined, to our treasured open space.
County political careers have been made and ruined on this issue.
So Tissier, who represents a significant portion of the North County, is taking a (modest) risk in terms of her legacy even though she can’t seek re-election in 2016 due to term limits.
However, it is highly unlikely that anything dramatic will come out of this.
Available acreage at sites such as San Bruno Mountain, the Redwood City Saltworks and in the hills west of the bayside flatlands is fought over on a periodic basis.
Lawsuits, protests, recall elections and a general atmosphere of stultifying bureaucratic slowness all have combined to limit serious development.
So Tissier may be correct in her thinking. But the betting in this corner is that she, like others before her, will discover that she’s tiptoeing on sacred ground.
Good luck.
Flu shot fiasco
It’s been a strange struggle for me to get a flu shot this fall. And that’s something of a surprise. Usually, the process works seamlessly.
You visit the San Mateo County Health System’s website, click on the flu shot pages and find a convenient place to get vaccinated. Not so much this time.
Early in October, the date was correct, but the day was not for a clinic at the Martin Luther King Community Center in San Mateo. We missed it by a day. Strike one.
Last week, the website indicated that a mobile clinic would be available on Thursday between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the day labor center in downtown San Mateo. Two of us got there at 11 a.m. and the van was nowhere to be found. Strike two.
Then, this past Sunday morning, we headed for a church in San Bruno, using the address on the website, 550 West San Bruno Ave. That turned out to be a food purveyor. Strike three? Not quite.
Across the street at 555 West San Bruno was St. Bruno’s Catholic Church. That seemed promising. And, lo and behold, after asking around for assistance, we discovered that the clinic was indeed there in a meeting room to the rear of the church.
We got our flu shots (and a blood pressure check) and dined on some Filipino treats in the bargain. So all was well. Finally.
Taylor at 75
Taylor Middle School has turned 75. The birthday celebration was last weekend.
The Millbrae school opened its doors in 1940. Located at 850 Taylor Blvd., the school has about 880 students.
After a rough 2014, which saw too many changes in the principal’s position, things seem to have calmed down. Phil Hophan is the new man in charge.
John Horgan’s column appears Thursday. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.
