Push to protect ‘urban oasis’: San Bruno Mountain eyed for preservation

“Monday night, the Daly City Council unanimously endorsed the county’s effort to make the mountain a priority for conservation that will include privately-owned Daly City parcels that will be dedicated to the county for conservation.

Daly City Councilman David Canepa said the endorsement is an important first step in protecting open space.

Additional funding will help pave new trails and walkways to increase access to San Bruno Mountain, part of which is a state and county park.”

Read more here:  http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2015-02-12/push-to-protect-urban-oasis-san-bruno-mountain-eyed-for-preservation/1776425138276.html

Californians use 22 percent less water, but more cuts loom

FILE – In this Feb. 4 2014 file photo, a warning buoy sits on the dry, cracked bed of Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, Calif. State officials reported Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, that residents in drought-stricken California met Gov. Jerry Brown’s call to slash water use by 20 percent for the first time in December, when water use fell by 22 percent compared to the same month in 2013. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

December’s rains enabled Californians to finally meet Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for a 20-percent reduction in monthly water consumption, but more restrictions loom as the state adapts to long-term drought conditions.

California is by no means out of trouble, despite a survey released Tuesday that showed an unusually rainy month helped residents cut water use by 22 percent statewide from December 2013 levels.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack that supplies a third of California’s water is 75 percent below its historical average, and for the first time in recorded history, there was no measurable rainfall in downtown San Francisco in January, when winter rains usually come.

Read more: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/bnews/2015-02-03/californians-use-22-percent-less-water-but-more-cuts-loom/1776425137736.html

Crocker or not? Daly City suburb 1 of the hottest neighborhoods in the U.S.

This three-bedroom house is on the market for $479,900 in the Crocker neighborhood of Daly City. The online real estate brokerage Redfin predicted that Crocker would one of the hottest neighborhoods in the country in 2015.

“It’s one of those areas looking to get a lot more attention, mostly for its affordability,” said Saleem Buqeileh, a senior agent at Redfin. Affordability has emerged as homebuyers’ top priority across the country this year for the first time since 2012, according to a Redfin survey. The Bay Area’s high housing costs have also started to push the middle-class out of the region, as the San Francisco Business Times detailed in a cover story earlier this month.”

Read more here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/01/crocker-daly-city-housing-neighborhood-redfin.html

Gypsy Hill killings: Prolific criminal extradited, charged in Peninsula cold case from 1970s

Rodney Halbower in 1976

Halbower, 66, was transferred to San Mateo County from Oregon State Prison, where he was serving an unrelated attempted-murder sentence. He was charged Thursday with two counts of murder and special circumstance of murder during the course of a rape in the 1976 deaths of 17-year-old Paula Baxter, whose body was found in Millbrae, and Veronica Anne Cascio, 18, who was found dead in her native Pacifica.

http://www.mercurynews.com/pacifica/ci_27370923/gypsy-hill-killing-peninsula-teens-murdered-cold-case

A year of coastal protection: Coastside Land Trust preserves 100 acres, extends trail, promotes conservation

Coastside Land Trust

As the new year begins, the nonprofit Coastside Land Trust concluded a successful 2014 as it preserved hundreds of bluff-top parcels, helped extend the California Coastal Trail, cleared thousands of pounds of trash from coastal habitats and acquired more land it will protect as open space in perpetuity.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2015-01-05/a-year-of-coastal-protection-coastside-land-trust-preserves-100-acres-extends-trail-promotes-conservation/1776425136062.html

Bay Area cities sign aquifer deal to share water

“During wet years, we’re asking them to use more Hetchy water that we have available,”

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, San Bruno, Daly City and the California Water Services Company on Tuesday signed off on a $113 million plan that’s been a decade in the works.

The goal is to diversify the region’s water supply for drought years or disasters. The SFPUC will sell the Daly City and San Bruno bountiful Hetch Hetchy reservoir water during wet years so the Peninsula cities can use rainfall to build up their groundwater supplies for drought years.

Read more here:  http://www.ktvu.com/story/27646044/bay-area-cities-sign-aquifer-deal-to-share-water

Public hearings set for proposed Seton Medical Center sale: Attorney General’s Office to make final decision on hospital chain’s future owner

Seton Medical Center – Daly City

Two local public hearings are scheduled next month to help California Attorney General Kamala Harris decide whether a six-hospital chain including facilities in Daly City and Moss Beach should be sold to a private corporation fiercely opposed by some unions and officials who fear it prioritizes profits over care.

By law, Harris has final say over the proposed sale by Daughters of Charity Health System to Prime Healthcare Services. The Vatican must also approve the sale of the Catholic system.

On Friday, Jan. 9, Harris’ office will hold a pair of hearings — one at Seton Medical Center in Moss Beach and the other in Daly City where Seton Medical Center is located — to take the public temperature.

Along with the public’s perspective, Harris will consider Health Care Impact Statements prepared by consultants on each facility’s proposed change. While she can reject the sale on any basis she finds relevant, a key component is likely how it will affect the availability of health care in the area.

Daly City Councilman David Canepa is urging northern county residents in particular to chime in on the potential new buyer and the desire to keep Seton Medical Center a full-service hospital with an open emergency room.

Read more here:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2014-12-17/public-hearings-set-for-proposed-seton-medical-center-sale-attorney-generals-office-to-make-final-decision-on-hospital-chains-future-owner/1776425135147.html

Meet San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley tomorrow

San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley

The Pacifica / Daly City Democrats Club is scheduled to meet Nov. 15 at 9 a.m. at the Sharp Park Golf Course Restaurant. The featured speaker will be San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley. He will be available to answer questions from the audience after his update on county issues.

The club will participate in the Pacifica Resource Center’s Neighbor Helping Neighbor project by adopting a family. Please plan on providing a generous donation to go towards gifts of groceries, clothes and toys for the family. There will be a donation box at the registration desk or you can send your check to Pacifica Democrats Club, P.O. Box 1343, Pacifica, CA.

A full breakfast is provided for $12, a continental breakfast $6, and coffee $3. There is no obligation to order anything. You do not have to be a Democrat to attend the meeting. Everyone is welcome.

Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission

The city’s PB&R Commission meets Wed. Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. in a study session to discuss scheduling for the upcoming year.

Planned bus rapid-transit project in Daly City aims to expand connectivity

Planned bus rapid-transit project in Daly City aims to expand connectivity

“Underserved is a term often applied to the Bayshore neighborhood, which Daly City Mayor David Canepa has previously described as a “food desert,” referring to the scarcity of stores selling fresh produce in the area. The mayor has also decried the lack of east-west transit options in the area. SamTrans began a free shuttle service in January to address that need.”

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/planned-bus-rapid-transit-project-in-daly-city-aims-to-expand-connectivity/Content?oid=2911010

Underage Drinking Parties Will Cost You In Daly City

New law proposed in Daly City targeting underage drinking

“The Daly City Council is poised to approve a law giving the police the ability to issue citations to people who host parties that are unruly or include underage drinking, city’s mayor reported today.”

http://abc7news.com/society/underage-drinking-parties-will-cost-you-in-daly-city/346778/