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Reason to celebrate or big mistake?
Perhaps you also received the invitation. In
joyful words it announced the transfer from the Trust for Public Land
to the bureaucratic grasp of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area
of yet another irreplaceable part of Pacifica's heritage, the lands of
Mori's Point and its environs. For most of a century, the Mori family
had used this property, run a hotel and restaurant on it, paid their property
and sales taxes (I must presume always in full), gainfully employed some
local citizens and made a living for themselves.
The announcement from the TPL used the bloodless descriptive "Mori Point"
rather than the richly possessive "Mori's." That is a symbol of what is
truly happening here. A number of folks, rejoicing in the self-appointed
title of "environmentalists", have made it so difficult for private citizens
to make productive use of this land that, in desperation, it was finally
turned over to the Trust For Public Land, as a first step on the way to
full government ownership.
Like a hike into a Black Hole, (or a roach motel) this is truly a one-way
trip. Never again will this once-productive piece of land produce taxes.
Never again will a hotel, a restaurant, and certainly not the once dreamed
of combination of riding stables, hotel/restaurant/conference center,
and luxury homes be possible.
Ironically, the celebration is to be held on the Fifth of May, Cinco de
Mayo, which is the day in the 1860's on which one side, the Juaristas,
defeated the Mexican conservatives and their French allies in the battle
which did so much to insure the fate of the Emperor Maximilian and his
Carlotta.
Many of the losers were deeply patriotic Mexicans who had opted for a
monarchy as a more stable form of government than Mexico had enjoyed up
to that time. Who knows whether a royal leader like Maximilian, if he
had been given a real chance to be the symbolic head of a democratically
chosen parliamentary government, might have saved Mexico from the chaos
which has periodically swept over it in the succeeding 140 years? Perhaps
the juntas, "plans", "proclamations" and general instability which plagued
Mexico might not have happened. Perhaps the PRI would not have held the
country in its corrupt grasp for close to three-quarters of a century.
I hope I'm wrong about Mori's Point. I hope that all the hard work and
ingenuity generated by the Trust for Public Land, the National Park Service,
the Coastal Conservancy, and the Pacifica Land Trust will be for the best.
Unfortunately, we will never know what might have been. I was enthusiastically
for the purchase and dedication of Sweeney Ridge to be incorporated into
the GGNRA. With Congressman Lantos, Senator Cranston, and hundreds of
others, I celebrated on that May day 18 years ago, and, like many other
Pacificans, I was mistaken. Sweeney Ridge in federal ownership has served
little or no purpose. It is and has been a mistake and a disaster. The
leadership of the National Park Service did not want it, as they have
demonstrated often since 1984. They have other fish to fry. It's almost
impossible to follow the path of Portola these days.
I can only hope that it's possible to make some reasonably worthwhile
use of Mori's Point, since it is now too late to make the highest and
best use of this prime piece of coastal land.
Paul Azevedo's opinions are his own, and do not necessarily coincide
with those of this newspaper, or even some members of his own family from
time to time. He can be reached by e mail at Paul@thereactor.net.
Check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.
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