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Structures on the beach, and elsewhere
The Linda Mar Rancher, that thousand square foot home placed on a 5000
square foot parcel of former coastal ranch land and sold to veterans in the
fifties, is now approaching fifty years of age, as I've mentioned before.
Builder Andy Oddstad's been dead almost 40 years, a good, young,
health-conscious man, victim of a horrible accident caused by a very bad
driver.
The homes he built have mostly lasted well. Most are approaching the
two-thirds point of their predicted life spans. While it's unlikely that
hundreds of these inexpensively built homes will self-destruct around 2030,
short of a firestorm off Montara Mountain or a Tsunami of major
proportions, what should their owners do to preserve these valuable assets?
Most have been re-roofed more than once, and repainted. Landscaping has
individualized the properties. Some have distinctive fencing for more
privacy. Some have tall trees that both shade and endanger. If Monterey
Pines and Cypresses were planted early on, they are approaching the end of
their useful lives. Unlike the houses themselves, it's unlikely that the
trees will last much beyond their predicted spans. Even worse, a dying
Monterey Pine in your front yard will most likely be a so-called heritage
tree. Just because it's reached a certain girth, first you'll pay the city
a fat fee and then argue with any neighbors who may want the tree to
remain. Only then can you call in a tree expert. He'll charge you a fee he
thinks reasonable and you think exorbitant to remove this white elephant
from your property.
Why the city of Pacifica, with its well-known highly restricted budgets,
should have felt it necessary to buy and plan to demolish the well-known
house on the beach that formerly belonged to Pacifica's first mayor and her
husband, I'll never know. I would never have built a home so close to the
ocean that waves wash under it from time to time. Tract homes are more
practical, if less romantic. But why destroy it?
I've seen too many structures destroyed on or near San Pedro beach sands in
the last forty years. I miss the Wander Inn, burned about 1971. I miss the
little shoreside cottages lost through the years. I had to stretch my brain
cells to remember the name of the Vagabond restaurant when somebody from
San Bruno asked me about that Pedro Point landmark recently. That
restaurant burned many years ago, but it left behind some fond memories. I
think for my friend it was the prime rib.
Some people will even remember the old surfer house on Crespi at Coast
Highway with some fondness, though it's my personal opinion Paul Chakkapark
has created a magnificent structure, Pacifica Beach Resort, that will wipe
out all previous memories. I hope the business climate allows him to stay
in business for many years and enjoy the success he so richly deserves.
Fire is the enemy. It's done in many local landmarks great and small.
Inevitably, one day, hopefully far, far in the future, it will doom Shelter
Cove, that inaccessible enclave of isolated Pacificans. In 1929 fire
destroyed one of the first mansions on the coast, the former summer home of
the Tobin family, called the Hermitage.
In 1966 another coastal landmark, Mori's Point Hotel and Restaurant, also
burned. By then there was a professional fire department serving our heeds,
but any wooden structure three-quarters of a century old is vulnerable. In
the early seventies Danmann's Hayloft burned. That loss, of a building
contemporaneous with the Ocean Shore Railway, was particularly painful.
Change is inevitable. Some loss is also inevitable. Let's hope the changes,
and losses, are not too traumatic.
Paul Azevedo's e mail address is appropriate: Paul@thereactor.net.
Check The Reactor's website at www.thereactor.net.
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