April 28, 1999

Let's take a bold step back to save the environment

One sure way to give Pacifica's Planning Commissioners, male or female, a fast case of the old-fashioned vapors would be for someone who lives on a "residential" street to install a commercial refrigerator unit and a few shelves in their living room, put up signs, and open a neighborhood convenience grocery store. The city would positively come unglued if someone in a Park Pacifica condo or a split level rancher on Oddstad Blvd. would set up shop like that.

The city's sign ordinance would be quoted. The General Plan would be mentioned in hushed tones.

"Environmentalists" would react in horror. Conservatives would invoke government regulations. Liberals would quake in their boots, perhaps fall in a dead faint.

Yet the best way I know to eliminate wasteful automobile trips to Safeway or Lucky is to take a short walk down the block. What better way to interact with your neighbors than while you get milk, bread, razor blades, a newspaper. Everyday necessities shouldn't use up time, mileage and gasoline?

This is not a new concept. It's one we've gotten away from. We're more and more dependent on the automobile and the supermarket. Almost all the grocery business in Pacifica is done at supermarkets. If you need a pint of milk, you have to start up your car's motor, accelerate several times, brake to a stop at each of several corners, use up valuable parking spaces. You'll still find yourself parked half a block from the store.

In the old days, you walked over to Louise's store if you lived in Rockaway. You picked up your milk and bread, rang the little bell on the counter, and Louise or Gidge stopped washing the supper dishes, came out and rang up your purchase. While you were at it, you heard the neighborhood gossip, tuned in on the latest happenings. If Louise was busy, you might even help out for a few minutes in the store. It was the neighborly thing to do.

There was Landi's, Anderson's, and County Road Market in Sharp Park, and other neighborhood stores in Vallemar, Pacific Manor, Pedro Point.

The highway strip in Sharp Park is long gone, a victim of highway widening. Louise retired and moved to Santa Rosa to live with her sister. Her store was bulldozed to make room for Fassler Ave. Landi's disappeared in the sixties. Sun Valley Market at the Adobe corner still serves the neighborhood as the successor to "The Dairy" early residents of Linda Mar remember so well. The operators commute. They don't live in the back of the store.

The Santa Rosa neighborhood markets I remember from the forties, operated by Ray Santarini and Bastiaan Begeer, were open early and late. They were an important part of the neighborhood. Today they'd be illegal even to open. If someone were to try, the giant supermarkets would eat them alive. The little stores were served by locally owned dairies, owned by the man who drove the delivery truck. His milk came from local cows. Today the only question is whether we should import our milk from Oregon, or would it be cheaper to get it from Wisconsin?

Paul Azevedo believes even how you get your daily bread and milk is important to the environment. If you have an opinion on the subject, his e-mail address is Paul@thereactor.net