Re: San Mateo Times SFO article

From: George Haye (geohaye@hotmail.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Tue May 09 2000 - 20:32:33 PDT

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Message-ID: <20000510033234.80946.qmail@hotmail.com-DeleteThis>
From: "George Haye" <geohaye@hotmail.com-DeleteThis>
To: Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis, wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis, windrider@protectourbay.com-DeleteThis, clem.wang@altavista.com-DeleteThis, cems1@earthlink.net-DeleteThis, allen.zimmermann@gte.net-DeleteThis, janhalt@wenet.net-DeleteThis, benitaz@msn.com-DeleteThis, Leo_Bragagnolo@sfport.com-DeleteThis, sss4@pge.com-DeleteThis, hangtime@hotmail.com-DeleteThis, jip@chrm.com-DeleteThis, jmcgrath@portoakland.com-DeleteThis, peteru@earthlink.net-DeleteThis, gerry_owen@hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis, suwanda@earthlink.net-DeleteThis, billrx@worldnet.att.net-DeleteThis, Robberson.Bill@epamail.epa.gov-DeleteThis, hunthy@sirius.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Re: San Mateo Times SFO article
Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 20:32:33 PDT
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Here's the article copied and pasted from the website
(http://www.newschoice.com/newspapers/alameda/smct/default.asp). Peter, I'll
keep digging through the trash, but you might be able to nab a few copies by
calling Michele Marcucci at the SM county times - if you do, can you get
copies for Hunt and I, too?

~George

--- Monday, May 08, 2000 By Michele R. Marcucci STAFF WRITER

SAN MATEO -- Hunt Hyde has been windsurfing at Coyote Point for nine years. In fact, the retiree takes his daily jaunt so seriously he sold his Palo Alto home four years ago to move to San Mateo.

But his daily surf out on San Francisco Bay may soon become a memory, if a proposal to expand San Francisco International Airport's runways out in the Bay -- and across the windsurfers' path -- becomes reality.

"It's breaking our hearts," Hyde said of the plans. "If this goes through, I'll probably move."

A group of windsurfers is fighting the runway plan, lobbying the environmental agency responsible for the Bay. Its members are also speaking out against a state bill that would shorten the environmental review process for wetlands restoration airport officials have proposed as mitigation for a runway plan that would fill two square miles of the Bay.

Several members of the San Francisco Boardsurfers Association spread the word about their fight against the plan Saturday at Windfest 2000, an annual expo showcasing new windsurf and kiteboard equipment at Coyote Point.

"This is basically our Yosemite," said George Haye, a Foster City resident and association member as surfers picked through colorful rows of new boards and sails and airplanes descended over the Bay to SFO.

Haye said that Coyote Point's winds and size -- and amenities, which include its easy parking and grassy picnic area -- rank it among the best urban windsurfing spots in the world.

Windsurfers have flocked to the spot since 1980 or 1981, they said. The sport itself was founded in California and Hawaii in the 1960s and began its rise in popularity two decades ago.

But if SFO's runways are extended out into the Bay, they would slice through the heart of the popular windsurfing spot, cutting off access to the middle of the Bay, he said.

Windsurfers also fear that construction of the runways would stir up silt that could gum up several other Peninsula windsurfing spots, said Peter Thorner, one of the 1,700-member boardsurfers association.

Plans to restore thousands of acres of Cargill Salt Co. salt ponds could lower water levels in other area wetlands and the Bay, Thorner said. And others fear the runway plans could disrupt salmon and steelhead runs into the Bay and dredge up toxic chemicals which would close it to all users.

Still, several in attendance at Saturday's event said that while they don't want to see the runways built, they feel powerless to stop them.

"In general, windsurfers are pretty bummed out about the (runway plan). But at this point, it seems kind of inevitable," said Dobri Kiprou of Mill Valley.

"I don't think a few windsurfers are going to stop SFO," said David Turner of Sacramento, who surfs here once a month and was showing his new kiteboards at the event. "Maybe I should fight harder."

The association is already fighting an office park proposed at the site of the old Burlingame Drive-In Theater, which they said would block the wind that makes Coyote Point such an attractive surf spot.

Burlingame's Planning Commission shot down that proposal Wednesday and is scheduled to make a final vote on it today.

----Original Message Follows---- From: Eyes4Hire@aol.com-DeleteThis Subject: San Mateo Times SFO article Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 17:32:00 EDT

The San Mateo Times ran an article on SFO and the windsurfing impacts at Coyote Point on Sunday or Monday... probably Monday. Can anyone get there hands on the article. I'd like to get a copy and/or a summary. The City Attorney in Burlingame said that both George Haye and I were quoted. On the Burlingame front, the developer will have until next Monday night to appeal, so we are in a wait and see mode.

Peter

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