By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – February 27, 2021

t should strike the residents of this County after sixty years and a
laundry list of Supervisors and City Councilors gone before, exactly
why we are forced to continue with the travesty that continues on
Highway 101 at Last Chance Grade?  After CalTrans will have spent, no
doubt, yet another multi million dollar outlay to unbury that section of
the highway, at what point does the effort to keep the roadway open at
the cost over the years as far more than the bypass will ultimately cost
the State? It would seem that no one over the years can exercise a
leadership role which says it is time to stop the pointless expense of
keeping Last Chance Grade open and get with the program of bypassing the problem.

Unfortunately our current heroes which appear to be speechless over the
current closure of 101 South are content to sit on the side lines and
hope that the State will come through after twenty more years of winter
closures due to slides.  The latest expenditures on studies have reduced
the potential by pass routes from eleven to six.  One only can wonder
just how long it will take to get to one, then the fun starts.  Without
doubt once progress appears to be made, the environazis will be waiting
in the wings.

So doing something about Last Chance Grade will likely remain in limbo,
the City is consumed with the pool, the park, solar power, LED lighting,
the new city hall and front street.  No one knows what is a priority for
the BOS, likely traffic circles, pedestrian cross walks, and connecting
the coastal trail with the harbor. All terribly useful stuff.  The
DNSWMA (transfer station also referred to as the dump) is laser focused on recycling and zero waste, to the detriment of the rate payers. The harbor is giddy with its new solar array and is looking to install more charging stations, in the process becoming entirely dependent on the sun.  The airport flirted briefly with a change in destination, Sacramento instead of Oakland, neither of which is going to stimulate growth.  The list seems endless as well as meaningless.

High unemployment, abysmal performance from our school district, and
lackluster leadership at all levels, how can anything get any better?  I
suppose there is always the total collapse of Last Chance Grade? 
Leaders have come and gone, yet nothing really changes.  Important
problems remain, minutia dominates the attention of our local
leadership.  Is it possible for those that are making the decisions be
able to tear themselves away from the insignificant and address
important problems of long standing?  I suppose we shall see.