FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

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Park Toll Road Plan Rejected in California

On Thursday and Friday Wildcoast was in full force for the annual SIMA Waterman’s Ball that benefits Wildcoast coastal protection programs. The event was capped by the Friday evening ball after a Thursday golf tournament. As described in the Orange County Register:

Friday night’s Waterman’s Ball featured the most star-studded lineup of honorees in the event’s 18-year history.

The annual surf industry fundraiser for the environment in Laguna Niguel raised an estimated $500,000 for 16 different local, regional and national environmental groups, but even the rock-star status of honorees Lisa Andersen and Kelly Slater were upstaged by real rock star Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

Four-time world champ Andersen received the Waterman of the Year award; Shaper and long-time director of the Hawaiian Triple Crown Randy Rarick was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award and Vedder, who much of the sold out crowd came to see, was named Environmentalist of the Year.

Vedder proclaiming the Bush administration’s environmental policies “criminal,” but also asking “Why this tolerance for deception? At some point we are responsible.” He also said environmentalism has changed. “I don’t think it’s about chaining yourself to trees anymore, it’s about doing business right. It’s about finding a better business model.”

And Vedder said the idea of being given an award for environmentalism was “like being given an award for breathing. It’s what you have to do to stay alive.”

Andersen joked that her achievements paled in comparison to the evening’s special achievement honorees Slater and Layne Beachley. “Four’s not even a number,” she said. “You gotta have eight to be cool now.”

Rarick described the joy of shaping over 12,000 surfboards: For every person I made a board for, the thought that I improved their surfing is thrilling to me.”

Slater, who’s acceptance speech started the evening, corrected Quiksilver CEO Bob McKnight.

“Bob said I came to Quiksilver when I was 18, which was untrue. I came to them when I was 10 and they didn’t respond.”
He said of his friend Vedder, “Eddie called me one time and said, ‘I want to take this surf trip to Florida.’ I said ‘That’s no surf trip. What’s her name?’”

He also joked about leaving a surf trip to accept the award. “I was in Fiji yesterday and didn’t want to leave, but I knew this would be a good night,” he said. “But I’m afraid to get a call from Shane Dorian that it was 10 feet and I missed it.”

Back in the early spring of 2006 when Kem Nunn first called me to let me know that there was a good chance that David Milch and HBO might film a new series about Imperial Beach, I was pretty excited. At the time Kem was a writer on “Deadwood,” a brilliant deconstruction of the west and the evolution of American civic culture.

What was not to like about a possible HBO show about IB by Nunn and Milch. Kem is the author of the riveting “Tijuana Straits,” and other novels about life on the edge in California. Milch is the creative genius behind “Deadwood,” and arguably one of the most fascinating and loquacious personalities in Hollywood.

A month of so after my conversation with Kem, I found myself acting as the tour guide for David and Kem and a rental van full of production staff who would turn out to the be the eventual producers, directors and writers for John from Cincinnati. We toured Imperial Beach and the Tijuana River Valley.

Back then the show sounded cool�a dysfunctional Imperial Beach surfing family, an alien, a weird motel, and lots of strange characters against the backdrop of the “polluted U.S.-Mexico border.” Just like IB.

Milch and company filmed the pilot last September and the residents of IB got comfortable with Austin Nichols, Luke Perry, Ed O’Neill, Brian Van Holt and the rest of the cast wandering the beachfront and the alleys of IB’s infamous north side over the next ten months. I identified the El Camino Hotel as the perfect place for the Snug Harbor Motel, as the centerpiece location for the show. El Camino was and still is a run-down hovel filled with ex-offenders just off IB’s Palm Avenue that was once home to the famed Vienna Lounge and still retained an assortment of plastic life-sized forest animals around its decrepit swimming pool.

Overall, JFC was a boon for Imperial Beach. The production team set a gold standard for how film crews should treat a community (although some locals hated everything about the show). Milch and his crew hired locals as production staff and extras (including my two sons and dad), worked with local businesses and gave grants to local non-profits (including Wildcoast — the organization I run).

Milch treated his own team and local residents with an amazing amount of respect and interest. He is a warm, generous, funny and amazingly talented person who established an atmosphere of risk and creativity that seems to be pretty rare in Hollywood.

One of the most interesting components of JFC was the way it used the web to further interest in the characters and setting. According to Jackson West at Newteevee.com

The Web played a role in the plot early on, such as with the fan site maintained by the character Dwayne (Matthew Maher) for the fictional family of surfing legends the Yosts. The young prodigy, Shaun Yost (played by Greyson Fletcher, real-life surf prodigy and son of surfing legend Christian Fletcher), is signed to a sponsorship deal by beachwear retailer Stinkweed on the strength of his lineage and amateur highlight reel. Levitating patriarch Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood) even lent his celebrity to real-life conservation charity WiLDCOAST.

I attended the premiere of JFC at Paramount Studios and found the first two episodes to be quirky, funny, interesting and off-the-wall. I hoped the rest of the series would go somewhere interesting. Unfortunately, as many of the production team complained to me while filming, the story wasn’t going anywhere they or the audience could understand. After the third episode, I found the story almost impossible to follow and wasn’t sure what was happening at all.

Milch, however, made it clear that the story really wasn’t the point,

“My understanding of the way the mechanism of storytelling works is …whether or not the audience is conscious of the process, apart from the audience awareness that there is a process, any story is constantly appending specific values to the meanings of words, and of the actions of characters. And the fact that story uses as its building blocks words or characters that the audience believes it has some prior recognition or understanding of, is really simply the beginning of the story, but not its end.”

Okay — I get it. I guess. After all “La Dolce Vita” is one of my absolute favorite films and there is no story there.

So I can deal with a lack of formal narrative structure. But after a while, it became hard to even understand most of the characters with some exceptions. Brian Van Holt was brilliant and true-to-life as Butchie. He nailed the mannerisms, the speech, and the (former) lifestyle of a junkie-surfer-hoodlum in the midst of redemption.

Ed O’Neill was funny as the ex-IB cop caught in confusion. Luke Perry proved that he is a good actor and was totally believable as a surf industry CEO. And Bruce Greenwood provided a quiet dignity to the role of Mitch Yost, the levitating former surf star turned Yost patriarch with a screaming spouse from hell (Rebecca DeMornay).

On the upside, the show made Imperial Beach look absolutely stunning. There just wasn’t enough surfing, border, beach time or Nummian noir present in the series to sustain the characters. What could have been a riveting look at the upside world of the U.S.-Mexico border (as indicated in the cool opening credits — in which many of the images from Tijuana were shot from the WiLDCOAST Suburban) turned into an inward look at less-than-clear meaning of something.

Overall the show was a gamble from the very beginning. Chris Albrecht, the HBO chief fired in May for assaulting his girlfriend had given the green light to Milch to film JFC. I met with Milch, Nunn and their production team just before Milch’s green-light lunch meeting with Albrecht at his office in Santa Monica –tense can’t come close to describing the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, Albrecht was replaced by execs at HBO who might not have had the same faith in show especially when the ratings just didn’t add up. About 1.6 million people watched JFC a week — which doesn’t compare to the 10 million or so who used to catch “The Sopranos.”

So now things are back to normal in IB. No more afternoon surf sessions with Van Holt (who is a very good surfer), Austin Nichols, Brock Little, and Steve Hawk. No more listening to the philosophy of Milch and the riveting stories of his larger-than-life business partner Bill Clark (who Milch is now doing a new show with about cops in NYC based on Clark’s life). Imperial Beach feels a little emptier without the JFC crew in town.

But if you want to still capture some JFC magic, head down the Imperial Beach Pier Plaza, step into the Cowabunga ice-cream shop and order a scoop of John from Cincinnati ice cream. Its smooth mint flavor sprinkled hint of mocha chips is a good way to cool down on a hot summer afternoon as you traipse past the Yost Boards surf shop and catch the sunset from the IB pier.

–SERGE DEDINA

When people support and join WiLDCOAST, they make an important comment to keep their neighborhood clean.  When celebrities like Jorge Campos, famous soccer player, Dorismar, famous model, Santo, famous wrestler, Diane Feinstein, California Senior Senator, and our latest addition Mitch Yost, surfing legend, support and join WiLDCOAST, this becomes an international case.  WiLDCOAST has been proving the importance of saving sea turtles & gray whales, cleaning water around U.S.-Mexico border region, establishing marine protected areas since 2000 and will continue to do so.  

Sea turtles come from places as far as Japan, southern Mexico, and Hawaii.  WiLDCOAST wants to help preserve their land to allow Sea Turtles to breed and reside in the environment they are comfortable with.  Currently illegal hunting kills 35,000 turtles every year on the coast on northwestern Mexico alone.  Over 10,000 turtles are killed in the entanglement of fishing nets every year.    As it is, only 1 of every 1,000 turtle eggs becomes a full grown adult, and the loss coastal habitat, water pollution, and people thinking turtle eggs are aphrodisiac does not help towards saving these endangered lives.

Join WiLDCOAST to protect and preserve the coast and ocean.

- Sam Shah

If you’re a sleazy wannabe federal contractor begging for earmarks who has benefited from close personal friendships with Dick “Shotgun” Cheney, Duncan “Baseball Bat” Hunter, Duke “Jailbird” Cunningham, and Brian “Skiploader” Bilbray, it has to hurt when Fox News (national that is) turns on you.

That is exactly what happened to Bajagua last Friday when Fox News did a hit piece on the Rancho Santa Fe company. Things are so bad at Bajagua these days that the company could only field its hapless CEO, Jim Simmons, for the Fox cameras instead one of his younger surrogates such as Craig Benedetto, Gary Sirota and Marco Gonzalez.

For a company in a free fall like Bajagua, getting hammered by the “fair and balanced” folks at Fox is like having someone throw you a cement life buoy when you are drowning.

The Fox News piece was almost as bad for the company as the headline in the U-T on July 15, “Bajagua Plan Maybe be on the Brink.” According to the article:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein could deal a decisive blow to a decade-old proposal by Bajagua LLC of San Marcos. Bajagua has spent millions of dollars pushing its plan to build a U.S.-funded sewage-treatment plant in Mexico instead of upgrading a troubled facility in San Ysidro. But now, Feinstein wants Congress to spend $66 million on improvements at the San Ysidro site, which the federal government owns. She wields budget influence as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The San Ysidro project “offers the most certainty to the people of Imperial Beach and Coronado that the wastewater coming in from Mexico will be treated to U.S. standards,” Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

What the UT story did was also provide more detail on the GAO study:

Although Feinstein backs the San Ysidro expansion plan, she asked the Government Accountability Office on Friday to compare it with the Bajagua proposal. She wants the GAO to look at factors such as cost-effectiveness, practicality and timeliness of completion.

The most interesting part of Feinstein’s GAO letter with implications for the army of consultants, lawyers and lobbyists on the Bajagua payroll was this question:

Are Bajagua LLC investors, employees, consultants or legal counsel associated with organizations participating in lawsuits against the International Boundary and Water Commission regarding the Tijuana River sewage?

Next up in the bad news train for Bajagua was the letter from the Regional Water Quality Control board that the UT reported on,

Also on Friday, regional water-pollution officials said for the first time that Bajagua does not seem to be a viable option. Improving the San Ysidro plant “is the best way to move forward expeditiously,” Susan Ritschel, chairwoman of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, said in a letter to Feinstein.

A few year ago when Bajagua landed Cheney and company to shill for its sole-source no bid contract (after sending them fat campaign checks), Simmons and his partner Enrique Landa must have partied like Wayne and Garth backstage with Def Leopard . Now, they are like the only guys at an N’Sync concert — feeling pretty lonely and a little ripped off.

If you are going to tie your fortunes to a bunch of San Diego congressmen who assure you they have a “lock” on the White House to deliver your fat government contract, you better make sure they really do before you put them on the payroll. Since the White House forbade former Surgeon General Richard Carmona from helping the Special Olympics because of its connection with Ted Kennedy, do you think Bush and Rove are going to do anything to help Hunter and Bilbray, when the North and East County duo helped kill their immigration bill? Why would 43 reward Bob Filner with a contract for his campaign donors when the Chula Vista congressman opposes the war in Iraq and the expansion of the border fence?

Bajagua has been a great deal for a few elected officials and lawyers who have collected big checks by making all kinds of promises they couldn’t keep. To save face, the Bajagua team made a show of badgering a couple of bureaucrats for show in congress recently when the contract didn’t get signed. Maybe Simmons and Landa can have the following bumper sticker made up for their Cadillacs, “I spent $40 million and all I have to show for it was a lousy congressional hearing.”

– SERGE DEDINA

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE VOICEOFSANDIEGO.ORG 

On the front page of the New York Times business section of May 20 is displayed a colorful mansion surrounded by trees as far as the eye can see. The title reads ‘Who Controls Paradise?’ The article outlines a development dilemma frontlined by the opposing ideals two major landholders in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

Today there exists a 32,473 acre reserve in Jalisco which contains one of the most studied forests in the world. The reserve is named Chamela Cuixmala Biosphere and is on the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico. The region is known for its unique forest wildlife due to the dynamic of a very dry season and a wet season.
The controversy in the region is that two resorts have been approved next to the Chamela Cuixmala ecological reserve. Recently the newly elected President has enacted a law to prohibit the destruction of coastal mangroves in an effort to protect wildlife. These resorts are supported by some of Mexico’s most powerful (wealthy) entrepreneurs who have invested in the land and claim that the resorts were approved before the new coastal protection law.

Developers have proposed two resorts near the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere, federally protected land (Photo: NYT)

Another large landholder of 25,000 acres in and around the reserve is the Goldsmith family. They were instrumental in designating land for the protected area and propose to keep the region sparsely populated in order to protect wildlife. The area is a perfect site for a demonstration eco-lodge resort so that more developers in Mexico can use their model as an example of a profitable tourist attraction. There already exists successful eco-lodges in Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Chile, and Peru where visitors pay $200 to $300 per night and enjoy recreation in the natural surrounding area most often a protected land or marine park.
Some people have criticized the Goldsmith family saying that they are just interested in preserving their own investments in the region. In my opinion, OK, fine, the idea that someone will profit makes it an even better example for developers in the future. The fact that wildlife within a fragile ecosystem will be preserved is the most salient point of the matter. Mexico has been sucked dry in Cancun as well as Puerto Vallarta of natural coastal area due to its mass development of resorts. People pay for what they find in the U.S. with warmer weather and cheaper food. The land is devoid of natural landscape and animals.
At WiLDCOAST the Wildlands Program is aiming to protect as well as publicize the beauty of Baja California. As in Jalisco we hope to raise money to protect regions for wildlife and develop adjacent low-impact resorts where people can visit the reserve. Hiking, kayaking, surfing, and stargazing are all more enjoyable where there are less people and more to see.
As the world accepts global warming as fact rather then fiction, our population grows exponentially each year, and the environmental revolution grows stronger, less crowded, more natural, getaways will be more and more valuable.
Corina Marks

VOICE OF SAN DIEGO

Día de los Muertos

An elegy for Costa Azul and Harry’s

By Serge Dedina

It is only fitting that on this Día de los Muertos I write of the visit by revolutionary Mexican leader Sucomandante Marcos to the Sempra-Shell Costa LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal in northern Baja California. The Sempra site is an open grave — a death shrine that represents a new phase in the way that multinationals export dangerous projects designed for U.S. markets to lesser-developed countries to escape or regulatory framework and acute American NIMBYism (let’s be fair — no one in their right mind would ever want a LNG terminal in their backyard).

In a deal signed off on by President-elect Felipe Calderon when he was Mexico’s Minister of Energy, Sempra destroyed one of Mexico’s most pristine coastal ecosystems to build its LNG terminal. Costa Azul, located between Tijuana and Ensenada (just north of Salsipuedes), was the home to globally endangered coastal sage scrub habitat, a fish camp, and an underground big-wave surf spot called Harry’s.

Marcos visited the Sempra site, just south of the Baja Mar Resort, a couple of weeks ago as part of a long bus tour of Mexico. Covered in his black cap and face mask and dressed in army fatigues, Marcos looked over the project site and declared, “This project is an example of how the new government of Calderon will exploit Mexico’s resources for the profit of foreigners.”

In Mexico, the faded promise of post-revolutionary regimes such as that of Lázaro Cardenas to harness natural resources for national development ended a brutal death at Costa Azul. There, Calderon and Fox opened up their country for a project that has little benefit for Mexico and represents a dramatic change in energy policy for Mexico.

As the United States commences construction of a Berlin Wall to keep Mexicans from crossing the border in order to accept the jobs that American corporations cannot wait to give them, Mexico continues to accept American industrial projects that provide little benefit for its own citizens. Once again the U.S. wins and Mexico loses. But in this case the blame rests entirely with Mexico and Fox’s PAN regime.

Meanwhile, north of the border, activists throughout California recently carried out a massive protest paddle in Malibu against various LNG terminals planned for Southern California. Protesters included Pierce Brosnan, surfing legend Laird Hamilton, Halle Berry and Cindy Crawford.

On November 8-10 Zeus Development Corporation will hold a conference on the future of LNG Development in the Pacific in San Diego and host a tour of the Sempra-Costa Azul facility. Sempra is planning to expand the Costa Azul site to include a second LNG facility.

Last year, Jason Murray and I took our own tour of the Sempra LNG site. Jason is a brilliant surf photographer and “Concussion Magazine” editor who photographed the big waves surfed at Harry’s by Greg and Rusty Long and Brad Gerlach — now the site of Sempra’s LNG jetty. Oddly, Sempra didn’t provide juice and cookies during our tour.

As Jason and I hiked the dirt road through a run-down fish camp to the Sempra construction site, we watched giant trucks dumping boulders on a pristine reef that according to Jason was, “The sport formerly known as Harry’s.” Just prior to Sempra security guards chasing us off the site, Jason turned to me and said, “I feel like I’m going to a friend’s funeral.”

So, on this Día de los Muertos, in honor of Subcomandante Marcos and Jason, I will light a candle for Costa Azul and wish Sempra the worst of luck in all of its endeavors such as the Sunrise Power Link and expanding its LNG operations in Mexico.

Viva Mexico. Viva Día de los Muertos.

A big thanks to Fay Crevoshay and Aida Navarro and of course our gran amigo Jorge Campos for launching this spectacular campaign today in Acapulco with the heroic sea turtle defenders of Mexico. Serge 

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 

Jorge Campos launches campaign to save marine turtles
 The Associated Press

Published: October 27, 2006
ACAPULCO, Mexico. Mexico’s former star soccer player Jorge Campos, teaming up with environmentalists in this Pacific coast resort, launched a campaign Friday to protect Mexico’s endangered marine turtles.
 
 Campos, who was the assitant coach for Mexico’s 2006 World Cup team, called on President-elect Felipe Calderon, who takes office Dec. 1, to dedicate more resources to protect marine turtles along the coast of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.
 
 ”Turtles are worth more alive than dead,” he said, adding that the turtles could draw millions of tourists to the region.
 
 Mexico is a major nesting area for several species of sea turtles, which are protected by law. Harvesting or selling their eggs is a criminal offense, punishable by up to nine years in prison and fines.
 
 Still each year, officials seize thousands of turtle eggs at Mexican markets. The eggs are considered a delicacy.
 
 Fewer than 1,000 adult female leatherback turtles are left in Mexico’s Pacific range, down from an estimated 70,000 to 90,000 in 1980, according to the World Wildlife Fund.