(Original Title Above Revised by WMC to: “Coastal Protection Incomplete)
Editor,
Assemblyman Mark Levine on Nov. 6 hosted “Protecting California’s Coast,” a forum on the expansion of California Coastal Commission’s numbers and authority to levy fines.
Two 40-minute presentations by proponents, and one 40-minute presentation by opponents, followed by 20 minutes from the public.
Pro-commission panelists talked straight through most of the opponent’s time and deserted the forum without hearing from them. The public was relegated to post-adjournment where only opposition panelists and a handful of the audience remained. Even reporters had left.
My comments:
- Is the ocean less acidic? No.
- Is the nitrogen content of the ocean falling? No.
- Kinsey showed us a graph of the population of our state and the projections for its growth but failed to note that world population is now at seven billion and by 2020 will be at nine billion.
- Have we ended world hunger? No.
- Have we in Marin become so smug we can contemplate removal of an ecologically and economically beneficial local source of sustainable, renewable, protein production and tell the hungry of the world, “Let them eat cake”?
Kinsey said, “necessary characteristics of the [CCC] are to be fair and efficient.” Absent from his necessary characteristics were “honest and trustworthy.”
The commission accepted evidence presented by Amy Trainer of the Environmental Action Committee, and others, against Drakes Bay Oyster Company, some of which has been proven false, then the Commission voted to exclude all DBOF’s evidence in its defense.
This is not the agency we should expand nor the agency that should have the ability to fine us.
Good for Levine for wanting to listen and learn!
Jane Gyorgy
Drakes Bay Oyster Company & the National Park Service. Watch the video, "THE FRAMING OF AN OYSTER FARM" at http://vimeo.com/52331881 
Milly Biller
/ November 22, 2013It sounds to me like we all need to write to Levine, thank him for his time, and note the inequities that were present at the forum, and discuss the fact that this it typical of the way the pro Park Service acts when put in a forum situation. Witness the genuine attempt that was made by the west Marin community conversations, that were boycotted the EAC and all the pro side due to an email sent out by Gordon Bennett, and then the travesty of the second ” conversation” which was a non interactive display by the Park Service.