Steve Aceti is everywhere. Photo downloaded from Cal-Coast.
I heart tax dollars...back to cobbles eh? Moonlight Beach, Encinitas Feb 2007
Cardiff campgrounds area looking north towards Swami's. The majority of the reefs are covered in sand.
Pro-tax lobbyist Steve Aceti lied to North County Times staff reporter Dave Downey in today's Sunday edition.
2001 beach benefits short-lived
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY ---- It was nice while it lasted. When the San Diego Association of Governments dredged up enough sand from the ocean bottom to fill Qualcomm Stadium and piped it onshore in the summer of 2001, San Diego County had some of the finest beaches around.
From Oceanside to Imperial Beach, once-narrow beaches suddenly were 25 to 100 feet wider than they were before the association spent $17.5 million and spread 2 million cubic yards of the fine material along six miles of the county's coastline.
But it didn't last. Winter arrived and storm swells battered the coast. And the manufactured beaches were swept back out to sea.
Within a year, most had thinned by 20 feet to 60 feet, according to a report by Gary Griggs, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. Most shrank more the following year.
"We're back to pre-project conditions, which aren't very good," said Steve Aceti, executive director for the Encinitas-based California Coastal Coalition, an advocacy group representing coastal cities and counties. "We're back to cobble."
"We're back to cobble." HUH? Leucadia March 2007
Two photos appear in the NCT story, one is close up of someone walking barefoot across a patch of cobblestones. The other shows a surfer at the base of the cliffs at high tide. In both photos if you look closely you can see sand.
The North County Times seems to be part of the propaganda campaign to convince people that our beaches are sandless and covered with cobblestones. Surfers, regular beach goers and fishermen know this to be untrue. Our north county beaches have an incredible amount of sand for this time of year due to our mild winter. Our sand is increasing daily due to the recent south swells we just started getting which naturally replenish our beaches.
Recently, the association estimated the cost of such a project at $25 million. It would target the same beaches as last time: Oceanside, north Carlsbad, south Carlsbad, Batiquitos, Leucadia, Moonlight, Cardiff, Fletcher Cove, Del Mar, Torrey Pines, Mission and Imperial.
Leucadia does not need sand, Encinitas does not need sand, Cardiff does not need sand.
I surfed north Torrey Pines this morning, there is a lot of sand down there. The lagoon is functional and tidal and there is a big sandbar in front of the south bridge. Here is a photo of south Torrey Pines:
Aceti said the project could be tackled in 2009 or 2010, if the agency can secure needed money. Officials are setting their sights on obtaining a share of proceeds from the $5.4 billion Proposition 84 bond measure voters approved in November.
Area officials also are exploring funding options ranging from a sales-tax increase to beach parking fees to hotel taxes.
I have a hard time believing that Steve Aceti cares about the quality of our beaches at all, he is nothing more than a professional tax lobbyist. A freaking sales tax increase?!? We already pay almost 8% in sales tax. Gee, let's just jack it up to 10% while we are at it, right Aceti?
I think we've entered bizarro world. Developer Michael D Pattinson wrote a column for the NCT called Thank bureaucrats for sandless beaches which is so off base is it barely worth mentioning. Dave Downey wrote a strange article for the NCT's "science" section where our hero Steve Aceti says we would have more sand if Catalina island was bigger, Losing Ground: North County's shoreline victim of natural process (I wonder if they have ever heard of Point Conception?). Encinitas mayor Jim Bond who never met a tax increase he didn't like thinks there is no sand on our beaches because he has never even bothered to look. Pam Slater-Price thinks there is no sand. It goes on and on...
Photo taken last week in Leucadia, tax lobbyist Steve Aceti says, "We're back to cobble." mmmmm-kay?Related Post: Leucadia!: Natural Sand Replenishment Currently Underway
Leucadia!: Leucadia beaches more walkable than downtown mainstreet Leucadia
Leucadia!: Thank you for your concern for our marine resources
Leucadia!: The Ebb and Flow of Our Sand Drama
Leucadia!: If only it were a little bigger
Leucadia!: Winter 2007--Most Sand Ever?
Leucadia!: Moonlight Beach Sand Check
Leucadia!: More holes in head, "Quality-of-life tax" proposed.
Maybe it is time to ask Pam Slater what is going on with her staff? Steve works for Pam.
ReplyDeleteCan we tar and feather Steve Aceti and run him back to New York?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that Aceti was the council's go to guy for the Prop C tax fraud. I call him Steve Taxeti.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone ever figure out how he got funded for the Prop C campaign. Was he working on SANDAG time during Prop C?
he's a good "power bottom"
ReplyDeleteToday, there is some sand, but much less than after the last sand repleshment project.
ReplyDeleteThere are also cobblestones showing through.
Granted, sand will start building now, but winter will come and take it away, like it always does.
Every year since the last project, there is less sand than the year before.
It sounds like the next project is slated to be implemented in 2010. I think there is a good chance that we will need sand replenesment by then. This is probalby good planning, as it takes a long time to line up money and enviromental studies.
That is a good point about this process going down in the future. But what about Taxeti's bullshit? What a liar.
ReplyDeleteIf every year we have less sand, then that means this is perpetual process. Maybe it is time to figure out how to fix the problem instead of 20 million dollar band aides every 5-10 years that force us to have quality of life taxes or pay to surf meters.
What if we have an el nino in 2011. There goes $20 million down the drain.
The National Marine Fisheries Service and the state Department of Fish and Game, charged with protecting marine life, rejected the large amounts of sand proposed in the study. Studies have shown that too much sand deposited at one time would wash back into the ocean, burying offshore eelgrass and kelp and the reefs that provide a habitat for fish and lobsters.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, why lie about the amount of sand on our beaches? Why state that "we're back to cobbles" when clearly we are not. If Aceti wants to plan for sand replenishment in 2010 then that is fine, but why blatantly lie? It makes no sense.
Yes, when is this overload of sand actually scheduled? I did not get that it was many years down the line.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did understand is that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the State Department of Fish and Game both suggested that the amount should at least be cut in half, from 10.8 million cubic feet to 5.4 million cubic feet.
That sounds reasonable and necessary for preserving the kelp. Pattinson and Aceti both have problems with stating the truth. They are all about spin and jive, promoting development and putting business interests before resident beach goers, including surfers.
Considering the way the economy is going, I doubt there will be any money for sand in 2010/2011.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I also think it is time for citizens to disband SANDAG through a countywide vote.
Ban tourists. They take all the sand back to Arizona because they don't clean their feet after a day at the beach. Arizona was a green paradise before tourism. More sand more Tourists, more Tourists less sand.
ReplyDeleteSteve Aceti wants the vacated seat on the Carlsbad city council. Good luck with that Carlsbad. Aceti is taxpayer tick.
ReplyDeleteIn today's NCT the opinion staff had a critique of Bond's speech at the Chamber meeting last week. Titled The 'Who's Got the Hook?' award
ReplyDeleteHe received a raspberry.
Nobody on this blog has attended a meeting with NMFS, State Fish & Game, the State Coastal Conservancy, The Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Commission, SANDAG or any other entity involved in protecting the coast, so the beach sand postings are all laughable.
ReplyDeleteWhat is laughable is spending millions of our tax dollars because the beaches are all "cobble". This blog's photos and videos prove you are liars.
ReplyDeleteHey Amazed (aka Taxeti),
ReplyDeleteI have been to meetings put on by The Army Corps of Engineers, the Coastal Commission, SANDAG. So what if no one else has? Don't be duffus.
Instead of coming in here and calling peolple names, like me, tell all these bloggers why they are wrong. Try at least.