Pete’s Harbor?

Posted on by under News, Pete's Harbor

Sept 22, 2012: In the past week there has been a lot of information flying about the Internet concerning Pete’s Harbor development and marina closure. I’ve been sending a few emails out to mailing lists where the topic is discussed and I’ve posted a few things here on our blog.

Posts on this blog related to categoy “Pete’s Harbor” HERE

This is an old, established boating community. There’s been a lot of talk about that, yes. I really thought that the liveaboards who claim this as their home would openly share their views with the world at large. I am thus amazed at the anonymity being used by people discussing the issues on sites like http://savepetesharbor.wordpress.com

We all have our own advocacy positions, but we should stand up for what we believe and put our name to it. My name is Brenda Hattery and my own advocacy is for the general boating public and in particular for cruisers who travel port-to-port while living aboard their boats. Anytime local boating, zoning, or environmental matters, come up which reduce cruisers’ access to good anchorages, haul out facilities, access to pump outs, and water, as well as reasonable marinas, I am dismayed. I also remain concerned for both the environment and boater safety. Anytime I see boaters not behaving as good neighbors and thoughtful stewards of the waterways, I am concerned.

Pete’s Harbor marina has been known to the cruising community as a good place to visit and stay a couple months while seeing what San Francisco has to offer. It’s a place that some cruisers come to when the cruising kitty is getting low: they work a year or two in this high wage area and then resume their travels. Pete’s Harbor is one of the only area liveaboard marinas close to Silicon Valley and with public transport. If the planned development goes through, regardless of other environmental issues that other people may wish to take on the fight for, I can say that this marina will be missed by cruisers and by locals alike.

I also remain a strong advocate for historic preservation. Pete’s Harbor is unique and represents a landmark in the local community. The Uccelli family has created a meaningful place and community that boaters could be part of for decades. The Uccelli family deserves to reap the rewards of the decades of investment made in their property here; I am truly sorry that business and financial advisors to the Uccelli family weren’t able to offer ways to allow the family to capitalize and leverage their Pete’s Harbor assets such that they could achieve their financial goals while retaining a vibrant marine community, open to all boaters, here. Wiping this community away and sterilizing the location into nothing more than another flock of pretty condos and private docks truly is a waste of this wonderful landmark marine community.

At the bottom of this page, I’ve decided to put links to my blog posts and links to other content that I’ve been writing about the expected Pete’s Harbor closure. I will update it daily. I’m hoping the information will be helpful to others in the boating community here.

Fair winds and following seas,
Brenda Hattery
Schooner Mahdee

Posts on the blog related to categoy “Pete’s Harbor” HERE

Another Beautiful Day on the Water

Posted on by under brightwork and paint, living aboard

A good day for outside projects and soaking up the sunshine. Lots of activities on the docks this morning. Normally, it’s quiet at our end of the dock–just neighboring cruisers aboard Chrokeva doing their projects and walking the dogs but not a whole lot of other activities. The liveaboard residents of Pete’s are usually off and away–at work, or doing other things related to their lives here in the area. This morning, industry is all around us as people wash their boats, put away stacks of things that have been sitting on their decks, doing all they can to make their boats more presentable. Some boats are going on the market, others are being primped so that photos may be taken and the boat presented to the management of different area marinas. We’ve heard that a nearby marina owner is walking the docks at Pete’s because he’s received a stack of applications from tenants here.

In any case, there’s a lot more than the typical activity happening right now at Pete’s Harbor. Buttercup, sitting in the parking lot, seems to know that something’s amiss. I’ll post an update on Buttercup’s desires to remain the center of attention at another time. For David and me, Buttercup’s woes are on hold while we focus on getting the insides of Mahdee’s foredeck bulwarks covered in a few more coats of varnish before the cooler fall weather sets in. This was supposed to be my task of the last week–but high winds and chilly days made varnishing a bit too risky an activity. This week is supposed to be wonderfully perfect: not to cold, not too warm, and just the right amount of sunshine here in Redwood City. Onwards.

Pete’s Harbor Marina Being Shut Down By Development

Posted on by under History, living aboard, Pete's Harbor

Oh so sad. This lovely little spot that we’ve spent the past couple months nestled into Smith Slough is about to become just a part of a typical California condo complex. No more colorful liveaboard boats, no more interesting cruisers passing through. So very, very sad. Links: Pete’s  Harbor Official Website Pete’s Harbor Twitter, Save Pete’s Harbor

Pete's Harbor
photo: donjd2 (hosted by flickr)

Even though David and I are just passing through ourselves and aren’t as negatively impacted by this marina closure as the boaters who are from this area, we’re very sad to see the dissolution of this marina community. The original fellow, Pete Uccelli, who founded the marina (in the late 50’s and ’60’s) literally came in and made something from nothing–creating a marina, boatyard, restaurant, and boating community that was very unique and fun. Over the years, the boatyard was shutdown, the once well-respected restaurant changed hands and became less popular, the property values increased, and finally Pete decided to try and cash in on his hard work and long term investment. For over a decade, various attempts to develop the property have been stymied by their grand scale being out of touch with the local community’s vision for development of the environmentally sensitive waterfront property. Visions do change though: Activists only fight for so long–they die or move on–and one-by-one the impediments to the development of this property have been stripped away so that now the stars have lined up in the developers’ favor for getting rid of the small harbor community and putting in those nicely profitable condos. Mr Uccelli passed away a few years ago but his family remains running the little marina. For them, the sale and development of the property is a great thing. Pete and his family’s commitment and hard work is resulting in an impressive financial success that they will benefit from and that they can be really proud of.

The character of Pete’s Harbor isn’t deemed important enough to retain by the developers–the little Italian references, the look and feel of the place? Not desired by the developers or the local city planners it seems. It seems that they’d like to strip away all that and start anew–during the architectural review meeting earlier in the week, the architects actually referred to the “cape cod influences” and the east coast waterfront feel of some of the new buildings. While the character of the place will change, a marina will remain here–but the slips will be for the use of the residents of the newly developed property, not the general boating public. For the liveaboard and the other boaters who will be forced to leave the marina, this is a devastating moment. For the nearby Bay area marinas to absorb more than 200 boats with more than half of them liveaboards–that’s just huge. It is probably not possible in just these few short months between now and the marina’s projected closure in January 2013. Because some of the boats are in such a state of disrepair, some people will be losing their boats–and homes–because there is nowhere for them to go. They must be in good shape to enter other marinas.

Yes, we are travelers. We do have places to go, things to see and do. But I feel like crying. I wasn’t ready to leave yet. We’re very, very sad to know that this community of boaters here at the intersection of Smith Slough and Redwood Creek is being ripped apart and thrown away. I can only say that I feel lucky to have been able to briefly experience this nice little community called Pete’s Harbor.

In the USA, one by one these wonderful marinas like Pete’s are disappearing simply because the land values for residential development bowl over the public good that can be provided by marinas like Pete’s Harbor. It is too bad that the marina and property wasn’t offered for sale by the Uccelli family to the tenants for cooperative development, but it is very realistic to assume that not many marina tenants would have the resources or interest in becoming involved in such a venture anyway. As travelers, we rely on the ability to anchor or to rent slips in marinas open to the public–like Pete’s. We are always saddened to see a marina like this go “private” because it reduces the ability of people who do not own waterfront property from having their own boat and using it.

In the “here and now” we’re tied, by projects, family, and health matters, to the area until at least the marina’s projected closure date. As cruisers, the idea of transiting the Pacific Coast to the North during the winter months is a poor one. Similarly, though the Bay area offers some of the best anchorages on the US West Coast, we’re not particularly enthused about using them during winter storms. We’ll remain in the area though, at least until late spring-early summer time frame when the weather clears for more travels along the coast.

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