Birth of Foster City was a blessed event

“Locally, the attitude was pro growth,” he writes in his book, “The Development of Foster City.”

“It was not even a debate issue,” he said.

There were planning and zoning laws, of course, but “unlike today” there was no question of whether the land could be used, he wrote.

The environmental movement was still in its infancy, but it would soon grow rapidly with the creation of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which became law in 1965. Foster said that in celebration of the birth of the commission, a Sierra Club spokesman said, “We were too late to stop Foster City, but we’ll see that there are no others.” The Sierra Club official was “slightly wrong,” Foster continued, noting that the land that became Redwood Shores was “grandfathered” in from the act that created the BCDC in the same way Foster City was. Don’t take this as legal advice, but to me “grandfathering” means to exempt from a new law something that already exists.

There could be some more grandfathering in the works for the Peninsula. A petition is circulating to exempt Docktown, a collection of 70 houseboats on Redwood Creek, which supporters call “the original gateway to Redwood City.”

Docktown was formed before the BCDC and has been “around just as long as some other floating communities, say Mission Creek in San Francisco and Barnhill in Alameda, both of which were grandfathered,” said Docktown resident Lee Callister. Docktown has existed for more than 50 years so it should “simply be grandfathered,” reads a pamphlet circulated by backers of grandfathering, described as “allowing a long-standing use to continue that predates new policies and regulations.” I was close.

Back to Foster City, which was incorporated in 1971: The latest issue of The Journal of Local History, published by the Redwood City Library’s Archives Committee, has an interesting story about Foster City. Among other things, writer Joan Abrams reports there was a 1973 movie starring Matt Dillon about vandalism and unruly youngsters in a suburban enclave similar to Foster City. Called “Over the Edge,” the film cast Dillon as a 14-year-old. Although Foster City wasn’t named, everyone knew it was the inspiration because of a newspaper series that focused on that city’s troubles.

I’m not sure the movie was ever released, but the trailer speculated that adults were in such a hurry to “get out of the city they turned their kids into something that they were trying to escape.” The trailer sums up by saying the “kids were old enough to know better but too young to care.”

According to Abrams, the seed for the film was a San Francisco Examiner series called “Mouse Packs: kids of a crime spree.” Here’s a quote: “Last summer the Foster City Parks Department sponsored drop-ins at a junior high gymnasium. Within two months, the gym had been destroyed — pool table ripped, ping-pong tables broken.” The program was canceled.

Abrams noted that Foster City had a recent rash of vandalism. In June, vandals caused around $70,000 in damage to Sea Cloud Park, mainly graffiti, in at least four incidents. Abrams wondered if the “Over the Edge” problems had returned. She interviewed police Capt. Frank Derris who told her the recent crimes were not gang-related.

“Of the crimes that we have solved, it was done by either a single individual or a very small group,” he said.

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.