Mandelman looks to ‘solve’ homelessness
New supervisor works hard to learn the system during August recess
In the basement of a homeless youth facility on a recent afternoon, Rafael Mandelman, one of San Francisco’s newest supervisors, sat at a table with several young adults whose personal stories weren’t far off from his own.
Many had left their own families and spent months — some of them, years — shuttling from place to place until, finally, someone gave them a chance. The supervisor, who himself moved from home to home as a child, listened carefully as each shared how they ended up at Larkin Street Youth Services. After about 30 minutes, he finally spoke.
“So I just got on the Board of Supervisors a month ago, and everyone in San Francisco is talking about home-
dream better than surfing — riding the waves of opportunity and living in harmony with nature.”
The language of the bill, co-authored by Majority Leader Ian Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), paid tribute to surfing’s Polynesian and Hawaiian roots, but said the sport — to say nothing of the distinctive lingo that comes with it — has become an integral part of California culture since it was introduced more than a century ago.
“Obviously as a high school surf coach I’m pretty thrilled,” said Mike Wallace, surf coach at Half Moon Bay High School. “I would hope this legislation would put the stamp on what California represents in terms of environmental standards and open access. It’s a hearty endorsement of the California ideals that we hold dear.”
The law said the surfing industry has been an economic boon to the state. It is the center of the surfboard building industry and home of the Surfers’ Hall of Fame and the International Surfing Museum, both in Huntington Beach (Orange County), and the California Surf Museum in Oceanside (San Diego County). The science of surf forecasting was invented at the University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, and the neoprene wetsuit was invented in the Bay Area, the bill’s authors said.
Aside from surfing’s many contributions to the English language, the authors said practitioners of the sport have spearheaded environmental protection along the 1,100 miles of California coastline, including the famous surf breaks at Mavericks in San Mateo County, Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, Rincon in Santa Barbara, Malibu in Los Angeles County, Huntington in Orange County and Trestles in San Diego County.
“California’s surfing culture is taking a national and global leadership role in promoting sustainability,” the bill said. Surfers have worked to “preserve the ocean, waves, coastline, and wildlife that make the state such a unique place to surf, live, and visit.”
The bill also pointed out the connection these famous surfing spots have to American Indians, including the Ohlone Indians, who lived for thousands of years along the rugged coastline where surfers come from far and wide to test their mettle at Mavericks.
“These indigenous people continue to live in these ancestral homelands today and have embraced the sport of surfing in these areas,” the bill’s authors wrote.
“Growing up surfing not only had a significant impact on who I am as a person,” Calderon said, “but also taught me at a young age to appreciate and cherish our beautiful coastline that we are so fortunate to have here in California.”