PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 29, N0. 2
JAN. 9, 2015
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
.com THE VISTA NEWS
.com While it’s rare to see gray whales breeching off the coast of San Diego, calm weather and an early migration has made their spouts a common sight recently. Photo by Merrill Gosho
RANCHO SFNEWS
Gray whales more .com visible from shore
The shape of things to come Scott Sherwood has shaped surfboards numbering well into the tens of thousands during the 23 years he’s been at it. Though growing up, shaping boards was never a thought in his mind. See the full story on page B1. Courtesy photo
Inauthentic users a flaw in online civic platform By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — Just a month after the city launched its online civic engagement platform eTown Hall, the city posted a topic on the online forum asking residents to name their favorite type of public art. Between July 30 and Aug. 24, the city received feedback from residents Derek Smalls, James Darmody, Arthur Vandelay and Vernon Wormer. There was one problem. These people don’t exist. The dubious posts are the type that proponents of the city’s online platform — which it has used to collect all the feedback it will use to develop its draft Housing Element plan — said would be weeded out by the system’s fail safes. Critics, however, argue that these breaches are yet another example of a system that they believe has a number of flaws. E-Town Hall is an on-
With Encinitas’ use of a new online platform to encourage more public engagement, but some critics argue that the system has a number of flaws, including inauthentic users. Photo by Tony Cagala
line forum that allows residents to post comments and opinions on city-generated topics. It is powered by Berkeley-based Peak Democracy, which has devel-
oped similar civic engagement platforms for about 80 cities across the country. Supporters have argued that eTown Hall provides people who can’t
make it to public meetings an opportunity to weigh in on topics from their own homes, giving them a voice. The system’s creators say they have gone to great lengths to create a system that authenticates users to ensure that no one is manipulating the outcome of a survey with multiple posts from a single user. One of the ways is requiring users provide their names and addresses. In the case of the four posts during the summer, the names given were fictional characters. “Arthur Vandelay” is the name of a character on the sitcom “Seinfeld,” “Derek Smalls” a fictional character in the spoof rockumentary “This is Spinal Tap,” “Vernon Wormer” is the chief antagonist in the 1978 movie “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” and James Darmody is a character in the HBO TURN TO ETOWN HALL ON A14
Weather conditions may account for increase in sightings By Ellen Wright
REGION — Over the past few weeks, the spray from migrating gray whales has been a popular sight on the coastline. While it may seem like there are more whales than usual, they’re actually just easier to see, according to Wayne Perryman, program leader for the Marine Mammal and Turtle Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. “It’s an above average year for calm days and when it’s calm, you see so many more animals than you do when it’s rough,” Perryman said. It’s still too early in the season to tell if there are more whales migrating this year, Perryman said. Perryman said that each year the center does a survey to estimate the abundance of animals migrating southbound and they’re only about a third of the way through. He said it does seem like the whales have started their migration a little early. “It does give us the im-
pression that the migration might be a little early this year but we don’t know. We’ve only read a third of the book so we don’t know how it turns out,” Perryman said. The researchers watch passing whales at a research lab south of Carmel, Calif. Because the continental shelf is narrow there the whales are forced to migrate closer to the shore. Another factor that makes the whales easier to see is that a larger proportion of the whales are swimming closer to the beach, which Perryman said isn’t unusual. “There’s a natural variability in the location of the (migration) corridor,” Perryman said. The gray whale population doesn’t grow quickly, since mothers can only birth a calf once a year. “The population may be growing slowly but this certainly doesn’t represent some big jump in abundance. You only get to make gray whales once a year and it takes a long time for the whales to grow,” Perryman said. The population rebounded to about 20,000 since the mid-1900s, when TURN TO WHALES ON A14