After Pacifica Pier Damage, Bay Area Leaders Urge Trump to Restore Aid

“We need to save this pier,” Liccardo said in front of the dilapidated structure. “We need to do all that we can to protect Pacifica and our coast side.”

“It turns out the climate doesn’t care whether or not we believe in climate change,” he continued. “If we do not act, the ocean will always win the battle over coastal erosion.”

For Gordon Prescott, who attended the Chit Chat Cafe’s opening ceremony in 1973, its closure is devastating.

“We were two of the kids waiting in line when they cut the ribbon,” Prescott said. “It’s kind of like losing an old friend.”

In a June 12 letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Liccardo said that, although the agency has short-listed the project under the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, the city has not been awarded funding because FEMA halted the program. But after a federal judge ordered the agency to make the funding available, FEMA reopened applications for the resilience grant program in March.

Liccardo wrote that the project is undergoing environmental and historical preservation reviews, and that FEMA could then process the application for the award. He also asked the administration for an extension on a project to strengthen a nearby eroding bluff, where waves and erosion had forced the city to tear down three apartment buildings.

“It’s unfortunate that Pacifica has lost valuable time on a project that would prevent exactly the damage that occurred at the pier last week,” Liccardo wrote.

He also announced new bipartisan legislation, the “Ounce of Prevention” Act, a bill that Liccardo said would allow state and local governments to use Community Development Block Grants for disaster preparedness — not just after a catastrophe.

The Pacifica City Council last week unanimously voted to declare a local state of emergency around the pier. It is also seeking a state of emergency from the governor and help from the state.

Currently, the city is working to stabilize the pier by adding 150 boulders at the pier’s seawall connection. After that work is finished, City Manager Sean Charpentier said Pacifica will consider two options: bracing the pier from below with a pylon or removing it from the seawall to stabilize the first section of the structure.

“Construction in the coastal zone is very complicated, and we don’t have a time frame for when that would begin right now,” Charpentier said.

Charpentier said that even before the most recent damages, the pier alone would cost around $21 million to fix. The sea wall regularly fails throughout the year, allowing waves to crash over the structure and flood Beach Boulevard. The city’s sea wall project, the Beach Boulevard Infrastructure Resiliency Project, would cost more than $80 million.

Pacifica Mayor Christine Boles said she hopes the administration reinstates funding so the city can move forward with a plan to rebuild the seawall. She fears that as seas continue to rise, Pacifica’s coastal issues will only worsen.

“We in Pacifica are the canary in the coal mine for the increasing effects of a warming ocean,” Boles said. “Sea level rise, coastal erosion, and flooding are already here.”

Boles said the city is beginning to define a community vision for the changing coastline and potential solutions. It will likely hold community listening sessions this fall. But still, she noted, the city needs outside help.

“Individual cities cannot address these massive global climate threats on our own,” Boles said. “The state and federal government need to bring significantly higher amounts of financial support.”

Meanwhile, locals are still reeling from the Chit Chat Cafe’s teardown.

“My husband Brandon and I are still in shock,” said Ginger Davis, one of the cafe’s owners. “We all knew that the pier had seen better days, but none of us expected it to end like this.”

The community has raised more than $30,000 for the couple through a GoFundMe page.

Pacifica resident Lilia Bae Cadotte spent many early mornings fishing off the pier. She said she would like the city to reopen it as soon as possible.

“The Pacifica Pier is not just a pier,” Cadotte said. “She’s a home. She’s the gate that unlocks many doors for many people … and it is a source that provides us food.”