Some Refuse To Leave Pacifica Apartments On Crumbling Cliff

PACIFICA (CBS SF) -- While residents living at a Pacifica apartment complex on the brink of a crumbling cliff were given an ultimatum to move out, on Tuesday some people still didn't want to leave despite the danger.

The apartment buildings are teetering on a cliff's edge along Esplanade Avenue. City officials ratified a state of emergency Monday night, hours after 20 more people were told to leave.

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Monday evening's emergency order to yellow tag the Esplanade Avenue apartment complex resulted in moving trucks parked outside all day Tuesday, ushering people and their belongings away from danger.

"We used to go to the rail there, but then it started caving in, remembered Pacifica resident Garth Weaman. So they put this safety barrier here and then now it's starting to crumble at both ends rapidly."

Moving trucks were in and out of the area all morning. But despite the city's warnings, some people like Michelle Mackay were refusing to leave.

"Yes, I'm staying. I'm absolutely staying," said Mackay. "The buildings, like we've said before, next door have way more damage and they're still standing after 5 years. So to displace 20 families and all their animals is ridiculous."

Mackay insists there hasn't been any further damage since New Year's Eve and notes that people in the neighborhood can't afford to move.

"We're living paycheck to paycheck and month to month. We just don't have it and there's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to go," she said.

The recent El Nino storms have sped up the decades-long erosion of the cliffs. The area apartment buildings aren't the only victims.

Another house just behind a neighborhood Safeway store has been yellow tagged, and the RV Park nearby is getting smaller.

They've already had to cut down the number of spaces available for rent and they had put up a safety fence. The erosion has now eaten away at the cliff right up to the fence.

"They're going to have to pull the fence back 7 to 10 feet," said Robert Evans, Jr. of Pacifica. "Hopefully, Mother Nature doesn't take any more for a while."

A little further down Palmetto Avenue at the Rex Center, the puppies in training can no longer walk to the back parking lot.

"It's gone. It's in the ocean. You can see it and you see all the asphalt down there," said Pacifica resident Joy Greer-Walker. "That's if you're brave enough to peer over the side."

To Weaman, living on the ocean was a dream come true. Before he moved into the complex on Esplanade Avenue, he was homeless. Now his dream is deteriorating beneath him.

"Every day, a little sand, as you look over the cliffs, you see it falling," said Weaman.

This is the third apartment building on this street to be deemed uninhabitable because of the eroding cliff.