Encinitas is a great place to live and work. The weather is the best. The people are the best. The resaturants are the best. The only downside is the city council who wants the city to change so they can reap more tax money allowing them to build more of their pet projects.
Yes, I really enjoyed the older pictures. Kind of sad, in a way to think of what was, and what is now.
I was just talking to my daughter. She can't bring our grandsons to Leucadia beaches because the lack of bathroom facilities. She knows of the problems we've had, personally, with the City, ongoing, for being singled out, unfairly, and inconsistently in context of what is going on citywide. She tells me she would move on, wouldn't have the strength to resist City's attempts to drive some people away.
This is not paranoia, folks; this is real, everyday life, for us. But we are praying for a change in Council, and a change in attitude, too, where basics, like toilet facilities comes before duplicative Skate Parks (we've got one at the YMCA, and a great pool there, too) swimming pools, and community service/teen center (we've got one of these off Balour, next to the Oak Crest Park.) We also do not need completely new fire stations to satisfy the petty egos of our self-aggrandizing City Council.
Please, let's keep the community character and charm of all of what has been incorporated as the City of Encinitas, including Leucadia, Cardiff, Old Encinitas, the New Encinitas Ranch, and old Village Park, as well as Olivenhein. City Council appears to think that it can wear us down. No, we will be here long after they are no longer Council Members. Do not let Council think that by staging a publicity, sound bite and video production campaign just before jetting off on a junket to Japan for more public relations, that we will not follow through on making our dissatisfaction and our need for change on Council and in Council's attitude a top priority.
We love kids, teenagers, too. But there was no reason for the captive audience at the last City Council Meeting to be forced to listen to each and all of the speeches of the many kids who want to be part of the Youth Commission. This could have been accomplished at a special meeting, a community forum, as could the certificates of appreciation for the humble, embarrassed sewer guys. Most of the "special presentations" are pure publicity, grandstanding, and Council slapping themselves on their backs, also trying to justify rate increases that are tied into paying for lease revenue bonds, and lack of monies for planned capital improvements in the General Fund.
Important City Business is now mainly conducted behind closed doors. These closed sessions never have any reportable action. The corrupt City Attorneys use loopholes to make most all of the "legal" decisions ahead of time. Voting is more of a formality.
Of course there can be no Council Meeting tonight, as there should be, right? Guerin and Bond are living it up on our taxpayer's dime, in Japan, along with their paid yes men and retiring fire chief. It is inexcusable to have so few Council Meetings, and for the ones that are held, such as last Wednesday's, to last until nearly midnight, 11:45 P.M.
I believe that there is only one corrupt City Attorney and his name is Glenn Sabine. His partner, Morrison, also helps, so I guess there are 2. Pretty sad. As Neil Young once said "I won't back down". That has to be our position as well. They can attempt to harass us, use their "special" tactics, or attempt to intimidate us, but if we stick together, we will be here long after they are gone forever from the Council, and hopefully out of Encinitas entirely. Orange County might be a good place for them,as they seem to enjoy urban sprawl.
Did you folks even check out the link to dumb angel. Great classic post cards and photos of how it used ta be. Love the Noah's Ark card. Reminds me of Juanita's in Sausalito when she was on the old ferry. The clean up the area folks in Sausalito finally forced her out to Fetters Hot Springs and the pink Fetters Hot Springs Hotel served her well, until the 'necks burnt her out one year. Had a big lawn around the place with every kind of old bathtub you could imagine for the "mineral baths".
There's bonds that benefit the citizens and then there redevelopment bonds that only benefit the developers and the fast food, fast gas, fast this and that big chains. If this was a Leucadia RDA bond issue I'd feel differently.
Can't go back in time but I don't want to fast forward the 101 corridor either.
I don't support a teen center(and neither does the sheriff's dept), or aquatic center, or skate park on the taxpayers dime. But grassy fields and a place for the moms to take the kids and the stroller, for seniors to play dominos or checkers under a tree, for a farmers market to set up in a small area two days a week is too much to pass up. Fire stations, don't know, won't take that tour til next week. They are going to reap much less tax money on 41 acres of park land than forty one acres of high density homes. Of course if you want more $ in the general fund, high density homes are the way to go. Sorry, but it's a fact. Make whoever is on the council spell out exactly what "Phase I" of the Hall property means and email them about what it should NOT mean. I'm going to keep pushing for the entrance coming in off the MacKinnon St bridge, it impacts the existing neighborhoods less. I'm going to keep pushing for the Public Works facility on the strip that borders the freeway because the noise/smell factors already exist there. It makes more sense to me to have the communities move up and down the city on the existing freeway to access the park and the public works trucks to do the same using the same MacKinnon St bridge. That's the way that some who sleep in Elfin Forest sometimes think.
And if you have never riden your bike from Elfin Forest to Escondido on Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove Rd. you have missed one of the few remaining scenic rides in San Diego County. And if you're the parent of a now teenager and you never went to the storybook pumpkin patch in Elfin Forest, you missed a treat.
Sorry Gil but do the math on the homes that could have been built on the Hall property. Remember that we did just that math on the homes that Ecke proposed via prop. A.
The figures will show that the services (including police and fire)required by the homes would cost more than the property taxes generated. Sad but true.
Moot point since it will be a park that will undoubtedly have a plaque with the names of Guerin and Daleger unless we get busy. Lets get busy.
I received my copy of Newsweek magazine (June 5, 2006) in today's mail. In a column Jonathan Alter say, "Politics is at its most invigorating when it's cacophonous and chaotic." A sincere thanks, J.P., for letting a thousand flowers bloom here.
Gil, you said "less tax $ on parkland than high density homes" but you forget, the soccer people are donating big time to those who will give them soccer fields 24/7 without paying for them. The soccer people make lots of $ and the fields cost more than any other "park" field to maintain. Check out what happened in Carlsbad. They did the research and found that the soccer people made lots of $ and wanted the fields from the city for free. When made to pay for the fields, they did because they had the $.
We need a change of thinking at city hall. This city council is looking at saddling our city with 30 yrs of additional debt for a couple of capital projects. One of those projects is tearing down and toally rebuilding from scratch 3 firehouses. These firehouses DO need to be upgraded but that is entirely different than totally rebuilding them. From time to time, our houses need to be upgraded but we do not tear them down and start all over again from scratch. Looking at the one at the corner of Birmingham & MacKinnon in Cardiff. They could remodel this one and add a second story. But instead the city pd $2,000,000 for the sloping land adjoining this firehouse so they could build a big new one costing (their estimate) $4,250,000, bringing the total cost of this one firehouse alone to $6,250,000. We need a change of thining at city hall.
And that proposed fire station is sited on some of the only land in the city that was zoned visitor-serving commercial but then no one objected about that but me. Same with the "contel" going in at the base of La Costa where Noah's Ark used to be. I didn't object to a hotel being built there, but rather to the substitution of high end condo type units instead of something a family with kids could afford to rent. Your mayor was there lobbying for the condo type units, myself and one other person were there along with the Sierra Club and two ladies from Solano Beach objecting that if this type of use was allowed on coastal visitor-serving land it would be like a fungus and spread up and down the coast until there were no more hotel/motels for the average people. Now the same company wants to convert the Hotel Del into the same type establishment. Tough for an old malcontent like me to get the commission's ear when you people send your mayor. But then maybe they didn't listen because I spend some nights in Elfin Forest and the two ladies were from Solano Beach. Where was everybody? Off in the haystacks fast asleep!
and corection...actually initially high density development does generate $ to the city. It is after the infrastructure put in by the developer shows signs of wear and tear that and needs to be maintained that it becomes an 1800. yearly burden on the city. But you knew that you were just testing me!!
Gil- I can't help feeling a little put off by your comments about "the rest of us", as if you are the only one attempting to make this a better place. I truly appreciate everything you have done, however, some of us are working on other things in the City to make changes. Just because we don't put it all on the blog, doesn't mean we aren't working too. I did visit the site JP mentioned and it was great. The pictures were wonderful. I have rescheduled some of my patients tomorrow so I can go down to City Hall and get some information about other matters important to all of us. There are many hard working people, retired and not retired(I am not retired) that have an interest in keeping Encinitas from becoming like Orange or Los Angeles County. I feel like you are reprimanding us as as a parent would to a child. We are all in this together. Some are vocal in different ways. Just letting you know how parts of your posts make me feel. Take it or leave it. Perhaps I am the only one feeling this way. Thank you for all that you do.
By the time it became apparent that the build out did not benefit the city long term, the two council members you elected, that lent their names to the Yes on A effort would have moved on to higher office with generous financial support from the victorous factions. The residents and outsiders like myself who love the city would have been left with more traffic, a further burden service sector, and broken promises. That's why I couldn't support my brother in agriculture. Someone had left a pod in his greenhouse and he had completely morphed into a developer.
I know that Dr lorri and no one appreciates it more than myself. If I thought I was the only one what chance would I have, none. There are many, many times I chide with tongue in cheek, sometime it causes people to go down to city hall the next day and get some answers for themselves. It's answers that shine light on neferous actions and the more people holding a light the more visible those actions are. There is nothing more real, more American than local politics. It is the real heartbeat of our country. And I know there are hardworking sincere dedicted members of the community. I have only to read some of the notes that came with the $10. donations on Prop A if I need reminding. I love the residents of this city, they are like no other on the coast and That is why we have a chance.
Yes, we were so sad, Gil, that Bossypants Mayor Guerin and Patrick Murphy, who will not work with us, as Director of Community Development, somehow got the Coastal Commission, just barely, to ignore it's staff recommendations.
As for Murphy, he cow-tows to Council and tells us, "We won't role over," when we try to amicably settle our problems, without litigation. No, the City gave Sabine & Morrison a bone, has paid them to harass us through frivolous litigation for over four years.
I hope the Coastal Commission got our letter, Gil. We have called and written them several times, some at your urging, re increasing the area that is to be included in the Negative Impact Declaration re environmental issues along our precious coast.
I don't know what Christy Guerin did to succor the Coastal Commission's favor. Maybe they fell for her fancy French Manicure. Who knows? We didn't have the luxury of flying up like our Bossy Mayor Guerin on her early spring junket to Monterey, again on taxpayer's dime. I don't want to continue to pay for her sleazy ways!
Christy Guerin has fooled a lot of people. But those who are paying attention are working as hard as we can for change.
We really should think about whether we deserve so much blame for not showing up and speaking out enough. Maybe what we are really guilty of is electing the wrong people.
It might be helpful to have some examples of how your speaking out has changed the direction the Council has taken. Let's be careful not to confuse going around speed bumps with destination changes.
Encinitas is a great place to live and work. The weather is the best. The people are the best. The resaturants are the best. The only downside is the city council who wants the city to change so they can reap more tax money allowing them to build more of their pet projects.
ReplyDeleteLooks kinda funky in the pictures.
ReplyDeleteNothing that a $23 million loan in the form of a bond wont fix!
Yes, I really enjoyed the older pictures. Kind of sad, in a way to think of what was, and what is now.
ReplyDeleteI was just talking to my daughter. She can't bring our grandsons to Leucadia beaches because the lack of bathroom facilities. She knows of the problems we've had, personally, with the City, ongoing, for being singled out, unfairly, and inconsistently in context of what is going on citywide. She tells me she would move on, wouldn't have the strength to resist City's attempts to drive some people away.
This is not paranoia, folks; this is real, everyday life, for us. But we are praying for a change in Council, and a change in attitude, too, where basics, like toilet facilities comes before duplicative Skate Parks (we've got one at the YMCA, and a great pool there, too) swimming pools, and community service/teen center (we've got one of these off Balour, next to the Oak Crest Park.) We also do not need completely new fire stations to satisfy the petty egos of our self-aggrandizing City Council.
Please, let's keep the community character and charm of all of what has been incorporated as the City of Encinitas, including Leucadia, Cardiff, Old Encinitas, the New Encinitas Ranch, and old Village Park, as well as Olivenhein. City Council appears to think that it can wear us down. No, we will be here long after they are no longer Council Members. Do not let Council think that by staging a publicity, sound bite and video production campaign just before jetting off on a junket to Japan for more public relations, that we will not follow through on making our dissatisfaction and our need for change on Council and in Council's attitude a top priority.
We love kids, teenagers, too. But there was no reason for the captive audience at the last City Council Meeting to be forced to listen to each and all of the speeches of the many kids who want to be part of the Youth Commission. This could have been accomplished at a special meeting, a community forum, as could the certificates of appreciation for the humble, embarrassed sewer guys. Most of the "special presentations" are pure publicity, grandstanding, and Council slapping themselves on their backs, also trying to justify rate increases that are tied into paying for lease revenue bonds, and lack of monies for planned capital improvements in the General Fund.
Important City Business is now mainly conducted behind closed doors. These closed sessions never have any reportable action. The corrupt City Attorneys use loopholes to make most all of the "legal" decisions ahead of time. Voting is more of a formality.
Of course there can be no Council Meeting tonight, as there should be, right? Guerin and Bond are living it up on our taxpayer's dime, in Japan, along with their paid yes men and retiring fire chief. It is inexcusable to have so few Council Meetings, and for the ones that are held, such as last Wednesday's, to last until nearly midnight, 11:45 P.M.
I believe that there is only one corrupt City Attorney and his name is Glenn Sabine. His partner, Morrison, also helps, so I guess there are 2. Pretty sad. As Neil Young once said "I won't back down". That has to be our position as well. They can attempt to harass us, use their "special" tactics, or attempt to intimidate us, but if we stick together, we will be here long after they are gone forever from the Council, and hopefully out of Encinitas entirely. Orange County might be a good place for them,as they seem to enjoy urban sprawl.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog link JP
ReplyDeleteDid you folks even check out the link to dumb angel. Great classic post cards and photos of how it used ta be. Love the Noah's Ark card. Reminds me of Juanita's in Sausalito when she was on the old ferry. The clean up the area folks in Sausalito finally forced her out to Fetters Hot Springs and the pink Fetters Hot Springs Hotel served her well, until the 'necks burnt her out one year. Had a big lawn around the place with every kind of old bathtub you could imagine for the "mineral baths".
There's bonds that benefit the citizens and then there redevelopment bonds that only benefit the developers and the fast food, fast gas, fast this and that big chains. If this was a Leucadia RDA bond issue I'd feel differently.
Can't go back in time but I don't want to fast forward the 101 corridor either.
I don't support a teen center(and neither does the sheriff's dept), or aquatic center, or skate park on the taxpayers dime. But grassy fields and a place for the moms to take the kids and the stroller, for seniors to play dominos or checkers under a tree, for a farmers market to set up in a small area two days a week is too much to pass up. Fire stations, don't know, won't take that tour til next week. They are going to reap much less tax money on 41 acres of park land than forty one acres of high density homes. Of course if you want more $ in the general fund, high density homes are the way to go. Sorry, but it's a fact. Make whoever is on the council spell out exactly what "Phase I" of the Hall property means and email them about what it should NOT mean. I'm going to keep pushing for the entrance coming in off the MacKinnon St bridge, it impacts the existing neighborhoods less. I'm going to keep pushing for the Public Works facility on the strip that borders the freeway because the noise/smell factors already exist there. It makes more sense to me to have the communities move up and down the city on the existing freeway to access the park and the public works trucks to do the same using the same MacKinnon St bridge.
That's the way that some who sleep in Elfin Forest sometimes think.
And if you have never riden your bike from Elfin Forest to Escondido on Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove Rd. you have missed one of the few remaining scenic rides in San Diego County. And if you're the parent of a now teenager and you never went to the storybook pumpkin patch in Elfin Forest, you missed a treat.
Sorry Gil but do the math on the homes that could have been built on the Hall property. Remember that we did just that math on the homes that Ecke proposed via prop. A.
ReplyDeleteThe figures will show that the services (including police and fire)required by the homes would cost more than the property taxes generated. Sad but true.
Moot point since it will be a park that will undoubtedly have a plaque with the names of Guerin and Daleger unless we get busy. Lets get busy.
I received my copy of Newsweek magazine (June 5, 2006) in today's mail. In a column Jonathan Alter say, "Politics is at its most invigorating when it's cacophonous and chaotic." A sincere thanks, J.P., for letting a thousand flowers bloom here.
ReplyDeleteGil, you said "less tax $ on parkland than high density homes" but you forget, the soccer people are donating big time to those who will give them soccer fields 24/7 without paying for them.
ReplyDeleteThe soccer people make lots of $ and the fields cost more than any other "park" field to maintain. Check out what happened in Carlsbad. They did the research and found that the soccer people made lots of $ and wanted the fields from the city for free. When made to pay for the fields, they did because they had the $.
We need a change of thinking at city hall.
ReplyDeleteThis city council is looking at saddling our city with 30 yrs of additional debt for a couple of capital projects. One of those projects is tearing down and toally rebuilding from scratch 3 firehouses. These firehouses DO need to be upgraded but that is entirely different than totally rebuilding them. From time to time, our houses need to be upgraded but we do not tear them down and start all over again from scratch. Looking at the one at the corner of Birmingham & MacKinnon in Cardiff. They could remodel this one and add a second story. But instead the city pd $2,000,000 for the sloping land adjoining this firehouse so they could build a big new one costing (their estimate) $4,250,000, bringing the total cost of this one firehouse alone to $6,250,000.
We need a change of thining at city hall.
And that proposed fire station is sited on some of the only land in the city that was zoned visitor-serving commercial but then no one objected about that but me. Same with the "contel" going in at the base of La Costa where Noah's Ark used to be. I didn't object to a hotel being built there, but rather to the substitution of high end condo type units instead of something a family with kids could afford to rent. Your mayor was there lobbying for the condo type units, myself and one other person were there along with the Sierra Club and two ladies from Solano Beach objecting that if this type of use was allowed on coastal visitor-serving land it would be like a fungus and spread up and down the coast until there were no more hotel/motels for the average people. Now the same company wants to convert the Hotel Del into the same type establishment. Tough for an old malcontent like me to get the commission's ear when you people send your mayor. But then maybe they didn't listen because I spend some nights in Elfin Forest and the two ladies were from Solano Beach. Where was everybody? Off in the haystacks fast asleep!
ReplyDeleteand corection...actually initially high density development does generate $ to the city. It is after the infrastructure put in by the developer shows signs of wear and tear that and needs to be maintained that it becomes an 1800. yearly burden on the city.
ReplyDeleteBut you knew that you were just testing me!!
Gil- I can't help feeling a little put off by your comments about "the rest of us", as if you are the only one attempting to make this a better place. I truly appreciate everything you have done, however, some of us are working on other things in the City to make changes. Just because we don't put it all on the blog, doesn't mean we aren't working too. I did visit the site JP mentioned and it was great. The pictures were wonderful. I have rescheduled some of my patients tomorrow so I can go down to City Hall and get some information about other matters important to all of us. There are many hard working people, retired and not retired(I am not retired) that have an interest in keeping Encinitas from becoming like Orange or Los Angeles County. I feel like you are reprimanding us as as a parent would to a child. We are all in this together. Some are vocal in different ways. Just letting you know how parts of your posts make me feel. Take it or leave it. Perhaps I am the only one feeling this way. Thank you for all that you do.
ReplyDeleteBy the time it became apparent that the build out did not benefit the city long term, the two council members you elected, that lent their names to the Yes on A effort would have moved on to higher office with generous financial support from the victorous factions. The residents and outsiders like myself who love the city would have been left with more traffic, a further burden service sector, and broken promises. That's why I couldn't support my brother in agriculture. Someone had left a pod in his greenhouse and he had completely morphed into a developer.
ReplyDeleteI know that Dr lorri and no one appreciates it more than myself. If I thought I was the only one what chance would I have, none. There are many, many times I chide with tongue in cheek, sometime it causes people to go down to city hall the next day and get some answers for themselves. It's answers that shine light on neferous actions and the more people holding a light the more visible those actions are. There is nothing more real, more American than local politics. It is the real heartbeat of our country. And I know there are hardworking sincere dedicted members of the community. I have only to read some of the notes that came with the $10. donations on Prop A if I need reminding. I love the residents of this city, they are like no other on the coast and That is why we have a chance.
ReplyDeleteYes, we were so sad, Gil, that Bossypants Mayor Guerin and Patrick Murphy, who will not work with us, as Director of Community Development, somehow got the Coastal Commission, just barely, to ignore it's staff recommendations.
ReplyDeleteAs for Murphy, he cow-tows to Council and tells us, "We won't role over," when we try to amicably settle our problems, without litigation. No, the City gave Sabine & Morrison a bone, has paid them to harass us through frivolous litigation for over four years.
I hope the Coastal Commission got our letter, Gil. We have called and written them several times, some at your urging, re increasing the area that is to be included in the Negative Impact Declaration re environmental issues along our precious coast.
I don't know what Christy Guerin did to succor the Coastal Commission's favor. Maybe they fell for her fancy French Manicure. Who knows? We didn't have the luxury of flying up like our Bossy Mayor Guerin on her early spring junket to Monterey, again on taxpayer's dime. I don't want to continue to pay for her sleazy ways!
Christy Guerin has fooled a lot of people. But those who are paying attention are working as hard as we can for change.
Gil,
ReplyDeleteWe really should think about whether we deserve so much blame for not showing up and speaking out enough. Maybe what we are really guilty of is electing the wrong people.
It might be helpful to have some examples of how your speaking out has changed the direction the Council has taken. Let's be careful not to confuse going around speed bumps with destination changes.