IN THE ENCINITAS CIVIC CENTER POINSETTIA ROOM, AT CITY HALL.
The City is planning a project to construct roadway improvements, including curb, gutter and sidewalk as well as landscaped planters at several locations, along the west side of No. Coast Highway 101 from North Court northward to approximately Jupiter Avenue.
This is a very important meeting. Please take the time to come with your ideas for our 101 corridor.
Previous related blog post:
Leucadia!: Rubber Sidewalks Anyone?
Leucadia!: Must Be Nice
Leucadia!: Squeaky Wheel Gets Sidewalks
Leucadia!: $900,000 for Leucadia Improvements? Sweet!
I like these paver style crosswalks. Can we have some of those?
I think the sidewalks will be great and will make Leucadia more walkable. Leucadia is best enjoyed out of a car. I hope they put some cool design cast in the surface like waves or shells. At least make them colored or give them some character. Anything but the crappy looking narrow sidewalks that Carlsbad and San Diego build. Go and be heard. Thanks JP. Lets see how many people actually give a shit and show up.
ReplyDeleteWhat developer will benefit monetarily from the new sidewalks? Or will the Planning Commission OK the demolition of the sidewalks when the properties are developed?
ReplyDeleteThe downtown city streetscape that cost 5 million dollars included the rock walls that line both sides of 101. The big condo project at the corner of 101 and Encinitas Blvd. has Planning Commission approval to demolish part of the wall taxpayers paid for from the general fund. When you pass that corner, just remember that your tax dollars helped that poor developer max out his property.
They could put pigment in the sidewalks, at very little cost, to give the cement color. The business owners could pay for the cost of colored cement, that is, the difference in cost, which should be minimal.
ReplyDeleteThere are already sidewalks beginning just north of North Court, by the way, for the block beginning after the Panikin, starting with the Roadhouse.
Many sections of Leucadia already have sidewalks. Connecting the broken links would be a very good thing. Last month I saw a couple having a hard time trying to push a stroller through one of the bumpy dirt parts. If Leucadia is linked and walkable it will attract pedestrians who will shop and dine. Pedestrians will attract more cool small business. There should be something cool and interesting on every block of coastal Leucadia.
ReplyDeleteDalger wants the sidewalks to have shapes and colors associated with lawnmowers. This will keep Leucadia funky.
ReplyDeleteI heard that Dalger, Stocks and Bond wanted a walk of fame, like hollywood, where they can leave their handprints along with a large star.
ReplyDeleteThis would go along with the new library and fire mcmansions. Let's not forget the public works yard.
What developer will benefit?- None.
ReplyDeleteWhat local business and resident will benefit?- All.
Paranoia big destroya!
Try and look for the good in life and to make Leucadia safe for pedestrians and improve our community. I am sick of Leucadia acting being an asphalt driveway for Carlsbad.
What devil will benefit from improving leucadia? Oh my god, not more people strolling on foot looking at art. That would be horrendous!
Skitzos come and say your piece tonight and we'll all laugh are your silliness. I look forward to the logical useful comments to better Leucadia and thank all that come tonight.
Think happy thoughts.
ReplyDeletePut in the sidewalks. But residents should be aware that the work isn't necessarily for their benefit. Make the developers pay for those improvements. That money can then be put back into the community.
ReplyDeletePlease come and have your creative ideas heard. The word "interum" sidewalks could keep the city from using any creativity in this project. Just concrete and curb. Some areas would be better served with pathways similar to the ones that are at Cottoncreek Park. Lets not settle for status quo because of the word "interum". My experience is "interum" in Leucadia could mean 30+ years. Bring your ideas with you tonight.
ReplyDeleteBitter angry people please stay home.
ReplyDeleteI'll be there, notebook in hand, and will write a nice report for ya JP. I already attended a meeting concerning the sidewalks with some of the Leucadia Town Council members and some of the Planning guys. Two of these Planning droids were pugnacious, and utterly disinterested in any of our suggestions. So tonight should be verrrrrry interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe Longboard Grotto had a dangerous section of sidewalk for years in front of the store and the city would not fix it until a tourist tripped and injured herself on it.
ReplyDeleteMary: Watch out for Kerry Kusiak. He will cut your throat and smile while doing it. Thanks for going and giving those of us yu cannot attend a real picture of the meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of sidewalks in Leucadia has never made much sense. There are third world countries with sidewalks on their main drags. There are villages in Indonesia with better sidewalks than Leucadia has.
ReplyDeleteSidewalk History 101
ReplyDeleteWho Came Up With That Brilliant Idea, Anyway?
Did you know sidewalks, of a sort, existed in Roman times if not before? In Pompeii, they built elevated stone walkways alongside the streets, where honorable citizens could stroll at their leisure, safe from hurrying legionnaires and chariots, unsoiled by spattered mud. The Romans even built covered walkways.
It wasn't until the late 18th Century, however, that urbanites came up with the concept of the "curb." The first curbed pedestrian walkway was fashioned in London in 1765. (Overseas colonists must have laughed at the notion of such delicate haughtiness.) Citizens and aldermen in other locales saw the obvious advantage of having a passageway designated for pedestrians extending parallel to a main thoroughfare. Naturally, street performers—jugglers, mimes, minstrels, magicians—soon set up shop on sidewalks, where they had a guaranteed audience of passersby. So did muggers and pickpockets.
By 1893, inventors were experimenting with moving sidewalks. Except in airports, that idea hasn't survived into the 21st Century.
While sidewalks are common and important today, they'd become something of a declining trend in America by the mid to late 1900s. Most American families owned vehicles. To save time (and effort), they began going everywhere—even very short distances—by car. Recognizing that fewer and fewer citizens were walking around town, municipal leaders committed fewer and fewer dollars to developing or even maintaining sidewalk systems.
Still, sidewalks remain somewhat in vogue, in part because of a few folks' applied interest in basic exercise and energy conservation. Many newer walkway projects are virtual tourist attractions, combining beauty and scenery with functionality. For sure, the separation of walkers and joggers from vehicles, as the Romans learned, makes for safer cities.
"But residents should be aware that the work isn't necessarily for their benefit."
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?
If you develop a walkable Leucadia with safe attractive sidewalks and experiances along the route that are memeroble, the primary benificiary will be the RESIDENTS to the west and the east of hwy 101.
Downtown Encinitas represented well with a historic grid pattern and a traditional material used in the era of when most of the buildings went up, grey concrete.
Leucadia needs to represent itself with uniqeness and color as an artisitc and somewhat funky community.
I suggest an intregal color and light stamping or an acid stain.
The new County animal shelter of Palomar Airport Rd. used stained concrete on all there exterior flatwork and the lumberyard has had stained concrete in their center courtyard for years.
Both of those locations get intense traffic andf the stain holds up really well.
Have fun with it and avoid what was done in downtown. Works well for them but not Leucadia
As far as I know, no one has any intention of going to the meeting and being bitter and angry. However, some people who work at City Hall are the ones who are bitter and angry.
ReplyDeleteI was just up at the Animal shelter and the concrete there is drop dead gorgeous, especially inside-it's all shiny.
my bad...it was the Public Works employees we met with,not the Planning
ReplyDeleteA sidewalk that eventually extended the length of Leucadia would be very cool with an inside edge composed of handprints/footprints/imprints of all Leucadia residents interested in doing so.
ReplyDeleteLimit your input to 6" x 12" blocks. For a modest donation to a beautification fund. I could see people lined up as the concrete finishers released the next 20 feet available for imprints.
Let's make it our own and special, not just colored or textured, that can be done anywhere.
thanks for the excellant comments from Sidewalk History 101 and pedestrian Advocate.... I think Leucadia has hope of being more than just a asphalt dragstrip for HW101 Angle.
ReplyDeleteWalking Leucadia is a little like river rafting, one way only. Not like downtown Encinitas that provides a natural loop.
ReplyDeleteMost people "strolling" the sidewalk in Leucadia will have to backtrack. Because of that, maybe names and handprints on both edges would be better.
I really like the stain and the hand idea!
ReplyDeleteWhatever is done, no plain jane San Elijo hills siewalks for Leucadia!
Those are good ideas. I'd like to see some more of those cool art tile trash cans along the way.
ReplyDeleteCurbing was created to prevent the excrement and urine that people threw into the streets from flowing back into their homes.
ReplyDeleteTile trash cans look stupid and hand prints in the concrete is for kindergardeners!! Do it at your homes if you want, leave the sidewalks (if they ever come to existance)alone. Keep it clean and simple!!
Amazing how Leucadians always have a plan for "character" modification!!
KEEP IT CLEAN AND SIMPLE!!!
Staggering down the 101 hoping for some curbing so when I puke in the street it doesn't wash back onto my shoes, it your RSPB!!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI like the cool tile trash cans. The show local art work and look much better than the generic crappy ones you can order from Garage can suppliers. Do the art tiles for all future trash cans. I also like the idea of nice sidewalks in Leucadia.
ReplyDeleteSometimes RSB is for sidewalks. Sometimes he is against them.
ReplyDeleteMake up your mind RSB.
Okay, folks-here it is in a nutshell. If ya'll want anything "creative", go directly to the City Council.
ReplyDeleteThese Public Works guys have been directed to do a specific job and they are just following orders and have a budget assigned to this sidewalk project. They are not PAID to be creative and from what I saw at this workshop, the less they have to think about, the better.
Not that I don't appreciate the time set aside to invite the public to participate; think it's very noble, but these workshops seem to be orchestrated to let people blow off steam because, really, these City employees can't guarantee anything and they cannot make monetary changes in plans. They don't have the authority.
The meeting started at 6:07pm.
There were 21 people in attendance, which is pretty good.
Tom Curriden told us that in Jan. 2006, the City Council had a "Goal Setting" agenda and high priority were the improvements to Leucadia from A Street to La Costa Ave. at a cost of 3.2 million. While we're waiting for THAT to happen, "interim sidewlks" are scheduled for Spring 2007. Tom used the word, "cost effective" twice-the $400,000 is what they are allowed to spend and "We can't stray too far".
Someone asked for a time frame. "Planship", sez Tom. That's a new word for me to decipher. Then the same person asked,"Is anything planned like colored concrete or texture?" Tom said they plan on using grey concrete and since they are "filling in gaps to exisitng improvements", (that's OLD sidewalks to you and me,) they want to avoid a hodgepodge of too many designs. Wouldn't want anyone to get dizzy walking the walk down Leucadia, would we? Different colored concrete and different textures...? How tacky! Ow, my head hurts thinkin' about it!!!
Another person asked, "Will this be done, then torn up when the Streetscape is finally here?"
"That's the way we have to do it", replied Tom, "We have to get the most bang for the buck". He added, "We just don't know how and when the permanent sidewalks will be done. Maybe 2010".
I guess the money is "budgeted" to 2010. Another new word, and another thought: will a lot of us be alive to enjoy this Streetscape by the time it happens?
There were people who own a business voicing their concern about the time frame involved in this project, like if it happens in summer, they'll be , well, SCREWED. A lot of us are living paycheck to paycheck and if the guy at Sub Palace can't sell any food for two weeks, he's in deep doo doo. Tom was giving them vague answers and they weren't buying it. "This would be disasterous if done in the summer", said one man; "We don't expect the "downtown treatment",(a sly reference to downtown Encintias, I surmised).
The moment I was waiting for was a Leucadia Town Council board member
who wants to use permeable concrete, which I think is great. He's done all this research and there are very sophisticated and fabluous patterns that can be utilized with this material. Plus, it would help the rain water absorb more slowly into the soil, thus helping the flooding problem along Hwy 101. I myself went on Google and found that many cities across the USA have had positive results using this concrete. The response from Tom and his sidekick Roger Somebody was lukewarm, AS USUAL.
WE have permeable concrete walkways and a parking lot at Cottonwood Creek. Roger Somebody was worried though. "We have to maintain it several times a year." Yeah, like sidewalks all over the world dont' have to be hosed down and cleaned every couple of weeks if needed? Gimme a break!!!!
Anyway, there were a few more comments and the workshop ended, mercifully, at 6:52pm. I learned a lot of new words!
1. PLANT PALETTE-that means "landscaping"
2. GRADE DIFFERENTIAL-that means the street is higher than the door to a business-or visa versa, right?
3.ADA COMPLIANT-that means we get to have a buncha ugly newspaper stands anywhere to preserve our 1st Amendment Rights.. within code limitations,of course, and without undue influence. Right.
You can't make this stuff up.
I'm not pissed off anymore so you citizens are stuck with me again. I blame being Irish for all of my good and not so good qualities
ReplyDeleteAnyway, more to the point. Again, thank you Mary for your wonderful reporting. I am glad J.P has this blog, as I am pretty sure the NTimes or U.T. wouldn't give us as much information as you do. I happen to like the sidewalks we put in Cardiff. We sold each slab for $50.00. A person(s) or company could then put their name, art or whatever on them. They go straight up Birmingham from San Elijo. I think they look cool, but I am sure other ways would be as interesting. Colors would definitely be nice. We seem to live in such a drab, colorless society, where bright blues, violets, etc. are just not acceptable. Leucadia is is the art capital of Encinitas, IMHO, therefore, I think you artists could come up with really wonderful sidewalks. Sneak them in in the dead of night and then let the City rip them out if they don't like them. Sometimes it is just better to do it and ask later. Of course, I don't condone anything illegal!
Thank the people that donated to the sidewalks on Birmingham. However, they are ugly, ugly, ugly.
ReplyDeleteIt was done by private people and not the city. So, you get what you pay for.
Better than the sand in the desert.
Yeah!!! Dr. Lorri is posting again!!! I 'll have a beer or 12 to celebrate that she back and in good spirits.... for now!!
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm always for sidewalks, makes for better puking!!
To celebrate M Fleener and her desires for texture and variation on the new (proposed) sidewalks I'll puke and then draw a flower in the muck afterwards!!
JP lighten up will you!! I'm just pointing out that happy surfers buying burritos are the engine that keeps the economy rolling!! Hell I'm glad surfers only eat half their burritos, leaves more for me!!
Bob, what no coments on sidewalks?? Commom now, tell us how evil manmade structures are destroying our little slice of heaven!!
Staggering down the 101 waiting to puke on the new sidewalks.
Thanks Mary. That was excellent coverage. And I couldn't attend, either, so I'm glad to know what went on.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted to see Dr. Lorri back, and I agree with her comments. The sidewalks in Cardiff are swell, and they engendered community involvement, encourage creativity, and diversity.
I disagree with osama on this. The people in Cardiff paid for their own, and they got something servicable, a community project that included business owners and property owners, alike. That sounds great to me.
When we demand that the City pick up all of the costs, then we are much more limited. I believe sponsorship is a good idea, like they do to clean up sections of the highways, or freeways. Also, the idea of putting pigment in the slabs, by mixing it in with the concrete sounds good to me. I've seen this done in building patios, etc, in Mexico, and it's bright, a welcome splash of color. Who cares if we have different colors along the way. I believe the rainbow look would be fine. The utilitarian purpose of allowing people to walk would still be served. This is not a gated community. We are not the Stepford Wives. We like diversity!
JP, I liked your previous comment about RSPB that you deleted. Oh, well. You are right, the trash cans with tiles are cool, too.
Correction- ...are NOT the engine that keeps the economy rolling.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that some people know of the post about me, but I don't. Oh well!!!
Let's express ourselves... sponsorship is fine but must have limits. Sponsoring to clean a freeway is one thing but you can't say how your going to clean that freeway nor what the freeway looks like(2,3, or 4 lanes) versus sponsoring a sidewalk that has various textures that some may find objectionable or non ADA compliant is another. The sidewalk in Cardiff is awful!! Just plain butt ugly!! Keep the sidewalks in Leucadia clean and simple!! Why do artists object to clean and simple! Ad Reinhart ( an artist!!) said " Less is more, more is less!!"
Staggering down the 101, knowing that less is more, except when it comes to beer, it's your RSPB!!
RSB, surfing is PART of the local economy not the entire thing.
ReplyDeleteSaturday there was a big swell and carloads of surfers were gearing up at all the local coffee/donut shops/taco stands, etc. I bet if the local merchants cross refrenced their sales receipts with the swell models we would find that good waves equals higher sales than opposed to flat days.
The entire Leucadia economy is supported by drunks like you and surfers like me. Maybe a walkable Leucadia will bring other shoppers in. Cheers.
YES!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf Leucadia's economy is from donuts, coffee and burritos it explains why it is so funky.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet there must be at least 50 dollars a week in sales tax on those goodies.
Lets put a car dealership in Leucadia that can really rack up the sales tax. Since San Diego doesn't want them maybe a walmart super store where the trailer park is at Cadmus and Vulcan. Now we are talking real economic engines. And we can save 2,000 a year in the cost of groceries.
Maybe I should run for city council instead of Grand Ayatollah for all Sunnis.
No Sales tax on donuts.
ReplyDeletePete Wilson tried, it was called the snack tax.
right up there with the proc c idea.
Ha Ha Proc c
ReplyDeleteoops, Prop c, butt I like proc C better!
Yeah, and most of the little business are cash only.
ReplyDeleteHey, there already are car dealerships in Leucadia!
What about all the little motels?
And restaurants?
Record stores, boutiques?
There is tax revenue getting collected in Leucadia, and improvements will increase that revenue.
Remember, downtown Encinitas was gimpy until the streetscape program.
You can help increase tax revenue in Leucadia by buying a tiki for your loved ones this Christmas.
Walkable communities are a good thing, a very good thing. Sidewalks done right benefit everyone. Trails throughout Leucadia would be nice too.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the city should save money,and scrap the idea of interim sidewalks, and just do it right, once, in 2010. Merchants have waited this long, why not wait another 3 years.
AutoNation bought Harloff BMW.
ReplyDeleteTo celebrate the return to the blog of Dr. Lorri and all the hard work the JP does here for us bloggers ( and because I scored a major bottle of Christmas hooch) I the RSPB am going to say only nice things about everyone and Leucadia at least until the new year, I am even going to be nice to BOB,( that won't be easy). Happy New Year BOB!!!
ReplyDeleteStaggering down the 101 , hoping I don't spill a drop of my Christmas hooch, It's your RSPB!!