One of the cool things about the north Leucadia corridor is the eclectic mix of housing. Here we encounter the Leucadia Creek apartments, an old motel converted to full time housing.
Blogger sez: Some potted plants and/or a fresh coat of paint would really spruce this place up.
This is the kind of spot that would benefit from a streetscape program. It was dicey walking around this with cars, trucks, buses, hoards of lycra bikers and motorcycles zooming past.
*Someone mentioned in the comments section that very few people would ever walk the entire coastal stretch of Leucadia. To that I say, well...duh.
But the Sunday morning I shot these photos (Super Bowl Sunday to be exact) I was amazed by the number of pedestrians I saw. There were plenty of people out on the coast highway. There were couples taking a lazy stroll, people walking their dogs, surfers with their boards walking to the beach access points, groups of young moms pushing strollers, people jogging, etc. It became obvious that every block of Leucadia should be safe to walk down.
Leucadia!: Let's Tour North Leucadia (part 4)
Your are JP. There are plenty of people walking on all parts of the 101. I can't wait until you get the great pedestrian area between Daphne and Basil. AKA the "GAUNTLET" . I feel so warm and fuzzy walking this stretch with my BABY in the stroller!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are the bomb.
ReplyDeleteThank you for caring.
Amen JP!
ReplyDeleteThe century of the gas guzzling auto is behind us. Its time to get people walking a little more and loose some of their waist line. If that happens, diabetes may not become as common as brown eyes.
There is no way people should get in there car for a 3 block trip. But in Leucadia you currently have no choice. You’ll get gunned down by the speeding commuters because there are no safe walkways.
JP,
ReplyDeleteI think the comment about walking the whole stretch is a response to other comments like, "The century of the gas guzzling auto is behind us. ts time to get people walking a little more"
How many merchants on 101 would be happy if we took out all the parking on 101 and forced everyone to walk. Not many. It is a stupidfantasy. Most of the people that will eventually shop 101 will be coming from many blocks away from the 101 if not miles away. Better not purchase anything too big or buy more than a couple apples at just peachy if you are going to walk from Encinitas Ranch to Lecuadia 101. People in Olivenahain are going to starve or die from heart attacks.
If you want to live where people don't have cars move to New York or Vancover. Our geography is not going to set us up to allow the road blocking of all the roadways in town to force people to walk.
I'm not anti-car. A walkable Leucadia works different ways for different people. If you are a surfer from Carlsbad who drove down the coast to surf you want to walk to a breakfast place after surfing. If you are weekend or a day tourist you want to be able to walk down the coast and check out the little antique shops and stuff. If you are a resident of the corridor you want to be able to walk around your neighborhood, especially if you have kids. If you live in San Elijo Hills you want to come down to the coast on the weekend with your family, find a place to park and walk around and check out Leucadia.
ReplyDeleteIf all of coastal Leucadia is "walkable" and you live in the Leucadia Creek apartments then it would be cool if you could safely ride your beach cruiser down to Just Peachy Market without getting killed.
Where I live, I've got a nice little Urban-Lite existence where I can walk to the beach, market and restaurants. I can go an entire weekend without driving my car. Instead I walk/bike/skateboard around town. But that doesn't mean I'm going to sell my car.
I haven't heard of any plan to remove all the parking along the corridor to provide safe walkways for pedestrians. What is above anonymous talking about? I am a merchant on Hwy 101 and many times I have one person in a huge vehicle park in front of my store and walk to another location. People that visit my store from out of town enjoy parking in one location and being able to walk along the corridor and visit other stores and restaurants, something that they miss when speeding along the highway. I don't think that its unrealistic to believe that people will walk the entire corridor maybe even into Encinitas. Anonymous, get out and take a walk, its good for your health, and attitude.
ReplyDeleteWhat JP saw on superbowl sunday were people recreating. Make it safer and more pleasant and more people will recreate on 101. That is good for our town and good for biz. Will it drive up home values? It will. Some people think that is a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteWill making 101 more walkable reduce traffic? I doubt it. It is likely to increase traffic as now you have made Leucadia an even better destination!
Anybody know any examples of places LIKE LEUCADIA that have made similar infrastructure changes and traffic congestion went down?
To last anon,
ReplyDeletesome opposing points,
I think the #1 goal is for any neighborhood commercial district, or in the case of Leucadia, a traditional town center for the past 100 years, should be to provide services to the neighborhood.
Just about eveyone west of five has the opportunity to walk to Hwy 101 and purchase their supplies or personal service.
It would great if the folks who lived in this are would support this area, but that is hard to do at the moment because of very poor infrastructure.
In Downtown Encinitas, I think the best thing that has happened is that the people who live there are now supporting downtown, many of them by walking from their homes to the shops and restaraunts.
It used to be that you would go somewhere else because downtown sucked.
Of course others from inland Encinitas are welcomed and are the second most important demographic. It would be nice if they could take mass transit but that's not an option for most so the automobile needs to be accomodated, but in the proper perspective and priority.
Outside of Encinitas folks are welcome that want to visit and shop/dine in Leucadia, but we have the right to ask them to slow down and respect our neighborhoods.
In summary, take care of your own first, and make it safe and walkable (Leucadia residents) and the rest will follow.
to anon 813,
ReplyDeleteYou have my support. My basic point is that it is crazy to believe that auto traffic will change much. It won't and even with good infrastucter for peds most people are not going to take the 30minutes+ required to walk a halfway down Leucadia to pick up a gallon of milk needed for breakfast. They are going to drive.
When do you see the local strolling. The weekend. Not much will change during the week when people do not have the time to burn walking.
How many people in Encinitas live east of the I5? There is no safe connection between El Camino Real and hwy 101. Recreational bicycle riders stay away Encinitas Blvd. or Santa Fe Drive. Leucadia Blvd is strictly for autos.
ReplyDeleteIf part 5 is not low income housing then it really sucks that those people living there have to pay so much to live there when some "low income" person in one of these new density bonus projects gets to live in a nice house for less rent. How is that fair?
ReplyDelete