Our second of several empty lots (Empty lot #1--Leucadia!: Let's Tour North Leucadia (part 4) Why are there so many fenced off empty lots in Leucadia when coastal property is so highly desired? Well, I know from experience trying to get my wealthy friends to invest in Leucadia that they have two concerns: A. What is the deal with the flooding? B. What is the deal with redevelopment? The threat of eminent domain spooked off several friends of mine who wanted to invest in coastal Leucadia. Way to go RDA pundits!
If I could buy this lot I would put in a prefab live/work building kind of like this,
Here is a funky little place, the Rancho Leonero Fishing Resort booking office. *UPDATE-This building is curently empty and available for lease.
Now we are at the infamous Bar Leucadian which locals still call The Leucadian or "The Luke". (and I liked the old yellow sign better).
When I turned 21 The Leucadian was still in true dive bar form and my friends and I went there the first time on a dare. We were not welcome as the place was filled with sketchy crack head dry wall workers and fumed out house painters playing pool and smoking millions of cigarettes. However, during the 90's an increased population of twenty-something year olds were living in Encinitas and dive bars became the trendy thing to do. Young pretty girls started going to The Leucadian and they even started a Thursday night Ladies Night. The Leucadian also became the only place in Encinitas to see local rock bands play like Lo-Fi Nipple and The Stereotypes. Once a year they even have Leudrock, where local bands play all day and all night ( Leudrock 2 shines its light on underground)
Here is the myspace page for the booking manager if you want your band to play there, click me.
So, go to the Leucadian and play some darts and have a round with your friends and be sure to toast funky Leucadia. Every town has their bar, and this is ours.
For all the laid back grooviness there is in Leucadia there will always be those guys with their big jacked up trucks.
Weekends on coast highway Leucadia mean hoards of lycra clad 10 speeders who take up the entire lane and run stop signs. This is one of the smaller groups.
Leucadia!: Let's Tour North Leucadia (part 11)
Anyone that says that Encinitas has no culture either has no vision or doesn't realize that Leucadia is a part of Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteWhere we live is interesting. I am glad JP is here to remind us to look at our home with renewed eyes.
The junk between the funk in Leucadia is there for a few reasons.
ReplyDeleteOur past council majority, Dalager, Guerin, and Stocks with their close connections with a few key developers and their desire to start a redevelopment agency really turned people away from investing in Leucadia, except for those people that knew they would be able manipulate the redevelopment agency (RDA) to their benefit.
Redevelopment agencies are for communists and being a communist sucks unless you are in the ruling class, so why would ethical developers want to buy into Leucadia with the specter of an RDA is out there.
That is my numero uno wa wa whine.
Lets remember that the council needed an excuse to bring the heavy hand of the government to bear in Leucadia. To get an RDA they told everyone that we needed to spend $50 million dollars on storm drains in Leucadia. Council to investors, "The flooding is horrible and there is no chance in hell that our city with its already overspent budget is going to be able pay to get it fixed." "Build in Leucadia and get flooded or condemned", is what I would be thinking if I were an investor that didn't know much about what was going on.
wa wa dos
An investor that knew what was going on would know that the true cost to fix the flooding is only a fraction of the cost estimate and the $50 million price tag was only suppose to scare Leucadia into RDA submission. The knowledgable investor would also know that they would just want to steer clear of the mess that follows in the wake of Stocks and Dalager.
wa wa tres
So either you can whine with me or send a letter to the council telling them to stop blighting leucadia, get off their ass and fix the flooding, or declare the flooding problem a hoax.
Luke,
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting about this part of Leucadia?? J.P. hasn't shown us anything worth getting excitied about. Rundown, ugly, dangerous, but far from interesting!!! Keep your head in the sand and I'll keep wondering about the "Culture" that you speak about??? Bicyclists on 101?? Bigtire trucks?? A rundown Bar that even I wouldn't be seen in, if that's the culture your speaking about, the community is doomed!! Maybe that consultant the city hired 15 years ago had it correct after all, the WACO solution!!!
If I was still drinking I'd raise a beer to Luke and culture he finds soooo interesting!!!
Cheers, RSPB!!!
RDA and Eminent Domain are just smoke and mirrors to give the city excuses NOT to make Leucadia nicer and dump all the $$$ into the Library. guess what ?? It worked!!! Developers were scared off, locals screamed and hollered and what did the city do for Leucadia... NOTHING!!! Mission Accomplished.
ReplyDeleteLeucadia local yokels suckered again!!
RSPB
Don't be so sour RSPB.
ReplyDeleteso you blame the rda talk?
ReplyDeleteOk
That was two years ago and mostly has gone away.
Who do you blame for the prior fifty years of non investment, empty lots and lack of infrastructure?
scapegoats are easy.
JP and I know first hand that the RDA talk scared at least a few investors away.
ReplyDeleteYes, scapegoats are easy. Yes, it is harder to get our council to take responsibility when they should.
Now show us where Dalager or Stocks has publicly stated that RDA IS dead, because even you say it is "mostly gone." That could just mean gone until the forces of RDA have regrouped.
I am so glad you asked about the prior 50 years. Answer. Weak development standards and poor enforcement of the development standards on the books. We can't blame our council for those 50 years but we can be aware that they did not learn the lesson of Leucadia.
Good develpment standards PREVENT BLIGHT.
Anon 443, you tell us which of those on the council try to see that our development standards are upheld. Go on. Which ones subvert the development standards and go as far as advising members of the public how to get away with breaking our development laws?
Thank god JP can't buy that lot. That is one ugly building. Whats up JP, you better consult your wife.
ReplyDeleteIt would be fun to see our lienant planning commish deal with J.P.'s building.
ReplyDeleteI like it!
I love the cube house. Now that the city is going for three stories up and down cardiff in the Cardiff Specific Plan, I plan on building a bunch of these cube houses. They are cheap and maximize the use of the building envelope. The planning commission won't have the authority to say no.
ReplyDeleteI don't care about my development being a source of blight in the future because I will be retired and living in Montana by then. Actually, with the extra third story I might be able to retire really soon!
I was always thought the leucadian was a sketchy bar and then i saw lo-fi nipple play there one night. some guys were diving through hula hoops and the gogo girls were wrestling on the floor, oh my. I haven't been the same since.
ReplyDeleteThe lycra brigades are just scary. I swear I hear of at least one dying every year.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJ.P. grab some balls and leave your post up... Puss!
ReplyDeleteI forgot that I'm supposed to be the goody-two-shoes web ambassador now.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is so sensitive these days.
ReplyDeleteIn the future I will be more touchy feely.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that anonymous 4:43 hasn't responded.
ReplyDeleteJP deleted his post that said friends of his who were going to invest in Leucadia were scared off by the rda talk. Please JP do not delete any more of your comments.
ReplyDelete"I forgot that I'm supposed to be the goody-two-shoes web ambassador now."
ReplyDeleteJP, you know that you have freedom of speech, as we all do here. I can see tempering our freedoms with good intentions, to cause no harm, but I don't see how your post about people being scared off by the talk of a Redevelopment Agency for our city, with City Council sitting as the board of directors, was offensive.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
I don't like that the "State of the Community" address will be at a private dinner tomorrow night sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. $20.00 a plate, and the tickets are sold out.
This address should be repeated at a City Council Meeting. If all the Council Members are there, then it's just like having a closed session, really. And the Chamber of Commerce may be swell, but it does favor business, often development, interests over the little guy, John and Jane Neighbor, who pay taxes, but aren't business owners here, or corporations working our resources, like Barratt, and others.
Jerome Stocks gave his state of the city address when he was mayor at a buy in dinner, and then had to declare the donations as gifts for campaign purposes. I believe he also gave his speech, again, at a regularly scheduled Council Meeting. There was no Council Meeting last Wednesday, and there will be none this Wednesday.
Those guys and gals are sure making out, benefit wise, for their part time positions.
I think maybe only two on the council operate parttime. The rest are full tilt and we should thank them for that. The others that don't do their homework should resign.
ReplyDeleteThe chamber is now run by Andreen and Tucker. Andreen is a paid shill and Tucker is an extremist.
I think it's so strange that the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the psuedo Council Meeting tonight, sold out, where the dinner is $20.00 a plate.
ReplyDeleteI hope you got tickets, JP. The Chamber logo and the Encinitas Seal are both at the top of the page; At the bottom are the sponsors: EDCO, COX, SDGE, Scripps Memorial Hospital, Southwest Bank, Cal Pacific Orchid Farm. Are those current sponsors?
Confusing. I am told it is not being taped. The flier says: Keynote Speaker Mayor James Bond; Briefings from critical community sectors including education, fire, sheriff, business, health and the arts!
I appreciate our business community and understand it is vital for taxes, also, to support our government "needs." But this feel funny to me, although I'm told they "always do it this way."
James Bond should come back to a regular Council Meeting with a State of the City Address, where we can all hear this, as well as see the special presentations that he, and all of Council, are "conditioned" through, and influenced by.
Special interests should not operate behind closed doors, essentially, when City Business is being discussed before Council.
Government should be by and for the people, not by and for special interests, catering to commercial "sponsors."