I've been scoping out all the center medians around town lately. This is Garden View Road, above the Encinitas Ranch shopping center and heading north towards Leucadia Blvd (see map below).
Aside from being a little on the sterile side, it's pretty nice with it's flowers and lack of weeds. The trees are well kept and trimmed. This is some pretty attentive landscaping for a street with such little traffic.
It's really nice to see that unmolested chaparral hill in the background too. You actually have a nice feeling of old school California open space here (as you buzz by at 40 mph. But there are sidewalks and access to the hiking trails).
View Larger Map
Anyway, I've always thought it was a little weird how all the center medians around the city are maintained while the ones along the historic and heavily traveled coast highway are not,
I love that raceway. I can top out at 80mph between Leucadia Boulevard and the post office. I wish they would have made the median wider. It’s too narrow to support any real vegetation and the cars passing on the other side going 80 scare me. Nice and wide and fast.
ReplyDeleteI guess it’s OK for a road with no businesses or side streets, but I sure hope we can do much better for our Mainstreet.
See you on the race way!
there is no need for that concrete on the outer edge of the medians.
ReplyDeleteGive the plants more area to grow.
Those litle shrubs got killed last winter by the heavy frost.
ReplyDeleteThings are going to get better is some parts,soon.
ReplyDeleteL101 meet with the city staff to this week to go over reviving the first three watered medians north and south of Leucadia Blvd, with native plants. As always, Peder was a great help suggesting plant species that would fit in and do well in the median area.
As for the rest of the medians, there are no plans at this time to alter these neglected areas.
I agree there should be a lot more done. The streetscape won't do anything in the north area for many years.
Streetscape workshops are coming up.
Be there if you care.
Plan B? . . . after workshops, city council, etc. Just sayin . . .
ReplyDeleteIt is not just Leucadia. The new center median on El Camino next to Crest Drive.is all concrete. It is worse than L101.
ReplyDeleteCenter medians planted with California natives are the best alternative. When properly planted native landscaping reduces maintainance and creats habitat.
ReplyDeleteCoastal live oaks in the center medians would certainly help calm traffic.
L101 should be commended for restoring native vegitation at the Leucadia Blvd Intersection. Once established it wil tie in nicely with Leucadia roadside park. So should city staff.
Small acts of kindness help. I clean up the curbs in front of my house, to help with storm drain runoff.
ReplyDeletePlan B, Guerilla gardening sounds like a good idea. But be careful, around here. Nice web page! Thanks for the link, on the earlier comment.
Yes, it's discouraging that the invitation to the workshop says, "This workshop will include presentations by the consultants as well as time for input by the community." It seems as though the consultant should have made a presentation AFTER it had the public input. That's what a workshop should be. Our city's consultants seem to get this backwards. In Cardiff, the consultants did not go by the suggestions that were put forth at the original workshops.
Same thing with the Hall Property park workshops. People who are opposing this park being developed as a regional sports complex, feel that the plans adopted did not take into account the majority of the input from the public, but catered to special interests. If enrollment is declining in the schools, forcing the closure of Pacific View, why do we need more sports fields, which are dedicated exclusively to one type of sport or another, with 90 foot high lights?
Sorry to digress, but again, I feel the consensus here has been that we would like drought tolerant plants in Leucadia's Center medians. I believe that if the speed limit were ENFORCED that it is okay as it is; perhaps the speed could be reduced to 35 mph through the business district. A stop sign at Grandview sounds good to me, too, to start.
Speeding, particularly at rush hour, is not the problem. A lower speed limit would not have prevented the crash last year where the truck was going 80 mph. I agree with Fred that there could be a u-turn lane, somewhere before, or at La Costa.
1:39
ReplyDeleteLoved the Plan B site. Hard to be a Gurilla Gardener though, when the City, Caltrans, Billboard Comanys and NCTD are hooked on poisoning and ripping out everything.
I'd like a little more science go in the medians so there are coninual blooms. When the poppies are dead, there's something else in bloom, and so on. Not opposed to natives but have had little luck with the numerous varieties that have been planted in the 90's and only scant coverage with the more recent plantings.
On the flip side, anything smells better than that nasty, high maintenance wild garlic on El Camino Real. PU.
Don't know if creating habitat in the medians to sustain native wildlife is a good idea. (another good reason the recent Coastal Commission decision should not be appealed. Fast tracks aren't the best locations for Deer Crossings either.)
Sunflowers would be muy funky!
Fred, I laughed to think of one idea I have had. Wouldn't it be a great idea to plant (guerilla if necessary) some irresistable food plant for rats on the train bed?
ReplyDeleteI love creatures great and small, but not rats.
I know, I know - there isn't something that would attract ONLY rats. Save the comments, it was just a passing thought.
Medians take up room that should be used for bicycle and walking lanes. Sink hole depressions are constantly forming on El Camino Real in the lanes next to the medians.
ReplyDeleteL101 raised over $7500 for flowers in the center median and the city failed to water the flowers. Native flowers need water also.
ReplyDeleteHey Lynn, Aren't you experienced with guerrilla gardening? How did that turn out?
ReplyDeleteGuerrilla garden? Is that banana trees?
ReplyDeleteCenter medians should be filled in with concrete, lowers maintenance costs!!
ReplyDeletelast poster either lives in carlsbox or should move to carlsbox.
ReplyDeleteYou want to save money, fire staff and plant more medians.
Who's Lynn and why does everyone post about him/her??
ReplyDeleteFYI, Lynn is that crazy bitch. Yeah, that one.
ReplyDeleteI understand all new medians will now be concrete with no landscaping unless paid for by a private property. No more $$ in the landscape maintenance fund. Just look at the new concrete filled median on El Camino at Crest. The City could have added plants but chose the cheaper maintenance free option. Say hello to Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteLynn has good points to make. It is no wonder she is paranoid about Stocks and Sabine as the City sued her for a non-conforming garage, even though it was bought in that condition. Now, the City is trying to collect on a judgment for attorney's fees - Christ's sake. What about Mr. Boathouse and his 3 nonconforming units on a 5,000 sq. ft. lot on Melba, which property was raided by the DEA only three months ago, and nothing has been done by the City to enforce the Code and the same renters are back in the property. Gee, wonder why. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteYou can call Lynn crazy, but she was the first to call attention in a very public way to the city's blatant violations of the Brown Act. Two years ago I had a meeting with City Attorney Glenn Sabine about this. It took me over three months to get an appointment with him, and then he hardly spoke 25 words in the 10 minutes he gave me. He had promised me 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWe of Citizens for Quality of Life had caught Sabine with his pants down twice. When the city appealed our lawsuit victory and then the awarding of legal fees of $54,000, the city held two closed door sessions and Sabine announced no reportable action. Each time the appeal appeared the next day on the court's website. Obviously a decision had been taken, which should have been reported. The city violated the law.
During the period of our lawsuit I received an anonymous email which I can only describe as hate mail. I had been sending emails to the council, city manager, and city attorney. The offensive email was in response to what I had written. Surely it came from an "insider." Some of the posts on this block are an eerie echo of what was in that nasty email. I think I know who sent it, based on stylistic clues. If Lynn is paranoid, then so am I.
Jerry, Lynn isn't paranoid, she just a pain in the ass!!! And her weekly harangues at the council meeting are a waste of time and energy. In short she is boring!!
ReplyDeleteNo one makes anyone watch the meetings on the web, on tv, or attend, in person.
ReplyDeleteTonight's meeting was interesting, but for the last poster, I am sure he would call all of the various applicants for commissions and committees "boring."
That word always makes me feel the observer lacks imagination and/or is trying to shut people up for political reasons.
Also, I haven't seen the person in question at any Council Meetings this year. It really looks like someone here is fixating on a particular personality, and both projecting and reflecting his or her own low threshold of attention. To preserve your time and energy, just tune off, and leave the messengers, the activists alone, if you are so bitter and bored.
Back to the subject, varying the plantings, as long as they are drought tolerant, and sustainable, sounds good to me. Sunflowers would be wonderful, as would poppies, Fred.
That's right 8:45 p.m., Lynn is that seemingly 'crazy bitch' as you say.
ReplyDeleteIsn't she the 'life partner' of the mini-Gallagher look-alike? Gallagher look-alike is always slurring, due to chronic alcohol abuse I'm sure. Or is it mary j-uana. Or who knows what. Dude seems equally crazy like his lady, with all his finger pointing and barkig toward the dais. Watch out for Gallagher. His actions look borderline St. Louis suburb.
That's not cool.
ReplyDelete