Encinitas Taxpayers Newsblog

Just in case you haven't found it yet, here is the link to the Encinitas Taxpayers Association newsblog, click me.

Encinitas Netflix Top Ten

Netflix, the online movie service that sends you DVD rentals via the post office, has a feature where you can see the current most popular movies in your town. Here is the Encinitas Top Ten right now (changes frequently).

1. Avenue Montaigne This newly released French romantic comedy's number status tells us that the many soccer moms across Encinitas are in charge of the household Netflix account.




2. Gandhi There are a lot of socially conscience people in Encinitas, so many that a 20 year old film ranks as #2.


3. Cinema Paradiso
Here we have another 20 year old film and it's foreign, a double whammy! I've found Cinema Paradiso to be fairly likable but have never really understood it's strong cult status. It's about people who love film so there are obviously a lot of true cinema fans in Encinitas.

4. Children of Heaven Ah, we are seeing a trend here. People in Encinitas like well made foreign films with child protagonist.



5. The World's Fastest Indian Easy to see why this flick is in the top ten. It's entertaining family fare with motorcycles. This movie won't challenge you like the others but it's just so...watchable.



6. Serenity (The Firefly Movie) Ever since Thrill Books closed down it's been tough for the hoards of local comic book nerds. I admit to loving the short lived Firefly television series but find this movie frustrating. And, why doesn't Ducky Waddles stock more comics?

7. The Hoax Hey, this is a brand new film. I'm sure the La Paloma will screen this one any month now...zing!


8. The Last King of Scotland Another powerful political/social film and a highly entertaining ride until the horrific torture scenes in the final act. A must see but you may watch it through your fingers over your eyes.




9. Howl's Moving Castle This is the same crowd that rented Serenity. It's pretty good but Spirited Away, by the same director, blows doors on this. You might overhear hipsters discussing these movies while browsing the used CDs at Lou's Records.


10. Epic Movie Total garbage and cracks the top ten no doubt due to the Jr High school population.

L101 Fire

Morgan Mallory writes:

I took this photo a little while ago after my wife called me after calling the fire dept.
Fire dept. responded in 6 min. to hopefully minimize damage. There was a guy on the roof with a fire hose before the fire dept came. Gallery Savernese and 101 Hair Salon were damaged.

10news.com story

High Octane Local Pride Art

Next time you pull in to fill up your tank at the new "retro" Mobile station take a minute to gawk at the progress being made on the local pride mural. You have to give the owner of this station credit for taking the extra effort to make this place nice. Most gas stations are dirty, corporate and have a hostile vibe. Not this one.

More Stumps

More trees have been removed from the north Leucadia 101 corridor and the NCTD is planning on removing 7 large trees that are in the NCTD right of way (and beware the mysterious metal poll!).

Stamp of Approval

I'm digging the snazzy Leucadia stamps in the new sidewalks. I especially like the tree stamp. It didn't take our new sidewalks long to get dirty, but it's mostly ash from the fires.

Horses Inhaling Smoke

San Diego Witch Fire 2007, originally uploaded by vissago.

I received an e-mail from Dennis Cole today who remembered that in WWI they had gas mask for horses. The 40 odd thousand horses in San Diego county sure could have used them last week.

Welcome sign to San Pasqual on the way to the San Diego Wild Animal Park

Welcome sign to San Pasqual on the way to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, originally uploaded by kjdrill.

Random Fire Week Observations

Random observations about the San Diego wild fires (not necessarily all Leucadia related).



*Every time we get a good October swell and epic Santa Ana winds that groom the waves into absolute mind bending perfection, the whole event is ruined by air choking fires. People who did surf reported blindingly painful wind gust full of ash that was mixed into the offshore spray. Then, they spent that night hacking up a lung.



*Since everything that happens in the world is now dissected into Us vs Them and Redsox vs Yankees, the politicians and AM radio host wasted no time on saying that the fires are either A. Global Warming or B. left wing environmentalist (neither are too blame). It's a petty person that twist homes burning to the ground to suit their own little agendas.


"Gee, I hope they have clowns making balloon animals and free fish tacos."

*Speaking of AM radio screamers, many of them took great delight in trying to sublimely play the race card by comparing the evacuations of the Hurricane Katrina disaster at the Superdome to the polite and festive atmosphere at Qualcomm. But can driving your Lexus SUV to Qualcomm after receiving a reverse 9-11 call really compare to wading 2 miles in neck deep water with bodies floating by only to find no food or fresh water at the end of your journey?

*San Diego city attorney Mike Aguirre entered the Twilight Zone when he wanted to evacuate the ENTIRE city of San Diego to Phoenix, Arizona. Not only would this be logistically impossible but it was totally unnecessary. Maybe this was a plot by his La Raza roots to move the population of Tijuana into San Diego once all the yuppies left? SDUT story.

*I was listening KOGO600 one afternoon when host Roger Hedgecock had our congressman Brian Bilbray on the air and the first call from the public was a women who wanted them to send someone to fix the air conditioner in her motor home. Um, okay lady.

*An Encinitas man was seen vacuuming his grass after the fires to remove the ash. Turns out he has an artificial turf lawn. source

*If the winds hadn't died down and then switched direction I'm convinced the Rancho Santa Fe fire and/or the Del Dios fire would have burned all the to the beach and maybe even destroyed more than a few structures in Encinitas via airborne burning embers. I say this because my friend who lives on Requeza St actually had to stomp out a large burning ember that landed in his driveway, just missing his roof and a large pine tree. Yikes!



*Man, there are seriously thousands of horses in north county.

*Despite the mandatory Olivenhain and voluntary Village Park evacuations a surprising amount of people around Encinitas seemed to think that the fires were just something that was happening on teevee and were more than happy that they got the day off work and school. Has Encinitas become too much of a bubble from the rest of the world?

*Don't let your car gas tank get all the way down to empty because you never know when you will want to get out of Dodge in a hurry. The giant plume of smoke looming over the horizon on Monday morning sent hundreds of cars to the El Camino Real area gas stations at once causing gridlock and high tensions. Several gas stations finally enacted a 10 gallon limit in order to move the lines faster.


*The two smartest people I saw this week was A. The dudebro at Beacon's who was wearing a bandanna around his face to filter the smoke and ash which at the time was thick as a fog bank, only to pull it down to light a cigarette, and B. The lady who was jogging down Neptune Ave with her toddler in a jogger stroller despite health warnings of taking infants outside into the haze.

For hundreds of dramatic amatuer photos of the fires check out the Flickr photo pools: click here and here and here.

Live Music 2Nite in Leucadia

click image for large view

You've been cooped up in the house all week staying out of the smoke and watching teevee news 24/7. Time to shake out the cobwebs and go out for a little R&R. And, I bet you see girls dressed up as naughty kitty cats, nurses and devils.

Local Fire Recap

Click map for large view. Find Encinitas and then trace your finger east and think about if the winds had not changed...oh my!


The fire appears to be out in our area. The city of Encinitas has closed the Evacuation Center at the Community/Senior Center and deactivated the Emergency Operations Command.

We were VERY lucky that the wind changed. The fire hit Lake Hodges and went in two direction (north/west & south/west).

If the fire had continued along the Escondido Creek watershed it would have run through eastern Olivenhain and into the San Elijo Lagoon area. The south finger ran along the drainage area below Fairbanks Ranch and burned some houses in Rancho Santa Fe. It could have kept going to the area around Morgan Run and the Polo Grounds. What would have happened if it got into the center of RSF and then San Dieguito Park and Lomas Santa Fe?

The fire stopped a few miles from Encinitas but had been running so fast that it would have been a very short time before it hit the city limits.

Feel free to add any other info or changes to this post in the comments section.

Also, this SDUT story reports that the Encinitas poinsettia crop may be harmed by all the ash, click to read.

Local Fire Photos Part 3

These photos were sent in by Mike Honsberger. Thanks for sharing Mike!


Fire trucks lined up at hotel I-5 and Leucadia Blvd.


Meet the neigh-bors.


Smoke cloud over Trestles (surf beach near San Onofre nuclear power plant)


Tuesday 101 southbound - deserted


Tuesday morning looking south over Leucadia





Monday morning looking south over Leucadia.

Leucadia Blog: More Local Fire Photos

More Local Fire Photos

The smoke from the devastating flames made for dramatic and beautiful sunsets. Beacon's Beach by Philip Hamer.


Evacuated horses at Glenn Park in Cardiff. Photo by Teresa Barth.


San Elijo/Chesterfield/Mars. Photo by Teresa Barth.

Leucadia Blog: Air PowerLeucadia Blog: Air Power

Air Power

Navy Helos Race From Harris Fire To Pendleton Fire Tuesday, 10-24-07, 5:10 PM

The View From Encinitas Best Western Evacuees Room, 211. Over Moonlight Beach.

Photo e-mailed in by reader Mike Andreen. Thanks Mike!

Click photo for larger view of the helicopters. You can also the ash slicks in the ocean and a nice glassy peeling lefthander (wave) in the lower right hand corner.

Bonus: Fox6.com has a story with a slideshow about the Ecke Ranch housing 60 evacuated horses and other members of the Ecke clan taking in over a dozen Alpacas and Lamas, dogs, snakes and guinea pigs. click here


Llamas or Alpacas?

Leucadia Blog: Horsies at Paul Ecke Central School