Workers in the trees, photo taken from Vulcan Ave.
Photo taken around 5 pm today, notice the gap.
The Union Tribune picked up the story today, read it here.
Leucadia Blog: Tuesday is Chopping Day for L101 old growth trees by the NCTD
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Just a Trim, so far
Although there was hype that the NCTD was going to do a major removal or trees on the north L101 corridor today, they only cut a few down in this section.
Workers in the trees, photo taken from Vulcan Ave.
Photo taken around 5 pm today, notice the gap.
The Union Tribune picked up the story today, read it here.
Leucadia Blog: Tuesday is Chopping Day for L101 old growth trees by the NCTD
Workers in the trees, photo taken from Vulcan Ave.
Photo taken around 5 pm today, notice the gap.
The Union Tribune picked up the story today, read it here.
Leucadia Blog: Tuesday is Chopping Day for L101 old growth trees by the NCTD
Monday, January 14, 2008
Tuesday is Chopping Day for L101 old growth trees by the NCTD
Say goodbye to many of the giant trees along the L101 corridor because tomorrow (Tues, Jan 15) they are getting chopped down by evil bureaucratic pinheads, NCTD.
Leucadia Blog: Adam Kaye's L101 tree article
Leucadia Blog: NCTD to Cut Down Trees on L101
Leucadia Blog: Adam Kaye's L101 tree article
Leucadia Blog: NCTD to Cut Down Trees on L101
Attention Motoring Public-Starbucks Coming to Leucadia on Orpheus
A Starbucks is looking to move into the old Texaco station at the Orpheus/Leucadia Blvd/I-5 ramps location.
click document for large view
click document for large view
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Robert T. Nanninga, Leucadia Icon
Controversial Coast News columnist, purveyor of good brew at E Street Coffee Shop, political activist and an actor who appeared on an episode of Veronica Mars with Fox news sportscaster C.S. Keys.
Bob mostly writes terrible op-ed pieces about George Bush and global warming, rarely writing about Encinitas issues. But when he does choose to pen about the hometown it always elevates the level of his column and brings out the best in him. If only he would do it more often...
SAMPLE: Taking trees for granted won’t work
*note-The Coast News website does not allow online comments.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Didja get my e-mail dude?
All you wired city watchdogs and your persistent e-mailing to the city of Encinitas has prompted the city to create policy over what do with the sheer volume of electronic correspondence.
NCT.com Encinitas updating its e-mail policy
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
City to clarify what needs to be preserved as public record
ENCINITAS -- The e-mails arrive at City Hall by the thousands and city officials are examining which of them to keep and how to store them.
Earlier this week, the City Council agreed to appoint two of its members, Teresa Barth and James Bond, to a subcommittee to develop policies and procedures for e-mail. The committee will include the city manager, city clerk, city attorney and representatives from each city department.
Access to public records is protected by state law, but the proliferation of e-mail has outpaced legislation governing when to delete or preserve electronic records.
"We need to update our policy to reflect the constantly changing technology," Barth said. "You should always start with the assumption that all e-mails are public records, then determine what the exceptions are."
The city's record-retention policy sets a two-year limit to the keeping of printed records. An e-mail policy last revised in 2005 states e-mails must be stored if "keeping them is required by law."
The policy states e-mail is not a public record when a memo is intended for temporary use.
Employees must manage their own in-boxes and file memos in e-mail folders, on the city's computer network, or print and file the record where it belongs
Every day, the city's computer system automatically deletes e-mail that hasn't been filed and is more than 30 days old.
The random deletion of e-mail can be risky, a First Amendment expert said.
"There are certain, clear principles that need to be observed," said Peter Scheer of the California First Amendment Coalition. "If a communication to or from a government employee or a government official is about a government matter or government business, then it's a public record."
read the rest here.
I suggest that the city of Encinitas use Gmail, the free e-mail service provided by Google. Gmail stores all your e-mail forever, you never have to delete a single e-mail. My personal Gmail account currently has 6310 MB (and growing since Google is always growing their server farms). Gmail has an excellent spam filter so you don't have to deal with Nigerian money scams or viagra ads. My favorite feature is the search function. If I type "Dr. Lorri" into my Gmail search all her e-mails come up lickety split.
Google
note-The Encinitas city council has always been excellent about responding to my obnoxious e-mails.
Now watch this cool music video about interconnectedness:
NCT.com Encinitas updating its e-mail policy
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
City to clarify what needs to be preserved as public record
ENCINITAS -- The e-mails arrive at City Hall by the thousands and city officials are examining which of them to keep and how to store them.
Earlier this week, the City Council agreed to appoint two of its members, Teresa Barth and James Bond, to a subcommittee to develop policies and procedures for e-mail. The committee will include the city manager, city clerk, city attorney and representatives from each city department.
Access to public records is protected by state law, but the proliferation of e-mail has outpaced legislation governing when to delete or preserve electronic records.
"We need to update our policy to reflect the constantly changing technology," Barth said. "You should always start with the assumption that all e-mails are public records, then determine what the exceptions are."
The city's record-retention policy sets a two-year limit to the keeping of printed records. An e-mail policy last revised in 2005 states e-mails must be stored if "keeping them is required by law."
The policy states e-mail is not a public record when a memo is intended for temporary use.
Employees must manage their own in-boxes and file memos in e-mail folders, on the city's computer network, or print and file the record where it belongs
Every day, the city's computer system automatically deletes e-mail that hasn't been filed and is more than 30 days old.
The random deletion of e-mail can be risky, a First Amendment expert said.
"There are certain, clear principles that need to be observed," said Peter Scheer of the California First Amendment Coalition. "If a communication to or from a government employee or a government official is about a government matter or government business, then it's a public record."
read the rest here.
I suggest that the city of Encinitas use Gmail, the free e-mail service provided by Google. Gmail stores all your e-mail forever, you never have to delete a single e-mail. My personal Gmail account currently has 6310 MB (and growing since Google is always growing their server farms). Gmail has an excellent spam filter so you don't have to deal with Nigerian money scams or viagra ads. My favorite feature is the search function. If I type "Dr. Lorri" into my Gmail search all her e-mails come up lickety split.
note-The Encinitas city council has always been excellent about responding to my obnoxious e-mails.
Now watch this cool music video about interconnectedness:
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Making the Grade
Dude, we gotta go back. I just saw a small plant we missed.
Two stories in the North County Times this week about the grading permits in the city of Encinitas.
Monday:
Permit change proposal riles environmentalists
Wednesday: Encinitas airs proposed grading ordinance
This is a controversial topic mostly due to the drama that happened on Andrew Avenue in Leucadia in 2006. The pads for Barratt American's "Nantucket" development were raised a whopping 8 feet despite the city's own guidelines stressing an emphasis on preserving the natural grade of the land.
See Leucadia Blog: Barratt American, Your New Neighbors on Sheridan!
Under the new proposed ordinance, developers could obtain a so-called "minor grading permit" for certain projects that move 50 to 250 cubic yards of dirt. A minor grading permit can cost $900 and take six weeks to process.
PDF link to the city website: 23.24.090-General Exemptions.
The city already has a Minor Grading Permit, 23.24.125
I laughed at some of the comments on the NCT website. Some people are pretty angry that they have to get a grading permit because 'it's my private property dammit'. CEO of mega-developer Barratt American Michael Pattinson once wrote an infamous op-ed piece comparing a guy on a tractor who graded his land without a permit to civil rights activist Rosa Parks. Heroes slice through red tape
But, the big flaw in the "I will grade my private property however I see fit bro" is that if you don't know what you are doing you can flood out your neighbor, cause a landslide or even screw up your own site so bad your property sinks and you crack your foundation. Yep, grading permits are kind of a bureaucratic necessary evil to keep yokels from completely jacking up the neighborhood they live in.
As for the controversy, I'm sure the comments to follow will focus on the personalities of the players involved and not on the actual permit code...
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
Sewer Service Charges Across Encinitas
Encinitas Taxpayers Blog
There are disparities in sewer service charges across the City of Encinitas. The average ratepayer in Encinitas (ESD) and Cardiff Sanitation Districts (CSD) pays over twice what Leucadia Water District (LWD) ratepayers shell out. The maximum charge is the same as the average charge in Leucadia because they have a flat fee structure. Encinitas and Cardiff's charges are based on winter water usage.
The disparity can partially be explained by differences in decisions about how and when to achieve secondary sewage treatment. Those decisions, made decades ago, resulted in different financing routes and associated long term financial consequences.
Both ESD and CSD are now run by the Encinitas City Council. LWD remains an independent district with elected board members.
READ MORE HERE
Sunday, January 06, 2008
How Many Millions of Gallons of Fresh Rainwater is Running into the Ocean Right Now?
We (SDWA) get our water from the Badger Filtration Plant. Badger purifies water from Lake Hodges and buys raw water from San Diego County Water Authority (Colorado River & Delta Water).
So the more rain, the more water in Hodges and the less Encinitas has to buy from the Water Authority.
But Lake Hodges is only so big and can't seem to supply our collective demand for the year (got to keep those golf courses green). It's a shame we can't locally collect the millions of gallons of rainwater running down our streets and into the ocean. What if Encinitas had it's own reservoir?
Olivenhain Municipal Water District website.
Note: The government is encouraging us to cut our water use by 20 gallons a day (this may become mandatory in the near future) link.
Question: When the news reports that we received 2" of rain in San Diego county how many gallons is that?
I always thought it would be cool if we had water towers around Encinitas.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Jeepers Carlsbad!
Comment by community observer Fred Caldwell on Carlsbad wanting Encinitas to pay the bulk of road improvements for the Ponto development land grab,
Jeepers. Just when you think people are finally getting it: that when you narrow roads less people can use them, Encinitas wants to widen La Costa avenue for Carlsbad commuters?
Let them widen Poinsettia Ave. Problem solved.
Roads are like pipes, and cars like water. Make a bigger pipe and more water fills it up.
There shouldn't be one dime spent by us aiming MORE Carlsbad commuters through our 101 corridor. Additionally, property owners on La Costa Ave between 101 and 5 shouldn't lose ANY of their land because of that process.
What we do need is to keep that stretch of La Costa Ave. ONE lane East and one lane West. We also need to narrow 101 to ONE lane South.
The La Costa /101 intersection has been a financial disaster since incorporation. We businesses do like business here on 101, but the intersection provides no U-Turn capability, and as a result ANYONE who would want to make a U-Turn to patronize a business here cannot. Carlsbad knows this so they made it so a traveler has to go 4 miles North before a U-turn is even possible - sending C’bad all the business. 8 mile U-turns are cruel and unusual treatment to the businesses of Encinitas by Carlsbad. The sad part is that the La Costa / 101 intersection is OURS and has not been modified to correct this error.
Another example is Palomar Airport Rd. In the old days it simply made a T shape to 101. A traveler could turn left to go to Leucadia or right for Carlsbad. But that wasn't good enough, so they built a huge loop. Now anyone driving West on Palomar Airport Rd has to make a 270 degree right turn to go anywhere South, (IF they’re quick enough to process the choice in time,) while their ingenious unaltered path aims all revenue to downtown Carlsbad.
And don't get me started on the time they unnecessarily shut our bridge down for 6 months in 1994 robbing us of 8,000 cars per day. Offering us $20,000 to mitigate with an “event”, then not giving us a dime.
Historically and currently, Carlsbad is not a friendly neighbor when it comes to traffic. But is concerns me that both Carlsbad and Encinitas “agree” that our La Costa Ave. needs to be widened. Sounds like the old “good cop bad cop” routine to achieve the same end.
And I have to laugh when the news reporter boldly claimed “Encinitas agrees that Encinitas residents will benefit from the Ponto development.”
Guess it boils down to two separate interpretations of what “road improvements” are. Theirs, and everyone elses.
I respectfully disagree with the "non-option" approach the news report presents to us.
Leucadia Blog: Encinitas vs Carlsbad!
City of Carlsbad Official Website
E-mail the Carlsbad city council and tell them what you think about their shady Ponto plans: Carlsbad city council contact page
NCT.com Encinitas suing Carlsbad over Ponto plan
Jeepers. Just when you think people are finally getting it: that when you narrow roads less people can use them, Encinitas wants to widen La Costa avenue for Carlsbad commuters?
Let them widen Poinsettia Ave. Problem solved.
Roads are like pipes, and cars like water. Make a bigger pipe and more water fills it up.
There shouldn't be one dime spent by us aiming MORE Carlsbad commuters through our 101 corridor. Additionally, property owners on La Costa Ave between 101 and 5 shouldn't lose ANY of their land because of that process.
What we do need is to keep that stretch of La Costa Ave. ONE lane East and one lane West. We also need to narrow 101 to ONE lane South.
The La Costa /101 intersection has been a financial disaster since incorporation. We businesses do like business here on 101, but the intersection provides no U-Turn capability, and as a result ANYONE who would want to make a U-Turn to patronize a business here cannot. Carlsbad knows this so they made it so a traveler has to go 4 miles North before a U-turn is even possible - sending C’bad all the business. 8 mile U-turns are cruel and unusual treatment to the businesses of Encinitas by Carlsbad. The sad part is that the La Costa / 101 intersection is OURS and has not been modified to correct this error.
Another example is Palomar Airport Rd. In the old days it simply made a T shape to 101. A traveler could turn left to go to Leucadia or right for Carlsbad. But that wasn't good enough, so they built a huge loop. Now anyone driving West on Palomar Airport Rd has to make a 270 degree right turn to go anywhere South, (IF they’re quick enough to process the choice in time,) while their ingenious unaltered path aims all revenue to downtown Carlsbad.
And don't get me started on the time they unnecessarily shut our bridge down for 6 months in 1994 robbing us of 8,000 cars per day. Offering us $20,000 to mitigate with an “event”, then not giving us a dime.
Historically and currently, Carlsbad is not a friendly neighbor when it comes to traffic. But is concerns me that both Carlsbad and Encinitas “agree” that our La Costa Ave. needs to be widened. Sounds like the old “good cop bad cop” routine to achieve the same end.
And I have to laugh when the news reporter boldly claimed “Encinitas agrees that Encinitas residents will benefit from the Ponto development.”
Guess it boils down to two separate interpretations of what “road improvements” are. Theirs, and everyone elses.
I respectfully disagree with the "non-option" approach the news report presents to us.
Leucadia Blog: Encinitas vs Carlsbad!
City of Carlsbad Official Website
E-mail the Carlsbad city council and tell them what you think about their shady Ponto plans: Carlsbad city council contact page
NCT.com Encinitas suing Carlsbad over Ponto plan
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Community News Jan 2008
Light Up Leucadia People’s Choice Award- it’s not too late to vote for your favorite Leucadia business holiday light display along Hwy 101. Ballot boxes are located at Leucadia Donuts, Corner Frame Shop, Embellishments, Leucadia 101 office, DEMA office and Encinitas Chamber. Ballots will be collected on Friday Jan. 4th, 12 noon.
Office Space Available: The new Leucadia 101 Main Street office is large and set up for multiple users. If you or someone you know is looking for office space with reasonable rent and is up for sharing space, please let me know!
Leucadia 101 Main Street Annual Membership Meeting- Jan. 17 6 – 8 pm Poinsettia Room, City Civic Center. We will hold our annual meeting to recap the past year and present our goals for 2008. It’s a great way for our members to meet the Leucadia 101 Main Street Board and vice versa as well as discuss the issues of the day concerning Leucadia. The winners of the Light Up Leucadia Holiday Lighting contest will also be announced!
Get Ready for the Rain. Donna Trotter from the City of Encinitas-Public Works Department sent this request: Please direct all calls regarding sandbags to 633-2850. (Street Maintenance Division.) I will be happy to assist them with our available location and our local vendors who provide them
Antique Appraisal Faire, Jan. 12 10- 2pm (Jan. 19 if it rains) The San Dieguito Heritage Museum, 450 Quail Gardens Dr. For more info and to make an appointment, call 632-9711.
Arts Alive Banner Unveiling, Jan. 27th 2 pm at the Off Track Gallery (the old Red Sands building) in downtown.
New Library Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting, Feb. 23 9 am.
Office Space Available: The new Leucadia 101 Main Street office is large and set up for multiple users. If you or someone you know is looking for office space with reasonable rent and is up for sharing space, please let me know!
Leucadia 101 Main Street Annual Membership Meeting- Jan. 17 6 – 8 pm Poinsettia Room, City Civic Center. We will hold our annual meeting to recap the past year and present our goals for 2008. It’s a great way for our members to meet the Leucadia 101 Main Street Board and vice versa as well as discuss the issues of the day concerning Leucadia. The winners of the Light Up Leucadia Holiday Lighting contest will also be announced!
Get Ready for the Rain. Donna Trotter from the City of Encinitas-Public Works Department sent this request: Please direct all calls regarding sandbags to 633-2850. (Street Maintenance Division.) I will be happy to assist them with our available location and our local vendors who provide them
Antique Appraisal Faire, Jan. 12 10- 2pm (Jan. 19 if it rains) The San Dieguito Heritage Museum, 450 Quail Gardens Dr. For more info and to make an appointment, call 632-9711.
Arts Alive Banner Unveiling, Jan. 27th 2 pm at the Off Track Gallery (the old Red Sands building) in downtown.
New Library Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting, Feb. 23 9 am.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Encinitas vs Carlsbad!
Are your children safe?
The streets will run red with the blood of the Carlsbad infidels.
Watch the video.
(Look for a special appearance by taxpayer tick, Debbie Fountain).
NCT.com: Encinitas to sue over Ponto plan
My take, Carlsbad envisions people driving down from LA on the I-5, getting off at La Costa Ave, going west and then turning RIGHT (away from Leucadia and Encinitas business) and they want Encinitas taxpayers to have the burden of paying for most of the road work? Bah!
Burning Question: Which Encinitas/Leucadia property owners are going to lose property via eminent domain to widen La Costa Ave for Carslbad's benefit?
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