More Dog Parks

Comment about the Poop Patrol Video:

I was struck by in this fascinating video how empty the park was when Mister "Nimby" was "documenting" the doggie destruction.

The fact is the Park is full of life, activity and good will when people and their dogs are able to recreate at the site, which by the way still has quite limited off-leash hours. The park is used by animal lovers because there is a great need for places to take our dogs.

The dog poop IS disgusting, and we need to make a better effort to clean it up. It's also disgusting how much trash I find (and pick up) whenever I go to the beach.

By having more areas around the city where people can take their dogs locally, it will cut down on the overuse of Orpheus, so he is making a BIG mistake discouraging off-leash hours at other parks around town.

Anon Park User

Free the Water District

From the Encinitas Taxpayer Association- For the first time, the Encinitas Taxpayers Association (ETA) is asking San Dieguito Water District (SDWD) customers to protest the SDWD’s proposed water rate increases. The City Council plans on counting anyone who does not respond as voting yes on the increase.

Download a protest form here.

The proposed rate increase for a typical water user will be 14% in March and automatically followed by another 13% increase next January. This results in an 85% increase since 2005. The SDWD has raised rates 4 times and 44% during the previous 4 years.

The SDWD has done well financially. The SDWD has been able to issue a 15% pay raise to SDWD staff over 2008-2012. The SDWD had $1.35 million sitting in its rate stabilization fund last summer, when the SDWD budget was adopted. This is a good time to lean heavily on that fund.

FREEING THE DISTRICT
The ETA is also organizing an initiative to open up the SDWD board to non-councilmembers. The Encinitas City Council now governs the SDWD. The ETA recommends the SDWD’s governing board be opened up to independently elected officials who have no conflicts of interest. This is critical during negotiations between the SDWD and the City. The City and SDWD enter into many financial agreements and the current ratepayer safeguards are inadequate.

We can trust the current council won't b.s. the public again or raid the water district, but you never know who is going to get elected in the future. The ETA has identified a number of vulnerabilities.

The SDWD claims the rate increases are necessary because of the increased costs of imported water and the need for upgrades and retrofitting to the district's infrastructure. The ETA recognizes most of those projects as appearing legitimate. However, the ratepayers could get a better deal.


The ETA is composed of members with diverse perspectives and their reasons for opposing the rate increase are varied. They include:

1. New rate increases should be opposed until the ratepayers have independent representation,
2. Raising rates in the midst of the economic downturn is bad timing,
3. Rate increases for seismic retrofitting should be written so they sunset once the projects are complete,
4. The residential customers of western Encinitas (i.e. SDWD) should no longer subsidize cheap water for the municipal government of Encinitas.

Under Prop 218, if 50%+1 of the SDWD customers disapprove in writing, rate increases will be temporarily blocked. Ratepayers who do not file objections are counted as yes votes for the rate increase.


Ways to Help
1) Sign and mail this protest form,
2) Display a yard sign,
3) Distribute protest postcards on your block,
4) Forward this email.

We will be able to cover the city if people like you share the protest postcards with our neighbors. Request a sign or set of postcards for your neighborhood from eta@encinitastaxpayers.org.

Jerome Stocks: Roses & Raspberries

Encinitas city council member Jerome Stocks was a giving a "raspberry" by the North County Times editorial staff this week for "enthusiastically" supporting a $50,000 pay raise to San Diego Association of Governments' Executive Director Gary Gallegos.
Read NCT Roses and Raspberries
Jerome Stocks is also one of the bloggers on the anti-big government, save our tax dollars, teabagger website SD Rostra.com

Speaking of Jerome, I am giving him a Leucadia Blog rose for being the swing vote on the downtown Leucadia streetscape project. Jerome takes a lot of heat from Leucadians, especially on this blog (and especially in the anonymous comments section). I know a lot of people have concerns about the streetscape plan 4A which passed 3-1, but so does Jerome. It would have been easy for Jerome to vote no on the streetscape and kill it once and for all, but I think he understood that investing in our infrastructure every 50 years is good for the community in the long run. Some common ground is that is not 100% sold on all those wacky roundabouts either. The Keep Leucadia Funky crowd may actual find an opportunity to work with him as the streetscape process continues.

So Jerome I am giving you a rose and totally not in a gay way because we are both dudes and yeah, it's kinda weird for a dude to give another dude a rose but I am doing it so just be cool about it and don't tell anyone.

Family Rides from Vermont to See Leucadia Roundabouts

We are on our way to Alaska
on our five person tandem bicycle!
And you are here with us!

Credit: Jim Chesseman sent us the link and photo.

Wouldn't be surprised if these guys eventually move to Leucadia.

See Also: Encinitas Lifestyle Blog.

High tide crushing North Beacons

If you have time this morning come down to Beacons with a cup of
coffee and watch the bluff get destroyed by EL NINO.

High Tide Weekend

We had incredible 7 ft high tides over the weekend. Mixed with a good head high swell this meant the coast took a pummeling. These photos show Cardiff's Restaurant Row getting swamped. The Cardiff Reef parking lot was closed to cars since it was covered in sand, kelp and rocks. And all throughout the weekend our bluff were getting hammered hard. I saw waves crashing into the North Beacons seawall that was sending spray 60 ft into the air. El Nino!!!

Open Space Purchase!

Good news, bad news.

Part of this bluff at the corner of Piraeus and La Costa has been purchased by SANDAG for habitat mitigation. Although there is a majority on the Council who have made campaign promises of purchasing habitat for natural resource conservation and recreation, the current city council has a weak record of open space preservation.

Leucadia Weather

There are few places in the the continental US where you can find peaches growing in January.

Be proud of our Leucadia 101 rail corridor and public transit!

Will JP Cry Uncle?

The NCTimes reports, "The construction of a parking structure at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas could send truckloads of sand, about 16,000 cubic yards, to Moonlight Beach next month." [emphasis added]

After JP blogged for years about Moonlight Beach getting "replenished" with "itchy and scratchy ash tray sand" the city is now dumping construction excavation material on Moonlight beach instead.

Will they dump it in the surf zone or in the sunbathing zone/volleyball zone?

See Also
Leucadia Blog: Sandy Beach "Replenished" with Developer's Construction Dirt

Leucadia Blog: Sand Series

WAL*MART IN ENCINITAS???

There is some disturbing news in the North County Times today, and I'm not even sure if it news or just a rumor, but in an op-ed piece about how the empty Home Depot Expo building should become a movie theatre (something we suggested on this blog months ago) there is this chilling sentence,

I got a text message from a friend who said, "Thought you should know Walmart is definitely going into the Expo spot."

Is this true? Can the ultimate symbol or white trash loserville really be coming to the yuppie surfburg that is Encinitas?

More from the article,

This news was something I had heard before during the summer when concerned tenants in the area mentioned it to me. I decided to take action and walk the shops on both sides of Leucadia Avenue to see what working folk had to say, and what I heard is that almost unanimously, no one wants a Walmart and everyone really wants a movie theater.
So I took my findings to a City Council planning session and gave a presentation. What I learned that night is that the site is zoned accordingly and that Home Depot has the right to sublease to the party it chooses, as long as the building stays the same and the arrangement is acceptable between Home Depot and Walmart.

This is a dark day folks, Wal*Mart will truly be "the biggest thing that ever happened to Encinitas". If the city and chamber of commerce let this happen you are going to see vacancies all over Encinitas. There will be a horrible sucking sound as the majority of businesses on the El Camino Real corridor are shuttered.

Don't let this happen people. This is the one enemy that could unite all the different factions of Encinitas. A Wal*Mart will be culturally and financially devastating to Encinitas. I know some people will think it's a great idea, people who enjoy purchasing low quality plastic crap from China in bulk, but don't listen to them. The numbers don't work out when you bring Wal*Mart to town. They destroy sales tax, property tax and jobs. This is bleak.

The Expo site would be a perfect location for an IMAX movie theatre. An groovy community like Encinitas should not have to drive all the way to Mira Mesa to see Avatar in 3D IMAX. A multiplex theatre would compliment REI and Islands restaurant.

WE MUST FIGHT WAL*MART COMING TO ENCINITAS!

Read the story on NCT.com click me

The Trees Strike Back

Support your local donut merchants

Your homework for this week, buy a Leucadia Donuts t-shirt, even if you don't eat donuts you need a shirt.

Narrows and Curves

Cardiff locals declare road not curved or narrow enough.

Two tools of traffic calming are narrowed lanes and shortened lines of sight.