Great cover story on this week's Coast Newz.
link to Coast News Paradise Lost? story by Stephen Keller
In early summer of 2000 right before I got married my former roommates and I had a memorable discussion of what we thought Encinitas, North County, San Diego and even America would be like physically and culturally by 2010.
Our wannabee futurist panel was right about a lot things.
That mainstream media obsession with California would help empty out the Midwest.
That no self absorbed California politician would make any effort to ready our infrastructure for the giant wave of newbie’s.
That cities like Carlsbad would sell out to mega developers creating a generic yuppie trash wasteland of psuedo-east coast developments like, Nantucket John Kerry Loserville and Rancho Costa Hamptons.
Once the cities had quickly built out their open spaces they would start to eye the old Prop. 13 freeloader neighborhoods for redevelopment.
That cities would invest a lot of their tax revenue into grandiose golf courses.
One roommate wisely predicted mid-eastern terrorist attacks on US soil that result in wars and high gas prices.
That the economy would slow and golf interest would peak and cities would be left with white elephant courses.
That oversized fruity looking vehicles like the H2 would be a bizarre status symbol for yuppie nerds in the new era of high gas prices.
That the newbie yuppie families living in their giant McMansions with their 3-4 kids will be baffled that there are no places for their kids to rent after they graduate high school. You won't be able to find a house for under a million bucks, no more small humble cottages for young newlyweds so your kids and their kids are never moving out of your house.
That the south 5 morning commute will get worse and worse and worse. This leads to a general vibe of frustration in the air. Notice that people will become less and less friendly and patient at the market, in the parking lot, at the restaurants, etc.
That traffic will start to hurt the economy. Stop and go traffic leads to extremely poor fuel consumption. As we burn our precious fuel idling at traffic lights and inching along the freeway our gas bill goes up, leaving less disposable income.
Bad traffic means UPS delivers your important package late. (all the shipping companies we use at my family small business just raised their rates due to fuel prices).
As parents spend more time sitting in traffic the family unit will slowly break down. Kids will be more attached to their nannies than their parents. Spouses spend less time with each other. Divorces will again climb. Well to do men in their 40's and 50's who move to California seem to freak out, divorce their chubby wives and marry twenty something gold diggers with hot bodies. These girls want babies too so 28 year olds end up with baby siblings that are the same age as their own kids.
40+ year old chubby Midwest wives develop eating disorders trying to stay thin and competitive. Gyms and plastic surgery clinics thrive in the shaky economy.
Small city councils grow more powerful and retreat into backroom secrecy. This results in the breakdown of the charm and appeal of the small beach communities. Soon people realize that they destroyed the reason why they moved to the town in the first place and turned it into the town that they hated back home. However the damage is done. The local donut store is now a Krispy Kreme and life sucks.
Those neo-fascist communities with CCR's and Mello Roo's will start to wear down the will to live.
That children with no interesting place to go become depressed shut-ins playing video games, watching violent sexist films and growing fat off sugary foods.
That kids will have no idea how to get anywhere by the time they turn 16 because they grew up watcing t.v. in the back of the suv instead of looking out the window. Luckily gps units make being brain dead okay.
That everyone who moves here will complain about all the Mexicans, complain about illegal immigration, complain about the overcrowded schools with non-English speaking kids but will continue to hire illegal aliens because California worker's comp. insurance is out of control.
Cities will overdevelop an area, realize that they need a new school and bulldoze an old neighborhood to build one, displacing families that have lived there for generations.
New shopping centers mean new roads which means your old house is in the way sucker.
That maybe, just maybe, things will start to suck so bad that everyone will go back to where they came from.
56% claim they may leave. Quit talking the talk and walk the walk dweebs. Split!
(Sadly, I believe that the people talking about leaving are the people who grew up here).
Very insightful, JP. Would be funny, if not so sad. The X Generation is not now the Y generation (what does that stand for, anyway?) Now they are the $ Generation. GEN$
ReplyDeleteI don't like the people who are here just to flip their property for profit and then move on. When people are in a place temporarily they don't care what happens in the long run. They are locust. My personal belief is that 50% had planned to move after they made enough equity in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYeah, what is happening with the so-called housing bubble, is that the developoers, real estate brokers, loan agents, etc., make all the money. The old timers are told, "Look how much your property is worth now."
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to move, the real value of your home, your quality of life is decreased by "density bonus" developments, overcrowded beaches, hideous traffic.
Lots of oldtimers are practically forced out by the corrupt practices of local government. Might/money makes right around here.
August 4th planning commission meeting includes an item for a 26 unit time share between 101 and the railroad tracks north of La Coasta Avenue. Across the tracks from that giant three story McMansion thta is being built above the lagoon.
ReplyDeleteGood Idea.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone see one of those green signs on the "proposed 26 unit time-share" site? The one that gives public notice that something is up?
I have seen, and before commented on the McMansion going up on the North side of La Costa, directly along the bluff, and affecting the view corridor of the lagoon. Never did I notice a green sign for that one.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, a major artery, La Costa is affected by the grading, to the point where it will now probably always flood when it rains.
The signs should be posted along La Costa, where most people passing the proposed development could see them.
When development was done around here, the green sign went up, which signifies an application is being processed for a Coastal Development Permit.
In our case, most people could not read the signs from the sidewalk; the sign was posted in the middle of the 100 ft. lot. And most thought the permits had already been issued. No survey was ever done for the project by us. No story poles.
Surveys are done by public officers, and should be recorded with the County, as I understand it. Developers get away with so much. Not only are they generally exempt from having to perform an Environmental Impact Report, our city codes do not require a design review, as does my sister's neighborhood, in Rolling Hills Estates, near Palos Verdes. There the pre-existing neighbors have much more opportunity for input.
Christy Guerin wanted Encinitas Rocks to be our city slogan. Right now Leucadia's slogan should be Secede from Encinitas Inc. It can be done, according to State Law. Perhaps we should form our own, more perfect union, a charter city, not a corrupt "public" corporation where no-nothings, wanna be unaccountable power brokers, micro-managers and control freaks push us all around.
A lot of good people from Cardiff would probably like to do the same thing. The North Coast Coalition formed Encinitas to slow down development, enable the people to have more local control. That has not happened. Our Council Members have ambitions for higher office, at the expense of long time residents here.
Be aware, and make a difference. Word of mouth really counts. Talk to the newbies; lots of them want to know what is going on. They are probably so busy commuting, taking kids to soccer, play dates, etc., they remain fairly apathetic to city politics. Let's hope those who are uninformed won't vote. Guess why James Bond keeps getting re-elected. Much of the reason has to do with 007. Crying shame. Now he's on vacation to Utah. He needs to get out of the crowds he has helped to funnel here.
Design review boards sound like a good idea but the scary thing is that you end up with the 8 zombie control freaks like in Del Mar. The design review boards end up retarding good design because the people on the board are small minded yahoos with bad taste.
ReplyDeleteHave any of you been to Seattle? There is a town called Ballard that wants to secede. There are Free Ballard t-shirts and bumper stickers everywhere. Ballard is the really hip area with the cool records stores and stuff, just like Leucadia.
If you don't want a McMansion as every other house, a very strong Design Review Board, with teeth to enforce, is required. But you also need very clear design review guideline ordinances, but the Council threw those out when they revised the zoning chapters. Surprise, they will say when someone asks the silly question of why the city isn't following the ordinances. The guidelines are now merely suggestions.
ReplyDelete007=Lisence to Kill QOL
ReplyDeleteYeah, the problem with a city appointed design review is that power corrupts those who sit on the board, jury, or commission.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of cities where new builds in pre-existing neighborhoods were subject to design review by the neighbors. Makes more sense, because the neighbors, should they want to remodel, do not want the rules to be too outrageous, hard to comply with.
Of course, new "Nantucket" subdivisions, such as being built by Barratt, near La Costa, should have more than just a dubiously noticed CCP (Citizen-Community Plan, I think). Because the citizens may make suggestions, but they need not be followed, as in our case. We think the new ordinances did not pass because too many people were frightened that they would not be able to make their own choices in remodelling their own residences.
Called & talked to Planning Dept. today, after R. went to City Hall personally. Seems there is no deadline for completing a project once a CDP has been granted, and plans pulled. The two year deadline mention on the Coastal Development Permits, we are told, is deadline for builder to go through plan check, begin construction. Extensions are routinely granted. Esgil, who runs the Building Depts. in Encinitas, Solana Beach, and Del Mar, doing all of the building inspections, said a developer could take five years, if necessary. I asked Chris Miller in Planning if Esgil, whom we thought were independent contractors are city employees, with benefits. He said, ABSOLUTELY!
We have been subjected to ongoing construction, demolition for well over four years. While riding his bike, R saw another big PR photo op for Stocks, Houlihan & Dalager. A new stylized bell/light was installed on No. Coast Highway 101, near Roadhouse. Accross the way, an old tree was being taken down. Hope the papers/media got a picture of that.
Thanks, JP, for passing on info about Ballard, in Seattle area. My stepdad told me it is possible. We can research the law, contact Registrar of Voters, and find out how to start a legal petition to secede!
ReplyDeleteSo disillusioned with administration of our city. We need to take back our power! Seems we just keep supporting more and more govt. employees who have way better benefits than most of us. Dalager and Bond voted against raises, including pension raises for city staff the first time around. Then they caved and gave a fat raise to City Manager and City Attorneys. Guerin, Houlihan, and Stocks think we are hunky dory, financially. Yet the city is nickle and diming every one of us, got off on charging illegal taxes on our Edco trash bills. We want a refund!!
My wife says she would rather have to take it on the chin and look at ugly houses than have freedom to produce good design taken away by a pinhead design review board. It's like how we can't restrict free speech even if it means having to deal with Rob Schneider, Vin Diesel and Michael Bay movies.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the deal with the so-called park host at Cottonwood Creek Park? There is limited parking now. Young families do not want to park over at Smart & Final and walk with young children past all of the kind of scary line of latino day workers clustered around driveway by Shell. City says their will be one at Oak Park and one at Hall property too. Supposedly one already exists at Glenn Park.
ReplyDeleteThis inconsistency is unfair.
We can't park boats, campers, rv's on the street now, without a special permit, even if we follow State Motor Vehicle Code and move them every 72 hours. Yet the City can give some sweetheart deal to retired Navy, breaking its own rules. No overnight parking of trailers in public areas.
By the way, according to the NCT, technically, we own the property in front of our homes, to the middle of the street. The State, County and City have public easements. They do not own the street, they maintain it.
I would sign the petition to secede in a heartbeat.
Just as you can't legislate morality, you can't really legislate aesthetics.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it's CPP, Citizen Participation Plan. Just advisory, like our upcoming vote on the new Ecke rezoning request.
Although I don't think design review is appropriate for remodels, the pre-existing neighbors within or adjoining new developments, including piecemeal in-fill development, do need to have a voice, and local character should be a factor. This is in concurrence with the Coastal Commission's requirements re the CA Quality of Life Act, or CEQA.
It shouldn't have to be either/or. With participation, consideration, and compassion, we should be able to find common ground. And remember, a new subdivision is different than a single home. Tract homes, even very high end tract homes should not be excluded from review because they are labeled custom homes.
The planning commission does a quasi design review on certain projects. A design review board is one more step in allowing the neighbors to know what the houses will look like when finished. The board can only push what the Council gives in authority. Without authority the board becomes advisory. Either way, the neighbors learn more about the project. How many people want houses towering over their front and back yards? If there is no view issue consider the issue of no daylight in the yard because of the shadows cast by the buildings next door.
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention Ballard, Wiggler, since it's my hometown. When Dad moved the family to California, in 1986, Ballard was about as far from hip as you can imagine.
ReplyDeleteThink of a dirty, run-down and even grayer Morro Bay, but without any of its charm or surf.
Ballard was just a working-class Norwegian pocket community.
In the early '90s, Seattle became the place to be, and a bunch of SLO hipsters I knew moved up there — against the wishes of my grandparents, who, fearing a mass migration, requested that I tell my new California friends to stay home.
Once these transplants learned a little about the city, they'd ask me what part I was from.
And when I told them, they'd inevitably grimace and say: "Sorry."
But when I was up there for a hipster wedding in the late '90s or so, I was shocked to learn all the pre-parties would be in sleepy old Ballard.
It was then I discovered Johan's Lutefisk Warehouse had mysteriously morphed into an indie record store — which sold only vinyl, of course. The former heavy —industrial area along Ballard Avenue was lined with tasteful brew-pubs with pre-weathered wood floors and ornate taps. The building that used to house Lars' Clog Factory had become home to the quaintest used-book shop north of Cannon Beach. A couple blocks away, some entity had constructed an efficient little skate park with the most inviting bowl I’d ever seen.
I drove by our modest, but waterfront, house that we sold in '86 and found it on the market — for over a million. Really?
Ballard is still, to me, a place where your friends are named Anders, Jan, Frode and Hans. A place where you find marijuana plants growing behind the toilet at your sister's Girl Scout troop leader's house. It's where the public schools are so bad that your 10th-grade-educated father shifts you to private school halfway through first grade. In Ballard, you poach the keys to your friend Ivor's parents' Boston Whaler, knowing the Hanssens be spending the summer away in the mother country. It's where your rite-of-passage first job is scooping herring at a bait dock.
So I'm probably as perplexed by these hip new Ballard residents, JP, as you are by the McMansion-dwelling, Hummer-driving fruits in Nouveau Carlsbad.
Ballard secede from Seattle? I never even knew that Norway lost possession of it in the first place.
FP
Hey festus, why you gotta bring Morro Bay into this? Why you gotta disrespect?
ReplyDeleteanybody got a web link to ...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, according to the NCT, technically, we own the property in front of our homes, to the middle of the street. The State, County and City have public easements. They do not own the street, they maintain it.
I think I read about homeowners owning property to the middle of the street, in front of our homes, in a letter to the editor in NCT this past week?? Would a surveyor know? A real estate lawyer would.
ReplyDeleteYou know who doesn't know? City. And don't trust Esgil. New no parking ordinance by Know-nothings is unfair. Almost everyone at Council meetings spoke against it. Again, City lets a privileged few park their trailers at our public parks, taking up precious parking space. What gives?
I think that in older neighborhoods of Encinitas it is likely that many people own property out into the street. Gotta check your surveys... maybe the plat map, that you can see at the City, can help.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to check your title to see what the City's rights of use across your property actually is, if this is the case. I think the City's rights might be limited to what is on the title because I don't think the City has any ordinances that address this. That is where the attorney might help.
????
Glad to check out your input.
ReplyDeleteA bit of local color from other coastal communities is good. Let us not be too self-absorbed blogcadians.
Gives us something to compare to. Overdevelopment, overcrowding, overpricing are not just a local issue.
Hey, Ri ... err, Eric.
ReplyDeleteAt least I didn’t mention all the bird shit.
Dear Dear Festus: Our names are similar.
FP