New Year's Sand Art

NEW YEAR'S DAY LABYRINTH AT THE BEACH Art guild member Kirkos will create one of his meditation labyriths on the sand of Stonesteps Beach in Encinitas on New Year's Day . This will be an interactive event and will take several hours to complete (1:30 to 5pm)

Guild artist Kirk "Kirkos" Van Allyn will be creating a labyrinth on the sand of Stonesteps Beach in Encinitas on New Year's Day 2009. A public access stairs offers the way to reach the beach below and participate. The labyrinth can also be viewed from the bluffs above.

The public is invited to bring gifts for the labyrinth. Items should be biodegradable such as flowers, colored stones and coarse salt. Wax candles are also an option and add a lovely touch. At the end of the evening Kirkos and Guild members have volunteered to remove the candles..

Sponsored by The Off Track Gallery.

See Also: Most Sand Ever

Christmas Blackout

Police cars blocking off the Leucadia Blvd train tracks on Christmas night 2008.

How many babies will born 9 months from now due to the Christmas blackout of 2008?

ENCINITAS: Thousands without power Christmas night

Cobble Funkiness

Cobbles are part of our beach landscape and cultural history.

My wife's mom grew up next to Stone Steps. She recently told me a story about one of her childhood neighbors. This neighbor took daily walks on the beach and would return with a handful of cobbles each time. She could not recall if the neighbor ever made something with the cobbles, but others in the neighborhood did.
On Andrew Avenue there is an old wall embedded with beach cobble. It is quintessential Leucadia. It is definitely funky. The wall doesn't have a shallow mainstream appeal, but it has a lot of Leucadian character. It reflects the creative side of Leucadia, an indifference toward conformity, and a use of native materials. You won't find this sort of thing in Irvine.

How about including beach cobble into some of the streetscape detail work? It would be a nice tie to our history and environment.

Here is a staircase built out of cobbles. The wall appears to be based on river cobbles and the stairs might be from a beach source. What is really interesting and likely to bring back memories for the old timers are the abalone shells in the wall. Abalone/cobble walls are classic California beach style.

Abalone was once common on our local reefs. Overfishing and disease have made them an unusual find.

See also:
Cobbled History
Romancing the Cobble
We're Back to Sand
Old School Cobbles

Is Flooding an Issue?

Not that long ago Leucadia's flooding was the big issue at city hall. We were told that we needed a $30 million dollar storm drain and we would need to turn Leucadia into a redevelopment district to pay for it. City hall stopped talking about our flooding, after Leucadians fought against big brother government control and being declared blighted. Did the problem just go away? Was the problem overhyped as part of the redevelopment campaign? Is the problem being swept under the rug?

We still have a pump at Leucadia Roadside Park.

We still have those really weird no parking zones on Hermes, near Deputy Mayor Dalager's house.Years ago staff told me these signs went in because of the flooding and that they would get pulled out after the drains were installed. It has been years since the drains were installed. Do the drains not work well enough to eliminate the flooding problem on Hermes? Did the city just forget to clean up this loose end?

Is the drainage situation no longer in need of attention?

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Auggie's House of Santa

Auggie went big this year.

Dark Winter Nights

This is NOT the coast highway in Leucadia.

With the exception of Auggie's House of Crab and the tiki place, north Leucadia 101 is a dark and bleak place on these long winter nights. Every year I dream of a cheerier Leucadia with more ambiance and lighting on the coastal corridor.


Leucadia 101 Main Street is sponsoring the fourth annual Light up Leucadia Holiday Lighting Contest

Any business located on Hwy 101 between La Costa and Encinitas Blvd is eligible to participate

Judging will be done by community members during the month of December

Cash prizes awarded to the top three winners based on the most creative outdoor lighting displays

First Place $150
Second Place $125
Third Place $100
And a Special People’s Choice Award
Ballot boxes located at: Embellishments (in the Gold Coast Plaza); Leucadia Donuts; and the Leucadia 101 Main Street office

Photos from last year:











photos sent in by Morgan Mallory.

Cool Neptune Lights

Looks like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. Located on Neptune Ave in Leucadia.

Residents with a different view

These letters were published in The Coast News.

Encinitas needs to listen to residents
After attending Workshop No. 3 for the Leucadia 101 it is evident that the Encintias city staffers need to learn to listen to those they serve: the people of this town. The overwhelming majority who attended were first time attendees, packing City Hall to voice their concern that the city is misguided in its vision for Leucadia and reckless in it hiring of consultants pushing for major development. Most outrageous is the proposal to include single lanes and five double-to-single land roundabouts, which would equate to 12 serious bottlenecks in this 2-mile corridor. The proposed plans are perfectly designed to send overflow traffic through many neighborhood streets. Workshop No. 3 was an obvious wakeup call for everyone. The plans do not address the I-5 overflow, the problems of Leucadia Boulevard at the railroad track, the Vulcan Avenue corridor, nor the safety and quality of life for those who live along these corridors. Perhaps the city staffers can stop pushing the theme of Greek gods and spiritual revivalist, and start looking at the future that attainable.

Mike Farber
Leucadia

Proposed improvements good for business?
Coast Highway 101 businesses in Leucadia must be doing great in this economy. They have too many customers and want less business. By permanently closing down one lane of Highway 101, they lose thousands of cars a weekend that want to cruise the coast, choose a slower, more scenic option to I5—stop, shop, and eat along the way. Those thousands of visitors won’t be parking miles away to walk, bike, or take the bus to an airy-fairy “village” concept. But I’m sure Leucadia merchants will attract a whole new crop of visitors that just can’t wait to experience driving around and around and around in the five traffic circles planned.

Ken Harrison
Cardiff-by-the-Sea

Fire Station Update

LTC on the Leucadia Streetscape

Dear Leucadia Town Council Members:

I am writing this letter regarding our streetscape on Highway 101. The LTC Board has been involved in this process from the beginning and we met with Diane Langager to go over the plans before the 3rd workshop. Our concerns at that time were the speed with which a decision was made to proceed with Alternative 1, and the fact that alternative 1 would remove lots of trees.

Also, our Board encouraged Diane to make the plans known to more people. We suggested having the plans at the Leucadia Artwalk in August and L101 was gracious enough to keep their office open so it could happen. There were Board members from both LTC and L101 and City Staff there to answer questions about the Streetscape. Diane also suggested having an open house at the library so that the community could view the plans and have their questions answered, which they did.

This is a very important progression for Leucadia. We do not want to change the character of this community. I think that pretty much sums up how the Leucadia Town Council Board feels. However, we look forward to improvements to our 101 corridor. Please remember that the first phase will start at Encinitas Blvd. and go up to North Court. I think you will all agree that adding more trees and improvements to this area is greatly needed and will be welcomed.

My goal as President of LTC and as an activist in our community has always been to involve the community. I hope that all of you are behind the efforts of the City to improve our corridor so it is safe to walk, landscaped and designed to slow traffic down so people can enjoy our businesses and restaurants. That is what will make Leucadia vital. We are in the planning process now and all members of the community who have an interest should seek out information so that we have a good base of consensus once the plans are completed. You can contact Diane Langager at 760 633 2714. There is also information on the L101 website www.leucadia101.com. I have also attached a fact list that was composed by L101 to answer some questions, which have come up during the workshops.

The most important thing to know is that this is a planning process. The consultants and City have gone out of their way to hear the community and everything is subject to change and improvement. I hope anyone who has questions will contact Diane or do their research so that we can move forward as a community with everyone’s concerns addressed.

Thank you to all of you who love and treasure Leucadia as I do. I wish you a very Happy Holiday Season!

Sincerely,
Rachelle

Rachelle has nice teeth.

See Also: What are Leucadia 101's streescape objectives, by Charley Marvin?

Nantucket Drive By

Voice of San Diego: Nantucket in the Rain and In Leucadia, a Subdivision Half-Built

See also: Nantucket Blighting Leucadia

The Leucadia Project

There is a new blog on the interwebs dedicated to Leucadia surfing. Check it out:
www.theleucadiaproject.com

Rain!

Trippy Leucadia Gal

I see this girl everywhere, I think her name is Leah. I've talked to her before, she is really nice. There used to be a lot more girls like her in Leucadia. Photo taken from the Beyond Toothpaste blog which is also kinda trippy.

Signs of the Times

If you are pretext, skip this and DRIB:


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If you understand this text speak, you're probably too young to know what layaway is.

Here is a story about it.

EMRTW

Other Coast Highway Trees

While the city of Encinitas has seemingly declared war on the 101 trees in Leucadia, especially the Eucalyptus, the coast highway trees in the Torrey Pines and UCSD area are thriving,

Some L101 Trees

Specific trees are not yet marked for removal. Pictured are some trees in medians where trees are slated for removal. If someone lets me know when the trees are marked and I'll cruz back down and take a look.

See Also: Leucadia 101 Tree Chopping Scheduled