New Encinitas Blog

Sunday is Encinitas Day

2009-02-16T08:09:00.001-08:00

Sunday must be Encinitas Day at the UT. They had stories on Bob Nanninga's death, a school district health update, Leucadia tress being cut down, a ballet school, and EUSD superintendent Lean King's retirement.

Bob Nanninga - RIP

2009-02-16T08:04:00.001-08:00

Rest in peace, Bob.

Battle of the Lagoon Nature Centers

2009-02-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

My family and I attended the past weekend's ribbon cutting ceremony for the San Elijo Lagoon nature center. The new center costs $5.6 million and is the pet project of County Supervisor (and former Encinitas council member) Pam Slater-Price. This structure has risen the stakes in the Battle of the Lagoon Nature Centers and the other lagoons need to step it up.

Batiquitos Lagoon has a trailer with limited hours. I predict Carlsbad will get quite jealous of Encinitas' nature center and starts pressing the county for money build a new center there.

Agua Hedionda Lagoon nature center is housed in the former sales office of some random Carlsbad development. The building is nice and has some decent displays. The grounds are also nice but there are no trails as of yet. I would be surprised if this nature center gets more funding other than to add some nature trails. This lagoon is already tapped out for aquatic activities.

Buena Vista has, in my opinion, the finest nature center. It has by far the best animal exhibits and the most hands-on activities for the kids. The only drawback is the lack of good trails. There is has talk to build a hotel across the street so get there while the scenery is good.

San Dieguito will soon enter the fray after receiving some seed money for their new center which will replace their current mini-trailer.

Although not technically on a lagoon, the Chula Vista Nature Center deserves mention mainly because the city is threatening to close it due to budget problems.

Is Encinitas the New Detroit?

2009-02-03T10:33:00.001-08:00

Albertson's is closing. Toygarden is going out of business. Home Depot Expo is kaput.
Soon there will be nothing left except drug stores and golf "superstores." The city council should organize a junket out to Detroit to learn about urban decay and blight.
New Encinitas businesses supply the majority of sales tax revenue and local jobs for the city. So we should all hope as the economy turns around, new businesses will fill those empty locations.
Perhaps we should bulldoze it all and turn El Camino Real back into Green Valley.

Circuit City doors

Green Valley - before all the failing business were built it had one business...a farm

Great Leucadia Tree War

2009-02-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

Leucadia's trees are under attack from the city of Encinitas!
A timeline thus far:
First, the city cuts down the trees in Leucadia Park.
Then, they target several of the eucalyptus trees along 101 for removal.
Then, the city removes some of the trees from Orpheus Park because of some 1990's era verbal agreement with the developer of a condo complex. They would have removed more if an activist wasn't camped out in one of them. School kids from Ecke Central even got into the protest action.
I won't pretend to understand tree biology and know whether or not these trees needed to be removed. But the deal with the condos smells fishy. Assuming there was a verbal agreement, how long was this supposed to go on? Forever? How many other "verbal agreements" are there that we don't know about. I was surprised that city manager Cotton wouldn't listen to a sitting council member and delay the removal. How hard would it be to stop and figure things out.
Leucadia blog is covering all aspects of the Great Leucadia Tree War.

Obama's First Week

2009-01-29T07:57:00.001-08:00

President Obama has had a pretty good first week. I agree with most of what he has done so far. He has started to reverse the recent trend of more secretive and unaccountable government to one that doesn't hide behind the false veil of "national security" and Executive privilege.
The most glaring exception to Obama's one-week record is the stimulus bill which will affect the economy very little (at least positively). CNN erroneously reported the vote was on party lines. While true no Republicans voted for it, many Democrats voted no as well. The Senate has been more inclined to vote for the recent "bailout" bills than the House so I expect the bill to pass easily.

Get Well Soon

2009-01-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

Maggie Houlihan's cancer has come back. I wish her a speedy recovery.

Houlihan v. Hotel For Dogs

2009-01-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

The UT alleges that Council member Maggy Houlihan is behind the city's rabid code enforcement against a local dog kennel. Mrs. Houlihan lives in a rough neighborhood. One "neighbor" posts inflammatory signs along interstate 5 and she sets the city enforcement squad on the other. Houlihan could very well have tipped off the city, but the owner had also build a wall that might have aroused suspicion. Moral of the story: don't piss off your neighbor if the happen to be a city council member.

Update:
The kennel can keep most of the canopies. Although some require permits. The city is now safe from canopy blight.

Sand Dump

2009-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

The much awaited sand replenishment program has begun. I bet J.P. was out there cheering them on.

Much Ado About Nothing

2009-01-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Taking a half day for Christmas Eve and News Year Eve doesn't seem like front web page news.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

From Village Park...

Sleepy Encinitas

2008-12-12T10:23:00.000-08:00

Not much happening in Encinitas these days. Mayor Jerome Stocks handed the reigns over to Maggie Houlihan. Nothing burned down. The Hall Park is still not built. No new El Camino Real business closures.
Sleepy Encinitas. Just the way I like it.

Photo found at http://www.westcoastroads.com/california/us-101a_ca.html.

Online Stores Based in Encinitas

2008-11-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

Do you know of any online stores that are based out of Encinitas? Email me and I will put together a list.

Update: I started the list on the right hand menu. Please send in more suggestions.

Hall Property Lawsuit

2008-11-27T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here we go. It doesn't take Carnac the Magnificent to predict this coming. Petco Park took less trouble to build. Maybe the city should threaten to pull the park and build it in Chula Vista.

Carnac: When hell freezes over?

Ed: Ha, ha. When hell freezes over, Carnac.

Carnac: When will the Hall Property park be built.

Ed: (falls off chairs laughing).

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T08:20:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of Encinitas!

Failing Businesses

2008-11-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

The businesses are failing fast in New Encinitas. Linens & Things is closing soon. Filippi's short run ended recently. Shoe Pavilion was open for about a week. Circuit City is closing a bunch of stores. Who's next?
Update: The Patio Source is having a going out of business sale.

Sign on the front door of Filippi's.

Ponto Settlement

2008-11-11T21:18:00.000-08:00

The big item on tomorrow's City Council agenda is the approval of the settlement with Carlsbad over the Ponto development. Not sure what to make of this. Splitting the costs seems reasonable enough but how is Encinitas going to pay for it? The NC Times says that we will get the money from "developer fees" and "traffic impact fees." Why does the settlement only cover the improvements on La Costa from 101 to Vulcan? That is only about 30 feet of roadway. What about the rest of La Costa?

Big Brother Strikes in Oceanside

2008-11-11T07:07:00.000-08:00

The Oceanside Police Department has made it much easier to track people, or recover stolen vehicles, depending on you who trust. Their cruisers have a device that can read license plates as they drive by. But don't worry, they won't use it improperly because there are "rules" that apply. Sgt. Ken Gow says there is no reason to be concerned. Mr. Gow, when the DHS comes calling with a list of plates to monitor and no warrant, are you going to put your job on the line and tell them it is against the rules. I don't think so. The President of the Unites States has rules also and look how well they were followed.

2008 Election Results

2008-11-05T18:33:00.001-08:00

I was not surprised that Barack Obama won, but I was a bit surprised by the margin. I thought he would win the popular vote by more than 53% to 46%. Although I did not vote for him, I am not disappointed that he won. The final nail in the coffin of racism.
The big news here was that the 3 incumbents kept their seats on the Encinitas city council. I was quite alarmed to see Maggie Houlihan get the most votes with 10,245, almost 2,000 more than second place finisher Jerome Stocks. James Bond rounded out the show with 7,981 votes. Bond's decision to reenter the race was probably for naught as Doug Long finished fourth and would have kept the status quo on the council if Bond was not running. Collier was fifth and Bob Nanninga finished a disappointing sixth. Brandenburg, Sheffo and Seldon were the also-rans. 1,928 idiots voted for Betsy Aceti. So the council remains unchanged until Barth and Dalager come up for election.
The sand tax passed by a huge margin. You have to love taxation without representation.
Of the state propositions I cared about, they all went against me. The 1A rail money pit passed. The state also decided to elect a black man president but tell gays they aren't welcome...in the very same election. Nice.
Sidebar: Did anyone notice the NC Times and UT sites were butt slow yesterday? Slow web sites that can't handle traffic spikes are so 90's. Get with it guys.

Four More Years! Four More Years!

Free Coffee at Starbucks

2008-11-05T08:36:00.001-08:00

Some people have the luxury of hanging out at Starbucks all day waiting for the press to show up. My wife happened to be one of the them.

Election Day

2008-11-03T19:41:00.001-08:00

In case you didn't know, tomorrow is Election Day. Go vote. I already voted by taking my mail-in ballot to the county registrar.

Collier Shenanigans

2008-10-30T18:06:00.001-07:00

The UT is really covering the Encinitas council race. You might get the impression they were trying to sell newspapers.
They seems to have caught Rachelle Collier in discrepancy about her stand on needle exchange programs. Like Mrs. Collier, I am not sure what this has to to with Encinitas. This whole story is bizarre. First someone makes a bunch of "survey" calls that say Collier supports lifting the ban on needle exchanges. Then Collier and Maggie Houlihan stage a press conference to deny the support and denounce the calls. Then afterward, Collier is presented with a survey where she apparently did support what she just got through saying she didn't. Sounds like a setup to me. Crazy stuff.

Houlihan Shenanigans

2008-10-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

A very concerned citizen, Harry Eiler, blew the whistle on Maggie Houlihan's trip to Japan a few years back. A number of things are interesting about this.
The honesty of Mr. Eiler is absolutely refreshing in these days of doublespeak and political correctness. By waiting four years after the incident to take action, it is obvious that the only motive was to harm Houlihan's reelection chances. But rather than beating around the bush, he comes right out and admits his motive (and his source: Houlihan's arch-enemy Jerome Stocks). Whatever you think of his tactics, you have to give him credit for being honest.
It seems that Maggie was cleared by city attorney Glenn Sabine and the Fair Political Practices Commission after the Japan trip. Why keep bringing this up?
It seems that Stocks and Christy Guerin where "concerned" about Maggie's husband getting all this money. They didn't seem that concerned with trying to pass an illegal clean water tax though.
Lastly, how can you write an article about this now infamous Japan trip without mentioning the cat incident. The author should be fired.

Encinitas In Flames!

2008-10-28T08:06:00.001-07:00

There was yet another fire in Encinitas. This one was in an unoccupied house. Kids getting out of hands? Insurance fraud? Crack house mishap? Only time will tell.

City Council Meeting 2008-10-22

2008-10-22T18:56:00.001-07:00

The Council Meeting was pretty uneventful and predictable. Another 3-2 boys versus the girls vote.
The highlight would be Bonds' story about chewing on lead shavings during his days as a telephone worker. Yummy.
Maggie Houlihan brought up the point of the time that has been spent on the plan so far. She and staffer agreed that this would be a normal amount of time taken for a project like this. I find that difficult to believe. How can it take 7 years to develop a plan and do an EIR? I guess if your job or consulting fees depend on it, you might stretch it out a bit.