Swamis systematically being shut off

In this photo: lobster boat and a diverse crowd of surfers. Soon there will be no boat and only 4 people in the water surfing for points and money. Yay!
Map via the North County Times website.
Lobster fisherman are being banned from the Swamis kelp forest. For now you can still spear white seabass. Soon the waves at Swamis will be controlled by private interest groups half the year. What is happening to Swamis???
Read the nctimes.com story: TASK FORCE RECOMMENDS CLOSING KELP BEDS

Nov 30th-An Evening to Benefit the Employees of Calypso

At the Belly Up in Solana Beach! More details here.

Jerome Stocks throws the best internet hissy fit in forever

Encinitas former mayor and current city councilman Jerome Stocks is one of the bloggers over at SD Rostra. His latest post is a classic hissy fit of epic proportions. He completely wigs out over a mailer he received from The Young Republicans asking for money for their Christmas party, which was signed by Joe Sheffo who ran for Encinitas city council against Stocks in 2008. *whew*

Read Jerome's blog post, GO POUND SAND

SD Rostra then let Joe Sheffo respond with this tightly written post, SHEFFO RESPONDS TO STOCKS

Surprised

This email from Linda Benson has been circulating all day. It addresses the rumor that she had decided to do the right thing and stop pursuing the controversial Swamis contest:

Dear All,

I've just been contacted by Tanya Mannes the Union Tribune writer of yesterday's article on the contest. She wanted to confirm if I had, indeed, decided to not go forward with the event. I was surprised. In the comment section, Gary Baum's communication to the Club membership was quoted stating that due to the split in the community over the contest, I had decided to withdraw.

What I agreed to last night talking to Gary was that it was probably in the best interest of the Club for Dan Dalager and I not to attend Tuesday evening. The Club is not a public forum and the opposition was rallying people to attend. The City Council is the place for such a public forum. I stated last night that I had not yet made any decision about the event.

Gary and I have just spoken and he will clarify to the members that a decision has not been made to withdraw from pursuing the event. He had a different impression of our conversation.

I just wanted you to know that I haven't made a decision about the event. If I do, I certainly will let people know in my own way.

Linda

Dan had been quoted as saying people shouldn’t mount opposition to a project “before they have any idea what the facts are.”

What facts are we missing? We won't know if Dan and Linda do not show up to tell us.

This meeting would have been the perfect time to explain to the opposition what it is they misunderstand. Now, the opposition will only grow as it is looking like Linda does not want to publicly address questions about this contest. Dan certainly knows that a council meeting will be a place where Linda will not have to answer questions from the public. Dan and Linda should reconsider.

Send Dan an email at ddalager@ci.encinitas.ca.usand ask him to fill you in on the important facts to consider.

Dalager to address small tribe Tues 7pm

SWAMIS MEETING - Regarding the Proposed Contest At Swamis - This Tuesday Night (tomorrow) Nov 10th 7pm above Pillbox. Solana Beach Rec Center. Encinitas city councilman Dan Dalager and contest organizer Linda Benson will be there to pitch their case for the privatization of a public resource to the Swamis Surfing Association.

“We’re talking about public resources,” Dalager said. “Are we going to have a system of law, or are we going to have little local tribes that decide what everybody can do?”

Leucadia Blog: Holy Moly

Holy Moly

Dalager was quoted in the UT about the Swamis contest.

“We’re talking about public resources,” Dalager said. “Are we going to have a system of law, or are we going to have little local tribes that decide what everybody can do?”

Dan is the guy who condones subversion of the law, backroom deals, and enjoys doing favors at city hall for his bros. Dan has endorsed the idea of commanding his sheriffs to not enforce laws that he personally doesn't like. He has told friends of mine how to violate building codes and not get caught. General plan laws and municipal code laws don't apply to Danny's tribe of supporters. Public records laws and open government laws are something for him to literally laugh about.

Recommendation for Dan
Instead of doing personal favors for your bros, correct/set up city policies to the benefit of everyone.

Dan has done favors for my friends when they ran into issues at city hall. Instead of fixing the structural problem so the rest of us wouldn't have to deal with the same crap, Dan provides personal favors. Expectations come with the favors.

Side Notes on the Contest
If the city wants 1, 2, 3 + contests at Swamis the city should make that as a policy decision and then the city should take competitive proposals for the contest slots.

I consider Linda a budding Dalager bro. She supported Dalager in his last election and never answered questions about why she was supporting him or her interest in being involved. Both Linda and I (a former Dalager supporter) are partially responsible for the current way in which issues are handled at city hall.

See Also:
No Word from Dalager
It is all on Dalager Now
Dalager, Developers, and Campaign Supporters

LKP CRC Food Drive

Leucadia Kids for Peace

Sponsors a

Non Perishable Food Drive

Benefitting the

Community Resource Center (CRC) in Encinitas

Saturday, November 21 from 2:00 – 4:00

Moonlight Beach Park
Encinitas

Please bring non perishable food items to the park on this date! The Leucadia Kids for Peace group will transport the items to the CRC. The CRC is open that afternoon and awaiting our delivery. Let’s help them stock their pantry for the holidays! Here is a list of ‘High Needs Items’.

CLICK FOR MORE INFO

For sale to the highest bidder

Beautiful point break for rent. Have the waves all to yourself and your gang. Cash prizes and t-shirts too!

See Also: Online discussion with Linda and Cori, the contest promoters.

Encinitas Subculture

The youtube video with over 28,000 views has been removed due to fear.

Strange headline concerning Encinitas...somehow

It reads, Encinitas man not picked for role as next "Bachelor"

It did not know that not getting picked for something was news. Gosh!

Sweep it under the rug

Read the Tanya Mannes story on SignOnSanDiego: Chamber to be repaid for Visitors Center work

Excerpts:

The City Council voted 3-2 on Monday, with Councilman Jerome Stocks and Councilwoman Teresa Barth dissenting, to pay the chamber what was owed.

Stocks dissented because he didn't think a subcommittee was needed. He also said the chamber should stop relying on city funding and that it should be an independent business advocacy group.

Barth said she voted no because she wanted the subcommittee to investigate the claims of wrongdoing in the financial review. “It bothers me a lot that we're just going to try to sweep this under the rug,” she said.

Stray observations:

Another bad vote from the people's mayor, Maggie Houlihan.
Why can't the Visitor's Center be moved into the spectacular and popular downtown Encinitas library?
It's good to be a lawyer in this town, everybody is always suing each other.

Alternative venue #3 for the proposed Swamis contest: The Ranch

This is a photo of a surf spot called Big Drake's. It is a perfect longboard wave and is the most logical location for a world championship contest.

Because I am a very helpful person I have already proposed an alternative venue for the 2010 Womens Longboard Championship. Since Swamis is a terrible location for the contest (for a long list of reasons) I had suggested holding it on Tavarua island in Fiji.

The complaints about that location was that it was too far away and that the wave itself is out of the league and skill level of the competitors (an odd complaint for a world championship professional event but so be it). Luckily I have thought of the perfect place to have the contest!

There is a zone of epic surf just under the tip of Point Conception called The Ranch. It has the best surfing pointbreaks in California and maybe the world. It is the ultimate longboard surfing zone. There has never been a surf contest at The Ranch.

The Ranch is on private land and average people who are not owners must boat in from Gaviota to surf there. This won't be a problem for the contest because many of the former contest sponsors are Ranch landowners and have access by road.

Undeveloped coastal California and the surf is perfect.

Having the 2010 Womens Longboard World Championship at The Ranch would be historic. The contest would be covered by every surf media outlet in the world. The contestants would get to surf the best longboard waves on Earth in a pristine environment. And the contest would not infringe on public access like at Swamis because the public cannot get into The Ranch.

This is a win win for all parties.
Learn more about The Ranch on Surfline, click here

Pictured is the first surf spot you encounter as you drive into The Ranch. Incredibly there are more waves like this within The Ranch. The wave above is a million times better than Swamis, I know because I have surfed it several times.

Silent Film Festival at La Paloma this weekend

This should be pretty cool. They even rented an old timey piano for live music to play along. Bonus points if you show up in your best 1920s Flapper gear.
www.lapalomatheatre.com
NCT.com story Encinitas chooses Mary Pickford as subject for first Silent Film Festival

An alternative venue for the proposed Swamis surf contest: Tavarua Fiji

Since the majority of Swamis surfers object to selling off our public surf spots to private parties for days and weeks at a time I have been thinking of an alternative location to hold the contest. The answer is obvious, have the contest on Tavarua island in Fiji.

Tavarua has two world class surf spots, called Cloudbreak and Restaurants. Both waves are far better than the wave at Swamis. Tavarua is home to a luxurious surf camp that has exclusive rights to the surf spots and the camp is sanctioned by the Fijian government. Tavarua has already hosted many high profile mens and womens contests. These contests gain international media exposure because of the high quality of the wave.

The contests held at Tavarua have had successful live webcast that are viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Yes, they have the technology and the facilities to host these modern events!

Since the proposed Swamis contest is going to crown a world champ, then it needs to be held in classic surf that will bring legitimacy and respect to that champion. Although it is a fun wave and can be world class once or twice a year, Swamis is too weak and mushy of wave 95% of the year for a world class surf contest. Cloudbreak is an epic wave that is respected by surfers all over the world.

The mens pro tour decide and crown their world champ in Hawaii in serious waves of consequence. The women's tour needs to be on the same level. Having this contest in real surf will teleport the womens longboard tour into the big time. As is, the women's longboard tour is not taken seriously by the major surf media outlets. Holding the contest at Swamis is only going to make that worse. The contest organizers need to see the big picture and do the right thing for their sport.

Ask any competitor, where would you rather surf? Swamis or Cloudbreak?
Learn more about Tavarua at www.tavarua.com
Sign the online petition to stop surf contest at Swamis click here

Leucadia coast highway as seen from the sky

Land Purchase and Chamber Special Meeting

The Nov 2 Special Meeting of the City Council was special. Watch it here.

The Council discussed the Visitor Center and buying more property for the Hall park. It was a great meeting to watch. I recommend watching both agenda items.

One of the many things that stood out to me was how Barth and Stocks were the ones saying they wanted to keep things from being swept under the rug and conduct business outside of closed session. I was disappointed that Houlihan did not join Barth and Stocks.

Streetscape Next Steps

From the city's website:

Next steps

The project is scheduled to be presented to City Council on January 13, 2010. The consultant will be giving an overview of the entire process, the project plan alternatives and traffic analysis. In addition, staff will be seeking Council direction on which alternative the City should pursue. Dan Burden, a walkable communities and project facilitation expert will also be in attendance to present traffic calming concepts and design criteria which had been considered by the participants of Workshops #1 and 2.

Workshop #4 and Other Events

To allow for additional public input related to project alternatives, Community Workshop #4 was held on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at the Encinitas Community Center; at which time a new design alternative (#5) was presented to compare to a refined version (#4A) of the previously created design Alternative #4. The results of additional traffic analysis were also presented.

The two alternatives provide differing design concepts which the public was asked to consider and provided feedback via a survey questionnaire. The Plans were also made available at City Hall for viewing during normal city hall business hours Monday, October 12 through Wednesday, October 14, 2009. Feedback from the citizens viewing the plans at City Hall was also requested via the Workshop #4 survey; however, the questionnaire distributed at City Hall clearly specified October 12 – 14, 2009. The results of the survey received from participants at the formal workshop on October 10, 2009 are computated separately from the results of the survey received form the citizens viewing the plans at City Hall.

Results of City Hall Survey

Results of Workshop Survey

Streetscape plan 4A to remove big euc

The most popular Streetscape plan is Alternative #4. This plan has a lot of desirable qualities, unfortunately it calls for removing this huge eucalyptus tree just north of Leucadia Blvd. I assume it's because with the tree gone the left turn lane can be extended.
View the streetscape plans on the city website, click here.

To Moderate or Not?

Introduction
You are welcome to comment and we hope to create a space where more people participate. We also invite people to submit content.

The comments on the Leucadia blog can be stimulating or a turnoff. It has been the Wild West on the blog. The general tone can sometimes metldown and become unpleasant, even for lurkers. It has effectively kept some people from participating in the dialogue.

JP has experimented over the years with filtering comments and requiring logging in. Neither of us are interested going that route now.

Before I throw out a proposal I should make a few points.

Background
We aren’t the government and the blog is privately controlled space. Readers do not have a constitutional right to post on the Leucadia Blog. The Leucadia blog invites the community to participate and fair access is important to us. If you say something ugly we are not compelled to publish it on our website.

I will fight for your right to publish ugly stuff on your own website, but that is another matter. I invite everyone to join me (and Council Member Barth) in support of Calaware.

Proposal
If you post under your name, or under an established screen name, you can write however ugly you want. If you post anonymously and write something unnecessary, without contributing and are disruptive to the exchange of ideas it won’t be deleted from the blog, but it might be moved from the current thread and placed in side thread.

Boorish trolling, spam, unnecessary personal attacks, or outright racism, sexism, and homophobia unrelated to the topic could also be moved to a side thread.

If you use profanity obnoxiously that could trigger a move. Intelligent or relevant use of profanity is a different story.

Final Notes
Be aware, it turns out that sometimes JP and I don’t read all the comments.
Please don’t say anything bad about my best friends JP and Mike Andreen.

See Also: Commenting is like going to a coffee-shop

Streetscape 4: Roundabouts

I have a few observations about roundabouts.

Prioritize
I would be super bummed if the streetscape project went down the tubes because roundabouts became a linchpin issue.

Objectives
Roundabouts seem to be very effective tools for some objectives and many circumstances. I think much of the friction in the streetscape debate stems from differences in objectives of the civic participants. There is also a little bit of extremism in the pro and anti roundabout rhetoric to heat things up.

Free Flowing
Roundabouts are not universally immune to congestion jams. The traffic engineer, which much of the community stands behind, told me straight up that Leucadia should not expect the roundabouts to handle more than 10,000ADTs. He implied that we will have to do something else after that.


I wrote here about why I was so surprised that some community leaders weren't interested in analyzing the traffic engineer's work. I still don't understand how it will take longer to cross Leucadia if we are keeping the HWY 101 open at freeway speeds than if we slow traffic and incorporate traffic calming/slowing infrastructure. The explicit goal behind the project is to slow traffic down and end the Leucadia drag strip. Let me be clear; I am not disputing the engineer's result. I am only saying counter-intuitive conclusions should be explained before widely accepted and used to support a decision.

Our city seems to base everything off Austin-Foust's traffic modeling. If we want to have trustworthy traffic reports that is the first thing that has to be improved and we should not selectively reject/accept the city's traffic analysis when it is beneficial to our objectives.

Given all that, it is surprising that the city's traffic engineer said the roundabouts would eventually fail. I did not ask, he volunteered this conclusion. I suspect that he is underestimating the capacity of the roundabouts. Most of the traffic is going to be flowing north/south and there will be little conflicting traffic for most of the intersections (unless there is lots of u-turning). Uneven delays at roundabouts seem to be most likely with heavy and uniform cross traffic and that doesn't describe HWY 101 very well.

The Green Question Mark
Another argument about roundabouts is they are greener. That can not be a universal reality.

We aren't comparing stop signs and roundabouts. The comparison is signals and roundabouts.

If there is no cross traffic then a sensor controlled signal will be "greener" because cars will not be forced to slow and then accelerate back up at the intersection. Steady speeds allow for fuel to be used more efficiently. In reality, there is going to be some conflicting cross traffic at any intersection. The question is, how much cross traffic do you need before the roundabout wins the "green" contest? Here is a photo of Ponto Avenue and HWY 101 in Carlsbad.
Thousands of cars go straight through this intersection without having to slow and stop. There is very little cross traffic and very little waiting for any autos. A roundabout here would result in ALL of the thousands of cars to slow and require a few to stop. My guess is that this intersection has a smaller CO2 footprint than if there was a roundabout. Maybe not, but there is some point where the trade off does not pay back in terms of greenhouse emissions. If the decision is to be based on such things then let's do the analysis. (The analysis should not be be based on optimizing all turning motions, as is now the case in the engineer's models).

Emergency Response
There are lots of public safety issues wrapped into the streetscape project. One that seems to be missing is emergency response times. One of the benefits of not living in rural zone is first responders can be at your doorstep in a few minutes. Fire, strokes, heart attacks, trauma and violent crimes can have very different outcomes as a consequence of delays in public safety response.

The city's fire department has said during public meetings that roundabouts can increase delays. I asked city staff about this and their response was the fire department has signed off on alternative 4a.

I am not saying that the delays should cause us to toss out roundabouts. We should make our decisions with our eyes wide open... if it matters.

Aesthetics
One reason people like to live in low density rural zones is concrete and asphalt are not very comforting. Vegetation, vistas, open spaces and landscaping are more desirable to many.



See Also:
The Streetscape Workshop 4 Series
Results of Workshop 4

Happy Halloween!