Saturday, September 19, 2015

Encinitas celebrates California car culture

... with the annual Wavecrest Woodie Meet, where classic cars come from all over the West for the weekend to celebrate California's history of beach culture and the open road.



The City of Encinitas kindly reserves the whole Moonlight Beach parking lot for the event. Drive on down to Moonlight Beach this weekend and check out the classics!

20 comments:

  1. If you couldn't make it out, have a look.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/42obomfvnknsmf9/AAA9sDuob5Ni9Z7tE0J2UlbZa?dl=0

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  2. Like I'm going to type out that address....

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  3. We pulled in a grant for millions of dollars to add a rail underpass at a school, improving traffic and safety. Yet very few comments here about it.

    Proving this is (mostly) a place for sad, grumpy, negative people. Give credit where it's due, folks.

    Or would it just put a kink in your brain stem to consider that sometimes the City doesn't f--k everything up?

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    1. Is the grant for the rail underpass from the same sources of state money that are said to be in jeopardy because Encinitas does not have an approved Housing Element? Or is that grant from a completely different pool of available grants?

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    2. That's one way to look at it, 10:49.

      Another way is to recognize the real problem is the RR tracks at grade.

      Solana Beach trenched their tracks to the great benefit of everybody affected.

      Carlsbad is now studying trenching their tracks from the Buena Vista Lagoon to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

      Encinitas government paid for a study in 2000 that gave costs for several RR right-of-way plans. The city didn't pursue any of them.

      Instead, Encinitas went with an inadequate, piecemeal, long-term plan: ped tunnels at Montgomery, Santa Fe, El Portal and Grandview/Hillcrest.

      The city's failure is in not pursuing trenching though Encinitas. When the tracks are doubled and rail traffic doubles, trains at grade through Encinitas will be a forever nightmare.

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    3. 2:42 PM

      "The city's failure is in not pursuing trenching though Encinitas". There was no money available to do it as it was well over $100 Million to do it. Today it's probably double that amount.

      Solana Beach had three things going for it. Money, the were Federal funds available. Opportunity, Del Mar didn't want to be a Coaster station. Physical setting, an at-grade station would have had trains blocking Lomas Santa Fe Drive.

      Unfortunately, there have been no sizable amount of Federal funds for a good long time and the way Congress is going I wouldn't hold my breath.

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    4. The grant was in part secured by Tony Kranz, so give him credit.

      Solana beach at the time was on the stick, applied for the Federal
      funds and got the money in the early 90's. Our council at the time was taking a nap. Everntually NCTD and the railroad guys will have to figure out a way to underground the whole route, because when they double track the whole length of the line in SD and increase the carrying capacity, they won't want to risk the fatalities we currently have, nor can they afford them timewise....

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    5. 5:49, Solana Beach's tracks lowered cost only $20 million. Their city only had to pay $3 million of it. `

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    6. Solana's trenching cost $17.7 million in 1995 dollars. The money was federal, state and local governments and private.

      If our council had the courage and foresight to get together with county, state and federal politicians, the coalition could get the money. It's a matter of having the will to find a way.

      Very unfortunately, our council never took a baby step in that direction. One hundred-plus trains a day through Encinitas on doubled tracks will be a public safety, economic, traffic-plugging and noise nightmare.

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    7. SANDAG plans to spend $6.5 billion in the North Coast transportation corridor by 2040. Only $820 million of that is allocated for the railroad right-of-way. Moving a portion of the funds from the roads to the rails would pay for trenching the tracks through the North County coast.

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    8. 9:20 is right. The reason the bulk of the money is dedicated to magnifying the freeway is because bigger roads bring more development and more people. Bigger, better rails, not so much. Business and government want more development and more people. That's why the big bucks go to roads.

      San Diego County will soon be as packed solid as Orange and Los Angeles counties. That's what business and government want.

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  4. Grumpy 10:49, I'm sure EU hasn't had time to get to that yet but will. So stop being so impatient. There will be plenty of kudos for you to read there even if I have to post them all myself.

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  5. Have an American car event called the Clattering Clunkers - vehicles of the 70's and 80's (even 90's)! There could be a fleet of tow trucks bringing them in, as most can't propel themselves on their own!

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  6. There's a 2 hour gathering of the world's most expensive new cars every day in Del Mar.

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    1. That's the local bars and pick-up joints?

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    2. No. The highway itself.

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  7. Old men with too much time and money....boring as shit!!

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