Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Yes on Streetscape

Darius Degher in the Coast News:
The reduction of vehicular lanes to one on each side will be a positive development in the long term, even if there is a period of adjustment needed.

Even if traffic becomes worse along Highway 101, this will only prompt drivers to stay on the freeway during rush hour (as they do in Del Mar), instead of using the 101 as a freeway surrogate.

Most importantly, it will, over time, encourage local residents to leave their cars at home and use their bikes instead. In future summers, when tourist families arrive from Phoenix in their incredibly large SUVs, hopefully, they will be able to park them for the week and rent bikes to get around instead.

44 comments:

  1. Where will they park their "incredibly large SUVs????"

    Perhaps we need to start taxing for riding bikes so they can start paying for streetscape. Every bike rider will be required to register their bike in the City of Encinitas.... similar to Huntington Beach.

    After streetscape happens, parking meters will be installed on the north and south bound sides of the 101 to help pay for improvements.

    Just like in Del Mar....and all of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All cyclists already pay for roads, because they also own cars.

      Delete
    2. Sounds like trying to recreate Mainstreet USA in the 1800's!

      Delete
  2. Clueless and a kool aid drinker. Nothing new here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Idealistic, pie-in-the-sky, pipe-dream thinking that contradicts the reality on the ground. Very unfortunately for the great majority of residents, Blakespear, BH, Kranz, Shaffer and Barth think the same way. And nobody sees them riding their bikes to the grocery or hardware store miles away and hauling their purchases back on their bikes. Stupidity combined with hypocrisy is extremely dangerous.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Has Darius read the EIR? Going by what he wrote, it sure doesn't seem so.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Darius, Agree to Disagree.
    Sincerely, draft EIR

    ReplyDelete
  6. Degher has his head in the clouds. Is he perpetually stoned?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Seems one of two things happens to people when they get old. Some mellow out and gain a level of wisdom. Others wig out and go off on tangents that are exaggerations of traits they've always had.

    Darius Degher is in the second group.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Streetscape will never happen. This city will always find other ways, places to spend money. Muir has a comrade in Mosca, both want to buy open space. Hey Leucadia, you just got shafted again. Shut down the money tree to L101 Mainstreet association, they have failed and continue to fail in presenting the importance of 101 to the city. If they can't survive on the paltry funds they raise with their idiot music festivals... let them parish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The City SHOULD find other ways to spend the money.

      You want to invest in Leucadia and make improvements? Start with the costly infrastructure upgrades needed to fix the epic flooding. Get some of that money back from Pasco, while they're at it.

      Delete
  9. 12:37 PM
    The failed Housing Element of Measure T would have done away with businesses along the 101 in Leucadia. Businesses would have been replaced with residential condos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ???? Explain please.

      Delete
    2. It was going to be mixed use, so retail and commercial offices with non-affordable condos on the third floor.

      And you'd better believe those business employees and owners and customers/clients, as well as residents of the condos would be driving cars. More density = more traffic. That is, unless you are going by "alternative facts" in your delusional reality.

      The alternative fact, here, is that five one-lane roundabouts in a short stretch of what is now a major arterial, an important part of our circulation element, detailed in our General Plan, would be "traffic calming." Back-ups create traffic snarls, more fender benders, with gridlock when there's an accident, roadwork, or the freeway's clogged.

      Yet the alleged "traffic calming" roundabouts would have been used to try to push through mitigated negative impact declarations for the high density projects called for in Prop T.

      Delete
  10. 11:15 has it right. Degher lived in Europe, where the utopia he imagines kind of works. Here, never. Get over it and stop drinking the crazy Shaffer/Barth/Blakespear/now Boerner Kool-Aid.

    When's the last time you saw any of that crew on a bicycle or walking as forms of transportation to do shopping or go to work? Whoops! Three of them don't work...but the rest of us do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 5:39- I tend to agree. First who knows for sure that Deger actually lived in Europe? He says that a lot, but I still have a hard time believing it. I actually lived in Germany and Rome. Both have roundabouts, but they one cannot compare them with Europe. Totally different. As for cars, at least in Rome, Florence, and London, there are cares everywhere and not that many people bike everywhere. I get irritated when people start comparing us to Europe in any way. Europe could fit into about 2 or 3 of our States, so it really isn't a comparison. Deger is actively involved with the biking community, so of course he is going to go there. The others talk a good game, but I have yet to see them bike anywhere. I did see Barth somewhere and she was driving. Even I could have walked as far as she did. She can walk to Glen Park where her grove is dying but the city keeps putting money into it. Go figure. Oh well, unless some of you run it will be "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

    ReplyDelete
  12. How many roundabouts are proposed between La Costa and Leucadia Blvd? The one at La Costa may work but the in-between roundabouts serve no purpose but to make people dizzy. Suggest that enforcement of the 35 mph speed limit is a better, lower cost option to improve safety and walkability.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 4-5 in .8 of a mile. Genius as usual from our engineering and planning departments.

      Delete
  13. Thanks 7:50
    Is there an example of another city with a similar circus ride roadway?
    It seems ridiculous..especially considering the T intersections created by the rail line.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Darius Dumass (no, I didn't forget the "b") is a complete stoner who should worry more about his next weed purchase then to opine about what the city should or shouldn't do regarding streetscape or anything other city issue for that matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ironically you wrote this drunk.

      Delete
  15. The KLCC objective is to keep the Leucadia freeway and surrounding areas from getting needed safety and infrastructure improvements.

    Crazy Cameron, Marrs (says it all), and Fictionman have their mission -

    Now take the oath - "I solemnly swear, that I will serve the KLCC and say everything that pops into my head against any improvement to safety or aesthetics in Leucadia. Above all else, I will protect the high speed unsafe road conditions, and plant goatheads and other weeds and kill anything pretty or nice in Leucadia. Above all else Keep Leucadia Crappy! "

    ReplyDelete
  16. Its no wonder Daruis is not appreciated by the KLCC. They feel totally uncomfortable with common sense solutions and anything that would deny their main objective.

    Way to go Darius. That was one of the best opinion pieces I have read in the reader. I fully agree!

    -- Loving a future safer Leucadia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Safer? Clearly neither you nor Degher have read the EIR. You both should, to avoid further embarrassment.

      Delete
    2. The EIR should be required reading before commenting on Leucadia Streetscape.

      Anybody who hasn't read it but comments anyway doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

      Delete
    3. I love skipping over any comments, written by the same bully, that proclaims, ad nauseam, his made up acronym/alternative fact reference to locals' real desire to Keep Leucadia Funky. This is the same guy who wanted to blight Leucadia, to serve on the State RDA (Redevelopment Agency) that would take money from local schools and other County projects, focusing it, instead, on redeveloping supposedly blighted areas. These RDAs were put out of business by Jerry Brown, as they were taking too much money from the State, while, at the same time, NOT providing for more affordable housing.

      Having an RDA in Leucadia would have enriched blight man, who owns commercial property, purchased in the 70's, so that he's paying low property taxes. These so-called improvements would narrowly benefit a few development/real estate interests, who seem to want paid parking along the tracks, and back in parking in front of storefronts, which angled back-in parking would create further dangers for bicyclists and motorists by degrading site lines, as pointed out in the draft EIR.

      The bicyclists are being used, as what was Coast Highway would no longer be classified as a major arterial, reduced to one lane southbound and one lane northbound, with bicycles being forced to funnel through multiple one-lane roundabouts with all motor vehicles. This would be the OPPOSITE of traffic calming, and would be much more dangerous.

      Improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists do not have to be tied to the City's installing, through another public works development project, unwanted and unneeded one-lane roundabouts with no throughway cross-streets, due to the close proximity to the RR Tracks.

      Delete
  17. EIR is flawed and needs revision. Anyone associated with the EIR needs to be terminated.

    Streetscape is good. The streetscape EIR is incomplete and needs to be redone.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I-5 is adding lanes. 101 is shrinking. Taken together, it's the right thing to do. Shift traffic from 101 to 5. 101 needs to stop being the other 5, and become a better Main Street for locals.

    As North County population grows in the future, keep growing the 5 and public transport. Grow ugly ECR if you have to. But the coast is our gem--for some of us, our church. It's why we're all here. The coast should be quiet, peaceful, and clean. If the future has more people and more cars, we should think about giving our successors a refuge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No one is talking about widening the 101, so your church is intact. What proponents of Streetscape are basing its success on is the hope that the 101 will become so unbearable to drive, collectively large numbers of drivers will return to the 5 and the 101 will return to its former bucolic condition.

      Too many hopes and wishes to spend this kind of money for something we'll be stuck with permanently if it doesn't work out.

      And for the nth time: why do you ignore the EIR's comment regarding lowered emergency vehicle response time? Most of us cannot get past that. How do you justify ignoring it? You think once everyone makes the magic switch to the 5, folks will get the help they need in a timely manner? How long exactly will that switch take?

      You folks who support this thing are long on fairy tales and short on reality.

      Delete
    2. With less noise, less exhaust fumes, less stress, more exercise, and slower cars, there will be far fewer emergencies to respond to. I'd rather depend on a healthy life for my longevity than ambulance service.

      Delete
    3. Emergency response times that are already way too long will get longer. They won't be reduced, they will grow. That's what the EIR says. It also says Streetscape will further congest traffic.

      Whenever the freeway plugs, a lot of traffic spills onto 101. That gridlocks 101 and locks locals out and in. It greatly slows emergency response. It spikes GHG emissions.

      9:50, if a two-lane 101 and little roundabouts packed together reduce daily traffic, just how will business improve?

      Are locals going to say, "Wow, I just love twisting through six miniature roundabouts every day?"

      Since the huge majority opposes Streetscape, any council member or candidate who's for it will suffer at election time.

      Delete
  19. In the traffic part, the EIR says “Estimated more than 17,000 Average Daily Trips” in the Leucad1a 101 corridor. It doesn't say how that count was made, when or over what time period.

    The EIR says Streetscape will "eliminate cut-through traffic." It doesn't say how or how that traffic will be separated from local and visitor traffic.

    The EIR doesn't say by how many trips Streetscape will cut traffic.

    The EIR doesn't say what the average daily bike trips in the corridor are or how that will change, but it does say there will be more bicycling.

    It sounds as if Streetscape would disadvantage, inconvenience and anger many thousands of locals, visitors and passers-through for the sake of maybe, what, 100 or so bicyclists?

    And while doing that, it would promote and increase business? Really?

    ReplyDelete
  20. 9:50, exactly when does your brighter world become reality? 1, 2, 5 years from now, if ever? Your claim that traffic will spontaneously at some undefinable point in time move wholesale to the 5 is not just a theory, it's a ludicrous one.

    And in the interim, you're willing to risk health, safety, and lives?

    ReplyDelete
  21. The Leucadia streetscape will never happen. In a couple of years the city will explore declaring Leucadia 101 blighted once again. Redevelopment will be passed by the council and put to a Prop A vote and the city majority will vote yes.
    The result will be an Orange County style urban yuppie business district with chain stores and hotels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think so. Remember we just voted down an OC-sized redo of much of the city.

      Developers only wish they had that much influence.

      Delete
  22. When Streetscape breaks ground, we'll have a shovel ceremony and tough shit card punching for everyone.

    Then, when it's complete, we'll have a ribbon cutting, with a second card punch available for anyone who wants one.

    Both hole punches will be limited editions. The first will be in the shape of a tiny traffic circle, and the second will be in the shape of the exploding head of a crazy person.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And then the gridlock, the increased GHG emissions and worse emergency response times will begin!

      Delete
  23. OMG-

    These posts show the lack of intelligentce in a small sector of the public.

    Could the stupidity be growing?!

    Is this how the Chump got elected? Maybe Crazy Cameron or Marrs should run for office in 2 years. If Chump can do it so can Marrs!

    Haaa!

    The reasonable minds know, build the streetscape. Its good for the environment, guilty of life and property values.

    The folks that don't want the streetscape are the I5 cut through traffic drivers, motor heads, and people who are flat out idiots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 7:13 Since you're one of the minds you call "reasonable," everybody else knows to disagree with you.

      Your Freudian slip: Streetscape is good for "the guilty of life."

      Delete
    2. OOOH you got me Grammar mom. Go write another fictional novel.

      Do you think it could have been bad siri skills - Geeze your an idiot.

      everyone knows the intended siri comment was "the quality of life." Geeze - fictional writers have all the time in the world dont they.

      Delete
    3. Uh, aren't novels fiction by definition?

      Delete
  24. 7:13am Like we should all listen to Mikey who is obsessed with citizens who have earned the respect he can't even touch. Crawl back into your slimy hovel and leave others of your fascination out of it.

    Your reputation precedes you wherever you go. Your compulsion to focus on some residents only reflects all the more poorly on you. You have never seemed to grasp this fact.

    ReplyDelete