Thursday, June 29, 2017

City wants to improve El Camino Real strip mall zone

Union-Tribune:

Encinitas can make El Camino Real more pedestrian-friendly by widening the sidewalks, improving the crosswalks and adding more trees, according to recommendations from an expert the city hired to study the thoroughfare.

[...]

The council plans to set aside $250,000 in the coming fiscal year for improvements to El Camino and will use Burden's advice as it explores how to spend that money, Mayor Catherine Blakespear said.
$250,000 doesn't buy much in city projects.

69 comments:

  1. Nope, $250K doesn't provide much in city projects but imagine what $250K could do for Leucadia. Oh wait, no one wants to see a nicer Leucadia. Keep it crappy!!
    PS- L101 has failed again to secure funding, there goes another $250K they let slip through their fingers, but let's give credit where credit is do they put on a really mediocre music show.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At the budget meeting staff revealed that the 2 for 1 tree replacement isn't true. More like chop down 40 trees and replace with 22 trees.

      Delete
  2. Crappy Pappy, only you keeps bringing up the tired, same old, same old, repetitive, ad nauseum, crap factor of you and your handful of profiteering friends plan for our 101.

    Take a poll [not you Charley boy/man child] of businesses on the 101 and the most affected residents west of the 5 for their opinions on this scam of a plan. The current iteration has never been vetted by the truest of the real stakeholders in all of this, the residents.

    Stephanie Kellar: take a census and hear the vast majority, instead of listening to a few voices that represent themselves and their own personal profit motives.

    Gentrifying our 101 into an every other beach town look with the same store fronts along the whole corridor will accomplish one thing, a 2.5 mile long strip mall with little individuality.

    And the roundabouts!!!!! as planned are a disaster in the making. Figure out how one south of Leucadia Blvd, and 5 or 6 north of Leucadia Blvd. makes any kind of sense requires a leap into someone's fertile imagination. $$$$$$.

    Take a poll and clear the air on where the community stands on this plan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did you enjoy the mediocre music show??

      Delete
    2. Imagine the flowering plants and bushes that could be planted to make the medians nicer?? Oh wait, the city doesn't have any water for the medians....never mind.

      Delete
  3. So why didn't Dan Burden recommend roundabouts on El Camino Real where there's enough room for them and where they could actually do some good?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What, you mean the roundabout guru didn't recommend them at any of the four-way intersections along El Camino Real where there's lots of room and enough traffic to justify roundabouts?

      How come not there but at six T intersections along Leucadia 101?

      Delete
  4. El Camino Real strip malls will become ghost towns in 50 years from the change in retail to online shopping.

    We can do the housing plan for affordable housing in what will in this area to keep it's vitality. Better yet put in mass transportation along El Camino Real and attach it to the our public railroad on the coast when we trench and cover it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 50 years ahead is too far to forecast unless you are stoned. Can I have some of whatever you are smoking? (After Encinitas approves it).

      Delete
    2. Mickey, Mickey, always the same schtick. Yawn. BTW, the State approved it, so buy some and quit mooching.

      Delete
    3. Governments need to think long term... sadly even the public does not understand this.

      50 Years should well be within the planning horizon of our government agencies but they will not get there because citizens appear not able to think that far ahead into the future.

      Delete
    4. The diversity of businesses in that area is its long-term strength. People will still need food, dental services, car parts, entertainment, etc. You cannot get a haircut online. There is also the social benefit of shopping and actually touching and feeling goods and trying on shoes. The mix of businesses might change but until money is obsolete there will always be things to buy with it.

      Delete
    5. Car Parts and Entertainment on line has been accepted for some time. Food is coming soon.

      Haircuts... for the outrageous prices they want we skip a few and do the rest at home saving big $$$.

      Dental ... well there you go. 1000s of Dental offices up and down El Camino Real. What a brilliant sight!

      That is if we do not all go broke from a dysfunctional healthcare system first.

      Delete
    6. Mayor Blakespear "moved" that the council hire Dan Burden as consultant for restriping the roads. All decisions of course will be done in the backroom than carried out as a surprise on residents.
      Among Burden's suggestions:
      Painting the bike lanes.
      Stopping the cars back from the crosswalks.
      Narrowing the left lane (next to the median).
      Allowing drivers to use the right lane that will be a major bike lane.
      Making walking entrances behind the strip malls so residents don't have to drive their cars.
      Pushing the sidewalks into the commercial property (and parking areas) so the city can plant trees.

      Delete
    7. Why no roundabouts?

      How come all the roundabout freaks who posted here before are now silent?

      Delete
    8. Long term I see nothing but taller building along El Camino Real. Might as well start putting in the infrastructure now for it and start the re-zoning process.

      Delete
    9. I would like to see more of a village, with shade trees, upstairs apartments, and safe places to walk and bike. How tall do you think the buildings will be?

      Delete
    10. 3 stories should be good.

      Delete
    11. Let's go with five stories and turn the whole place into a city. Yards/gardens are for racist rednecks!

      Delete
  5. I wonder why the city never ever reaches out to businesses along the corridor to ask them for buy in for their grand plans since the lions share of taxes that pay for all their livlihoods comes from them. Nah...that would make too much sense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Part of the lion's share is selling the real estate. A cool $20 million can be made on property held for 10 years. Business owners on the property get the shaft with leasing increases.
      Why would the city council get involved unless a quid pro quo is involved.

      Delete
  6. It's way more complicated than that. Most of the land is leased from bigbank corporations. Some of the businesses are small and live month-to-month while others are part of national chains who report to stockholders who expect quarterly profits. The big leverage is the City who can do a bond issue against expected future larger tax revenues. It gets down to the will of the voters to approve progress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Go to the MyEncinitas site, serially enter a bunch of El Cam Real addresses and post how many you find that are owned by "big bank corporations."

      Delete
    2. All of the larger properties are owned by out-of-town financial institutions, whether they are a LLP, a LP, an INC, or a TRUST. Just a few of the smaller sites are owned by a FAMILY TRUST but I found just one with an address in Encinitas. Wrapping a corporation around a property is a standard way to keep the low Proposition 13 tax rate. These corporations are owned by Wall Street investors, including of course the mutual funds that we use for retirement accounts.

      Delete
    3. Starting at Leucadia Blvd on east side of El Cam Real going south, owners and their locations for 15 parcels:

      Home Depot, Atlanta
      Home Depot, Dallas
      Individual, Cardiff
      Armstrong Nursery, San Diego
      Trust, San Diego
      Credit union, San Diego
      Investment group, Encinitas
      LLC, Solana Beach
      LLC, La Mesa
      LLC, La Mesa
      Trust, Encinitas
      Trust, San Diego
      LLC, San Diego
      Bank trust, Palm Desert
      Trust, San Diego

      See any Wall Street investors there?

      Delete
    4. What I se are mostly lawyer's offices. These are closely held corporations. The shareholders can be in China or in New York, but it takes more digging to figure out who the actual owners are and who makes the decisions and who else reaps the profits. For instance, the "First Interstate Bank" trust in Palm Desert is an entity that was established by the investment branch of a long-gone bank. This is capital hiding behind capital. I rest my case.

      Delete
    5. One of 15. The other trusts are families. Twelve of 15 owners are in San Diego County.

      You don't know what you're talking about.

      Delete
    6. I don't see any disagreement here. The founding family or partnership sets up a LLC or a trust around the property, borrows some money from a bank to build. 40 or 50 years later their heirs continue to receive dividends or sell their shares and professional managers are brought in. The LLC keeps its original name, that's what it was setup to do. Shares of corporations are owned by distant investment groups. That's called "investment banking" and it's just the way our economy works.

      Delete
    7. 1:01 PM

      Your argument is premised on a belief that if only the land were owned by local owners there would only be modest development in keeping with the current scale of Encinitas. While that is true in some cases, it's not universally true. I've seen local owners try to max out their property very much not in keeping with Encinitas.

      Delete
    8. The argument is based on the concept that each property owner and business works to further his own interests. Co-operation is difficult because of the concern that a long-term benefit for all may impact somebody's short-term. The default is to leave things as they are rather than take the risks entailed by making progress.

      Delete
    9. 7:09 General and simplistic.

      Delete
    10. 2:43 Define "making progress."

      Delete
    11. Stop and go traffic speeding between signals. Failing businesses. Inability to get to more than one shop without driving between them. Unsafe for pedestrians and bikes. Ugly and worn out. Businesses come and go after a few years. That's the starting point. Progress would make the street safer and slower, fewer stops means it can handle more traffic, progress would have the businesses attract more customers. There are issues here that are difficult to discuss in anonymous blog postings and steps that would involve a civil dialog.

      Delete
    12. 8:52 And how does all that involve taking risks?

      Delete
    13. There's the risk of doing nothing, which lets things continue to deteriorate, vs. the risk of spending time and money on physical improvements for the possibility of increasing business vs. the risk of getting run down trying to cross the street. It's all a matter of making a choice or letting events make choices for us.

      Delete
    14. Apparently, 3:34, considering your string of posts here, you think you can bullshit without anybody calling you out on it.

      Delete
  7. Kealanis, the former Hawaiian restaurant on 2nd St. was evicted by the progeny of the original owner. Now the site has a "For Lease" sign in the window. Apparently the new owners discovered that converting that site was more problematic than originally thought. Why else would they evict a tenant that had been there for years?

    ReplyDelete
  8. They got greedy, gambled, and lost.

    ReplyDelete
  9. They also screwed her over royally when she had an existing lease for another few years. She could have sewed them over that one issue. Shameful behavior by the kids to treat a tenant like they did. Kealani's deserve better treatment. At the least, she should have been paid a fair sum to vacate her lease. Argh!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kealani's was on D St. Was she a seamstress?

      Delete
    2. Oops - you're correct - it was D St!

      Delete
  10. The City Council and should focus on completing its long list of unfinished projects before starting another one. The City Council has ADD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A specific plan for ECR is at least 30 years overdue. We are still dealing with the situation that the county left us. The City ought to be able to both walk and chew gum at the same time.

      Delete
  11. ..... 8:33 -

    Agreed but it can't.

    ....N. Hwy 101 streetscape conceptual design approved by City Council in 2010 with instructions to build as soon as possible. Yet here we are 7 years later with nearly zero progress.

    The City can not get things done. The might as well keep saying.....


    "winter is coming"....

    no one has accountability and city council is not demanding any accountability.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The city is a failure, unless you receive a salary or pension.

      Delete
  12. ECR will always be a Sh1tscape.

    Short of ripping the whole corridor down to bare dirt and starting over, meaningful change isn't possible. Throw 250K at it so Council can say they've done something. That should pay for a coat of cheap lipstick.

    Oink. Oink.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 6:41 AM

      So if you can't start over why bother doing anything? There are a number of things that can be done, at a reasonable cost, to improve that stretch, although what is a reasonable cost is subjective.

      But hey, why not just sit around and bitch about it instead of doing anything.

      Delete
    2. I don't think they should do anything. Politically speaking, I understand why they are willing to spend money to create the appearance of doing something.

      The truth is, that area was planned and developed poorly, and it's too late and too expensive to fix.

      Delete
  13. They pay some consultant a bundle to tell them to put in sidewalks between shopping centers? How about a mini-monorail around the downtown and access to It's a
    Small World too! Tear it all out and make an urban forest - Rome is beginning to fall anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Meanwhile L101 loses another $250,000 that could go to the streetscape.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A streetscam that no one except misguided business owners, the now-forgotten Norby, and "staff" are pushing on an easily-led council.

      Delete
    2. Streetscam is a bummer. Who wants one lane in each direction, a bunch of silly roundabouts up at one end, more and worse traffic jams, and increased emergency response times? Nobody with even an ounce of common sense.

      Delete
  15. 2:04pm Don't forget the profit motive that has been driving this stinker for a decade. There is an abundance of real estate interests in all of the mainstreet groups.

    Sure, there are individuals that are not motivated by personal gain, but they also know that taking a legitimate census of supporters will show these few to be a small minority.

    Stephanie Kellar, please listen to the silent for now majority, and insist the businesses on the 101 in Leucadia and the Leucadia residents west of the 5. The most vocal supporters are a minority.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The most vocal supporters of a DEAD and UGLY 101 live west of I-5.
      ( Listen carefully and you can hear the flies buzzing over the north end of 101.)

      Delete
    2. Buzz off, Marvy. You are in the minority and you know it and that scares you.

      Delete
  16. Replies
    1. of the whole city. We all use the 101 corridor for transportation, shopping, and entertainment. Streetscape doesn't spend Leucadia dollars, it spends city dollars.

      If you are going to poll, poll everyone.

      Delete
    2. Poll the people most affected. People who live on the coast aren't much affected by what happens to RSF Road in Olivenhain and wouldn't expect to be asked what to do about it.

      Delete
    3. Nope. Everybody or nobody.

      Or just build it.

      Let people chain themselves to the weeds, then have them arrested.

      Delete
    4. OK, poll Carlsbad and Solana Beach residents since they occasionally drive Leucadia 101 too.

      Delete
    5. Nope. None of their general fund tax dollars being spent.

      Delete
    6. Who developed the Cardiff specific plan. Gee, ya know, it was people who live or work in Cardiff. Who developed the downtown specific plan? Gee, ya know, if was people who live or work downtown. Who developed the Leucadia specific plan? Gee, ya know, it was people who live or work in Leucadia.

      Why did it go as it did in those three places? Because the people who live or work there are most affected.

      So it stands to reason that the people who are most affected by whatever is proposed for Leucadia 101 should have the strongest voice in what's done.

      And that's all the people most affected, not the tiny minority who have been pushing the dumbest plan imaginable.

      Delete
  17. City workshops when on for years. There was massive polling and public input. We are past that stage. But the haters hate hearing that fact. Right ragers?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bullshit, 5:36. There were a few workshops almost 10 years ago. Their purpose was for the city to get selling points.

      There's never been a poll of the people most affected or anybody else. Plus, the plan has changed in big, unauthorized ways.

      The city and L101 are afraid to do a poll because they'd find overwhelming opposition to the dumbest plan imaginable.

      Delete
    2. already done. Build it!

      Let the whiners whine! .... that what they do. Right crazy eyed C?

      Delete
  18. 7:04pm Exactly. Thanks. Take a poll now, especially considering all the changes that have been added without public notice or opinion on those changes by those most affected, the residents west of the 5 and the businesses on the 101.

    The very small minority of real estate and developer interests have had an inside track through the city funded mainstreet organizations. The real stakeholders are the residents and the businesses on the Leucadia 101 corridor who need to be heard by the city and by Stephanie Kellar.

    Take the poll now.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Pffff. so done. By about 4 years.

    -- Build it. Its 9 years late.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 6:13am slimy mikey crawling out of his hovel in o'side to disparage a respected citizen who doesn't post here. You are a piece of work. Grow up mikey, or better yet, stop bringing up the person you have a thing for. Envy is an ugly thing in your case and you seem to not be able to offer much else. What a sorry excuse you are.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 2:40pm is Thomas Roger Ogden. Go away Roger. Leave our local blog out of your hate market. You are a miserable excuse for a human being. There is no humanity within your black heart. Cultural marxists, are everywhere. Really?

    ReplyDelete