Thursday, August 30, 2018

From foreclosure crusader to nuthouse lawyer

Remember Encinitas attorney Michael T. Pines, who gained TV fame as a foreclosure attorney with unconventional tactics such as encouraging clients to break in and squat in their former homes?

He's now representing himself in Atascadero State Hospital.


Wednesday, August 22, 2018

8/22/18 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Olivenhain Jackass

From the Inbox:
Some idiot smoked the mailbox on Cole Ranch on the section between Lone Jack and del Norte. We reported it to the cops and they said they heard reports of other sh** getting hit on Rancho Sante Fe Road earlier. This happened around ~4 pm yesterday, and by the tire marks you can tell this imbecile made the illegal rush hour turn. Looks like he/she hit the left and was going into the property facing to the east, then overcorrected and slammed into the mailbox and swerved back on to the road. Must have been someone who lives off Lone Jack who is just too g*d damn important to sit in 30 more seconds of traffic, which I do as principle even though I live on the f***ing street.

That's not just one mailbox... it's the mailboxes for the whole block. Here's the Google image of the site:
Doesn't anybody on the street have security cameras that would have caught it? We hate to stereotype, but we'd guess it was the failure-to-launch offspring of a Lone Jack resident.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

8/15/18 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Candidates filed

Del Mar Times:
Three incumbents and three challengers will vye for a trio of seats on the Encinitas city council this November.

In Encinitas, voters will be able to select their choice for the mayor, as well as districts three and four, if they live within one of those area’s boundaries. District three represents Cardiff, while district four encompasses areas of Olivenhain and New Encinitas.

The six candidates are:

Mayor:

* Incumbent Catherine Blakespear, a 42-year-old lawyer
* John Paul Elliott, a 71-year-old metaphysical broker

District three:

* Incumbent Mark Muir, a 62-year-old retired fire chief
* Jody Hubbard, a 61-year-old Encinitas planning commissioner

District four:

* Incumbent Joe Mosca, a 45-year-old manager of major projects at San Diego Gas & Electric
* Tony Brandenburg, a 56[?]-year-old retired chief judge
We've never heard of John Paul Elliott, don't know what a metaphysical broker is, and assume he won't run a serious campaign.

Hubbard is the Barth-Shaffer candidate for Cardiff.

Tony Brandenburg is an Olivenhain institution, but didn't do well when he ran for council in 2016 before district elections were established. We shall see.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

TV's Mike Rowe covers Ian "Poods" Barry family philanthropy

Watch the video here.

Fatal hit-and-run at I-5 off-ramp to Encinitas Boulevard

10 News:
A search is on for a driver suspected of hitting and killing a woman near an off-ramp from Interstate 5 in Encinitas Tuesday morning.

The crash happened at around 6:30 a.m. near the Encinitas Boulevard off-ramp from northbound Interstate 5, according to California Highway Patrol officials. The off-ramp was closed for a short period due to the investigation.

The collision is under investigation, but CHP officials confirmed that the body of a 62-year-old woman was found in a ravine off the roadway. Officials believe the woman had been dead for about an hour when her body was discovered.

CHP officials described the vehicle believed to be involved in the incident as a 1995 to 2002 Ford Expedition or Ford F-150 pickup that is missing its right front headlight and likely has additional damage.
That's remarkably close to the site of a hit-and-run last year, the perpetrator of which also drove a Ford F-150 and is apparently already out of jail.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Under deadline gun, council approves sending bad plan to voters

Del Mar Times:
In a turn of events, Blakespear — who previously voted against the plan — joined Kranz, Mosca and Muir on Wednesday in their support of the document. Blakespear said while she disagreed with certain zoned sites on the housing element, she wanted residents to be able to vote on the matter.

[...] several residents argued against the proposal and said properties like the "Cannon Property" on Piraeus and the "Meyer Proposal" on Clark Avenue were unsuitable for development due to concerns such as potential traffic, overcrowdedness at nearby schools and health concerns.

Residents advocated for removing the Meyer site and replacing it with the "L-7" property, which is owned by the city and was removed from the plan in April when hundreds of neighbors in the Quail Gardens area spoke in opposition. HCD had recommended L-7 as an ideal site for affordable housing.

City staff advised that revising the list of sites was not an option at this time due to the need for a public hearing and the deadline to file for the November election quickly approaching.
The Clark Avenue site is a huge development in an area with extremely narrow streets and very few ways in and out, miles from amenities like grocery stores, and with the air quality concerns of being right on the freeway.

As many residents pointed out, calling "shame" on the council, the process has been awful, with backroom negotiations between staff and developers, and sites being added and dropped like hot potatoes. The residents of eastern Leucadia got stuck holding the hot potato when the clock ran out.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Big housing meeting tonight

The city council faces a deadline tonight to come up with a housing plan to put on the November ballot.

The most recent iteration has Leucadia residents up in arms over a massive new development on Clark Avenue near I-5 and Leucadia Boulevard, which, rumors have, was added as part of a land swap to give developer David Meyer the city's prime real estate on Quail Gardens Drive.

According to the council's plans, the majority of high-density development would fall on Leucadia and Old Encinitas, while Cardiff and Olivenhain would be largely unscathed.

The council appears determined to push forward with this plan even though it has already been ruled inadequate by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Council chaos causes housing deadline panic

Union-Trib:
On Wednesday night, the City Council will once again debate what to put on the ballot. The county election office's filing deadline is Friday, so a decision must be reached that night, or it's too late to get the paperwork together to make the November ballot, the city clerk has said.