4/27/22 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Encinitas crime rate rises much faster than region’s

Coast News:

Largely due to a surge in property crimes, the overall crime rate in Encinitas increased by 31% in 2021, according to SANDAG’s latest crime report released on Tuesday.

According to the report, crime throughout San Diego County rose by 9% between 2020 and 2021, with violent crime increasing by 8% and property crimes rising by 9% (Violent crimes were categorized as homicides, rapes, and aggravated assaults. Property crimes included robberies, residential burglaries, larceny, and motor vehicle theft).

While the city’s violent crime level rose by just 2% — below the regional average — property crimes increased by a whopping 37% in 2021, the data showed.

4/20/22 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Kranz takes heat for dubious reasons for firing Planning Commissioner

 Encinitas Votes

4/13/22 City Council meeting open thread

 There will be fireworks over the council’s planned firing of Planning Commissioner Bruce Ehlers!

Cardiff man dies BASE jumping in UTC

Encinitas Advocate:

Authorities on Tuesday, March 29, released the name of a 48-year-old man who died a week ago when he tried to BASE jump at a high-rise apartment building in University City.

The county Medical Examiner’s Office said Cardiff resident Eric Roden jumped from the 23rd floor of Palisade UTC, a 23-story, upscale apartment building on the corner of Lomard Place and Nobel Drive. The Medical Examiner’s Office said Roden’s parachute likely malfunctioned.

Council plots to decapitate inconvenient Planning Commission

 This Wednesday's council agenda:
 

10A.

Agenda item to terminate the term of Bruce Ehlers from the Encinitas Planning Commission effective immediately.  Contact Person:  Mayor Blakespear and Council Member Kranz

Ehlers is currently running for city council in the Olivenhain-New Encinitas district, and was a leader of the Proposition A "Right to Vote" initiative that the council despises.

More at Coast News.

Separated at birth?

 From the Inbox: 

Attentive campaign watchers noticing an incredible similarity between Morris and Kranz.

Mosca’s history repeats

Pasadena Star-News:

While more recent arrivals in town may be unaware of this fellow’s significance, veteran Sierra Madreanos are likely to remember Joe Mosca. The one-time mayor of Sierra Madre first arrived in town in late 2005, only to run for City Council less than a year later. Obviously he was a young man in a hurry. One of splendid gifts and much promise all were assured by his handlers.

Running as a preservationist opposed to a clunky mixed-use nightmare known as the “Downtown Specific Plan,” Joe rode to elective glory upon a wave of local revulsion at the city’s fraudulent proto-development political establishment. When his election gave slow-growthers a clear City Council majority, many declared the town’s troubles over.

Alas, no. As often happens with local baby-kissers, Mosca quickly flipped on everything he’d previously promised. He became an aggressive supporter of the very project he’d opposed when running for office. Something that led to a successful resident land use revolt called Measure V, an unsuccessful recall, general civic mayhem, plus some annoying blogs.

Then, for reasons remaining unclear to this day, in 2011 Joe suddenly resigned his office. This only months after he’d won re-election with a campaign vowing his eternal love of Sierra Madre. Some credited Chris Holden for effortlessly crushing Mosca’s state Assembly ambitions, leaving him with little reason to stay. Others pointed to his physician husband being awarded a lucrative job in San Diego, bread winner’s needs carrying the day.

Shortly after landing in the San Diego County surf and sand suburb of Encinitas, Mosca somehow managed to get himself appointed to an open seat on that City Council. This despite the many other hopeful applicants who’d lived there for more than a hot minute. When he actually needed to run for that seat a few years later, he barely eked out a victory over an 80-year-old resident who rarely left the house due to his ailments.