Washout at beach tower site

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
- Matthew 7:24-27

Looks like big trouble at the city's $3 million lifeguard tower.

From the Inbox:

I was talking to a contractor that mentioned the wash out at the lifeguard tower construction site on Moonlight Beach. He claimed the runoff from the adjacent streets overwhelmed the flimsy drainage set-up at the site and has done damage. The caisson holes were drained and there are large gullies within the fenced off area, which can't be part of the plan. He suggested this will stall the project some and involve added costs. The specific details would probably have to be revealed by the contractor building the tower. Don't look for the city to publicize this incident, as someone forgot about winter rains.

The little black pipe was supposed to handle the run-off; the orange fencing is where the torrent actually tore thru. The other shots are erosion damage.

David Meyer threatens legal action again

Developer David Meyer, husband of Ecke heiress Lizbeth Ecke, is threatening to take the city to court yet again, and wants the council to overturn the will of the voters on Measure T.

Threat letter here.

City contractor parks on flower garden at Cottonwood Creek

From the Inbox:

I took these pictures at 1pm today on Wed. Dec 14th 2016. On the corner of
Vulcan and Encinitas Blvd., city hired workers adjusting the flags decided
to simply park on the flowers and whether or not they were crushed was of
no concern to them. They could've parked and walked to the flagpoles to do
their job. 

The city manager was notified, and the next day the tire tracks were brushed away, but the smashed flowers haven't been replaced.  

Before and after:

12/14/16 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Dancing Queen Kook

Progressives to take supermajority on city council; will they revive push for sales tax increase?

Progressives have taken a 3-1 majority on the Encinitas city council, and will be able to appoint a kindred spirit to the vacancy created by Catherine Blakespear's election to mayor.

In 2014, the Barth-Shaffer-Kranz majority pushed for the hiring of a sales tax increase campaign manager, but was thwarted only by the lack of a fourth vote to put a tax increase on the ballot when Mark Muir and Kristin Gaspar made it clear they would not go along.

Now the progressives have their fourth vote.

Bar patrons arrested after closing time seek $15 million in lawsuit

San Diego Reader:

According to the lawsuit, Bernardo Villanueva and some friends went to a bar with friends in downtown Encinitas in January of this year. Villanueva had two mixed drinks at the bar and was not intoxicated, claims the lawsuit. After the bar closed, the group of men walked to the 7-Eleven on D Street to buy beer and wait for an Uber driver to pick them up and take them home. Sheriff's deputy James Steinmeyer arrived at the store parking lot as the men waited for their ride.

According to the complaint, Steinmeyer and his partner were patrolling Encinitas streets on the lookout for those who were disturbing the peace on their way out of the bars.

Reads the complaint, "At that time, and in the moments prior, Steinmeyer had been accosting random pedestrians on the sidewalk, near bars in the vicinity of downtown Encinitas, for no apparent reason, other than to enforce a 'zero tolerance' ban on bar patrons being 'drunk in public.'"

Here's the court case. The presiding judge is Gonzalo Curio, recently famous for being called "Mexican" by Donald Trump.