I’m excited to tell you about a proposal to create a protected bike way, sometimes called a cycle track, on Highway 101 through Cardiff and across the lagoon, from Chesterfield Drive south to the border with Solana Beach. A cycle track is a physically separated bicycle-exclusive path along a road.Bike advocacy groups and individual cyclists of all stripes are reportedly adamantly opposed, as this idea would take away the current bike lane which works well and put cyclists in danger of collision with people crossing from parked cars carrying surfboards and other beach gear to the beach.
This project would upgrade the existing Class II Bicycle Lane to a Class IV Cycle Track, as shown in the graphic below, effectively connecting our 1.3-mile Cardiff Rail Trail to the 1.7-mile Solana Beach Rail Trail.
The idea was pushed through by staff against the recommendation of the Traffic Commission.
One of the problems with Blakespear is that she is out of touch with most of the working people living in Encinitas. Her family wealth has provided her and her family with a lot of experiences and free time that most people in Encinitas can't comprehend. Most thirty-somethings don't get to move into Cardiff houses that they could not afford on their own nor become law partners with their moms. For most of us who have to drive to work and pick up our kids from school in terrible traffic, recreation opportunities for bikers or keeping chickens and pet goats are not the most pressing problems for those who are trying to scratch out a living. I'm just saying that if she had to find a job and buy her own house the way other people here do that we might have more focus on issues that concern the rest of us like preserving the quality of life for ALL Encinitas residents, not finding recreational activities for the idle rich.
ReplyDeleteOne thing her life of privilege did NOT teach her is how to LISTEN. Listen and really hear. and act accordingly. She and Shaffer are big on "gratitude." They have not earned ours.
DeleteMayor Blakespear needs to be removed from office! Someone needs to run against her!
ReplyDeleteIf the cyclists are saying no now and blakespear pushes ahead as no doubt she will, what a field day of lawsuits we can look forward to.
ReplyDeleteCyclists are a pain in the arse when I'm driving and now sitting at the computer? Gawd make them go away.
ReplyDeleteWhy are they a pain in the Arse? Are the doing something wrong that you do not like or you simply do not like people who ride bikes?
DeleteApparently you have never driven on roads where groups of these jerks ride side by side in traffic lanes while they talk to each other. And, they couldn't care less if they block lanes, ride thru stop signs and red lights. And everyone is supposed to feel sorry for them when they get hit by a car? Nope.
DeleteAgreed. Safe streets are good. Blakespear is part of the problem not the solution.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, new City Project- F'd up City project!!
Problem is if they build it, they won't use it.
ReplyDeleteThey don't use the one in Solana Beach and they don't use the new one on San Elijo Ave. Now they continue to ride on San Elijo which has no bike lane so it stops the entire lane of traffic.
Busting a pace line at 25 mph through a trail with strollers and dogs isn't a good idea, and was never the plan.
DeleteI'm sorry that you failed to understand this.
The original plan was to put the rail trail on the west side of the tracks. Blakespear wanted it on the east side to be more convenient for her personal use. Council voted for the east side, but Blakespear ran into a buzz saw of opposition. She flipped a few months later, and council voted to put the trail on the west side. By this time SANDAG had already done design for the east side configuration with Coastal Commission approval. The city appealed to the CC and lost because a trail on 101 would restrict the public's access to the ocean according to the CC.
DeleteAt public workshops many argued for a separate structure across the lagoon for bikes. SANDAG said no -- too expensive and using the same earthen berm along the tracks for bikes was too dangerous. It seems unlikely that the CC will approve any design on 101 between Cardiff and Solana Beach that impedes coastal access. A big raspberry for Blakespear's bungling in this whole affair.
Redoing the Hwy101 from Swamis to Solana Beach would greatly approve the safety and efficiency of the roadway. CCC would easily support those goals which would improve the access to the coast. Its common sense.
DeleteAs we know, this Blakespear regime screws everything up and is many focused on bringing high density development and homeless to Encinitas. Vote accordingly next election. Blakespear and Krantz out!!!
The Verdus also wanted the trail on the east side of the tracks for their convenience.
ReplyDeleteBlakespear, her appointed mouthpiece Hinze, and Kranz and their 36.3 Million Streetscape project, the temporary $800 thousand gravel parking pods on 101 project, and throwing away Millions on her bike striping lanes, have to be removed in 2020. This entitled AC-DC, crazy laugh mayor, has to be removed in 2020, before she bankrupts the city, with her rich girl reckless spending addiction.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayor has no clue what it is like to have to work a full time job, and work really hard to pay a mortgage or rent, and to try to make ends with those expenses, because she lives at her family's home that her grandmother built. She can command that we all ride our bikes to work, because in her life of leisure and delusion she thinks she can force all the little people of Encinitas to ride a bike by narrowing lanes, removing lanes and endangering everyone. She is out of touch with the families that have long hours of commutes, that have children to drop off and pick up from school, and errands in between. Her stance shows that she is either completely disassociated from the 99% of the population's reality, or a sick sadist. She stands to continue her wealthy lifestyle when she collects on her big inheritance, that since her accomplishment of the destruction of the Encinitas Municipal Code and invalidation Proposition A with the BIA's help, will bring her the Millions that her grandmother could not bank on due to the community and CCC stopping her in 2000. Is Vindication, due to her family not being allowed to develop of the Rossini Park land (renamed by them as the Smith Canyon Trust ), the real reason that this developer-mayor ran for city council? We have to get rid of her, Hinze, Kranz in 2020 and reinstate our Municipal Code and Proposition A.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if the Verdu's own a business on Leucadia's Highway 101?
ReplyDeleteNo, the Verdu's don't own any businesses in Encinitas. He works for Facebook and she doesn't work outside the home. Why do they contribute to the candidates they do? Simple, it's called having a seat at the table. Power is the answer. Blakspear was seen at an event in San Diego where Georgette Gomez, a San Diego Councilwoman, announced she was running for Congress in the 53rd. She wants to move up the political ladder and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she announced her intentions to run for higher office int he future. The Verdu's are smart people and want to influence people in power. That's why they have 2 PAC's. One for local and one for national offices. They are very wealthy and own a huge home on Vulcan and a home in San Francisco. They travel quite a bit to D.C. I don't believe they are the problem in this city, so not sure why people are targeting them. Yes, they do support the current council, but so do a lot of other people.
DeleteThe Verdus are politically active.
ReplyDeleteThe Verdu’s dog is brown.
A word ending with “s” is plural.
A word ending with and apostrophe followed by “s” is possessive.
Don’t have your thoughts discounted as those of an illiterate fool.
I hate to Grammar Nazi a Grammar Nazi, but the Verdus' dog is brown.
DeleteOuch.
DeleteOops. I was mimicking the usage above and didn’t even notice.
Tip ‘o the hat to you, sir.
Double ouch: "Blakspear" is Blakespear.
DeleteHer fake name is as unreal as she.
DeleteAdding insult to injury, the Verdus' don't have a dog. And Blakespear is not her real last name anyway, so who cares how someone spells it. Get a life 7:26. Most people knew what was being said. We don't need another grammar Nazi when we already have a couple. If anyone didn't understand what 3:18 said, I'd say we have a bigger problem than grammar.
ReplyDelete* Verdus
DeleteIf you can't get something so simple as the form right, nobody who matters will take your content seriously.
DeleteHow's your arithmetic? Would you defend getting that wrong too?
If you have to resort to the “nobody takes your seriously’” argument because of their writing, you are probably not winning many those arguments. It’s a fricken internet blog, get over it.
Delete9:36 You must have a very poor or no education if anybody has to explain to you that bad writing equals rotten thinking. It doesn't matter where it appears. Can you write a literate post card, letter or email? Seems doubtful based on your posts.
DeleteOutstanding EG piece for those of us who may have lost sight of the issues whilst wrestling instead over grammar. This should (but won't) be a reality check on a mayor who asks us in her latest happy-happy newsletter to focus our attention on the upcoming "World Gratitude Day" -
ReplyDeleteOverheard Conversation Among Three Encinitas Locals
Local #1: We got a quiet zone in Cardiff.
#2: Wow, that’s a blessing, but why not the whole city, lagoon to lagoon?
#1: I don’t know, but I’m sure everybody near the tracks would like some peace and quiet.
#3: Ask Big Cheese Kranz. He’s the NCTD and LOSSAN guy. He says it took San Clemente 10 years to get a quiet zone. Maybe that’s his timeline.
#2: Now the council has this Community Choice Energy thing going. They want to buy and sell electricity in place of SDG&E. The same people who spent $5 million for two buildings at Moonlight and $10 million for Pacific View are gonna do a better job marketing power than SDG&E?
#1: Don’t get me started. I wonder about their competence at anything. The only thing they’re good at is rubber-stamping every developer project that comes along.
#2: They’re good at bragging about awards they don’t deserve.
#3: The Coastal Commission just knocked down that big development on La Costa Avenue. And that was after the city planning commission and council approved it.
#1: Maybe the commission is trying to make up for allowing that atrocious hotel on the bluff up there.
#2: Speaking of atrocious, how about the HEU?
#3: Add “fiasco” to describe that. I haven’t heard anybody but the council members and the obedient staff say the HEU was well done. It’s totally unfair — shameful, really. It kills Prop A. That was the will of the people.
#2: The council doesn’t care about the will of the people. They do whatever generates the most tax revenue. The people be damned.
#1: Being on the council is a terrible job. Maybe they do a terrible job out of resentment. They’re sure not making much money — at least what’s visible.
#3: What about this bike thing? How many people are going to “get out of their cars” and ride bikes? Damn few. If the council really wanted to reduce greenhouse gases, they would incentivize buying electric cars, and they would bring back school buses. There are hundreds of parents driving two trips per day to get their kids to and from school.
#2: And they’re gonna clog the traffic. Whenever there’s a wreck or road work ahead that reduces the number of lanes, what happens? The traffic slows and clogs to squeeze into fewer lanes. But the city says shrinking 101 to two lanes from three or four up in Leucadia won’t jam the traffic. That defies common sense and what’s obvious to every driver everywhere.
#1: So increase GHGs, not reduce?
#3: Right, the opposite of what they say. Let’s change the subject. I’m getting an upset stomach and won’t be able the eat the lunch that’ll be here in a minute or two.
I’m going out in a limb. You didn’t record this verbatim, and you don’t have a job writing dialog.
Delete“Oh, hello there neighbor whom I’ve known for years. . . “
Get with the program, 10:49! EG = Encinitas Guerrilla - links off this blog. Sheesh.
DeleteNot to worry people. The bike lanes will soon be underwater according to the latest hysteria from the climate mafia. So it won't matter.
ReplyDeletecomment from the flat earth peanut gallery
Delete2:03 is a one trick pony. Needs attention, whine about climate change.
DeleteSand will be replenished every 5-10 years for the next 45+ years. I’ll make the connection for 2:03 because I don’t think you are capable of understanding. See, when you add sand to a beach, it makes it higher. If the beach is higher then the ocean has a longer way to go to get to the new bike lanes. That’s government being prepared for the most likely scenario as shown by all the data.
Aside from the God awful bike "accidents waiting to happen" "improvements," residents now must contend with Blakespeare's vision for our City as a sanctuary city, and the homeless car parking lot and intention of the Leichtag Foundation to turn Encinitas into a sister city of Jerusalem.We have been flooded with hundreds of homeless since last November. At least the homeless are using the bike lanes, side by side with the few neuvo riche. What can one expect from a bona fide and published member of the Democrats for socialism? Yes, our gratuitous mayor is a socialist. Welcome all ye homeless, bring your tired, weary and stinky homeless, nevermind that they defecate in public and strew their used needles by the Quality Inn and elsewhere. P.S. What is a train without a whistle? I really, really miss the whistles. I miss two toot every morning.
ReplyDelete