4/17/24 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Homeless attack at Coaster station

Nextdoor:

Train reportedly hits pedestrian downtown

 

Cycle trap unusable

From the Inbox: 

Did you see today's Cycle Trap conditions?

Posted on Please restore safe cycling to Cardiff FB page.

Sand in the cycle trap has been a problem from the beginning. Before the bike obstacles were installed, winds and passing cars kept the roadway clean of sand. The city had to buy sweeper vehicles and hire crews to regularly sweep the trap.

3/27/24 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Ryan Currie obituary

The man who died at the Blakespear bike obstacles earlier this month:

Click over to legacy.com to read the whole thing.

Encinitas man dies in late night bicycle accident

Encinitas Advocate:

Someone found the 48-year-old man lying on the ground in a bike lane on South Coast Highway near Ocean Street and called 911 around 12:07 a.m., sheriff’s Lt. Zheath Sanchez said. A bike was found nearby. Deputies and paramedics attempted life-saving measures, but the man died before he could be taken to a hospital.

The bicyclist has been identified as 48-year-old Ryan Currie of Encinitas, according to a news release. An initial investigation has revealed Currie was riding northbound along the east side of S. Coast Highway in the protected bicycle lane on an Electra Townie bicycle.

There was no evidence of a collision with a vehicle, but perhaps a collision with Blakespear's lane barriers?

Ocean Street is the north end of Solana Beach, but the protected bicycle lane starts north of there, across from Cardiff State Beach.

Rockets over Encinitas

SpaceX launch, just now.

Thursday morning open thread

 What's on your mind?

Kranz buddy wins Republican Central Committee seat

From the Inbox: 

The results are in for the Republican County Central Committee but one
major question remains….how do 18,000 people know Garvin Walsh?

 

Maybe his name was randomly listed first on the ballot? Most voters have absolutely no idea who any of these people are.

How will the other Republican Central Committee members handle a close ally of the big-spending, tax-raising, natural-gas-banning, woke-DEI-pushing, far-left mayor of Encinitas? Walsh is buddy-buddy enough with Mayor Tony Kranz to be receiving private e-mail forwards from Kranz of constituent e-mails.

Also note that both Mark and Maureen Muir lost after their dirty tricks robocall fallout with the local Republican party.

Beach sand replenishment underway

Man dies in sheriff custody after Cardiff intoxication arrest

Encinitas Advocate:

A man died after struggling with San Diego County sheriff’s deputies following his arrest in Cardiff late Saturday, March 2, authorities said.

Deputies were summoned at 11:55 p.m. to a parking lot at Birmingham Drive near Villa Cardiff Drive where a man in his 30s was reported crawling around the lot with no shirt and no shoes, sheriff’s officials said.

Wednesday open thread

Have a pleasant evening.

City Council hires consultant to raise sales tax

Encinitas Advocate:

Encinitas officials are exploring the idea of raising the city’s sales tax from 7.75 percent to 8.75 percent. It’s estimated this could generate $15.4 million a year. City officials have said they would like to use the money to pay for much-need improvements to the city’s roadways, drainage systems and other infrastructure.

Several council members said Feb. 28 that there were strong reasons for them to support raising the sales tax, but said they wanted to conduct additional research before making a decision about the ballot measure. They agreed to approve spending up to $103,500 for additional consulting work and other assistance related to the project.

The last time the council tried to raise the sales tax was 2014, when the progressives were thwarted by the lack of a supermajority on the council.

New thread

 By request.

Please refrain from doxxing each other in the comments.

Ghetto bird over Cardiff

Multiple sheriff’s vehicles around Santa Fe Drive and Sunset, coincidentally near the Cowan murder house.

Encinitas characters run for GOP county committee

There are some familiar names on the ballot this year.

Garvin Walsh, a recent arrival on the city council scene known for buddying up to several Encinitas politicians, is running for the Republican County Central Committee.

And look who else is there: Mark and Maureen Muir. We thought they were gone for good after getting shunned by the county party for their dirty tricks robocall, dropping out of the school board race, and selling their house.

Quail Gardens stack & pack

Encinitas Advocate:

A revised version of the hugely controversial Quail Meadows housing plan, which now calls for putting the previously proposed 485 apartments into two massive buildings instead of four, will go back before the Planning Commission in two weeks.

Considered to be the biggest apartment development in the city’s history, the project put forward by Baldwin & Sons is proposed to go on a 12-acre site on Quail Gardens Drive, just north of the Encinitas Boulevard intersection. The two apartment complexes would be six stories and top out at 68.6 feet tall, while their accompanying parking garages would be seven stories, including an underground area, and would be 74.6 feet in height.

Fiddling through the floods

Coast News commentary:

Before he was elected to the city council in 2012, Mayor Tony Kranz was in the audience and among those begging the city council for solutions to the extreme flooding dangers. However, once elected, he took a back seat to the issue and sat on his hands. Here’s just a smattering of Mayor Kranz’s non-responses to the dire situation:

Click on over for the rest.

Leucadia residents and businesses still pleading for city to fix drainage

Encinitas Advocate:

With buckets and sandbags, the people who live and work near Leucadia Roadside Park desperately fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle to keep rising floodwaters from entering their homes and businesses as a record-setting rainstorm hammered the region Monday, Jan. 22.

Two days later, they pleaded with the Encinitas City Council to finally resolve drainage problems that have bedeviled the low-lying area for decades, saying the city’s previous attempts have done little, if anything, to improve the situation. The Jan. 22 storm, which dropped more than 3 inches of rain onto Encinitas, provided ample evidence that drainage is still a huge unresolved issue in Leucadia, they said.

Stacy Reddell, the new executive director of the Leucadia 101 Main Street Association, listed all of the small businesses that sustained damage from the recent flooding, including coffee shops, a pizza place and a ceramics studio. Some people, particularly the owners of The Mudd House Studio, were “completely devastated” by the amount of water that came pouring into their buildings after the roadways around the park on Coast Highway 101 began flooding Jan. 22, she said.

Seems like this should have been a higher priority than a second senior center.

Leucadia still flooding

Leucadia Roadside Park this morning

1/17/24 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Cronyism on Parade

Coast News Op-Ed:

“I have an opportunity to apply for an appointment to an open seat on our town city council, and it’s very likely if I do it that I would be the one to get the appointment.”

Mali Woods-Drake (now Mali Shook after her marriage in 2022) disclosed this during an If You Knew Me podcast episode in 2023 entitled, “Deciding between motherhood and personal ambition.”

Mali entered Encinitas politics at a BLM rally at the Cardiff Kook in 2020. From there, she quickly allied herself with then-mayor Catherine Blakespear, Councilmember Kellie Hinze, and current Mayor Tony Kranz.

During her work on their election campaigns, Mali became known for her attempts to silence those who disagreed with her by aggressively branding them “racist” and inviting them to “leave town if they don’t like the direction we want Encinitas to go.”

Since 2020, the council has rewarded Mali’s efforts with a string of increasingly influential appointments to the Encinitas Equity Committee and, more recently, the Encinitas Public Health and Safety Commission. Mali’s growing connections also earned her a board seat on the Pacific View nonprofit, Encinitas Arts, Culture and Ecology Alliance.

Raw oysters from Fish Shop suspected in norovirus outbreak

NBC 7:

The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency have linked 41 confirmed and probable cases of norovirus illness to raw oysters imported from a specific harvest location in Northwest Mexico, it was announced Thursday.

According to the HHSA, the cases began mid-December when people dined on raw oysters from Sonora, Mexico. The oysters have only been available through restaurants and wholesale locations and the county is asking those who purchased "Rocky Point oysters" packed by GOLPAC, located in Bahia Salina, Sonora are asked not to eat or serve them until an investigation of the outbreak is complete.

Cases to date have been tied to oysters served at three locations of The Fish Shop -- in Pacific Beach, Point Loma and Encinitas -- and the Carlsbad Aquafarm. Other locations may emerge during this investigation.

Train fatality downtown

Fox 5:

A man was fatally struck by a southbound BNSF freight train in Encinitas Saturday night, authorities said.

According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the incident happened around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Vulcan and D Street.

Responding deputies confirmed the man did not survive his injuries. The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office will publicly identify the victim once his family is notified.

Beacon’s Beach closed again

 City Instagram:

A bluff failure occurred this morning at Beacon’s Beach, causing damage to the trail access. As a precaution, the beach access has been closed. City experts are currently assessing the extent of the damages and determining the repairs needed. The reopening of the beach access will occur once it is deemed safe for public use. More information will be provided as it becomes available.

City Council meeting cancelled

 Here’s your open thread.

Mali Woods-Drake records podcast

Race activist and friend of the progressive city council Mali Woods-Drake has recorded a podcast:

This week’s story is entitled “Deciding Between Motherhood and Personal Ambition”

Bomb threat at Encinitas temple and preschool

 Encinitas Advocate:

A Jewish temple and preschool in Encinitas was evacuated Tuesday morning, Jan. 2, after someone sent a message with a bomb threat, a sheriff’s official said.

Just after 8:30 a.m., a person at Temple Solel called the Sheriff’s Department to report receiving an email that said explosives would soon be detonated at the campus, Lt. Zheath Sanchez said. The temple is on Manchester Avenue east of Interstate 5 in the Cardiff area.