3/26/25 City Council meeting open thread

 Please use the comments to record your observations.

Encinitas Tesla store targeted in nationwide wave of political attacks

From the Inbox:

Might be a good topic for conversation?

RIP Ian Thompson

The widower of late councilwoman Maggie Houlihan.

I didn't know them much, but from what I can tell she was a gregarious hippie chick who settled here a long time ago and got a job as a bank teller. I don’t know how she got into politics, but she was beloved as a goofy, big-hearted council member, and mourned as she died from cancer.. Ian presented as a well-bred proper English guy. I gather they married later in life. He seemed in good health the last time I talked to him a couple years ago.

Another protest at Encinitas Tesla store

Fox 5:

A protest took place outside the Tesla dealership in northern San Diego County on Saturday as community members rallied against federal funding cuts while protests took place simultaneously across the country.

A crowd lining the street outside the Tesla dealership in Encinitas could be seen holding signs with messages like “boycott Tesla” and “save social security” at 1302 Encinitas Blvd Saturday afternoon.

UPDATE: Apparent vandalism to the cars reported on Facebook.

3/12/25 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Blackwell owned stock in developer whose project she approved

Coast News:

A former Encinitas City Council member may have violated state conflict-of-interest laws by voting to approve a project from a real estate developer in which she held investments, according to campaign finance experts.

Allison Blackwell, who served on the council as the District 1 representative from January 2023 until the end of last year, cast multiple votes in favor of the Piraeus Point development during her time in office.

Since Blackwell had a living trust set up with a significant investment holding in Lennar Corporation — the real estate developer behind the Piraeus Point — these votes appear to have violated conflict of interest rules set by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), according to multiple former FPPC regulators interviewed by The Coast News.

Pedestrian killed by elderly driver in Leucadia

Behind Just Peachy:

A pedestrian died in Encinitas Sunday evening after being struck by a vehicle at about 6 p.m., a sheriff’s official confirmed.

The collision occurred on Jupiter Street near North Coast Highway.

The person who died was an adult. No other information was immediately available.

Post office suspends delivery to Santa Fe Drive residents due to unsafe road design

Another surprise left behind by the ousted mayor and council:

Twenty-four residences have had mail delivery suspended after the U.S. Post Office announced it will no longer service mail along portions of Santa Fe Drive due to “unsafe” road conditions.

The announcement came as a shock, but not a surprise to Mayor Bruce Ehlers, who was first informed of the situation in an interview with North County Pipeline on Thursday. He said the suspended service, among other safety concerns, is why the City Council pumped the brakes on the project in January.

An email from Carrie Mannon, supervisor of customer services for the Encinitas Post Office, confirmed those residents must pick up their mail as delivery is suspended. The city has reconfigured Santa Fe Drive from Gardena Road to Evergreen Drive east of Interstate 5, which has received significant backlash from residents, healthcare workers, businesses and motorists for months.

Bad government: the gift that keeps on giving

Many of the policies of the Blakespear and Kranz councils will continue costing the city money long after they're gone. They created a new full-time staff position for a manager of the homeless, making the city responsible for something that had always been the county's job, for example.

And Blakespear's bike obstacles, which she was warned about vociferously by the bicycling community, have already been the cause of dozens of bicycle accidents and two fatalities, which will certainly cost the city millions in legal damages.

One of the more absurd, and still significant, costs of previous bad ideas is the frequently needed removal of sand from the bike lanes. Since the early days of the Coast Highway, the sea breeze and the drafts of passing cars had kept the highway and bike lanes free of large build-ups of sand. Blakespear's bike obstacles, however, trap the sand so that it piles up in the bike lanes and must be removed by crews at least weekly, and often even more frequently by a local's observation.

The city initially got a bike-lane-sized Sand Zamboni for the job, but lately it's apparently either out of service or otherwise inadequate for the job, so crews manually hose down the bike lane from a tanker truck. All the way to Solana Beach.

What a waste of city resources. No wonder Kranz wanted a sales tax increase so badly!