Forward!

Quail Gardens Drive

Surfing Madonna Run

The Surfing Madonna has become so much more than the guerrilla art that captured the imagination of the community. Now the Surfing Madonna Oceans Project is an ongoing charitable organization raising funds to further Mary's mission to Save the Ocean.

The next big event is the October 25 Surfing Madonna Run, a 1K/5K/10K beach run/walk suitable for people of all ages and athletic abilities.

Encinitas Undercover readers get a $15 discount on registration by entering the online code EUCVR15. Sign up today!

6/25/14 City Council open thread

The current city council has continued prior councils' practice of not providing written summary minutes of council discussion, but only "action minutes" which state the outcomes. Encinitas Undercover will provide a forum for observers to record what occurs at each council meeting.

Please use the comments to record your observations.

In Encinitas, we'd call them "excellent"

"Every single VA senior executive received an evaluation of 'fully successful' or better over a 4-year period."

Still catty after all these years

Teresa Barth's June 21 newsletter:

Gaspar takes over with little fanfare I was encouraged to read that Mayor Gaspar realizes that her presentation at the State of the City and the behavior of her friends and family at the May 28 council meeting was inappropriate.

Having read the Coast News article in question, we did a double-take. We recalled no such comment from Gaspar.

Upon re-reading, here's what Gaspar said:

[Gaspar's appointment to mayor] was briefly in question when Councilwoman Lisa Shaffer requested to discuss the compromise. While Shaffer said her intentions were never to deny Gaspar the mayoral seat, Gaspar and her supporters questioned the need to have the item on the agenda.

The council unanimously voted after a heated hearing to proceed with the transition, though Gaspar acknowledged that the incident might have strained her relations with the council majority of Barth, Shaffer and Tony Kranz.

“There have been some events that strained some relationships on the council,” Gaspar said. “The next few weeks I hope we can rebuild those relationships so we can continue to work in the best interest of the community.

“I am hoping they are interested in doing the same, rebuilding trust and relationships,” she said.

"The incident" and "some events" to an outsider would most obviously refer to the Shaffer-Kranz move to "reconsider" reneging on the unanimous deal in the first place.

Is Barth's putting words in Gaspar's mouth just a typical Barth spiteful dig? That's the less frightening of two possibilities. The alternative is that she so completely lacks self-awareness that she actually believes that Gaspar bears most of the responsibility for recent council nastiness and was confessing.

And it's telling that Barth views Gaspar's State of the City comments on Encinitas' poor fiscal condition, made worse by the overpriced purchase of Pacific View, as a personal attack. So only happy talk is acceptable at a State of the City, and residents don't deserve to hear the unpleasant truth about Encinitas finances? If that's the case, what else are we being kept in the dark about?

Encinitas Advocate hits streets

Residents were skeptical of the motives behind the launch of three new local newspapers in an election year: the Seaside Courier, the North Coast Current, and the Encinitas Advocate. The Seaside Courier is published by San Diego political operative Jim Madaffer, and the Advocate is published by Union-Tribune owner and politically active developer Doug Manchester. The North Coast Current, an online paper published by San Diego City College journalism teacher Roman Koenig, was founded in 2002 but was relatively unknown and largely inactive until recently.

The Courier and the Current have had some limited local news coverage, along with some political opinion pieces including on the Pacific View controversy. We didn't expect much more from the Advocate.

But yesterday's inaugural edition of the Advocate was quite a welcome surprise. Led by former Coast News reporter Jared Whitlock, the Advocate is chock full of timely and relevant local news, plus coverage of local events and human interest stories. A small sample of the stories: possible changes to San Dieguito Academy's lottery admission process, the next steps in the Pacific View purchase, a look at how the city council races are shaping up, and the city council supporting a huge park & ride on the Manchester strawberry fields. All of it well-written as straight news without the injection of opinion.

You'll most likely find the Advocate in your driveway. Otherwise, you can find it in newsstands all around town or online here. Congratulations to Jared Whitlock on an outstanding launch!

Tony Gwynn Kook

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Padre!