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Photo Gallery: The Urban Architecture Along I-15

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By Jim Bliesner

An excerpt from I-15 in City Heights: How a Freeway that Divided the Community Became an Urban Monument to Citizen Activism:

Something happened to create all of those [architectural developments bordering the I-15 freeway]. They didn’t just show up fully blown from an engineer’s sketch pad. It was the assertive voice of the people of City Heights that modified the design over a period of at least twenty years. The covers, in some people’s eyes, stand as an urban monument to citizen activism, focused on things larger than anything they might ever work on for their whole lives.   [Read more…]

I-15 in City Heights: How a Freeway that Divided the Community Became an Urban Monument to Citizen Activism

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By Jim Bliesner

When you drive North or South on I-15 between University Ave. and El Cajon Blvd. you can’t help but notice a few unique things, especially if you compare the ride to being on 805 between the same streets. First you notice the walls go straight up and down rather than splayed wide like a sliced piece of chicken. Second, when you go under University or El Cajon you’ll notice the street covers are larger than other underpasses on I-15.

The third thing you notice is that you pass under a block long cover; so long it’s necessary to light it up underneath, and long enough to honk your horn at least three times before you hit sunlight again. Then you notice there are trees on the wide covers. If you are really attentive and you are heading north, you can look to your left just before University Ave. and there is a huge park adjacent to the freeway. If you look up right then you will see a footpath connecting the homes on each side of the freeway as well.

If you are quick and you look at the University or El Cajon overhead signs you will see that they read “Transit Plaza.” You won’t see that designation on other large green overhead signs on the interstate. At the Adams Ave. bridge look left and you will see another park butting up to the freeway. You will probably notice that the Adams Ave. bridge is smaller than those of El Cajon and University. The walls are straight from end to end on either side of the tube. In the middle of the freeway from end to end through Mid City you see a vacant wide lane from sitting there like it is waiting for something to happen, some future plan.   [Read more…]

Summertime City Heights: Variations on a Planetary Theme

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Perfumed Nights, Skunks, Spiders, Clouds, Bird Calls and Kittens

By Anna Daniels

Spring is all about sex and sugar. The birds, skunks, opossums and cats were doing “it” while the vegetative world turned green, tendrilled and flowering. Summer on the other hand is about flight and foraging, storing up and going to seed, with more sex thrown in just because that’s how it works for spiders. And that’s how it works for cats, to my great dismay.

All this happens here in City Heights, in this flat, densely populated, concrete covered place. This summer has held surprises, variations on the planetary theme of long warm sunshine filled days. Even here in the city we live within a natural world that is shaped by the cycle of seasons.   [Read more…]

CicloSDias Recap: Streets for the People

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By Andy Hanshaw  / San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

As many of you know, CicloSDias happened on a recent Sunday, and call me biased, but it was a resounding success.

Bikes, joggers, skaters and people of all kinds started walking and rolling around 9:30 a.m. A little after 10 o’clock, councilmembers Marti Emerald and David Alvarez along with County Supervisor Dave Roberts and a few other event speakers addressed the growing crowd at Cherokee Point Elementary School to get attendees excited about this event. They speakers pointed out that everyone there was making history with this first-ever open-streets event for San Diego, and Marti Emerald even named it “CicloSDias Day” in District 9.   [Read more…]

Kiss of Death: Why is Lead in Lipstick?

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By  / Other Words

Sharron Camaratta bites her lips. She never thought of this as a major problem until 2007. That’s when she read that certain brands of lipsticks contain lead, a substance that can cause brain and nervous system damage.

So she stopped wearing the problematic brands — which a 2007 test by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics identified as including L’Oreal, CoverGirl, and Dior — until a year or two ago. Lulled into a sense of safety, she once again started making lipstick purchases based on personal preference and little else.

But that changed when Camaratta discovered a May 2013 study by the University of California, Berkeley, in which researchers found lead in lipstick. Again.   [Read more…]

Escondido Council Votes to Preserve Golf Course As Open Space and Delays Huge Developmentes

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From EscondidoDems.org

In an unusual unanimous vote, the Escondido City Council voted August 14 to adopt the initiative brought before it by the Escondido Country Club Homeowners group that would preserve the club’s golf course as open space. The action certainly delays and could stop plans to build 283 homes on the property. The action avoids putting the measure before voters in November 2014 or taking 30 days for further study. Everyone expects the dispute to end up in court.

After dozens of speakers in favor of the measure, and more than a dozen in favor of a 30-day study, Council members agreed with John Masson that “there’s no reason to delay.” Council member Mike Morasco said “I don’t see how we benefit by waiting… there’s going to be a lawsuit no matter what.” Deputy Mayor Olga Diaz concluded that “a judge will make the decision… the best solution is to get it to the judge as fast as we possibly can.”   [Read more…]

Keeping the World Safe from Science: Issa Wins Climate Change Denier Award

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s own Congressman Darrel Issa (R) has once again been nationally recognized for his efforts in Congress.

The League of Conservation Voters and Organizing for America joined forces yesterday at Issa’s Vista, Ca offices to confer the “Climate Change Denier” award to the Congressman. Sources say he was not available to receive the award.

A statement released by the groups said Issa was being recognized for “his extreme anti-science views, which put him at odds with 97 percent of scientists and a majority of the American people.”   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch July 2013: Floods, Fires, Drought and Heat Waves

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by John Lawrence

From coast to coast, we saw a variety of record-breaking weather in July 2013. Several cities recorded one of their hottest Julys on record. A heat wave that lasted a week in middle July helped propel Hartford, Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., and Providence R.I. to their hottest July and calendar month on record. In the west Salt Lake City, Utah, Reno, Nev., Elko, Nev., Medford, Ore., Roseburg, Ore. and Bend, Ore. all saw their hottest July and calendar month in history.

Although July is typically the driest month of the year in the Pacific Northwest, it was exceptionally dry in July 2013.

Seattle, Olympia, Wash., Portland, Ore., Eugene, Ore. and Salem, Ore. were among the slew of locations in western Washington and western Oregon that recorded no measurable rainfall in July 2013. Only four other Julys since 1890 have had no rain in Portland (downtown). For Seattle, it was the first time in more than 50 years with no measurable rain in July.   [Read more…]

How Land Use Abuse Fits into the Current San Diego Drama

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By Jay Powell

The news this week via the “Utterly-Terrible” news machine (August 6 edition) is that when asked the “push-poll” question: “What story about Filner concerns you more: the charge of sexual misconduct or the charge that he improperly extracted monetary concessions for the city from developers in return for approving their projects?” the result was a dead heat at 44% for each.

Never mind that in both cases the “story” is about a “charge”. And that the only so-called “extraction” was from the now infamous Sunroad developer for donations to two City sanctioned projects.

Yes, there should have been a nexus to the impacts of that project, so the money was returned. It’s important to bear in mind that all the projects that the current Mayor has questioned or impeded were due to violating either community plans or municipal code provisions and initiated under the previous Mayor’s regime.   [Read more…]

In Search of the Chariot Fire Burn on Mt. Laguna

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By Frank Gormlie

Like many San Diegans I watched images of the recent Chariot Fire that began on July 6th destroy sections of Mt Laguna with great concern. That mountain is one of my favorite spots in the county and I waited for the local media to give us an update on the damages that the fire caused to the natural habitat of the area along Sunrise Highway. Not satisfied with the paltry amount of news of the burn since the fire was put out, I decided to head out there myself and do a photo gallery of the destructive havoc wreaked by a wildfire.

On Friday afternoon, August 2nd, I drove east on I-8, heading for Sunrise Highway – the road that traverses Mt Laguna. With camera at the ready, I took notes in my search for the burn, holding my fears in check as I hurried towards the 6000 foot plus ridges that separated the mountains from the desert. There were sections of the mountain that I worried had been destroyed, as reports of the fire had it crossing Sunrise Highway, and eating its way west through pine forest.   [Read more…]

Our Promising Bicycling Future in San Diego

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Don’t Miss
CicloSDias
August 11th

By Andy Hanshaw 

Ciclovía – a familiar term to any bicycling enthusiast, where popular roads turn car-less for people to play and literally rediscover their streets.

These open-street celebrations have trademarked bike-friendly cities around the world since the first Ciclovía was hosted in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1976, when the town closed one road to all cars and opened them for pedestrian use. Since then, the trend of people enjoying their streets without the stress of car traffic has made its way around the globe and into major cities where residents embrace these opportunities – in Bogotá, the Ciclovía still remains a city tradition every Sunday.

Since its conception in the late 70s, Ciclovías have swept the world, taking over main cities in Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Argentina, Canada and now, the United States is pedaling along. Turnout for Los Angeles’ “CicLAvia” has been recorded at 180,000 people, while San Francisco and Portland regularly draw 30,000-40,000 with their “Sunday Streets” and “Sunday Parkways.”.

We are finally getting in on the action, announcing San Diego’s first open streets celebration in history.   [Read more…]

Awash in a Sea of Reagan – Issa Wants Coastal Waters Named After Former President

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By Doug Porter

The House Natural Resources Committee approved legislation Wednesday naming 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean and thousands of miles of coastline after the late President Ronald Reagan.  Introduced by San Diego’s own Rep. Darrell Issa, HR 553 would rename the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) after the GOP icon.

Most people haven’t heard of the EEZ, which became codified via a United Nations convention granting countries special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind in its coastal waters up to 200 miles offshore.

Nations began the ratification process of the international convention generating EEZs during the Reagan administration (1982) and the rules went into force in 1994 following approval by a 60th nation. Although the agreement has been ratified by 162 nations, the United States is notamong the signatories.   [Read more…]

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