City Hall

Riehl World: Taj Magolf’s Extreme Makeover

by Richard J. Riehl on August 11, 2011

ThelossingsMark Twain once called the game of golf “a good walk spoiled.” Something similar could be said of Carlsbad’s $68 million public golf course–a splendid setting for weddings, dining and golf, spoiled by tilting fairways, undersized greens, and lost balls.

A struggling economy, the many affordable courses nearby, and its playability have been blamed for the course’s annual deficits. Hopes for a financial turnaround are based mostly on the attractiveness of the venue.

That was a summary of a consultant’s report for the city of Rockville, Maryland on the financial condition of its Redgate Municipal Golf Course. The recommendations? Modify greens and bunkers, build additional facilities for player convenience, and launch a more aggressive marketing campaign.

Sound familiar? The differences between The Crossings and Redgate are foreboding. Rockville’s course is 40 years old. You can play it for half of what you pay for a round at Carlsbad’s Taj Magolf. [click to continue…]

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City Works To Slow Down La Costa Avenue

by The Editors on July 15, 2011

Lacosta

Next week, the City of Carlsbadistan will begin work on a project that will see a portion of La Costa Avenue shrink from two lanes to one.

The city will reduce La Costa Avenue to one lane westbound from Romeria Street through Fairway Lane by converting one of the vehicle lanes into a bike lane. Work is expected to begin on July 18 and be completed by July 21. . . The lane reduction will improve driver visibility from the residential driveways located between Romeria Street and Fairway Lane. The new lane configuration will match the existing lane striping on La Costa Avenue east of Romeria Street where a lane reduction has already been implemented.

Bike lanes are good, but we’re kind of wondering how squeezing the flow of traffic on a busy street makes it safer. Follow the jump for all the official details. [click to continue…]

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City To Chip $186,000 More At The Lossings

by The Editors on June 28, 2011

Thelossings-Tm-TmTonight when the Carlsbadistan City Council meets they will approve AB#20.610 or Improvements To The Crossings and Adjacent Open Space Erosion Mediation.

Apparently, City staff and Kemper Sports Management (the company that runs The Lossings, but can’t seem to do it at a profit) have decided (after paying a golf consultant to prepare a report) that improvements need to be made if the business is ever expected to prosper.

In order to increase “course playability” the city staff would like to spend $80,000 making the 18th hole easier. Apparently, people aren’t playing the course as much as they should because the 18th hole is just too difficult. City staff is also suggesting that $12,000 be spent to transform a “boardroom” into the clubhouse’s second bar. Apparently, the Canyons Bar and Restaurant (one of the more profitable pieces of the Lossing’s business in the past) is not the kind of establishment that keeps golfers around after their round.

But that’s not all. Thanks to heavy rain fall last winter (and the way the land has been artificially shaped for the course) city staff would also like an additional $106,000 for “open space remediation.” They’d like to “repair serious erosion” that created “crevices and brought silt onto city streets.”

Of course, money has already been set aside in the “Golf Course Capital Reserve Fund” for simplifying the 18th hole and building another bar, however, city staff would like to use money from the Capital Construction funds to pay for the erosion repair. And just like that another $200,000 is flushed down The Lossings.

Meanwhile, we still don’t have the Alga Norte Pool nor the skateboard park. Nice, huh?

[Update June 29, 2011: For the record the City Council unanimously approved the $106,000 erosion control funding and the $80,000 to simplify the 18th hole, however, they did not approve the $12,000 to create a “players club” because Farrah Douglas didn’t like the idea of using the boardroom as a temporary bar. She thinks the course needs something more luxurious and suggested maybe turning the pro shop into a new lounge. Council will discuss the new bar issue at a future time.]

[Link: City County Agenda and AB#20.610]

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Thursday’s Traffic Ticket Rodeo Scores 116

by The Editors on June 24, 2011

012710 -2Yesterday (June 23, 2011) the Carlsbad Police Department was joined by “special detail” officers from San Diego, La Mesa, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido, and National City police departments for what they called a “high profile traffic enforcement detail” on the streets of Carlsbadistan.

Approximately 15 locations in Carlsbad were the focus of the traffic enforcement efforts. The locations selected were those where speeding and other traffic violations have been a problem in the past. . . The operation was conducted between 0715 and 1115 hours. Approximately 166 citations were issued for violations including speeding, red lights, and unsafe moving. Additionally, 6 vehicles were towed for unlicensed or suspended driver licenses.

Great work. Maybe next time officers can focus a little attention on drivers who blaze right through pedestrian packed crosswalks on Carlsbad Blvd. For more info, follow the jump. [click to continue…]

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Carlsbadistan’s New Eavesdropping Water Meters

by The Editors on June 24, 2011

New water meters installed recently by the Carlsbad Municipal Water District are reportedly resulting is savings of both money and waters. The new meters allow workers to eavesdrop on customers’ water usage without even leaving the office. And, the City believes this is a good thing.

Mario Remillard, who supervises meters, customer service and conservation for the water district, said the new technology has proven valuable by reducing the time it takes to read the meters, and by helping identify leaks and excess water use. . . “If a customer calls in with a concern regarding a high water bill, we can check the computer to determine if they have a possible leak even before going out to the property,” Remillard said. “It’s a great example of using technology to work smarter and give even better service to our customers.”

So remember, if you’ve got any side growing projects that are using lots of water, it might be a good idea to remember that it will be noticed in real time, because your personal water usage is on the network. . . for the rest of the story, follow the jump. [click to continue…]

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Carlsbadistan Has A Balanced 2011-12 Budget

by The Editors on June 22, 2011

When the City of Carlsbadistan’s new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2011 it will be with a balanced budget according to City Finance Director Chuck McBride.

“By creating a balanced budget that doesn’t rely on borrowing from reserves or other short term fixes, we are on solid ground moving forward,” said McBride. “Over the past few years, as we saw our revenue projections start to decrease, we reduced spending accordingly, focusing on finding efficiencies rather than cutting public services.”

The City seems very proud that this budget will allow the “city libraries and community centers to remain open seven days a week” and that “police and fire services will remain at their current levels.” Strange to be excited by not making cuts to core services, but such are these economic times. Follow the jump for more info on where cuts were made. [click to continue…]

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Riehl World: City Fiddles While Workers Burn

by Richard J. Riehl on June 16, 2011

Nero HallAt the June 7 city council meeting we learned the yearly rent for a plot in the community garden is slated for a 400 percent increase, from $60 to $250. After council member Farrah Douglas questioned the steep hike, Mayor Matt Hall observed it was only a monthly increase from $5 to $20. That reminded me of the life insurance ads on TV that boast of affordable premiums—“less than a dollar a day!”

Hall’s flippancy shows how far removed he is from those relying on social security alone for their monthly income. It also may explain his willingness to cut pay and benefits of city employees least able to afford them.

Carlsbad’s elected officials like to say the city has been able to dodge layoffs and deep cuts in services because of their careful planning and fiscal prudence. But a closer look reveals another side of the story.

The city’s proposed budget for 2011/2012 projects a $600,000 surplus, bringing the accumulated general fund balance up to $54 million, a whopping 47% of the $113 million budget. There’s even room enough for another $1.4 million bailout of the golf course. Previous yearly million dollar subsidies since its opening have been in the form of loans. But now that it’s clear the debt will never be repaid, and with hopes fading the course will ever pay for itself, it will now be a part of the regular operating budget, just like the city’s other recreational facilities.

Follow the jump for the rest of the story. . . [click to continue…]

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City of Carlsbad Skate Stops The Seawall

by The Editors on June 10, 2011

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For the past few months, on days when it was too rainy for City of Carlsbad maintenance workers to do their real jobs, employees were sent out to the Carlsbadistan seawall suited in rain gear and armed with cordless drills and glue guns. Their mission: to install skate stopper devices on every handrail, on every set of stairs on the seawall from Pine Ave. to Tamarack.

By the time the work was completed in May, City workers had installed 104 of the aluminum stoppers at a estimated cost of nearly $800 in materials and an unknown amount of labor. All of this work was reportedly to “keep skateboarders, bikers, and inline skaters from damaging the handrails or possibly getting injured.”

Sounds like a great idea, right? While the stoppers may deter skateboarders (and inline skaters) from grinding the handrails, they will certainly not keep them from jumping over the rails as skateboarder Kenny Hoyle did recently on the January cover of Transworld Skateboarding magazine.

More serious, however, are the injuries these new handrail additions could cause Carlsbadistan’s ubiquitous elderly pedestrians who swarm the seawall most mornings. Pedestrians in need of handrails can no longer simply slide their hands down the railing as they descend the stairs. Now, they’re forced to raise their hand every four-to-six feet and then place it back down on the rail to get a new grip on the other side of the stopper. On some of the stairs they’ll be required to do this at least 15 times. Who will be responsible when someone trips and falls thanks to getting their hand caught on one of these obtrusive, ugly skateboard deterrents? The City of Carlsbad, of course. [click to continue…]

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Riehl World: Council Civility Covers Political Divide

by Richard J. Riehl on May 25, 2011

A week after Carlsbad’s City Council voted unanimously to amend a policy governing grants to agencies for special events of citywide interest, Oceanside’s council wrangled over what to do about rent control. Carlsbad’s council meeting was, as usual, polite. Quite a contrast to the shouting match that erupted on the dais in Oceanside, where one council member, after being repeatedly interrupted by another, demanded of the mayor, presiding over the verbal slugfest, “Will you shut her up?” A recess allowed the city leaders to retreat to their opposite corners.

The difference between the behaviors of the two groups reflects more than just the gravity of the issue being discussed. Yes, deciding how to spend $50,000 of earned interest on a $1 million savings account for city enrichment activities is a bit less contentious than deciding whether to end rent control for nearly 2,600 low-income residents of mobile-home parks. But a closer look at the civil discussion among Carlsbad’s council members offers clues about how more contentious issues may be debated in future meetings and what the talking points of new and incumbent city council candidates will be in the next election. [click to continue…]

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Beverly Lewis Dies After Alzheimer’s Battle

by The Editors on May 9, 2011

Citizen Of The Year 2009 3-C T352Our thoughts and prayers go out to former mayor Claude “Bud” Lewis today as he and the rest of his family grieve over the death of his wife Beverly Lewis. She was 84, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Mrs. Lewis died Sunday evening, Mother’s Day, following complications from Alzheimer’s disease and a hip injury suffered in March. She was 84. . . The couple met when he was 24 and she was 28. Lewis proposed to her after just five dates. . . She helped support the family financially, working as a proofreader at the Los Angeles Examiner and The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The couple was married for 57 years. According to the story, the family plans to hold a memorial service at 10 a.m. May 21 at Carlsbad Community Church, 3175 Harding St. in Carlsbad.

[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]

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