by The Editors on August 15, 2008
When Carlsbad’s Rebekah Price, 35, painted her Piragua Street house sea-foam green the neighbors were not stoked.
“It glows at night,” said neighbor Karen Sims, who has tried to give the color scheme some latitude. “I’ll think, maybe it’s not so bad. Then you turn the corner and you’re like, oh, it is that bad. . . . “The last week has been a complete nightmare where I haven’t slept,” said Price, 35. “I’ve dealt with angry, hostile, ridiculous people … screaming at me when they drive by, ‘Go back to (expletive) Tijuana!’ They have their kids yell at me, harass my children.”
Some people were so upset that they reportedly smeared dog poop on her fence and threw a dead rabbit on her lawn. Which we guess is how people respond to problems when they live so far away from the beach.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on July 25, 2008
The corner of Roosevelt Street and Oak Avenue in Carlsbadistan’s downtown is getting an upgrade, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The proposed building, on the northwest corner of Roosevelt Street and Oak Avenue, is planned to have 2,400 square feet of shops on the ground floor and six condominiums on the upper two stories. . . . The property is one block south of Carlsbad Village Drive, the city’s downtown commercial artery. It is occupied by a business and four one-story residences, which will be torn down to make way for the new project.
Let’s hope they look good. You never know when the City Council approves of it.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on July 11, 2008
The Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation has purchased 18 acres of land on the lagoon’s northeastern side for $2.4 million dollars, according to a story in the San Diego Union Tribune.
The former owner, the Mitsuuchi family, held the property for more than 20 years and once raised nursery plants there, but it hasn’t been used for agriculture for a long time. The property was zoned for medium-density housing and open space, but its steep slopes and habitat allowed for about half to be developable.
Nice work. Open space is good space.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on June 25, 2008
Carlsbadistan real estate is getting pulled into to the recent foreclosure debacle according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Defaults in the 92010 are “up 85.7 percent over the past year.” And some of the stories are just plain sad.
The weak market is very much on the mind of Jan Terry, 54, who faces foreclosure on a $935,000, 2,300-square-foot house she bought a couple of blocks from the coast in Carlsbad early last year.
Terry acknowledges that she made a mistake in getting a high-risk loan for the investment property, but she thought beach properties should have been a no-brainer money maker. “Based on the way I could see the market going,” said the one-time real estate agent, “I would make a few bucks.”
But then the mortgage market tanked, her tenants left, she moved back in and her business partner skipped town. Terry now faces bankruptcy, eviction and possibly living on the streets. She has a daughter in college and was recently divorced.
Guess living on the streets is the downside of a “high-risk loan.”
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on June 6, 2008
On March 20, 2008 we reported on a proposed new hotel on Ocean St. at the offshore parking lot that would feature a “roof-top restaurant.” Now, the Lumiére Carslbad Village Hotel has been approved by the City’s design review board, according to a story in the North County Times.
Assistant city planner Austin Silva said commissioners and city staff liked the architectural drawings for the proposed hotel. “They liked the design of it because it’s not a typical stucco with a red-tile roof,” he said. “(The architect) gave it a beach cottage theme.”
Now it’s just up to the City Council and the California Coastal Commission to decide whether work on the project can begin.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on May 30, 2008
We’ve never wanted another direct connection between Oceanside/Vista and Carlsbadistan and now it looks like we’re safe for the foreseeable future as the City of Carlsbad has decided that finishing the Cannon Road connection would be too costly, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
We’ve always had that (Cannon Road) on the drawing board and all the (environmental) agencies have known about it, but based on what I’ve seen with the agencies, it’d be difficult to do,” Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis said.
Though the connection was apparently approved in 2002 at a cost of $14.5 million, now thanks to environmental hurdles and inflation it would be more in the $30 million according to Carlsbad City Engineer Bob Johnson.
All we can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping Cannon closed.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on May 28, 2008
Break open the champagne, Wal-Mart, home of the world’s ugliest shoppers, has decided not to build a “supercenter” on land that it purchased in Carlsbad, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Company representatives told city officials yesterday that they would not file an application to build on their property at College Boulevard and El Camino Real in central Carlsbad. . .Instead, they would sell the 17.6 acres, which is zoned for a shopping center.
The company says it had nothing to do with “local opposition” but we’re glad they’re gone no matter who is responsible. Keep that stuff in Oside.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 14, 2008
First it was the Mastodon fossil found at El Camino Real and Canon Road. Now, a second discovery has been made at the new Robertson Ranch development.
Late last month, paleontologists monitoring the excavation of Robertson Ranch, which is being developed for homes, spotted a skeleton of a giant ground sloth as earthmovers were grading. . . “We know we have part of a pelvis, part of a front leg and part of a back leg,” Deméré said of the sloth discovery. “There were two ribs we could see and part of a vertebra. . . . They’d been held together a couple of hundred thousand years by mudstone.”
While this giant sloth roamed the Carlsbadistan area approximately 120,000 to 200,000 years ago, experts believe it was likely not one of Mayor Bud Lewis‘ pets.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 10, 2008
When Carlsbad’s Marty Ummel decided to sue her Real Estate Agent Mike Little because she felt she had paid too much for her home, most thought she was crazy. Now a North County jury has agreed with them, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
North County real estate agent who was sued by a Carlsbad couple for allegedly duping them into overpaying for their $1.2 million home was vindicated Thursday by a Superior Court jury that found the Realtor had not failed his clients. . . The 10-woman, two-man jury wasted no time deliberating, arriving at a unanimous verdict within two hours.
The jury forewoman Wendi Bricks said that ultimate responsibility for the price of the house rested with the Ummels because they signed the contract. Well Marty, it was a great effort.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 9, 2008
Being beach dwellers we’ve come to appreciate the fact that the California Coastal Commission has control over anything that happens on the coast. The fact that they make it difficult for developers (and Cities) to make changes near the beach is often a godsend.
Recently, California Senator Denise Ducheny of San Diego pushed forward Senate Bill 1295 with the intension of making it “more difficult for the state Coastal Commission to intervene after cities and counties approve shoreline development, from hotels to homes,” according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
Sadly, Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis was a major proponent of the bill.
It is troubling that just two commissioners can ignore years of local planning, community development and permitting process and can file an appeal, acting as investigator, judge and jury,” Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis argued in a letter to lawmakers.
Luckily, the Mayor’s side lost and the bill has been rejected:
. . .the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee rejected Senate Bill 1295, siding with environmental groups that argued it provides one additional layer of protection for a treasured coast.
Thank you to everyone who helped shut this down.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
When Carlsbad’s Rebekah Price, 35, painted her Piragua Street house sea-foam green the neighbors were not stoked.
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