by Richard J. Riehl on August 11, 2011
Mark 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…]
by Richard J. Riehl on June 16, 2011
At 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…]
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…]
by Richard J. Riehl on April 7, 2011
Carlsbad city officials can’t understand why more low-income homeowners haven’t applied for federal funds earmarked for minor home repairs, from clearing clogged drains to installing assistive devices for seniors and disabled persons.
The city pays $8,500 each year to Community HousingWorks, a San Diego non-profit, to administer the program. In the last three years, only four households have received funding.
At the city council’s March 22 meeting, Councilmember Farrah Douglas asked Debbie Fountain, director of housing and neighborhood services, to explain how the program has been marketed. Fountain told of postings on the city and HousingWorks websites, direct mailers to the barrio neighborhood, and articles and advertisements in community publications. She singled out word-of-mouth as “pretty successful.” Maybe that explains how the two homeowners receiving help last year learned of the program. [click to continue…]
by Richard J. Riehl on March 10, 2011
Carlsbad City Council members nearly broke their arms patting themselves on the back after hearing a report on the results of the city’s annual public opinion survey at its February 8 meeting. The only councilmember to give credit where it was due, city employees, was Ann Kulchin, gushing, “This is your report card. As a parent I feel like I’d like to take you all out for an ice cream cone.”
Councilmen Packard confessed to having been one of the 1,000 residents whose opinions were sampled by telephone. After assuring the council he had identified himself to the caller, he crowed, “I did my very best to skew the numbers as high as I could.”
The only slight sprinkle on the evening’s parade of self-congratulations came from resident Diane Nygaard, representing the Preserve Calavera group, who reminded the council of the vote on Proposition C nine years ago to use city funds to acquire more open space. No additional natural lands have been acquired since the measure was passed.
Follow the jump for the rest. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on March 7, 2011
In a May of 2007 we posted a story titled The Mobile Homeless Problem. In it we said:
We believe it’s time for a “No Vehicles Over Seven Feet Tall” ordinance. Our free sea wall parking is not a campground.
Now it looks like some action is about to be taken. At it’s meeting tomorrow night (March 8, 2011) the Carlsbad City Council will consider a proposal to prohibit motorhome and other large vehicles from parking on west side of “Carlsbad Boulevard from Redwood Avenue to Cherry Avenue,” according to a story in the North County Times.
The proposed ban would be in place from Memorial Day to Labor Day. . . . Carlsbad’s proposed ordinance would prohibit vehicles that are more than 22 feet long, 7 feet high or 7 feet wide from parking on the west side of Carlsbad Boulevard.
Not only will this allow for more parking, it will also create better views for people who live on Carlsbad Boulevard (and those just driving by). We only wish the ban could be on year around.
[Link: North County Times]
by Richard J. Riehl on February 24, 2011
Labor unions have been credited with the rise of America’s middle class. In the 1950’s about 40 percent of the nation’s workforce were union members. Today that number has dropped to less than 7 percent of private sector workers and about a third of public employees. Economists now warn of a disappearing middle class and the income gap between labor and management employees has widened.
In the five years from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of all income growth in the U.S. went to the wealthiest 1 percent of the population, according to researchers at UC Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics.
Politicians have jumped on the bandwagon of union bashing for ruining state and local economies. Carlsbad’s new mayor built his successful campaign on a promise to prevent a union takeover on the council that would threaten the city’s future prosperity.
Follow the jump for the rest of the story.
[click to continue…]
by Richard J. Riehl on February 9, 2011
As neighboring cities in North County struggle with budget cuts and fee increases for public services, Carlsbad’s city council members spent the lion’s share of their January 25th meeting listening to a proposal to set aside $4 million to redevelop its downtown.
Gary Nessim, Vice President of the Carlsbad Village Association, laid out a plan that would create a pedestrian promenade the entire length of Grand Avenue, from City Hall to the beach. Mayor Matt Hall and Councilmember Mark Packard excused themselves from the discussion since they both own property in the area to be developed.
The presentation reminded me of my seven years in the Midwest. My wife and I, both west coasters in our early years, relished our afternoon drives on weekends in search of small towns that flourished many years ago. Each had a town square, dominated by a City Hall protected by a couple of Civil War era cannons, and surrounded by a drugstore, a department store, some specialty shops, a restaurant and a gas station. They’re sad scenes today. Boarded up windows replace bustling streets as their main feature.
The words “back to the future” came to mind as Nessim described a future Grand Promenade, linking City Hall to the heart of the downtown district, creating a bustling central gathering place for residents and visitors alike.
Follow the jump for the rest of the story.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on November 21, 2010
It doesn’t take a professional to know that something is terribly wrong with Carlsbadistan’s The Lossings at Carlsbad golf course. But the City apparently hired one anyway. And according to a Barbara Henry story in the North County Times that consultant discovered some problems.
“It’s a difficult golf course to play. The design is very severe,” Sunrise Golf consulting company President Mark Tansey said at a Carlsbad City Council workshop TuesdayIn an interview Friday, Tansey said several holes along the back stretch of the course are extremely tough for the average golfer. The holes have multiple “forced carry” points where golfers must hit their balls over hazards and can lose those balls if their shots fail. . . . Add fairways with slope issues and the bad visibility from some hole tee-off points, and you’ve got some very frustrated golfers, he said.
Apparently, $75 million just doesn’t buy the same quality golf course that it used to. It’s difficult for many to remain calm when discussing the horrific theft of public moneys that is The Lossings. How City Council members who voted for the golf course can in the same breath discuss a “coming public employee compensation disaster” is completely astounding. At this point we’d probably all be better off if the City sold the clubhouse to a chain restaurant, closed the golf course, and turned the land into a public park that everyone could enjoy without having to pay $80.
[Link: North County Times]
by Richard J. Riehl on November 18, 2010
At a September forum for Carlsbad’s mayoral and city council candidates, one city hall hopeful declared good pay for public safety personnel was unnecessary, since so many kids dream of fighting fires and catching criminals. Another claimed that if pay for public employees were cut by a third there’d be no problem finding replacements for those who quit.
Even though both candidates were losers, their comments may explain why voters overwhelmingly approved Carlsbad’s Prop G, which will prevent future city councils from increasing public safety employee benefits. Meanwhile, newspaper headlines continue their assault on public employee pay. In hard times, it seems, we need scapegoats.
Ever since a handful of elected officials in a small town in Los Angeles County were caught helping themselves to astronomical salaries at taxpayer expense, politicians and the press have declared open season on public employees.
The latest example is an article appearing in the North County Times a couple of weeks ago (“Salaries up for county employees,” November 7). The lead-in claims, “Base pay for some increased by 31 percent from 2007 to ’09.” This may have been an eye-catching introduction to a front page story. But it also fell short of the truth.
Follow the jump for the rest of the story [click to continue…]
At 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!”
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Riehl World: Taj Magolf’s Extreme Makeover
by Richard J. Riehl on August 11, 2011
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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