by The Editors on April 2, 2008
In a recent list of the 100 Best Places to Live and Launch Fortune Magazine listed Carlsbadistan as number 32 (right between Leesburg, Virginia and Hamden, Connecticut) as a great place to live and launch a new business.
Carlsbad’s fun-based economy includes booming tourism, thanks to LegoLand, adventure sports outfitters, and major manufacturing of golf equipment. . . . Biotech and golf-related ventures dominate the list of businesses in the self-proclaimed “golf manufacturing capital of the world,” but action sports companies like Reef and No Fear have recently relocated to the area.
On the con side they said we had “an aversion to growth.” And it’s true. Luckily, we have the Pacific Ocean to protect us on the west side.
[Link: CNNMoney.com via City of Carlsbad]
by The Editors on April 1, 2008
Carlsbad, CA (April 1, 2008) After only seven months in business and weeks of negotiations with civic leaders the City of Carlsbad has decided to take The Crossings At Carlsbad private.
“We just weren’t seeing enough revenue,” said Carlsbad Mayor Bud Louis. “Math mistakes were made. At currently usage and pricing ($100 a round) it would have taken us nearly 147 years to break even. And obviously that is not a workable solution. It’s an unfortunate necessity of the times.”
What had once been hailed as the finest municipal course in the world will now cost more than $120,000 to join and upwards of $350 a month to play. But that is not seen as a problem by The Crossing’s management. “The majority of Carlsbad residents don’t even golf, but they do enjoy driving by the rolling grassy fairways, and dinning in our award winning Canyon’s Restaurant,” said General Manger Geoff Parry. “None of that will change.”
Many are happy about the change. “There were just too many hacks out on the course,” said course pro Stevie Von. “A $75 million course is wasted on the average golfer, so I’m glad we’re kicking them out.”
Cec Vaurnet has lived in Carlsbad for 14 years and he couldn’t care less. “Golfers are a–holes,” he says “If the City can take more money from those idiots I say go for it. Then they can take the money and build a proper skateboard park near the Village.”
The Crossings at Carlsbad becomes The Crossings Country Club on April 15, just into time for taxes.
by The Editors on April 1, 2008
Carlsbad, CA (April 1, 2008): After nearly ten years of entertaining the kids, a popular Carlsbad theme park has teamed up with Vivid Entertainment on a new 17 acre, $28 million themed attraction whose main thrust will be adults.
Modeled after the back streets of the San Fernando Valley, the all-new 18-and-over Pornoland, will feature rides and services to thrill even the most hardened theme park aficionado. “After several market research studies we found that while people will spend a hell of a lot of money on their kids, they will spend even more on sex,” said Liam Andleson, VP of Product at Mervin Entertainments. “What better way to succeed than by collaborating with the leading brand in adult entertainment.”
Vivid sees this as just one more way to legitimize their business. “We are very excited to have been chosen to help design and staff this new park feature,” said Steve Hirsch, President of Vivid Entertainment. “Like us, the park’s staff have proven that they know the ins and outs of the business and are deeply interested in satisfying their customers.”
While many of the new attractions will remain under cover until opening day, Carlsbadistan has seen tentative plans for several of the new rides.
In one feature called “Coed Pool Party” visitors will float in condom-shaped canoes down a river lined with dioramas (made entirely out of colorful interlocking blocks) re-inacting scenes from some of Vivid’s most memorable videos. Another attraction called “Bangkok Nights” will celebrate the street markets of Thailand, while giving visitors a chance to interact with (and even film) some of the park’s hottest characters.
“When it all comes down to it, we have bent over backwards to provide quality entertainment,” Andleson said. “Now, with attractions for the adults we’ll no longer be known as just a kids park. With Pornoland we’ll be able to focus on the family.”
The park plans to open June 9, 2008.
by The Editors on March 31, 2008
Special Carlsbadistan thanks going out to who ever dumped their prized used oil collection into a storm drain this afternoon.
A city employee working on a sewer project in the area of Chinquapin Avenue and Long Place first reported a pollutant running from a storm drain at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, Carlsbad Public Works Department Supervisor Don Wasko said. . . . A few gallons of what looks like used motor oil have so far drained into the lagoon, Wasko said, with much of it being absorbed by special filters that clean-up crews have put in place.
Luckily, if the person was dumb enough to get caught, they’ll be paying for the Agua Hedionda Lagoon clean up. It’s possible.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on March 31, 2008
On January 23, 2008 we told you the story of how home-owner Marty Ummel, 60, was suing her Realtor Mike Little because he “hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission.” Eventually, Ummel and her husband even appeared on NBC’s Today Show.
Here is the update:
Tomorrow, Vernon and Marty Ummel, who purchased a $1.2 million home in Carlsbad three years ago, will try to convince a jury that their real estate agent defrauded them when he failed to inform them that similar houses on the same block were selling for more than $100,000 less than what the Ummels had paid. . . . Jury selection is expected to begin tomorrow morning in the Vista courtroom of Superior Court Judge Lisa Guy-Schall.
This should be interesting. Especially for the Real Estate industry.
[Link: San Diego Union Tribune]
by The Editors on March 31, 2008
A 29-year-old man drowned March 30, 2008 when he fell from an unstable dock while fishing in a Carlsbad Pond.
His friends told police they tried to rescue the man, who could not swim, but had trouble finding him in the murky water.
The pond is located at 3004 Sunny Creek Road.
[Link: Fox6.com]
by The Editors on March 30, 2008
The California Association of Realtors just released their home sales number for the month of February and turns out that Carlsbad is number 11 on the top 10 list for cities with the highest median home sales price. Number one was Santa Barbara at $1,150,000 and we came in right behind San Francisco with a median price of $675,000. We were also fifth on the top 10 list of cities whose median home prices grew the most over February of 2007.
Home sales decreased 28.5 percent in February in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 26.2 percent, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported today.
When you look at how the state did as a whole, we’d say we’re doing pretty well here in Carlsbadistan. Indeed.
[Link: Sierra Star]
by The Editors on March 28, 2008
If all retail outlets marketed their products the way wine shops do, there would be coffee sampling at Starbucks, shot putting at Dini’s, and burrito testing at Cessy’s.
Carlsbad’s Wine Spot is no different. Take this weekend for example: from March 28-30, 2008 The Wine Spot is having an event they’re calling an “April Fools blind tasting.”
We are doing a blind taste test in honor of April Fools Day, so come in this weekend and test your knowledge of wines. We will give prizes for the most knowledgable palate or person with the best guesses. No foolin’
What this means is that they will be selling wine by the glass to customers without telling them what they’re drinking. How great is that? Give them money and they’ll serve whatever they want. If this sounds appealing, drop by The Wine Spot at 2801 Roosevelt St. any time this weekend and drink like a fool.
by The Editors on March 28, 2008
Say good-bye to the classic mid-centuy, tiki stylings of the Ocean Street Apartments overlooking the lagoon at 2303 Ocean Street on Carlsbadistan’s northern border. According to the City of Carlsbad those 50 units are getting demolished so 2303 Investors, LP can put in “35 residential Airspace condominiums” with underground parking.
While neighbors are probably happy to see 50 rental units worth of problems wiped off the face of the map, it will be sad to see the old place go.
by The Editors on March 27, 2008
Pieces of the old Lake Arrowhead area Santa’s Village have made their way to Carlsbad’s Flower Fields according to a story in The Press-Enterprise. The old tourist landmark (which opened before Disneyland in 1955) closed in 1998, but a couple pieces have made their way to the beach.
The Flower Fields is another family business. Its CMO, Paul Ecke III, remembered Santa’s Village from childhood and bought many of its structures at auction after it closed. . . .According to a press release, he was bidding against comedian Paul Reubens, of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” fame. . . . Ecke came away with the Gate House; the Crooked Treehouse; tiny picnic tables with seats made from pouring cement into five-gallon buckets; and many of the giant mushrooms that dotted the landscape.
That explains it.
[Link: The Press-Enterprise]
In a recent list of the 100 Best Places to Live and Launch Fortune Magazine listed Carlsbadistan as number 32 (right between Leesburg, Virginia and Hamden, Connecticut) as a great place to live and launch a new business.
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