by Richard J. Riehl on May 8, 2009
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I heard Keith Blackburn’s robo-call to action. While other North County cities struggle with budget cuts threatening vital services, Carlsbad’s rookie city councilman was asking for our help to keep his campaign promise to bring a second swimming pool to the city. I wondered if he’d been inspired by Congressman Bilbray’s recent onslaught of irritating electronic invitations to his “teletown meetings.” Was this just the beginning of year-round campaigning by our local politicos?
Although I didn’t attend the council meeting, I did watch the videotape of it several days later on the city’s Web site. To my surprise, I found myself in total agreement with Blackburn’s argument in favor of starting work now on the Alga Norte Park and Aquatic Center. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 21, 2009
Tonight, April 21, 2009, with a standing-room only crowd (most wearing bright yellow “Alga Norte Now” stickers) and even more out in the hall pressing posters up against the glass, the Carlsbad City Council voted 3-2 to push off the decision to begin construction on the Alga Norte Park by what could be another year.
The council was faced with 26 public comments in favor of the Alga Norte Park and five options presented by City staff:
1. Continue the project hold.
2. Build the park as designed
3. Rough Grade the site
4. Build just the aquatic center
5. Build everything but the aquatic center
When the discussions were over Mayor Bud Lewis, along with Councilmen Matt Hall, and Mark Packard voted in favor of the “rough grade” (option 3) on the Alga Norte Park property, while Ann Kulchin and Keith Blackburn voted against the motion.
Leave it to the convoluted workings of city politics to have the no votes be in support of building the park. “I am going to vote no on that because I think we have studied it to death,” Ann Kulchin said. “I think the time to build it is now.”
And for once we agreed with her.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 20, 2009
Tomorrow evening (April 21, 2009) is officially “Pack The City Council Chambers” night as City Council will be reconsidered something they’ve reconsidered several times already: the fate of the Alga Norte Park something we like to call it the Alga Norte Skatepark. (AB#19.780)
City Councilman Keith Blackburn is so interested in all of us attending that he’s reportedly calling 40,000 people, according to a story in the The Times.
For about $2,000, Blackburn has taken the unprecedented step of hiring a company that operates an electronic “phone tree” to reach as many of Carlsbad’s 40,000 households as possible today with a 30-second, recorded message from the councilman. . .Blackburn is urging residents to show up at a council meeting, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, at which the proposed park will be discussed.
The fact that the citizens have to show up to remind the City Council that we need a new swim complex and skateboard park is crazy in our opinion, but looks like we’re all going to have to go anyway as it apparently is the only way members of the City Council ever hear anything.
Building parks should be the one thing that the City Council does on their own, but apparently, they need our help. Be there Tuesday evening at 6 PM.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on November 6, 2008
[Editors’ Note: Evan just posted this comment to another story on our site and we thought it deserved to be front and center. Evan worked hard for Carlsbad during this campaign and she did it in a pure way that made the political system look old, tired and corrupt. We are extremely proud of her efforts and of the nearly 4,000 people in Carlsbadistan who were wise enough to vote for her. She is exactly the kind of community worker that Carlsbadistan needs more of. Please follow the jump to read the entire post.]
Thanks, everyone, for your support and votes and especially to Snyder Art, our very cool campaign HQ in the Village, to CarlsbadCrawl.com and Carlsbadistan.com for spreading the word online!
Together we offered another point of view to the election and got some momentum going in a new direction. A good thing about a lot of the ideas that we developed is that they don’t depend on the City or tax dollars to implement: we can get Phantom Gallery and other projects going on our own toward making Carlsbad clean, lean, and green. It’s never been more important for our city and citizens to be fiscally and physically fit. Please join me in keeping Alga Norte Park at the top of the Council’s priority list.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 21, 2008
Evan Delaney Rodger, the 18-year-old junior at Cal State San Marcos, is running for a seat on the Carlsbad City Council and she’s not taking campaign donations from anyone: no individuals, no special interest groups, no developers, no hospitals, no businesses. No one.
While other campaigns are bragging about how much money they’ve raised, Rodger is keeping it simple.
She is refusing all contributions to be free of all special-interest influence, confident she will not need tens of thousands of dollars to run. She has embraced a “lean and green” online and grassroots word-of-mouth campaign as a viable alternative to landfill-destined roadside signs. . . . “Scaling things down makes sense in this economy, for the environment and most importantly in terms of rebuilding the community’s trust. It’s easy for the average person to become cynical and apathetic when big donations and campaign spending are spiraling out of control.”
The more we hear, the more sure we become that Evan is right for Carlsbad. Follow the jump for Evan’s entire press release.
[Editors’ Note: The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Logan Jenkins featured Evan in his column today.]
[Link: CleanCarlsbad.com]
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 10, 2008
Logan Jenkins, the sometimes cranky San Diego Union-Tribune columnist, has a nice profile on Carlsbad City Council candidate Farrah Douglas telling her action-filled story of escaping Iran in 1979 after the fall of the Shah’s administration.
“I was crying all the time,” Farrah said. “We were stuck. Everybody else had left.” Finally, the U.S. Embassy, which had not yet been invaded, contacted Farrah with a scheme to get the family out of Iran. . . . They would take a special Pan American flight operated by volunteers. They would fly separately, not as husband and wife. Farrah would say she was visiting a sick sister in the United States.
Now, if we could just read a little about Farrah’s thoughts on the Alga Norte Park. Just by looking at Farrah’s list of establishment endorsements (including Mayor Bud Lewis) we’re guessing we already disagree with her.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on July 23, 2008
This is getting to the point of absurdity. Last night the Carlsbad City Council voted to stall the proposed $50 million Alga Norte Park, Aquatic Center and Skateboard Park and not put it out to bid because as the Mayor said we’re having hard economic times, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
Mayor Bud Lewis recalled when his family lost its home when he was a youngster during the Great Depression, and said it was not good for the city to spend millions on a project during hard economic times.
Council voted to reconsidered the park in October. What they failed to mention is that this means Carlsbad will be without a skateboard park for even longer now as the Orion park will be destroyed so the city can build a police and fire training facility.
Note to Mayor Lewis: when economic times are hard it’s all the more important that kids and families have local, free recreational options. Not less.
by The Editors on February 27, 2008
When the Carlsbad City Council discussed the proposed Alga Norte Park last night we were worried they were going to do what many cities across the nation have done: cut funding for the planned skatepark. Luckily, that didn’t happen. Instead, they eliminated the water slides from swim complex.
Packard and Councilman Matt Hall have repeatedly argued that the water play area is a luxury that should be eliminated from the plans. Their position gained ground in recent months as state and national economic forecasts became grim. At Tuesday’s meeting, councilwomen Ann Kulchin and Julie Nygaard joined them in voting for a scaled-back project, while Mayor Bud Lewis voted against it.
Luckily, Mayor Lewis was voted down because his wacky idea was to build either the swim complex or the rest of the park but not both. We all know that if Carlsbad needs one thing it’s a quality skatepark.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on July 10, 2007
In the 2007/2008 Carlsbad City Budget that was approved on June 26 the city has added 21 new positions and a $50-million pool at Alga Norte Park (future home of Carlsbad’s new skatepark). We’ll get four new police officer (thanks), and one new fireman (is that all?) We can also look forward to a 9.1 percent increase in water rates and 6.35 positions cut at the library, according to The Coast News.
The theme of the budget is building a sustainable community through effectively managing today’s resources. We’re ensuring that we have money, and setting aside money for the future, and living within our means,” said Lisa Irvine, finance director for Carlsbad.
The budget includes $182.3 million for capital improvements and $186.2 million for operations. Anyone with insights into these numbers is encouraged to explain them in the comments section.
[Link: The Coast News]
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