San Diego Union-Tribune surfing writer Brad Melekian visits Carlsbadistan’s southern most beach in his latest column and considers the rapid changes that are coming to one of his favorite surf breaks.
As things you can park your car on go, I’d always found this particular patch of sand on the south side of the Ponto Jetties in Carlsbad to be fairly remarkable. . . Of course, it was not remarkable. It was a patch of sand. But it existed – until two weeks ago – as a place where you could park your vehicle, step out barefoot with sand between your toes, climb a small dune and check the surf.
Melekian laments (along with many of us) the changes the Ponto Vision Plan will bring and what he’ll soon see when looking back at the beach from the water. It’s not going to be pretty. Click the link to read the rest.
We’ve read Carlsbadistan Realtor Jim Klinge’s Bubbleinfo.com real estate blog in the past, but now a lot more people will after Klinge was written up in the LA Times as the “Hunter S. Thompson” of Real Estate.
Rather than downplay the greed and excess that caused the region’s travails, he revels in exposing them. . . . He surveys the wreckage with a pocket video camera, shooting footage of vacant, once-pricey houses turned into eyesores, voiced over with his deadpan narration. Then he posts them on his website, at www.bubbleinfo.com. . . They’re shaky, noisy clips full of coarse images and language. . . “Would you spend a million dollars for that house?” he says in one video, showing a two-story, boxy wreck with the rushing sound of a freeway in the background.
Klinge’s direct approach reportedly allowed him to sell 43 homes last year, most of the customers coming from his blog. While we’re not going to agree with the HST reference, it is refreshing to see a Realtor who at least appears to be involved in the business of selling homes.
If Poseidon Resources is granted a final permit on April 8th for the Carlsbad Desalination plant, it will require ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of energy to make new water. If upgraded, the North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would require LESS THAN HALF THE AMOUNT of energy to make new water of the same quality – and dramatically reduce discharge of partially treated sewage to our local marine environment. . . Carlsbad Desalination would kill millions of fish and larvae each day. North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would kill zero fish and larvae per day.
The Surfrider Foundation is also encouraging everyone to read and sign Surfrider and Coastkeeper’s petition to help prevent Poseidon from building such a wasteful and destructive desalination plant.
OC Register real estate blogger Jeff Collins wrote up the Carlsbad-based company Property Tax Adjusters today and mentioned that their recent direct mail piece arrived with the words “2009 Orange County Property Tax Assessment Notice” could be a little misleading.
Crosby Teague of Property Tax Adjusters said “there’s a fine line” between making a mailer that commands attention and claiming you’re from the government. . . “We clearly say we’re not a government agency,” Teague said. “Making a letter look important enough to open and read is a far cry from claiming we’re from the government.”
Collins was also skeptical of the companies ability to represent clients in “13 Bay Area and Southern California Counties.” For the rest of the story follow the link.
Someone in the Yahoo Finance message boards has been sharing opinions about Carlsbad’s own golf giant Callaway Golf that Callaway doesn’t seem to like. So, the company filed a lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court to subpoena Yahoo Finance and require them to hand over information regarding the identity of the poster, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The lawsuit claims that, as a vendor or employee, the poster would have agreed not to disclose confidential information. It contends that around March of this year, the poster revealed information about the company’s operations. . . .Most posts on the Yahoo chat board for Callaway in the past two months don’t appear to reveal inside information. Several discuss the recent performance and attire of Phil Mickelson, a Callaway-sponsored player. . . One post is titled “Could golf get any more boring?”
It appears that the person they are hunting down is posting under the name “billclauson”. (Click here for a collection of his posts). And we have to agree, the posts seem pretty benign. Even this one from February 12, 2009:
I have been in and out of Callaway for many years. I just think the economy and the state of golf make any “golf” company a sell at this time. Callaway stock and golf related investments are going nowhere for the forseeable future. We may have seen the hayday for golf sometime back.”
Nothing that most people wouldn’t agree with there. Thankfully, Judge William Nevitt Jr. denied Callaway’s subpoena request, but it’s still nice to know that Callaway’s corporate lawyers have time to troll the Internet looking for fights.
The salmonella poisoning scandal has finally swum upstream to Carlsbadistan, according to a story on MarketWatch.com.
Jay Robb Enterprises Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., is recalling all of its peanut butter-flavored JayBars due to potential contamination with salmonella. . . The recalled peanut butter JayBars were sold nationwide in retail stores and through online and phone orders. . . Consumers with questions can contact Jay Robb at 877-529-7622.
Luckily, we’ve never heard of JayBars, let alone eaten them.
Carlsbadistan’s golf company Callaway just signed a deal with Perry Ellis International to “design, manufacture and distribute Callaway-branded golf and sportswear,” according to a story in the Los Angeles Business Journal.
The partnership will get Callaway apparel in both deaprtment stores and sporting good stores. . . . “This relationship allows both companies to complement each other’s strengths and concentrate on their individual core capabilities. We see this as an incredible opportunity for us to help expand Callaway’s presence in the apparel market,” Oscar Feldenkreis, president and chief operating officer of Perry Ellis International, said in a statement.
For companies that don’t care all that much about how the clothing turns out, licensing is like free money. And right now, free money is good. Right?
Carlsbadistan wake boat builder Epic has launched a new plug-in electric hybrid wake boat that reportedly cuts carbon emissions by 50%.
The 22-foot craft is expected to bring its hybrid equivalent of 375 horses to the water sometime in July. The price tag could be as much as $150,000 dollars for this specialized boat though the company foresees being able to produce a $70,000 version by 2012. We can only wonder if some of the plug-in hybrid technology used here will also find its way into into the Aptera 2h.
And it makes sense, Epic CEO Chris Anthony is also the co-founder of Aptera.
The name Sorenson Media has been synonymous with video compression since the company was founded in 1995. But now, that company has moved to Carlsbadistan, according to a story in the North County Times.
Sorenson Media, based in Salt Lake City, opened its new office in Carlsbad to be the hub of its business, said Peter Csathy (pronounced “Chatty”), the company’s chief executive, on Tuesday. The original Utah office will remain, he said, but most of the hiring will take place in the Carlsbad office on Jefferson Street.
Welcome to Carlsbadistan, Sorenson. We can always use a little video compression help around here.
After his Daily Show debacle in weeks past we don’t know if being recommended by Mad Money’s Jim Cramer is a good thing or a bad thing, but Carlsbadistan’sIsis Pharmaceutical was one of that man’s picks in what he calls the “Lightening Round” of his show, according to a story on Inveterms.com.
ISIS represents an attractive buyout opportunity for several reasons. First, the company saw its revenues climb 38% to $29.7 million with a switch from royalty revenue to R&D collaboration revenues. Second, the company is expected to end 2009 with more than $550 million in cash. Third, the company has a very positive outlook for 2009 with several key milestones on the horizon for its drugs.
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