The City of Carlsbadistan will implement some good old fashioned traffic directing this summer through a new digital technology that will allow remote operators to control the traffic lights at the city’s busiest intersection at Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real.
“This new Traffic Management Center will revolutionize the way we manage traffic in the city,” said Doug Bilse, the city’s traffic signal systems engineer. “It’s a great example of investing in technology to work more efficiently and achieve better results.” . . . The purpose of the pilot program is to develop a five year program to replace the city’s current system, which is limited to a small number of traffic signals that can be coordinated. As the multi-year program is completed, city staff will be able to view the signal operations along an entire corridor and optimize the system to improve traffic flow through the city.
We wonder if a couple guys with florescent vests and a whistles couldn’t do an even better job. Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
At a Carlsbadistan City Council hearing tonight (Tuesday, May 18, 2010) the Carlsbad Firefighters Association will either get more time to discuss their issues with city official, or City Council will give the union a final offer that could effect 63 of the 85 fire department workers, according to a Ray Huard story in the North County Times.
Under the proposed plan, newly hired workers could retire at age 50 and collect a pension equal to 2 percent of their wages for every year they worked. The change wouldn’t apply to association members already working in the department, [city spokeswoman Kristina Ray] said.
Apparently, the CFA isn’t happy with that. We’re not sure who is right, but we know this–the people in the city who should be well paid fall into three groups in our opinion: teachers, firemen, and police officers.
The Carlsbadistan based fish taco popularizer Rubio’sjust announced that they are planning to sell the company and already at least one shareholder is suing, according to the North County Times.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday on behalf of investor Gregory Burt and other shareholders by the San Diego law firm Robbins Umeda LLP. Attorneys are seeking class action status for the suit, filed in the Vista branch of San Diego Superior Court. . . The lawsuit asks that the court declare the purchase agreement “unlawful and unenforceable,” and to order the defendants to redo the sale to get the best price for Rubio’s shareholders.
Looks like they’re headed for a fish taco showdown.
San Diego Union-Tribune writer Michael Burge discussed our icon the Encina Power Station’s 400-foot-tall smokestack on Sunday in a story in which City Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said “I think it’s ugly.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve disagreed with Ms. Kulchin. We love the smokestack (obviously) and hope that regardless of what happens to the power plant that the tower stays. It is our beacon. A sentinel watching over Carlsbadistan. Whether we’re out surfing, or walking on the beach, or flying home on a big ol’ jet airliner, the tower reminds us of exactly where we are and where we live. The best little beach city in the world.
On a side note: Thank God no one ever let billboard artist Wyland slap a bunch of cartoon whales up on the side of the power plant because that would have been too ugly for words. Seriously.
Brad Freeman, of Carlsbad, is suing his former business partners for allegedly taking their Cans For Cancer business from him illegally, according to a story in the North County Times.
What is more interesting is what exactly the Cans For Cancer business is doing. Using nearly 5,000 red bins, the company is collecting between $9,000 and $14,000 in aluminum cans in Carlsbadistan each month and so far it appears that very little is going to Cancer research.
Lou Delegge and [his attorney] Robert Kilborne declined to provide proof of donations to cancer research programs or make Cans for Cancer’s books available for a review of the organization’s monthly revenue and expenses, citing the ongoing lawsuit. . . In a phone conversation Saturday, Delegge confirmed his attorney’s assessment that start-up costs and overhead are eating up most of the monthly revenue. He said the company’s goal is to one day donate 100 percent of its proceeds to cancer research.
Guess we’ll just keep putting our cans in the Waste Management bins until all this gets sorted out.
A recent report released by the American Lung Association listed the 10 cities with the worst air quality and guess what? San Diego County (including Carlsbadistan) was listed as number eight on the list of most polluted by Ozone (smog and industrial waste) and at number 17 in short term particle pollution.
Apparently, places that are sunny and warm are the worst for Ozone. That would explain why eight of the top 10 most polluted cities are in California. Trade offs, huh?
We’d like to think that kids entering Carlsbadistan kindergartens this fall will have a shot at attending the Carlsbad Unified School District’s new $130 million high school at least one year before they graduate, but with the recent setbacks who really knows if that will be a possibility.
Earlier this month, the local branch of the California Regional Water Quality Board denied the certification the district needs to proceed with the project. The decision was a procedural matter necessary because the board wasn’t able to review materials on time, said James Smith, a assistant executive officer for the regional board. . . “We’re not talking about the merits of the project itself,” he said. “We’re still working with the applicant …. We just needed a little more time on this one.”
Why? Developer Bentlety-Wing Investments has complained about what effects “the project would have on water quality.” CUSD Superintendent John Roach is quoted as saying the complaints are “essentially ‘blackmail'” and are only about the money.
We just hope construction can begin soon for the sake of the youth of Carlsbadistan. Click the link for the rest of the story.
Bellesi, who has made a tradition of watching the pageant, sent out an e-mail to hundreds calling on people to boycott the show, which airs live from Vegas Sunday night on NBC. . . “Christians and young women in general in these pageants are being asked to compromise themselves regarding modesty of any kind,” she wrote.
It’s one of the best ideas I’ve heard yet for Carlsbad’s quaint downtown village: turning an ugly old city maintenance yard on the south end of State Street into a skateboarding museum and “action arts center.”
The plans, presented to an unimpressed Carlsbad City Council by the Carlsbad Village Association, are absolutely, positively brilliant. In addition to the museum, the decrepit old yard would be home to an art gallery, an education building, a multimedia production center and a skatepark. Best of all for a city concerned about its finances, supporters aren’t asking for a dime of city money, hoping to fund the project solely through donations and grants.
If you have a Carlsbad news story, press release, event, rumor, or scandal that we'd be interested in (and there are a lot of them), please click the link to send them to The Editors.
Or just search the site to see if we've mentioned it before, right here.
RSS Feed-Posts