The good old parking days
West Bean is open in the Mister A’s building in Bankers Hill, which received a makeover after Papa Doug purchased it in 2016:
The North Park Observatory was temporarily closed recently over safety and alcohol issues. I was out of town and didn’t realize the Big Boi show we attended last Thursday was the first after the venue re-opened:
In Normal Heights, Discount Fabrics in the former Adams Avenue Theater is closing, because the building has been sold, or it hasn’t. It was fascinating to read the store’s owner disparage Normal Heights because street parking is in demand. As he pined for the good old parking days, he somehow left out the fact that Adams Avenue was a “fading middle class neighborhood“, a “place of crime and troubled teens” and gang fights. I’ll never understand folks who prioritize street parking over basic quality of life in their communities.
Speaking of NIMBYs, this week’s Reader also casts a negative light on Little Italy’s economic rebound because the street parking just ain’t what it used to be:
Rosalie and Tom recall during the late 1990s, one day, on-street parking was scarcer than usual. This was a bellwether. Suddenly, they noticed buildings rising above the wire wreaths of telephone poles. Since then, the encroachment is on. The new generation of occupiers are carless; they like not having a Vons or a Target; they Uber or ride the trolley; they are cool, hip, and options-fat.
Development and zoning:
- The Union Tribune has another piece on Kearny Mesa’s plans to “add mixed-use, transit-oriented developments and build on its current Asian thematic district along Convoy Street”
- Some Oceanside residents oppose pedestrian and bike safety measures because traffic, are against development incentives during a housing crisis because they will produce homogeneity or something
- Massachusetts considers further reducing local control over development due to the economic inequality it perpetuates
- California state senator Scott Weiner has introduced a bill to remove local control over development near transit stations; Marin County’s “progressive” head promptly explodes
- The NY Times traces the racist roots of today’s exclusionary zoning throughout America’s cities
Transportation:
- Curbed contributor Alissa Walker documents the massive negative health impacts of autos and calls for dismantling LA’s freeways
- The La Jolla Light printed an interesting article on riding the 30 bus
- The SR-15 Centerline stations/lanes will have their grand opening on 2/24 at Teralta Park...
- UC San Diego could be among the first to deploy Spin’s dockless e-bikes
- The Bob Gundersons of San Diego got to SANDAG’s Performance Measures Online Survey – after all, if one respondent is “too old to ride a bike”, why should anyone else be allowed to?
- San Diego’s traffic engineering division continues to ignore the city’s Vision Zero efforts, refusing to redesign a residential road prone to aggressive drivers – until the community demanded it
- SANDAG will have a groundbreaking ceremony for the Rose Canyon Bikeway this Thursday 1/25 from 7-10 AM at this location
- And finally, more proof that bicyclists don’t break traffic laws any more frequently than drivers.
