There was no shortage of news in Mission and Pacific beaches in 2016. The year kicked off in January with a local principal kissing a sheep, and ended with the farmers market pushing for a move onto Garnet Avenue.
The following is a month-by-month account chronicling what happened in Pacific and Mission beaches in the Beach & Bay Press in 2016: JANUARY:
• Barnard Asian Pacific Language Academy principal Aida Hernandez and teachers agreed to kiss a sheep if students raised more than $30,000 in the Barnyard Dash Jogathon. After students raised more than $32,000, teachers puckered up.
• Existing for nearly 40 years at Roosevelt Avenue and Shasta Street, the Pacific Beach Community Garden was closed Jan. 1., with new owners of the small urban agriculture plot, PathfinderPartners LLC of La Jolla, taking possession. A community wide search began for replacement gardening plots, which may eventually include some space in the 120-acre De Anza Special Study Area within Mission Bay Park, which is being redeveloped.
• The second in a series of public workshops planning a “reimagining” for the 120-acre De Anza Special Study Area was held Jan. 28. Committee members studying the park’s revitalization suggested: the need to balance park uses with available open space; consider creating an info/interpretive center; the need to do a hydrology (water) study; encourage ecologically oriented recreation; find ways to protect and enhance the natural environment; create more pedestrian and non-motorized vehicle connectivity within the park; allow coastal marshland to grow back naturally; and re-establish a connection between the park area and Rose Creek.
• A paddle-out attended by about 400 people at Tourmaline Surf Park Jan. 18 celebrated the life of San Diego surf icon Larry Gordon, co-founder of Gordon & Smith surf and clothing company, who died New Year’s day of Parkinson’s disease at age 76. Gordon built the internationally renowned company into a custom surfboard, skateboard and clothing conglomerate known by surfers worldwide.
• A proposal by developers McKellar McGowan to convert the former Mission Beach Elementary School site into condominiums was denied by the Mission Beach Precise Planning Board, which claimed the project, which envisions a total of 20 buildings housing 63 individual units in a mix of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and one single-family residence, was oversized, too impactive to traffic and parking and was potentially a “community-character buster.”
• Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal sided with Ken Giavara and a group of neighbors in Mission Beach known as Citizens For Beach Rights. That group challenged a new, bigger lifeguard tower on south Mission Beach first proposed in 2002. They contended the new proposed lifeguard tower was the wrong size and in the wrong place, and that it had been shepherded through the city’s project-approval process without the proper permitting. FEBRUARY:
• A Pacific Beach inventor and a church rector went on record promoting one conceivable solution to the intractable problem of homelessness: IKEA-like tiny, build-it-yourself homes. The Rev. Dr. Simon Mainwaring, rector of St. Andrews by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Beach, and Christopher Scott, who’s designed and built his own version of a “tiny” home, teamed to popularize the concept, calling it “the start of a real solution to San Diego’s homelessness problem.”
• Traffic improvements were announced for the Crown Point neighborhood of Pacific Beach. The city installed a Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacon system at Ingraham Street and La Cima Drive. An RRFB is a pedestrian-activated flashing beacon that flashes in an alternating pattern when a pedestrian presses the button to cross the street. The flashers are accompanied with highly reflective yellow/green pedestrian warning signs that are installed close to, and directly above, the flashers.
• The tragic loss of community activist Maruta Gardner, struck and killed by a suspected drunken driver Feb. 12, touched a nerve with beach residents, prompting a call for action. At Pacific Beach Town Council’s Feb. 17 meeting, a moment of silence was observed in honor of Gardner, killed a few days before her 69th birthday in a road rage incident while painting out graffiti in the 600 block of San Diego Place in Mission Beach. A memorial with flowers and cards was created at the jetty wall where Gardner lost her life.
• Pacific Beach Town Council was updated on plans to resurrect Mission Bay wetlands and fight alcohol-related and other crimes along the beachfront. Rebecca Schwartz of San Diego Audubon Society, clued the council in on ReWild Mission Bay, a three-year project to enhance and restore up to 170 acres of wetlands in the northeast corner of Mission Bay.
“The vision is to enhance and restore wetlands at the mouth of Rose Creek,” said Schwartz, noting the remaining marsh, known by various names including the Kendall Frost Reserve, has shrunk to about 40 acres, which she said is “non-sustainable.” MARCH
• Limited metered parking was among alternatives being considered by a reconstituted Pacific Beach Community Parking District March 10. The proposal met with staunch opposition, especially from local surfers. The PB parking committee is considering, along with paid parking, starting a residential permit system in the area surrounding a potential parking district. It’s been suggested permitting would assess residents $40 a year, and employees working within the PB business district $143 a year, for parking permits. There is also a draft plan being considered to institute paid parking in a several-block area between Mission Boulevard and Cass Street on the west and east and Emerald and Thomas streets on the north and south (surrounded by potential residential permitting).
• Gambling – especially on horses – traveling and being with friends were among retired schoolteacher and administrator Maruta Gardner’s favorite things, friends and family noted during a celebration of her life in the park near the Mission Beach jetty on March 4 where she was killed by an intoxicated driver in a road rage incident in February. Gardner’s passion was community service.
• The city reported in March it was more than halfway through an approximately $5.5 million restoration of Mission Beach’s boardwalk, which will return the well-trod thoroughfare to its 1920s condition. Since Labor Day of 2015, the city was busy replacing the walkway, splash wall and seawall along Mission Beach’s Belmont Park. The plan was to restore the coastal landmark to mimic how it looked when it was first constructed in the 1920s.
• SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby announced March 17 that the company will halt killer whale breeding, end its theatrical orca shows and double down on conservation and rescue efforts. And it’s partnering with a longtime adversary, the Humane Society, to do it. The announcement signaled a massive shift for one of San Diego’s top employers and taxpayers, as the company that’s long been synonymous with Shamu, will eventually be without its headline attraction.
• Second District Councilwoman Lorie Zapf answered tough questions about hot-button issues, including short-term vacation rentals, DecoBike on the boardwalk, metered parking and homelessness at Pacific Beach Town Council March 16. Zapf credited Pacific Beach residents with being “very passionate about our issues.” She added she had also gone on record, in writing, opposing a recently discussed possibility of putting limited metered parking in Pacific Beach. APRIL
• Mission Beach residents wearing white T-shirts with the message “Save the tree, make a park” and carrying protest signs turned out April 4 to march against the current plans to redevelop the former Mission Beach Elementary School site at 818 Santa Barbara Place turning it into condominiums.
• Pacific Beach mobilized to get word out to authorities that it has serious issues with homelessness and other problems in the community that need to be immediately addressed. So much so that a new Facebook site, facebook.com/cleanuppb/, was established. • Beach & Bay profiled Lisa Kanemoto, a social-conscience photographer who’s chosen to give Pacific Beach’s homeless population a face through her camera lens. “I’m changing my whole outlook on life,” said Kanemoto of her new photographic passion, chronicling the lives of people living in the shadows on the streets of PB. “Every single one of these people – I’ve fallen in love with all of them.”
• Beach & Bay profiled bike theft, which has become rampant – almost epidemic – in Pacific Beach, with residents – and police – ramping up efforts to nab thieves. Almost daily, bikes gets stolen somewhere along the beachfront.
• Overriding concerns about traffic, parking and alteration of Mission Beach’s character, San Diego City Council voted 6-2 on April 11 to approve two separate parcels of a proposed 63-unit condo project on the former Mission Beach Elementary School site.
• At the April 27 community workshop on the De Anza Revitalization Plan, attendees learned prospective upgrades could include water-quality improvements, RV and tent lodging, enhanced pedestrian and bicycling access and possible marshland relocation.
• A judge April 21 ordered an alleged drunk driver to stand trial for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the Feb. 12 death of retired educator Maruta Gardner, who died while painting over graffiti in Mission Beach. Two dozen witnesses, including Gardner’s husband William, testified in the two-day preliminary hearing of Jonathan Domingo Garcia, 23. Garcia was also allegedly under the influence of marijuana and a tranquilizer at the time, according to testimony. MAY
• Beach & Bay profiled the growing fly infestation in Mission Beach, which especially during summertime, causes severe problems, especially at local restaurants. MB restaurants chalked up more than 250 negative Yelp! restaurant reviews and a multitude of health department citations, largely attributable to the insect infestation. “The fly and filth problem, especially in the alleys, is horrible,” said Dawn Reilly, project administrator for Beautiful MB Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to Mission Beach’s improvement and enhancement.
• Mayor Kevin Faulconer officially reopened Mission Beach seawall and boardwalk May 26 continuing his pledge to invest nearly half a billion dollars into rebuilding and improving neighborhoods. The newly constructed walkway, splash wall and seawall took eight months and $4.9 million to complete. According to Faulconer, this was only the first step in a long-term project to rebuild Mission Beach.
• Reigning world champion and UCI’s topranked rider Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California with a come-from-behind sprint down Quivira Way in Mission Bay to nip second place finisher Wouter Wippert (Cannondale Pro Cycling Team) on May 15. Stage 1 of the statewide race started in Mission Bay, went south through Imperial Beach, headed east and then eventually went back west through Pacific Beach. • “If it doesn’t fit, you must not permit,” quipped John Thickstun at Pacific Beach Town Council’s May 18 meeting arguing against allowing short-term vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods. La Jolla attorney Thickstun and Pacific Beach resident Ronan Gray started Save San Diego Neighbor hoods more than a year ago in response to the proliferation of short-term vacation rentals in coastal communities’ residential zones.
• The line for opening day at the new Gelson’s in Pacific Beach on May 26 snaked around the block as scores turned out early in the morning to be among the first 200 to collect a reusable shopping bag full of gifts. Walking through the doors, customers were personally greeted by employees lining the registers and aisles of the store at 730 Turquoise St., which previously was a Haggen’s, and before that, an Albertsons. JUNE
• The City Council on June 13 approved the San Diego budget, which included money for a second weekly trash pickup in Mission Beach to help prevent summer fly infestation. “We have small businesses and restaurants who count on visitors and tourists to dine, however, there is such a large concentration of flies in Mission Beach these restaurants are getting cited for excessive flies by County Health officials,” noted District 2 Councilwoman Lorie Zapf.
• MBHS students collected plastic waste for 97 days from high school trash cans, gathering more than 100 pounds of bottles, bowls, and forks; 90 percent of which could have been recycled. MBHS then installed a reverse-osmosis water purifier and Yelp donated 250 reusable water bottles for students.
• In a continuation of its April meeting with the San Diego Police Department on PB crime trends, the conversation June 15 turned to the direct link between the saturation of alcohol licenses in the beach community and the high incidence of violent crimes: PB has the city’s second-highest rate in the city.
• Café 976, one of Pacific Beach’s more prominent and iconic businesses, closed June 20 after more than 20 years of service, but reopened under new management a couple of months later after being restored. After renovations, which included repainting and upgrades such as new fixtures and appliances, Café 976 Felspar reopened with much the same menu, and most of the same staff.
• Recently returned PB residents Kristen and Jeffrey Montez spearheaded an investigation into a BSO (Bad Sewer Odor) plaguing portions of the beach community. Kristen organized several meetings with city supervisors, and called maintenance workers to the neighborhood on multiple occasions. One possible culprit was a string of defective manhole covers, which the city dealt with by sealing the manholes with asphalt and silicon. JULY
• A June 8 Mission Beach fly summit also yielded some positive results, including the City Council re-instituting a second weekly city summertime trash pickup. Another suggestion to combat flies involves creating a Community Benefit District to pay for more trash pickup and vector control.
• With the goal of enhancing and preserving San Diego’s regional parks for generations to come, the City Council July 12 unanimously approved Mayor Faulconer’s plan for a grand restoration of the city’s major parks that would make available hundreds of millions of more dollars for Mission Bay Park and regional parks. The ballot measure, which ultimately passed in November, directs a portion of Mission Bay lease revenue toward capital investment in Mission Bay Park and regional parks for an additional 30 years.
• The jetty at the end of Quivira Way in Mission Beach houses a popular colony of feral cats. The East County Animal Rescue and the Feline Cat Coalition groups humanely trap, neuter and release the cats back to the jetty. The best times to visit and bring food to the friendly felines are in the early morning and just before sunset. • Lee Dulgeroff, the chief facilities planning and construction officer for San Diego Unified School District, informed parents and members of the Mission Bay Cluster that school air-conditioning projects were being pushed up. Dulgeroff said Pacific Beach Middle and Mission Bay High should expect construction for air conditioning to begin in the fall of 2017.
• The owners of Tony Roma’s in Pacific Beach ended their affiliation with the Tony Roma’s chain becoming Beachtown BBQ and Grill, a change which ultimately led to a lawsuit with their landlord, culminating in their leaving at the end of the year and taking their ABC alcohol license with them. Their departure rekindled the public debate over whether there are too many establishments in the beach community serving alcohol, and what can be done about it.
• The battle to remove two existing DecoBike stations on Pacific Beach’s boardwalk continued despite city opposition and amid reports that the bike-sharing company may be further expanding its coastal network. On July 20, community activists Alan Harris and Jennifer Tandy addressed Pacific Beach Town Council about an ongoing petition drive opposing PB boardwalk’s commercialization. Harris noted about 3,000 signatures were gathered in just three or four weeks. AUGUST
• The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) continued to upgrade the region’s transit system with the installation of 600 new bus shelters, including eight in Pacific Beach, and more than 1,800 benches in communities countywide. • Critical injuries of pedestrians occurred including a San Diego Chargers intern who was struck while walking in a hit-and-run crash on the 900 block of Garnet Avenue. This collision was a reminder of how important it is for the region’s leaders to commit to Vision Zero, a campaign to make streets safe from serious injuries and deaths. Garnet Avenue is one of the eight most dangerous corridors in the City of San Diego, as identified by research from Circulate San Diego in www.circulatesd.org/visionzerosd.
• Thanks to enterprising Pacific Beach couple Dennis and Joylyn Darnell, a better household flytrap wound up on local store shelves. The Darnells spent two years developing and marketing a new product named the Garbage Can Fly Trap, which ended up on the shelves at Hammer & Nails Ace Hardware at 890 Turquoise St. • Bike rental shops in Pacific and Mission beaches said their business has unquestionably been hurt by competition from Florida-based DecoBike, which operates bike share stations citywide, including two controversial ones on Pacific Beach’s boardwalk. SEPTEMBER
• Pacific Beach residents were asked if the gum pole – at the corner of Bayard and Garnet – is art or ick? The sticky pole has been there for years and no one is quite sure why. Most people we spoke to chose to describe it as “ick.”
• A push was on to make both the small- and large-dog sections of Capehart, at 4747 Soledad Mountain Road, green once again. An ad hoc group, Friends of Capehart Off-Leash Small Dog Park, spearheaded by beach-area residents Ron McChesney and Chris Cott, banded together to start a GoFundMe fundraiser to re-sod Capehart.
• The drunk driver who killed Mission Beach activist Maruta Gardner while she was painting over graffiti, Jonathan Domingo Garcia, 24, was sentenced to 11 years in prison by San Diego Superior Court Judge Kathleen Lewis, who turned down his attorney’s request for probation. Lewis said she believed Garcia was “a danger to others,” mentioning his first hit-and-run accident just three weeks prior to Gardner’s death.
• The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service predicted that El Niño, warmer-than-usual ocean water temperatures were giving way to La Niña with opposing cooler-than-usual water termperatures. “La Niña is favored to develop during the Northern Hemisphere summer 2016, with about a 75 percent chance of La Niña during the fall and winter 2016-17,” a statement from the Climate Prediction Center said.
• Pacific Beach Town Council hosted its 36th annual tribute to first responders Sept. 28 at 3700 Corona Oriente Road. First responders being feted included police officers, firefighters, lifeguards and Mission Bay Park rangers. The fun, family-focused Police and Emergency Services Appreciation Night barbecue picnic also included a fire truck for kids to climb aboard. • Many who came to Pacific Beach Town Council’s Sept. 21 meeting on Proposition J expected to hear it praised, not panned. What they got was a full-blown debate, with the proposition being questioned – if not outright objected to – by several critics, including two former District 2 city council members, Donna Frye and Ed Harris. Proposition J, which passed Nov. 8, changes the current allocation of lease revenue derived from city-owned property in Mission Bay Park. OCTOBER
• Construction on the Terminal 2 Parking Plaza building at San Diego International Airport was under way as nearly 100 elected officials, Airport Authority board members, business and community leaders and members of the construction team celebrated the groundbreaking. The cutting-edge Parking Plaza will be located in front of Terminal 2 and will have three floors with approximately 3,000 parking stalls. It will replace the existing surface parking lot for Terminal 2.
• The Mid-Coast Trolley groundbreaking took place Oct. 22 at Manchester Field at The Preuss School UCSD. With one of its nine new trolley stops serving Pacific Beach/Clairemont at Balboa Avenue, the Mid-Coast project will extend the trolley from Old Town to UCSD, with service expected to begin in 2021.
• SeaWorld San Diego broke ground on a multmillion-dollar attraction, Ocean Explorer exhibit, to take visitors on an exploration of Earth’s seven seas. Ocean Explorer is scheduled to open in late spring 2017 on the southeast end of the theme park. SeaWorld said their new attraction will combine multiple aquariums, rides and digital technology aimed at providing guests with a sense of adventure while inspiring them to protect the oceans. NOVEMBER
• Fiesta Island, the manmade island at 1590 Mission Bay Drive that offers off-leash areas for dogs to run and play, was nominated by the pet-friendly travel website BringFido.com becoming the top dog park in the nation. Fiesta Island also enjoys the support of a grass-roots group, FIDO, which is a community-based nonprofit with more than 14,000 members dedicated to preserving Fiesta Island’s Leash-Free Recreation area. The organization was created in 2006 as a response to a massive development plan unveiled then, which originally proposed removing or moving the leash-free area.
• A motion by City Council President Sherri Lightner, which some feel would have largely banned short-term vacation rentals in single-family neighborhoods, was defeated by a 7-2 vote on Nov. 1. An alternative motion brought by Council member Todd Gloria was then passed by the same 7-2 margin. Gloria’s counter motion requested city staff do a fiscal analysis to determine the cost of greater short-term vacation rentals enforcement citywide, asked staff to draft and return with a comprehensive ordinance better defining and regulating STVRs.
• Mission Beach residents were glad – or mad – about a new proposed maintenance assessment district (MAD) now in its early formative stages.The MAD is being organized and lobbied for by Beautiful Mission Beach, a community-based organization including some high-profile business owners in the area. MB MAD opponents said they favored continuing a second summer trash pickup, but felt taxing locals and establishing a new special district to do it was unnecessary as well as overly expensive.
• Valley View Casino Center San Diego (formerly Sports Arena) in the Midway District celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening on Nov. 17, 1966. The indoor arena has hosted many of the top names in sports and entertainment including the first bout between Muhammad Ali and former Marine and San Diego resident Ken Norton on March 1, 1973.