How Do Guns Have More Rights Than Women? Young Activists Lead a March in Del Mar for Abortion Rights
July 10, 2022 - How Do Guns Have More Rights Than Women? Young Activists Lead a March in Del Mar for Abortion
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Pipe Up! Letter to the Editor: Dan Quirk’s Rumination on Homelessness by Anne Farrell
Dear Editors,
Dan Quirk’s “rumination” on homelessness, widely distributed by email last Friday, is pretty enraging and stupid. A commentary in the LA Times on Saturday tells a compelling story of how deeply complex homelessness is, all the failures of government, and the many layers of humanity it takes to get someone off the streets…
July 2022 Print Issue
Via Alta is a thoroughfare that dissects a central part of the Hillside neighborhood that dominates Del Mar’s landscape. No doubt you and your neighbors experienced the recent rogue storm to hit Del Mar, starting the night of February 21, when the wind began to howl and gusts were as high as 50+ miles per hour. Huge Torrey Pines, eucalyptus, and palms swayed in the high winds,
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The City of Del Mar historically has made good use of its talented citizenry by including them on their advisory committees and listening to their input. The longstanding Lagoon Committee, the Finance Committee, the Parks and Recreation Committee, the Traffic and Parking
MoreJeff Baldwin, the former ASP World Tour professional surfer native to Del Mar, spends this time of the year frequenting Australia’s coastline with his long-time friend Tom Carrol, two-time world surf champion. Far from any traces of the bustling and cosmopolitan city
MoreHave you noticed droopy dried fronds dangling on our palm trees? They are under attack by deadly threats. One strikes from the top down, one from the bottom up. Starting at the top: the South American palm weevil (Rhynchophprus palm arum),
MoreA recent review by Scripps Research scientist Eric Topol and colleagues (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 21:133-146, 2023) highlighted what we know and don’t know about “Long COVID,” a constellation of long-term symptoms that occur in at least 10% of individuals following infection with
MoreWILDCOAST—an environmental nonprofit that works to protect and conserve coastal and marine ecosystems in California and Mexico—is now headquartered in Del Mar. Founded in 2000 by Dr. Serge Dedina—who now serves as executive director—and Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, WILDCOAST continues to carry
MoreDel Mar’s long term deplorable record of resistance to providing our share of affordable housing is rearing its ugly head again. This time it involves a threat to evict the four remaining families in our rental subsidy program dating back to
MoreOn January 24, 2023 the Union-Tribune staff writer Luke Harold published a column in the Del Mar Times about the abrupt departure from the SANDAG regional board meeting on January 13th by Del Mar’s representative to this important regional body: bit.ly/SANDAG-WALKOUT
MoreSome of us converse better than others not only with fellow humans but also with animals. As to animals, they speak their own language, and though we can interpret and use gestures, most of us don’t speak dog, cat, bird, horse, pig,
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H: How did you choose her name? L&D: Before Lexie, we had two Wheaten Terriers, Casey and Lacey. While we were waiting for Lexie’s arrival, we were thinking of names like Macey, Gracie and then David came up with Sally Boom Boom.
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It’s been fun for the past 18 months to walk through downtown and enjoy the five sculptures displayed as part of the Arts Advisory Committee’s (AAC) outdoor sculpture program. With the 23-month term for this exhibit coming to an end in late
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Champagne and Chocolate Wrap-up The Champagne and Chocolate Community Celebration held on Friday February 10 was a sweet return to a DMCC favorite that has been on hold since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. An open house-style event that is held
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Del Mar Beaches Make Honor Roll
Heal The Bay’s annual report grades 500 beaches throughout California, giving Del Mar a perfect water score along with fourteen other San Diego County beaches. The nonprofit bases its scoring on the levels of fecal-indicator bacterial pollution in the ocean measured by county health agencies. Our county trailed only Orange County in the number of beaches on the Honor Roll.
Grannies Growth
Del Mar has received 93 applications for Accessory Development Units (ADU), sometimes known as “granny flats.” So far 49 building permits have been approved. By state law, ADUs are not subject to local review or zoning limits. The city cannot track whether these units are actually used for rentals, but the state does count them as new units.
Collectors Covered
When the City was in the process of awarding the new contract for collection of trash, recycling, and organics, many residents provided comments to the City Council offering high praise for Waste Management’s trash collectors. EDCO offered to hire all WM trash collectors assigned to Del Mar, including full credit for the seniority accruing from their WM employment. Of the three WM drivers/collectors who worked in Del Mar, one, who worked in commercial collection, decided to retire, but has a short-term contract with EDCO to train the new driver. The two who worked in residential collection are expected to accept EDCO’s offer. So Del Mar residents can expect to see the same friendly and professional drivers/collectors after July 1, when EDCO’s Del Mar service begins. EDCO’s service will use two-axle trucks for Del Mar, though one of those is not expected to arrive until the end of July.
Fencing Match on the Bluffs
Those interested in the North County Transit District’s (NCTD’s) plan to install fencing its right-of-way on the Del Mar bluffs may need a law degree to follow the convoluted legal proceedings seeking to uphold or challenge NCTD’s right to install the fence. Originally, NCTD filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) seeking a ruling that state law obligations asserted by the City of Del Mar and the California Coastal Commission (CCC), such as State law-based environmental requirements, are preempted by federal law, with respect to NCTD’s fencing plan. More recently, two separate additional legal actions were filed in state court against NCTD: one by Friends of Del Mar Bluffs and Laura DeMarco, and another by CCC. Both cases were removed by NCTD to federal court. On June 2, 2022, the federal judge issued a stay in both of those cases, noting that “the orderly course of justice measured in terms of simplifying issues is served by allowing the STB to determine the preemption issues.” CCC has moved to set aside that stay. Meanwhile, there is no indication when the STB is likely to decide the case pending before it. NCTD’s Matt Tucker stated in a recent STB filing that NCTD will not act to install the fence until after STB rules on the petition pending there.
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Quotable Del Mar
ROSE ANN SHARP
“The Second Amendment is not a license to kill. Gun violence is predictable and preventable. A proven way is to regulate access to military-style assault weapons that have been used in almost every mass murder in America. The 1994 Assault Weapons Ban reduced gun violence by 43%, and its expiration in 2004 increased the number of deaths by 239%.”
— Sandpiper Commentary, “Gun Violence is Predictable and Preventable: You Can Help Stop the Violence”
Del Mar resident Rose Ann Sharp, founder of NeverAgainCA, has been at the forefront of political activism to support gun safety measures, calling on public officials at all levels “to stop playing politics with peoples’ lives and address our epidemic of gun violence.” She is “fearless” in her work to make “our community a safer place for all of us,” according to San Diego Mayor and former 78th District Assemblymember Todd Gloria.