Summer News Updates

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

Jasmine Criqui, departing Roving Teen Reporter. Thank you and best wishes, Jasmine!
Jasmine Criqui, Departing Roving Teen Reporter

Tunnel Tangles

SANDAG, our regional government agency, made a February City Council presentation on train tunnel relocation summarizing the input that they have been receiving from a variety of citizen outreach efforts. Their graphic on possible routes demonstrates they have been listening to community concerns and suggestions. Laid out like spaghetti strands depicted on a map, at least a dozen sites have been identified, including one under the fairgrounds

More

Editorial: Whose Town Hall?

What qualifies as a Del Mar non-profit organization and why does it matter? This question came before the City Council at its January 22nd meeting, but resolution was deferred for further review by a council subcommittee (Gaasterland and Worden). A key issue:

More

Flatten the Curve

If humanity has a shot at reversing climate change, it will depend on scientific and social efforts that the Keeling Curve Foundation promotes. The Foundation website states its mission: “To recognize, inspire, and promote accurate long-term observations of the environment, and to

More

Roving Teen Reporter: Senior Assassins

You may have recently seen high schoolers crouching behind cars in your neighborhood with a water gun in hand. Or maybe you’ve noticed teens sporting swim floaties while nowhere near a pool. These unusual displays are a part of Senior Assassins, a

More

Covid Update: Infection Inflection

While many of us had mild symptoms associated with COVID-19 infections in the past 2 months, data for hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID suggest that serious illness has been less common than in prior years.   Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are

More

AI: Utopia or Dystopia?

Since the late 2022 public launch of Chat GPT, AI is now a big part of this decade’s zeitgeist, along side the pandemic, Taylor Swift, Jan 6 and Oct 7. AI has ushered in a thrilling world of productivity and synthetic content

More

Editorial Board Salutes Ginny Lawrence

The Sandpiper Editorial Board salutes outgoing Editorial Board member Virginia (Ginny) Lawrence for more than 16 years of sustained creative contributions to the Sandpiper.  Ginny created the Sandpiper’s first website, which was launched on February 27, 2008, and has been responsible for

More

Fixed Fee Fighters

The saga of the income-graduated electricity fee continues. Thanks go to our California Representatives Assembly Member Tasha Boerner and Senator Catherine Blakespear, along with 18 of their colleagues, for co-authoring a bill, AB 1999, that would repeal the income-based graduated fixed fee,

More

Re-Fur Your Fur

Project Wildlife, a wild animal rescue and rehabilitation program with the San Diego Humane Society, is in need of fur coats.  Fur coats are used as bedding – an ideal material to comfort an injured or orphaned animal – much better than

More

DMF: The Impact of DMF’s Grants

A key responsibility of DMF board members is identifying grant opportunities that correlate with our mission and will have a positive impact on our community. Following are a few recent examples that have done exactly that.   Last year, DMF granted $24,000

More

Del Mar Community Connections

Caring for family caregivers Build a Support System with people who share the same situation. DMCC has partnered with the Alzheimer’s Association to provide a support group for caregivers beginning March 14th.  This support group Facilitated by Jeanie Grischy, CRNA MSN and

More

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.

March 2024

July Print Edition

Click on cover for the JULY 2022 print issue in PDF format

Join Our Email List

 

Sign up to receive updates and breaking news from Sandpiper in your inbox.

 

Click here to sign up

Clementine “pretends” to read and goes A A A O O O for each letter she sees. She loves looking at each picture in great detail. Photo by Sasha.

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

Rose Ann Sharp, left, with Todd Gloria and other public officials. Photo courtesy of Ira Sharp.

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.