It has been an honor to serve our city’s residents starting as a civic volunteer working on various committees, being elected to your City Council in 2020, and serving as your mayor in 2023. I have collaborated with my colleagues to address a significant number of important issues for our community and our accomplishments have been many but there is still important work to be done. That
MoreSummer 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
Feeling the heat in Del Mar? July 22, 2024, was the hottest day on record, according to a NASA analysis of global daily temperature data. July 21 and 23 of this year also exceeded the previous daily record, set in July 2023.
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Councilmember Dwight Worden announced his retirement from the Del Mar City Council, effective September 24, 2024, at the August 26th council meeting. Dwight has been an active participant in Del Mar politics since 1977, when he served as City Attorney, and on
MoreThe 50-unit Watermark project (near the roundabout), in the pipeline for over a decade, recently cleared by the California Coastal Commission, is now preparing building plans to be processed for a building permit this month with no additional public input or design
MoreSocial media seems to be taking part in nearly every aspect of our lives—education, fashion, news, and the list goes on. There is no doubt that it affects our lives in various ways, but is that true with how young people involve
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The Sandpiper is sad to report that we recently learned that our former Teen Reporter Sammy Hallal died of a brain tumor just as he was about to start his 3rd year at Tulane University. Sammy was a wonderful, talented young man
MoreCongressman Mike Levin and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste Disposition Dr. Kim Petry (yes, that is her official title) came to Del Mar last month to discuss what to do with spent
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The Department of Energy is developing large train cars capable of transporting canisters of spent nuclear fuel by rail to interim or permanent nuclear repositories. The prototype is named “Atlas” and it is a 12-axle railcar capable of carrying canisters weighing up
MoreOur trend line from a car-centric to a bike-centric community has much promise for the environment, but I fear it is spinning out of control. Every day, especially Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of bikes ride through downtown, maybe over half not stopping
MoreGood News: is now available. If you are over 65, you should get a booster shot sooner rather than later. If you are also getting your annual flu shot, roll up both sleeves and get one shot in each arm. The mRNA
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If you have never encountered a gopher or a gopher’s work, good for you! Many have not been so fortunate and have witnessed the devastation of gardens and lawns as these unseen critters whose habitat is underground create havoc. Being herbivores, their
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With my time as DMF president concluding next month, I want to use this month’s column to say THANK YOU to everyone I’ve been fortunate to work together with over the past two years for the betterment of our community. Did you
MoreWelcome New DMCC Board Members and President! DMCC is proud to welcome three new members to DMCC’s Board of Directors. Ann Feeney is retired from Scripps Research Institute where she was a professor and had an active research lab for 26 years.
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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.
September 2024
July Print Edition
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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.