Enjoying Lunch at Bloomingdale's
Plus: Funding for John Baca Park, Mission Heights Egg Hunt, Exercising at Mission Valley Heights, Contribute to Kitten Shower, Seed Class, Robots are Coming Commentary, TB Prevention Education Event
It’s interesting how we decided on this restaurant — 59th and Lex at Bloomingdale’s. I belong to a group of ladies in my community who meet periodically for fun, talk, and food. We meet in the late afternoon and call ourselves the LOLAs or “Ladies of the Late Afternoon.” We are always looking for places to meet that are nearby. Since meeting outside at our common area has been a little hit and miss because of the weather, we started thinking of a place to have our next meeting. Someone suggested the restaurant at Bloomies.
I didn’t even know there was a café at Bloomingdale’s. Accordingly, Steve and I thought we could give it a try and review it. We noticed the on-line menu looked like there were items a non-meat eater could enjoy, so off we went for lunch.
Bloomingdales is a gorgeous store, but I admit I have only been there a few times in all the time I lived here. The prices somewhat intimidate me. In walking through the store to find the restaurant, I was impressed with how everything really is arranged beautifully. I didn’t check out the prices, but I enjoyed looking.
The restaurant is on the third floor, up two flights of escalator. It is a very charming looking place. Clean, sharp, about 15 or so tables with some having long padded benches. There were large New Yorker magazine cartoons on the walls, which immediately contribute to a sophisticated Manhattan ambience. Our wait staff brought the menus quickly and while we looked, we ordered water (more on this later). They have signature starters such as soups, tuna tartare, Brussels sprouts, and more. They have Lexington Ave salads and 59th Street Handhelds (sandwiches), Uptown Entrees and Central Park Confections. Guess you catch the NYC references. They also have many juices, frozen yogurt, and smoothies along with coffee/tea.
Steve decided on the Metropolitan which was a grilled and marinated portobello mushroom panini with roasted red peppers, arugula, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pesto aioli all on a ciabatta. I had a white albacore tuna sandwich with mayo, carrot, celery Dijon, bibb lettuce and tomatoes on cranberry walnut bread (which I asked to be toasted) and a pickle spear. They each came with a ton of fries or you could have gotten a salad.
The food was absolutely delicious, and the sandwiches large. Steve said the mushrooms were perfectly marinated and the fresh mozzarella and pesto aioli sent it over the top. As much as I longed for a taste, he ate the whole thing without so much as an offer.
My tuna (which is one of my all-time favorite things) was excellent. A sandwich so full that the tuna was spilling out over my plate. There were large chunks of tuna and the dressing was perfect. The cran-walnut bread was crunchy and very flavorful. I could not eat it all, and took half home for another meal.
The prices were about normal for this day and age (expensive), but the funniest thing was that the wait staff had put the bottle of water on our table after pouring ours. We should have suspected something. When the bill came, the water was $8, not free like I thought. It was from Tuscany and was the best water I’ve tasted in a while. Better than Kirkland water from Costco. So, if you don’t want any surprises, you may want to ask for tap water, if they even have that. I made sure Steve and I finished the bottle. If you haven’t been to this cafe, you may want to try it. There were only a few people there, so it was very quiet. They are open 11:00 am to 7:00 pm Monday through Saturday and 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Sunday.
Easter Egg Hunt This Saturday
Funding Identified for John Baca Park
Good news for Linda Vista. This week the San Diego City Council approved 16 million dollars in funding for 19 City park projects that will enable upgrades and new equipment. Our own John Baca Park was identified as one of the park projects in underserved communities that will receive funding. The money comes from a new citywide developer fee fund.
Initial plans for John Baca Park were conducted several years ago. The City spent approximately $500,000 to develop plans for the park, and to gather community feedback to help incorporate resident suggestions. The new funding will provide $750,000 for the park.
As explained by the office of District 7 Councilmember Raul Campillo, “… An updated General Development Plan for this park was adopted by the City in June 2021. This completed the planning phase, and in 2023, Councilmember Campillo was able to work with the Parks & Recreation Department and the Mayor's office to provide $1.5 million for the design phase of this project. At this time, the Parks & Recreation Department was able to provide an additional $750,000 that ensures design can be completed over the next year or so, and partially fund construction. The project will be eligible for federal grant funding in 2025, and the City will work on maximizing opportunities to fill the remaining $3 million funding gap for the project to be fully constructed.”
We look forward to seeing progress being made on this park.
Mission Valley Heights Walking Route
Walking for exercise always allows a person to explore new and different areas of San Diego. In the quest to find accessible walking paths or routes, we afford ourselves the opportunity to check out interesting or unique areas that are often bypassed while driving our cars. One such area is the nearby segment of land known as Mission Valley Heights. This business/industrial area sits right behind the Friars Mission Center strip mall. The small enclave is bordered on the west by SR-163, with Mission Center Road and the Civita development bordering it from the east. Many local residents do not know about the existence of Mission Valley Heights (it used to be part of a rock quarry owned by the H.G. Fenton Materials Company), but this part of Mission Valley is home to many new business and medical offices, along with small industrial/storage areas. Its development began in the 1990’s. Though I often saw the monument sign located off of Mission Center Road, I never thought that Mission Valley Heights was an official designation, but with a little research I recently discovered the area has its own Mission Valley Heights Specific Plan Amendment (1996) that provides official land use guidance from the City.
If you are looking for a natural, wood lined dirt path to walk or run on, this area isn’t for you. But if you want a clean, somewhat antiseptic but safe, sidewalk accessible route with little car traffic and a mildly challenging incline, then I suggest you try it out (with a little help from the adjacent Civita development).
Here is the route through Mission Valley Heights I usually follow:
Park your car in the Friars Mission Center parking lot.
Start walking north on Frazee Road
Take a right on Murray Canyon Road.
Turn left when you get to the Metropolitan Drive intersection.
Follow Metropolitan Drive as it turns into Mission Valley Road and you’ll find yourself walking up the incline (that’s why they call it Mission Valley Heights).
Don’t worry too much about the incline because once you reach the top you will trek comfortably downhill while enjoying a nice glimpse of Mission Valley.
You will eventually have a choice of either continuing your walk east on Mission Center Road, or you can complete and repeat the loop (about a 1/2 mile) on Metropolitan Drive as many times as you see fit.
If you intend to get in four miles of exercise, you can continue on Mission Valley Road, cross the street at Mission Center Road, and then keep walking as the road transitions to Civita Boulevard. While walking on this sidewalk route within Civita you will pass the new Nipaquay elementary school as well as beautiful Civita Park.
Once you come to the end of Civita Boulevard, just turn around and follow the same route back through Mission Valley Center and to your car in the Friars Mission Center parking lot.
Hope to see you somewhere on the route.
Help SD Humane Society Prepare for Kitten Season
Kitten season is fast approaching, which means the Kitten Nursery at the SD Humane Society (5500 Gaines Street) will soon be helping thousands of new born kittens looking for an eventual home. To support the influx, the organization is hosting a virtual Kitten Shower, where community members can donate essential items, including kitten formula, bottles, heating pads, scales and blankets from San Diego Humane Society’s online baby registries, conveniently hosted by Amazon, Target and Walmart at sdhumane.org/kittenshower.
In 2023, San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Nursery admitted 10,452 kittens. Even more are expected this year. As explained by the SD Humane Society, “caring for orphaned kittens requires significant resources, and in many communities across the country, these especially vulnerable animals often have nowhere to turn. Supporting the virtual Kitten Shower ensures the kittens in our care have everything they need to grow healthy and ready for loving homes. Donated items are delivered directly to San Diego Humane Society, aiding in providing lifesaving care. To contribute, visit sdhumane.org/kittenshower.”
In 2009, San Diego Humane Society opened the country’s first around-the-clock kitten nursery, now known as the Jim Lester Kitten Nursery & Foster Center. Today, the center shares best practices for kitten care nationwide, engages trained foster volunteers to provide 24-hour care in their own homes, and offers a daycare space for fosters who need help caring for kittens during the day. This facility, along with nurseries at San Diego Humane Society’s Escondido and Oceanside campuses, contributes to the organization’s commitment to Stay at Zero euthanasia of healthy or treatable shelter animals in San Diego County.
Bayside Seed Class this Friday
The next monthly Bayside Community Center Seed Starting class will be held tomorrow March 15 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm at Bayside. Training will be conducted by Bayside’s Environmental Learning Center team.
The class will feature an introduction to warm season crops - Peppers. Attendees will plant and take home pepper seed starts. The class and materials are free of charge.
Please RSVP with an email to azink@baysidecc.org if you plan to attend, so Bayside can provide enough supplies for each participant. Children are welcome !
Commentary
Beware the Robot Invasion? Maybe, Maybe Not
At the risk of sounding too alarming, or even paranoid, I feel the need to let everyone know of a perceived growing threat to our way of life here in the Linda Vista area. I would never want to be accused of singling out any one group and pointing an accusatory finger at them, but let me be so bold as to point a non-accusatory finger in the general direction of a certain group. This group has the potential to dominate every facet of our currently humanistic lives. I am calling everyone’s attention to the looming danger of robots!
Based on my recent observations, we seem to be just a few years away from surrendering many of our duties and responsibilities to robots. I’m no expert when it comes to robots, but I did see The Terminator, and so I feel qualified to sound a warning about the long term implications of such a robot invasion.
I see more and more evidence that automation is playing a greater day-to-day role in so many areas. This is the first step in the “robotization” of our society. I see this trend in the new kiosks that have been installed at the local McDonalds. After all, a kiosk is just a robot that can’t move. Be aware that kiosks are the first wave in the robot incursion—and that first wave is quickly spreading all over our community. Yes, I realize there are benefits. Who wants to deal with a flawed human worker at the counter when you can just place your order with a super efficient kiosk? When you go to the Linda Vista Library, don’t think that a distracted library clerk will check out your book. No, you can have the mistake-free kiosk check it out. When you go to shop for goods at Ralph’s or Costco in Mission Valley, you now have the choice of the self-checkout option and using the automated cash register/kiosk. One day the choice will become mandatory. In fact, it’s just a matter of a few years time before the majority of people who work at restaurants and grocery stores will be replaced by mobile robots who will efficiently dash around the store/restaurant and meet our every need. They will surely be programmed via artificial intelligence to have pleasant personalities that will charm us and encourage us to tip well, though we won’t have to tip robots because they have no need for money, at least not yet.
Let me tell you how strong this local trend toward robotization has become—if you go today to eat a meal at Pho Ca Dao restaurant off of Fenton Parkway there is a possibility you will be served by an actual robot! I encourage you to pay a visit to Pho Ca Dao…once there you will not only get a great meal, but you will also be afforded the opportunity to take a glimpse into our future….the Brave New World of robots. This newsletter wrote a review of Pho Ca Dao a few weeks ago. In that review we mentioned the waiter robots. Back then, we naively thought the idea of robots was a charming novelty. We didn’t fully grasp the disturbing, de-humanizing trend towards the robot dominance of our society, probably because these robots look goofy and not anything like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But now we fully understand.
I am here to tell you there will be a robot in your near future. You may wake up one day soon to find a robot serving you a donut and coffee at Yum Yum Donuts. There may be a talkative robot pouring you a beer at Mr. Peabody’s Bar and Grille. And one day you may notice a robot slicing up your sushi at Sushi Yorimichi. Yikes—a robot with a sharp knife!
Maybe we should all resign ourselves to the inevitability of it all. If inevitable, then perhaps we could focus at looking solely on the bright side of robotization. It’s possible to think about it this way—the Padres have gone through about 20 different batting coaches since Petco Park opened in 2002. Why not try a robot for this job? How much worse could it get? Furthermore, I say we pick out two or three local politicians, then replace them with robots. Would a robot screw up the City budget or pass bad municipal laws? Maybe, but maybe not. Let’s give political robots the benefit of the doubt for at least one term.
On second thought, forget what I said earlier in this commentary. Let us look forward to having robots play a dominant role in our society. Wow! It’s amazing! In the course of writing this essay, I have completely changed my mind about robots. I hope you have too.
Now that I have had time to think about it, I say we stop worrying about robotization and go back to worrying about more serious things like inflation, gentrification, densification, and political polarization.
As they said in The Terminator, “Hasta la linda vista, baby.”
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I laughed out loud at the robot commentary! And I really enjoyed the piece about Bloomies because I didn't know that restaurant was still open! I plan to try it out as well as the one suggested in the robot piece. Many thanks for this wonderful newsletter. Keep up the great work!