New and In-Progress Structures in LV Area
Plus: Closing of Sherman/Morena Road Intersection, Fresh Cauliflower at LV Farmers Market, Kearny Alumni Car Show Announcement, Odyssey Fitness Grand Opening, and Rumor of New LV Statue Proves False
The local area is an ever-changing landscape that is steadily shaped by construction of new structures, many of which add a distinctive style and/or function to Linda Vista and the neighboring communities. We have recently seen a spate of new residential unit construction going on along Friars Road, combined with construction of new apartment buildings in Linda Vista. However, there have also been new structural additions outside of residential developments. These kind of structures can add an additional element of variety to the local scenery, helping to alter the skyline and increase the vibrancy of our neighborhoods, while in some cases providing new services for the residents that live close by.
We spent some time this week checking out some of these new and on-going structural additions. Here is what we found.
Yesterday saw the opening of the new Carvana online car dealership in Mission Valley. As part of the opening, the trademark six-story Carvana vending machine tower became operational and ready for business. Carvana is a dealership that allows customers to select and purchase cars online. Once the car is purchased, or when the customer wants to test drive it, one has the option of having the car delivered to them, or they can choose the Carvana vending machine experience. This experience involves scheduling a time to come to the dealership where they are give a big commemorative coin to utilize the vending machine process. As explained by the Carvana web site “Customers then get a front-row seat to watch their vehicle descend through the brightly lit vending structure from the heart of the all-glass tower.”
There are currently 40 Carvana vending machine towers throughout the U.S.. They can hold up to 27 cars at a time.
This new vending machine tower certainly adds a unique and prominent feature to the Mission Valley landscape.
The second structure we visited was the one currently under construction on the Francis Parker School campus. If you regularly drive past the campus on a daily basis you have probably noticed the dramatic progress being made over the past several months. The construction will eventually culminate in a new 25-yard heated pool (7,350 square-feet) that will overlook Mission Valley, and a a two-court gymnasium with 1,100 bleacher seats, locker rooms, indoor and outdoor community gathering spaces, support spaces for aquatics, a satellite training room, professional offices, and multi-use classroom and meeting spaces. The new gym will be part of the school’s current Silberman Student Life Center.
As explained on the Francis Parker web site, “The Silberman Student Life Center is a multi-use facility that will propel Parker’s athletics, physical education programs, and health and wellness initiatives to new heights with expanded, modern spaces that complement the current Field House.”
The new pool is good news for the Linda Vista community. According to the Francis Parker website, “The Douglas Aquatic Center will also deepen summer program offerings, open new opportunities for interdisciplinary programming, and expand Parker’s public-purpose initiatives within the Linda Vista and greater San Diego communities by hosting open swim opportunities, water safety classes, and master swim programs.”
Construction on this project is expected to be completed during the Fall of 2024.
You can stay up-to-date on this project by going to parkerforward.com
Finally, we have the on-going construction of the University of San Diego’s Wellness Center and Basketball Practice Center, which began in March 2023. When completed, the new structure will feature:
Dedicated areas for fitness, wellness and athletics
Flexible rooms for exercise and health-related classes of every kind
Advanced strength training and cardio equipment
Counseling services and care advocate offices
A teaching kitchen for healthy diet and nutrition programs
Informal meeting and recreation spaces available to the entire campus community
Included in the Wellness Center and Basketball Practice Center will be a welcoming entrance and lobby (2500 square feet), a Fitness area (10,000 square feet), a Wellness Wing (10,000 square feet), and a Fitness Wing ( 23, 000 square feet over two stories).
Construction on this project is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2024.
Construction to Close Sherman/Morena Blvd Intersection
The on-going Pure Water San Diego Project that is centered around the construction of the Morena Pump Station in Linda Vista will result in upcoming temporary closures at the Sherman Street and Morena Boulevard intersection. The construction is required to install two major pipelines through that intersection. Construction will begin tonight Thursday February 29. This work will involve three weekend full closures (24 hour work) with detours, and two weeks of night work with limited traffic lanes (9:00 pm to 5:00 am).
Below is the schedule for the construction/detours:
February 29—March 4, 2024: Full intersection closure from 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 29 to 5 a.m. on Monday, March 4, where detours will be in place. Crews will be working 24 hours per day through the weekend.
March 4-8, 2024: Partial intersection closure from 8 p.m. on Monday, March 4 to 5 a.m. on Friday, March 8. Construction is scheduled for four nights from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Lanes will be limited, but traffic will be maintained through Morena Boulevard and Sherman Street.
March 8-10, 2024: No scheduled construction; intersection will be open to traffic.
March 11-15, 2024: Partial intersection closure from 8 p.m. on Monday, March 11 to 5 a.m. Friday, March 15. Construction is scheduled for four nights from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Lanes will be limited, but traffic will be maintained through Morena Boulevard and Sherman Street.
March 15-18, 2024: Full intersection closure from 5 a.m. on Friday, March 15, to 5 a.m. on Monday, March 18, where detours will be in place. Crews will be working 24 hours per day through the weekend.
March 18-21, 2024: No scheduled construction; intersection will be open to traffic.
March 21-25, 2024: Full intersection closure from 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 21, to 5 a.m. on Monday, March 25, where detours will be in place. Crews will be working 24 hours per day through the weekend.
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If you wish to receive notification of future Pure Water Project construction alerts from the City of San Diego, please go HERE.
Easy Appetizer Recipe
Farmers Market Fresh Cauliflower
One of the many things I love about our Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market is meeting and talking with people. Hearing people talk about what they cook or make from the various fruits and vegetables they can purchase at the market is inspiring to me. This includes Tomasa R. (Bayside Community Center) talking about her Mexican heritage favorites, and Caron C. (the Market Manager) talking about her many soups as you see her carrying large bundles of carrots, potatoes, celery, and more. Makes me want to throw my cans of Campbell’s tomato soup away. Well, not really, but I do like learning new things and being a non-meat eater, vegetables and fruits seem to be the way to go. Another thing I really like is cauliflower. Have you noticed everywhere you go you see cauliflower in yet another configuration? Cauliflower crust pizza, cauliflower steak, riced cauliflower and on and on.
Caron and I were talking about cauliflower the other day. We used to have a vendor who served vegan dishes one of them being cauliflower wings (buffalo and barbeque) which tasted just like chicken. They were so good I decided to make this dish myself.
I am not fond of buffalo hot sauce, so I went for the BBQ. After a little trial and error, I came up with a recipe that is easy and good. I did not invent this and there are many similar recipes on the internet, so find one you like and give it a try. Be creative with spices and sauce. And although you can use frozen cauliflower, I would just buy a head at the market and serve something not only delicious, but very fresh and full of nutrients. If you don’t eat meat and miss chicken, this will blow you away. And, it is not fried, but baked. If you eat chicken, I think you will still like this. Enjoy! And if you have a favorite recipe using market fare, let us know and we will try to give you a shout out. And we will soon get Caron to give us her soup recipe.
BBQ Cauliflower Wings (the easy way)
Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
1 cup milk or water
About ¾ cup flour
1 tsp or more of
Onion powder
Garlic powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup panko crumbs or bread crumbs
About 1-1/2 cups BBQ Sauce (I use Sweet baby Ray, but make your own or use your favorite brand).
Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Cut the florets off a cleaned head of cauliflower leaving parts of the stems on and not making them too small or too large, but bite size.
Mix in a large bowl the milk/water, flour and spices and whisk together well.
Put the florets in the batter and swirl around to make sure all are covered. Using a large bowl enables you to dump all cauliflower in at one time. If batter is too thick, thin it with more liquid.
In another bowl, put the panko crumbs
Take out the cauliflower one at a time and dip them in the panko crumbs to coat.
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.
Bake 15 minutes, flip and do another 10 minutes on the other side.
When they are done, put BBQ sauce in a bowl and coat the florets with the sauce. Place back on baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes. You can brush them with more BBQ sauce after they are done.
They are excellent served with ranch dressing along side carrots and celery. Top with some sliced green onion. Bon appetit!
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The Love, Linda Vista Farmers Market is open every Thursday from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Linda Vista Plaza Shopping Center. See you there!
Purported New LV Structure Rumor Proves False
While searching for new structures in the Linda Vista area (see our main feature article for this issue), we were provided with an exciting but highly curious lead regarding a purported newly installed statue somewhere in Linda Vista. We were very excited about the lead, because after all, when is the last time we saw a statue erected in Linda Vista? This would have been a wonderful addition to the Linda Vista landscape! Here is what happened. An anonymous source informed us of a newly completed life size statute of that popular hip hop musician, star of Corona Beer commercials, cultural icon, and all-round pot enthusiast—the one and only Snoop Dogg. According to this questionable source, the statue supposedly commemorated the newly found discovery of evidence that shows Snoop Dogg once resided in Linda Vista before achieving world wide fame. Our highly dubious source let us know that few people knew about this fact because an accompanying thick layer of smoke often hid the singer from the view of local residents. This as-it-turns-out-to-be unreliable source went so far as to insist that while living in Linda Vista Snoop Dogg was known to have started his own community garden—he kept this so-called “garden” and harvested his sole product at an undisclosed location, away from the prying eyes of authorities. Unfortunately, we are sad to say our now disgraced source was completely wrong….the so-called statue turned out to be nothing more than a three-foot high Corona Beer “La Vida Fina” promotional item currently in use at the Comstock Market (2145 Comstock Street). We are not happy about having to admit that our source proved to be so far off the mark, and we have thus placed him on double secret journalistic probation. We vow not to seriously investigate any of his wild LV-related rumors for six months. But the mishap certainly stirs the imagination in regard to thinking of how interesting it would be to have such a life size statue in our midst. Maybe one of actor Cleavon Little? Or perhaps First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt?
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