One of LV's Worst Roads?
Plus: LV News Briefs, Zgara Greek Grill, Trash Technology Commentary, and LV Update Visits the East Coast
The Linda Vista Update
A major gripe of many San Diego residents continues to be the condition of our roads. The Linda Vista Update has highlighted some of these rough, potholed, crumbling streets in past issues, to include the condition of some patches of roads slurry sealed only to revert to pothole conditions a year or two later. And then there is the issue of the City successfully slurry sealing roads only to have them dug up months later to address various construction/sewer/utility line issues. The bottom line is that though the City has made improvements, our cars’ tires and axles continue to take a beating.
In keeping with the spirit that insists San Diego roads are still in need of much improvement, a couple weeks ago we came across a road that we believe should be recognized as one of the worst in San Diego…and to make matters worse, the road happens to be inside the Linda Vista boundaries, or at least we think it is inside Linda Vista boundaries. Let us explain.
The street deserving of special recognition is a short stretch of Armstrong Street in the extreme northeast limits of Linda Vista, or as we said, we think it is inside Linda Vista. You can find the street by traveling north at the Linda Vista Road and Mesa College Drive intersection. Turn left at this intersection and go past Kearny High and then past the Army National Guard Complex. Right before heading into the San Diego Mesa College grounds, turn left at Armstrong Street. As you drive on this stretch of road, which swerves further north just a block away at the gates of the San Diego Center for Children, you will be confronted by numerous potholes, grooves, and roughly patched over potholes. We caution…DON’T DRIVE TOO FAST. You don’t want to damage your vehicle. Though there are definitely longer stretches of road in San Diego that are in bad condition, and many with deeper potholes, we contend that inch-for-inch this stretch of Armstrong street deserves recognition for the intensity of its roughness. Your car will definitely get a work out traveling on this street segment. In fact, if you want to prepare your vehicle for the Baja 500, I suggest this might be a street to visit.
How long has it been this way? Who knows? How did it get in this bad a condition? That remains a mystery. We do, however, have our theories. For one thing, this road lies near the boundaries of three communities…Linda Vista, Kearny Mesa, and Clairemont, which also means three different City Council districts. If you look at the official Community Plans for each of these communities, you will find the respective maps are a bit confusing as to which community owns this segment of Armstrong Street. We think it belongs to Linda Vista, however, the Park and Recreation Center that sits along Armstrong Street is called the Kearny Mesa Park and Recreation Center. It’s quite possible each community assumed the other two communities were taking responsibility for advocating for this street’s maintenance. Or maybe none of the three communities want to claim it. This could be an orphan street, waiting for someone to come along and adopt it. How sad. Perhaps this is the street that San Diego forgot.
Another theory….With the street lining the northern perimeter of the California National Guard Complex, is it possible the heavy equipment vehicles maintained by this military unit have taken their toll on this road? Or has the National Guard intentionally destroyed this road in order to train its drivers for Third World road conditions? That does make some sense.
What is ironic about this stretch of Armstrong Road is that it ends at the entrance to the San Diego BMX track, a place where bike riders race up and down and around obstacles to challenge their skills. With just a little more deterioration, with slightly deeper potholes and grooves, this stretch of Armstrong could serve as a challenging BMX track for riders willing to risk their wheels and tires.
LV News Briefs:
—Renovation at Hazard Center: Hazard Center in Mission Valley will be undergoing an expensive renovation and rebranding. The Center’s new name will be “The Landing at HZRD”, and it will be reimagined as a “curated living destination.” You can read more about the ambitious plans for Hazard Center by clicking HERE.
—Eloise Battle Street Naming Honor: The City of San Diego recently honored the late Tecolote Canyon advocate Eloise Battle with the honorary naming of Eloise Battle Boulevard. Ms. Battle passed away on March 28 at the age of 95. You can read her obituary HERE. The request to honor Ms Battle with this street name honor was made by District 2 City Councilmember Dr. Jennifer Campbell. Councilmembers are allowed to recognize two individuals with honorary street names per each term in office.
—USD Torero Baseball: The University of San Diego baseball team, which finished in first place in the West Coast Conference’s (WCC) regular season play, will be participating in the Conference’s post season tournament this weekend (at Las Vegas Park). Winning the tournament will qualify the Toreros for the NCAA playoffs.
—Sign up for Inside SDPD: The next Inside SDPD event will take place on Saturday June 7. Inside SDPD, conducted by the SD Police Foundation in partnership with the SDPD, provides San Diego citizens with the opportunity to see what life is like for San Diego police officers. The program enables participants to experience various activities related to law enforcement/police training. Register HERE now to ensure you reserve a spot to attend this unique, fun and informative event. Check out the flyer below for details.
Delicious Zgara Greek Grill on Morena Blvd
Since we are currently waiting for new restaurants to open and then review in Linda Vista, we decided to revisit a place we reviewed probably three years ago — Zgara Greek Grill — thereby killing two birds (figuratively) with one stone. One satisfying our ongoing desire for healthy Mediterranean food, and two, our need for a review for the Update. We knew we liked the food back then, and hoped we would have an equally satisfying experience this time.
Zgara Greek Grill is at 1229 Morena Blvd. Although located in western Linda Vista, it is very convenient, so down the hill we went for lunch on a recent weekday. Their hours are 11AM to 8PM Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday. There is adequate parking as many people call in advance for take-out. That business was quite brisk that day. Zgara has lunch specials before 4PM, including Gyro sandwich, fries and can of soda for $13.51 or Rice with your choice of meat, served with pita bread, tzatziki and a can of soda for the same price. You can do add-ons; their prices are listed online. They have combo meals after 4PM. Also sandwiches in pita including pork, chicken, falafel, veggies and more in the $10 range. Many platters are available in the evening. They have appetizers including feta, dolmades, falafel, spanakopita and numerous sides including fries and rice. Check out their website for a complete listing.
Although most dishes include meat of some kind, we were able to find vegetarian friendly meals. Steve ordered a veggie sandwich which included roasted peppers, fresh vegetables, and fries wrapped in warm pita bread with hummus.
I ordered my favorite veggie, portabella mushrooms which included two giant portabella mushrooms with roasted peppers, artichokes and warm pita bread.
Steve loved his sandwich. It contained besides roasted peppers, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and he said to mention that the fries were just a guilty pleasure but everything else was fresh, tasty and screamed healthy. I gave him a piece of artichoke and mushroom to add to his sandwich. He did not give me a fry to add to mine. No surprise.
My meal was delicious. The mushrooms were so big I brought one home for another meal along with some roasted peppers. They seemed to be finished with a delicious balsamic vinegar and olive oil sauce which I mopped up with my warm pita bread. We both found the warmed pita excellent. I’ve recently started making my own pita bread but this was way better.
Our meal was less than $20.00 including soda. Quite a bargain for the amount of food. There is no outside dining, but the inside is quite attractive, light and airy and the staff very friendly. We will certainly be going back and hope you give it a try. The road situation on Morena Blvd seems to be getting better and while we were down in that direction we went to the new Eloise Battle Blvd. named for the protector of Tecolote Canyon.
Commentary
Who Will be Checking Your Trash?
As San Diego awaits the fate of the controversial new trash collection service, which will end up costing SD property owners a still undetermined amount of money, I am left wondering about the implications of the new technology associated with this supposed “world class trash service”. One feature of the proposed plan involves replacing all trash cans and arming the new ones with an RFID (radio frequency identification) microchip which will enable the City to monitor if/when the bin was picked up. According to one article, “The chips do not record or send live location data. Instead, they transmit a unique identifier to RFID readers on garbage trucks. When a truck lifts and empties the container, the chip communicates with the reader to log the time and date of collection. This information will be stored in a database, similar to the city’s Get It Done platform.” The City’s intent in using these chips is to help provide better trash collection service. It all sounds so innocent, right?
However, critics of the proposed plan fear such technology will eventually lead to surveillance of residents. It’s just a matter of time, they say, before some agency in the City bureaucracy will want more information about individual resident trash habits or whatever else can be surveilled from the contents of trash bins.
You might say such concerns are greatly overblown. After all, the City has promised that there is no interest in collecting individual resident information. The sole motivation is “world class trash service.”
Nevertheless, an article I recently read about recycling services in the state of Washington tells me that greater technology always leads to greater surveillance. The article points out that enhanced technological features are going to be launched in cities like Olympia, where cameras, computers and global positioning systems will be used to “encourage more and better recycling.” All this technology will be used to examine the contents of recycling bins and then provide residents with feedback on their recycling efforts. It is hoped residents will then make a better effort to only include accepted material in their recycling bins.
This is a bit scary. If such “smart bin” technology eventually comes to San Diego, and it probably will, I don’t want to receive a bad report card from the City. I don’t want to go to any “Remedial Recycling Class” because my trash or recycling feedback was so poor. That would be embarrassing. I don’t want to go to a social gathering and listen to other people brag about the positive feedback they received from the City. I can just hear it now from certain individuals…”The City feedback I received said I had the best trash. I am in the top percentile of all trash scores on my block.” And listening to people from La Jolla would be unbearable as they said things like “The City said my trash was very exclusive. Very expensive and luxurious. I’m so sorry to hear about the trash from Linda Vista.”
I can understand the appeal of “world class trash service”, but I think it’s best to reject this proposed City trash collection service plan, at least the technological aspect. Let’s keep our trash bins “dumb”. I don’t want to participate in any “No Trash Bins Left Behind” movement that aims to elevate the quality of everyone’s trash through greater surveillance and critical comments that will only hurt my feelings.
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A reminder that the City Council will be meeting on June 9 to discuss the proposed plan for trash collection service. Property owners have until that time to send in their postcards indicating disapproval of the plan and the intended trash collection fee.
LV Update Goes on the Road
Trip to Worcester, Massachusetts
We mentioned in a previous newsletter issue that we recently traveled to the Boston area and that I would explain more about this trip at a later time. We didn’t publish last week because Steve had an eye surgery, but he is now fine and so I wanted to finally tell you about our trip to Worcester (pronounced Wuus-ter), Massachusetts. I have to do this because Steve is too modest to talk about himself, but I sure don’t mind.
Worcester, Massachusetts is a famous baseball town. The poet, Ernest Thayer, was born in Lawrence MA in 1863 but spent his formative years in Worcester. You probably know him for his poem, “Casey at the Bat”, which is the single most famous baseball poem ever written. Since 2021, Worcester has been the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Their games are played at Polar Park.
Now that you have a little history, here is the rest of the story. For the past three years, Worcester has hosted the National Baseball Poetry Festival (largely because of its history with Ernest Thayer) which accepts baseball poem submissions from all over the world throughout the year. After a rigorous judging period, winners are invited to Worcester to be honored at the Festival held at Polar Park, to read their poems at a couple of venues, and to see the “Woosox” play a game. The entertainment includes an appearance of a “Casey’ impersonator, and dignitaries such as the Worcester Poet Laureate. City officials and local business sponsors also attend. All that is to say that a baseball poem submitted by Steve was selected as one of the winners, so we got to partake in all the baseball/poetry festivities. It was very exciting and quite an honor for Steve. His poem received many accolades, and I just thought I should share the experience with our readers, many of whom enjoy the LV-related poems he includes in this newsletter (a few of which have also been published.) Steve played baseball growing up and in college, and today suffers as a fan of the Padres, so it is appropriate that he be honored for his poem.
It was great for me because we got to eat lobster rolls and lots of other good things. Sorry I couldn’t review them. So, if there is ever an election for Linda Vista Poet Laureate, my vote goes for Steve. In case you wondered, his poem had to do with an old ballpark in his hometown of Ontario, California, where he played growing up and which attained fame by being featured in such films as A League of Their Own, The Babe, and Eight Men Out. Unfortunately it burned down last year, and sentimentality for the park prompted the poem.
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Congratulations on your baseball poem recognition, Steve!