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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Ja! Es ist ein flugzeug!
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From a distance, this plane may look like many others. But when it touches down, it inaugurates the first regularly scheduled service by Lufthansa* Airlines to San Diego.
*luft = air, hansa = convoy
With its subsidiaries, 91 year old Lufthansa is one of the world’s largest airlines. Starting today, March 22nd, they will make five weekly nonstop roundtrips between San Diego and Frankfurt*.
*frank = frank (on an ancient) furt = ford, which means it’s either on a “shallow place in a river or stream allowing one to walk or drive across”, or it’s situated on the bed of an F150.
There's room for 279 passengers. If you join them, what will you do when you arrive in Frankfurt? Probably sleep off the jet lag. (It’s a 12+ hour flight.) Then, you might visit the Main Tower.
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It has a great view of this 2,000 year old city.
There’s a restaurant in the Tower. You could dine on rippchen (pork) with sauerkraut or schweinshaxe (pig knuckles) and mashed potatoes. Just hope they don’t weigh you before you board your return flug.
If you’re ready to go, super! We’re not sure there’s space on the flight out at 4:50 this afternoon. It may be filled with Frankfurters. And the next non-stop we can find is a bit pricy – $4,026.
(What’s in your wallet?) But you do get pampered!
It’s probably best to stay here today, and head to a spot that surpasses the view from Frankfurt’s Main Tower.
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Journey to the Old Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument.
Climb the stairs!
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The tower is open to visitors until 3:30 this afternoon!! That happens just three times a year!
Later, scoot (or LimeBike) over to PLA member Stone Brewing at Liberty Station for happy hour. Sip a pale ale, wait for 4:50pm, then look up-in-the-sky, and wave as Lufthansa flight #467 passes overhead and rises high into the luft.
Then lift your lager and exclaim…
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Point Loma does not have a “Cannon” Street. Do you suppose this sign actually belongs somewhere else?
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‘Fraid not.
Work is underway, and our curvaceous Cañon Street is another road to avoid for the next couple of months.
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Two newsletters back, we touted hiking the Cañon canyon trail, and pointed out how neat and clean it’s kept under the guidance of our PLA Green Team.
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So the road’s closed until mid-May. As for the trail, the top part was inviting earlier this week.
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But a cyclist, tearing down the path toward the Village, got only this far before being chased back up the hill to ride on the street.
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It’s the pipes! The pipes are calling coming!
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There’s always one guy on a phone, right?
We bet he’s the one calling…calling for more pipes.
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Sometime we feel they are stalking us…
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The Catalina Boulevard Emergency Pipeline Replacement Project (a long name for a long project) will be entertaining us through June.
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In case you’ve been avoiding that road, here’s a peek at what you missed this week near the new Fire Station.
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Projects on major thoroughfares like Catalina, Cañon and Rosecrans get our attention. But around most any corner is another torn up mess!
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Here it’s sidewalk renovation in a neighborhood near Point Loma Park.
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If no one’s digging in your block, look for markings like these…
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That means…they’re coming!
And this outpost has been around about as long as Jensen’s!
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Here’s the deal. People love to complain.
If our roads ride like railroad tracks, and our water system spews geysers or leaks sewage, we gripe. But when fixing the infrastructure inconveniences us, we whine even louder.
It must be a basic American right. Like yelling at the ump.
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Goodness, gracious, great sticks of fire!
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Folks call them sticks on fire, sticks of fire, fire sticks or red pencil trees. Almost no one calls them Euporbia tirucalli. But that’s their name.
Having seen some pretty big ones recently, we wondered – if not pruned, how big could they grow? Most sources say six to eight feet, maybe twelve if they’re over-achievers. Other sources describe some of these succulent shrubs reaching 25’ high and 8-10’ wide!
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The bright, reds and golds of winter fade somewhat during summer. Color is always most brilliant when sticks get full sun.
They are drought tolerant and native to places in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and India.
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Don’t remember seeing fire sticks when you were a kid? Apparently, they were introduced to our area in the 1980s.
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Part of the popularity may be…cut off a branch, stick it in the ground, and a new plant grows!
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The fire in these sticks is not simply the hot colors. The white sap is a toxic latex that can burn skin. Wikipedia says the sap, “can, with little effort, be converted to the equivalent of gasoline…It has also been used in the production of rubber, but this was not very successful.” Huh?
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Where Am I?
It’s a two-fer this week. A couple of nautical novelties.
One is located near the water. The other is not.
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Too easy? We’ll make ‘em tougher in April.
As always, follow the news to find the answers.
Correction to,
“Where Am I?” March 8, 2018
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The Dr. Seuss Tree is located where
Catalina meets Point Loma Avenue.
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Everyone is welcome!
As we often point out, our monthly Point Loma Association Board meetings are open to anyone. Attending lets PLA members get the latest scoop and nonmembers learn what we do.
City, County, State and Federal liaisons report news to the Board, field questions and carry community concerns back to our elected officials.
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Last week, unannounced, our Councilmember, Lorie Zapf, dropped in for coffee and a chat. She shared district news and then joined us for the rest of the meeting.
Beyond that, Ms. Zapf stayed another 45 minutes, visiting with Board members.
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Best of all, she met some of our newer Directors and listened to our project ideas, most of which will need City blessing and assistance.
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We thank Lorie Zapf for her continued support of programs benefiting District 2, and especially our Peninsula community.
The PLA Board meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 am, upstairs at Bali Hai on Shelter Island.
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PLA Directors
This week we salute two Board members who count pennies and deliver information:
Our Treasurer and Our Communications Chair.
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Ted Walker Shannon Brown
Click the photos to get to know us.
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Quality of Life Issues
Addressing them is part of our PLA core mission.
In recent months, extra efforts and extra shifts by SDPD officers have made a noticeable improvement in things like the number of panhandlers at busy intersections.
So the PLA Public Safety Committee welcomes the news that the department is expanding the program with new leadership and an increased presence. Read all about it!
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Presents…
A PLA Peninsula Community Conversation
Tuesday, April 17th, at UPSES Portuguese Hall
It’s like NextDoor but without the typing.
We will meet, face to face, in person… and talk.
So it’s more like getting coffee.
But instead of coffee, there will be free food and a bar.
Leaders from Peninsula, Ocean Beach and Midway planning boards, OB Town Council, Ocean Beach MainStreet Association and the Point Loma Association will discuss things that affect all of us.
Find out what each group does. Discover how they work together, sharing concerns, collaborating on solutions, learning from one another and speaking with a unified voice to advocate for our neighborhoods.
Social hour at 5:30pm
· Greet friends and neighbors.
· Free food!
· Open Bar
· Community Organization Displays
Program at 6:45pm
· Submit questions that night, or in advance here!
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Midway Chevron Expansion
Earns Two Cheers From PLA!
When the Auto Scrubber closed a long time back, weeds and vandals took over, leaving blight on the block.
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Neighboring Chevron purchased the property to expand their fuel station and convenience store and to build…yep, another carwash.
Over the past months, two good things happened.
Number one, the Scrubber got scraped.
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Number two, Chevron’s plans to sell beer and wine got scrapped.
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After last summer’s failed attempt at approval for alcohol sales, the latest building permit application specifically eliminates that option.
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So unless there are other, unforeseen issues with this plan, we look forward to speedy approval and construction – before the weeds flourish again.
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If you build it
(in the middle of an intersection),
they will bump into it.
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For a classy, classical neighborhood – the east-west streets are named alphabetically for famous authors – Loma Portal’s positioning of street lamps in the middle of intersections, to create a slight round-about, probably seemed thoughtful and calming.
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They are iconic.
But they are an anomaly.
They surprise folks. And not always in a good way.
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In the dark of night (with their lamps burning brightly above) the posts are especially prone to jumping in front of vehicles.
The City wants to make them more visible, in hopes of protecting the posts and the distracted drivers playing bumper cars.
Voila! La solution au problème!
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Soon, many of the intersections in the neighborhood will be reflecting – literally. Below is the list.
We can hear Oprah exclaiming, “You get a reflector, and you get a reflector, and…yada, yada, yada!”
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| Intersection |
Street light (yes/no) |
| Curtis St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Curtis St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Curtis St. and Willow St. |
Yes |
| Curtis St. and Plum St. |
Yes |
| Curtis St. and Clove St. |
Yes |
| Dumas St. and Clove St. |
Yes |
| Dumas St. and Willow St. |
Yes |
| Dumas St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Dumas St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Elliot St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Elliot St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Elliot St. and Willow St. |
Yes |
| Freeman St. and Willow St. |
Yes |
| Freeman St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Freeman St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Goldsmith St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Goldsmith St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Homer St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| Homer St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Ibsen St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Ibsen St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| James St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
| James St. and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Kingsley and Locust St. |
Yes |
| Kingsley St. and Evergreen St. |
Yes |
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Sure hope this does not interfere with holiday decorations!
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As featured in the…
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Green Team Doin’ Their Thang
In case you’re keeping score, in February, the PLA Mean Green Team donated 215 hours to our community, maintaining landscaping, erasing graffiti and picking up trash.
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Winter is the time to encourage rose bushes to burst with blooms in the months ahead. The Hugh Story Memorial Rose Garden at Liberty Station gets special attention – pruning, mulching, making amends (adding amendments) to the soil.
Stand by for…
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Tomorrow the Greeners celebrate the first Friday of spring by working at Ed's Triangle, at the northern end Nimitz Blvd.
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Dick Lareau is an Over Achiever
Dick is ninety years old. And competitive!
He and PLA Green Team member extraordinaire, Karen Davis, share a community garden. They usually have a contest to see who can grow the biggest, most beautiful tomatoes.
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So, honestly, we’re not sure why we received this particular photo of Lash Lareau.
That’s certainly no tomato.
(Dick is a peach. But that’s another story.)
We’re pretty sure the humungous green growth he’s holding is broccoli.
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As much as we admire the broc’, we certainly hope there are tomatoes on the horizon. Nobody wants a BLB sandwich.
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Cute Little Yellow Flowers
or
Problematic Invasive Weeds?
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Guess it depends on your point of view. Could be both. We do know, if you try to banish the stuff by pulling out the creeping roots you may go crazy. Not that we’ve done that. Recently.
These drought tolerant, herbicide resistant invaders must sneak in at night and take root.
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Still, it’s odd that they populate one yard and avoid a neighbor’s.
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Rather than view them as spoilers, we’re trying hard to consider them decorations.
We’ll let you know how that works out.
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Deep Roots
One hundred fifty years ago this morning, Louis Rose was making plans for Roseville. Did you know Lou’s daughter, Henrietta, taught at Cabrillo Elementary School?
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Actually, in 1895, she was the first teacher assigned to Roseville Elementary. The flourishing community soon outgrew that school, and it was replaced by Cabrillo.
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Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo Elementary School is 112 years old! It has a Sister School relationship with the Grundschule in Neuhaus-an-der-Oste, Germany, where Louis Rose grew up.
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In spite of its rich history and significance to the Peninsula, Cabrillo Elementary has not always thrived.
Over the years, demographics changed. Families grew older. Home prices grew beyond the reach of young buyers – even some native born.
School attendance dropped. Just five years after celebrating the school’s 100th anniversary, San Diego Unified District targeted the school for closure.
That plan was abandoned, or we’d probably have condos there by now.
Today, more students attending Cabrillo come from beyond the neighborhood than within. Many live with single parents. Seventy five percent are from military families, often with one adult deployed. Seventy percent of students are Title 1, qualifying for free or discounted meals.
Not many parents have time or energy to volunteer at the school.
But good things are happening!
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Last spring, the Point Loma Optimist Club donated $12,400 toward the school library.
Over the holidays, The Point Loma Assembly and La Playa Books collected more than 400 books for the students.
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They have books. They have students. They can always use readers – especially for the younger children. Reading is rewarding! Contact Principal Irene Hightower. (619) 362-4000.
The Point Loma Assembly also donated funds to refurbish the school’s garden boxes.
As spring arrived, super handyman and composting king, Jody Rogers, transformed a wilderness of weeds into fresh palettes for planting
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Some students could be Master Gardeners of the future. How wonderful it would be if Master Gardeners of the present would lead garden tutorials for them in the months ahead.
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Might you be such a person? If so, please contact PLA’s Cecilia Carrick: ceciliacarrick1@gmail.com
Cabrillo Elementary School.
Part of our history…part of our future!
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A Light Wrap
That’s good apparel for an evening stroll through Point Loma Village as winter glides into spring.
It’s also a nice decoration for the trees that line the sidewalks in the heart of our community.
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Today we say, thank you to David Zedaker (Zed Electric), Jeff Bruhn (Atlas Tree Service) and past PLA Chairman Robert Jackson, for providing a light wrap for more trees along Rosecrans.
Bringing a canopy of lights to this part of our community is a longtime dream. If only it didn’t take electricity!
Seriously. That’s a big issue! Solar panels just don’t provide enough juice. Someday. Not yet.
Stringing wires, securing power, protecting components, consulting with owners and tenants – complicated!
But our PLA Projects Committee is dreaming big. Wish us luck!
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Do you know the history of Nati’s?
In the 1950s – before it plated enchiladas and tostadas – Nati’s served up Mexican folk art and crafts.
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What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Our PLA Newsletter arrives in your mailbox just twice a month. That’s our frequency. Occasionally, we send an additional short post to alert you to a PLA event or share big news.
Expect to get a quickie on April 12, promoting something special.
We do not want to wear out our welcome!
However, it often happens that, minutes, hours or a day after we publish, we learn something important to report.
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Rather than risk bugging you, we post it here.
It's on the front page of our PointLoma.org website, in a box on the right side titled, “The Latest…”
We hope you will check that link occasionally. We try to make it worthwhile.
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Breathe Deep
The Gathering Gloom
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Breathe deep and relax. This too shall pass…for sure by November 15, 2019.
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By that date, Clear Channel Outdoor Incorporated has agreed to remove the billboard behind the Dolphin Motel.
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Far out!
Yeah. But not that far out.
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Liberty Station Aquatics Center
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Here’s a story that’s been (floating) around for years. There’s gonna be swimming at Liberty Station. Nearly a year ago we linked to an article posted on the SDNews.com website, titled, Liberty Station pool plan now in bid process. Turns out it was a repost of an article Dave Schwab wrote in June, 2014!
We’re quite sure this recent article about the subject is up to date information. But excuse us for withholding our hurrahs until we see the cool, blue water. We first got our hopes up in 2002, when the general development plan for NTC Park included “an aquatic center complex with a 50-meter pool, a 25-meter instruction pool and a family area with interactive water play elements and other amenities.”
Over the years, our floatie deflated.
But as always, we remain optimistic.
We are, “the pool’s half-full” people.
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This PLA Gold Level Business Member is also the 2017 Gold Award Winner favorite in the Peninsula Beacon’s recently released Readers Poll.
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Paul Pate has assembled a great crew. Give ‘em a try! And when you make your appointment, congratulate them for being a multiple-year winner of this recognition. And please thank them for supporting your Point Loma Association!
Remember, super clean windows let you enjoy golden rays of spring sunshine during the day and the twinkling downtown skyline with that giant finger of light thing at night.
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For a link to the complete Open House Guide, click the yellow arrow above.
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Where Am I?
The Answer(s)
This is an easy one.
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This artwork stands in front of Silver Gate Yacht Club on Shelter Island.
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They’re not real anxious to see you unless you have a membership card. And if you’re goin’ to Humphries fugetaboutit!
But we’re sure it’s okay if you stop on the sidewalk and look up.
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The piece is called, Homecoming, designed by TJ Dixon and James Nelson.
The guy on the pole is theirs.
But buff sailorman needed a mast to show he wasn’t just hanging on a flag pole.
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So, Point Loma’s Brian Thomas (Thomas Marine) designed and built the mast that makes it ship-shape.
Brian is also a PLA consulting contractor, helping us crawl toward final approval for installation of Taiji, the kinetic artwork destined for Nimitz Boulevard media.
As for this…
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It’s the sign that wishes you well as you as you walk out the door at Jensen’s Foods. "Jensen’s – no membership required!"
On a bright day, you might not notice the soft colors of the sign as you squint toward the doors.
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(It’s also a little difficult to photograph.)
Why the nautical motto? Co-owner Adam Zack says,
When we were thinking about the exit we decided we just didn't want the traditional (and boring) Thank you for shopping!
We were first going to use "Tango Mike", a military term used to sign off. Turns out it is more of an Army term, which a co-worker of my wife who is Navy reserve pointed out. He suggested the Fair Winds and said it would be more meaningful because Point Loma is such a Navy area.
Now you know the rest of the story.
As we exit today, we leave you with our motto…
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Archived we are!
Here’s a great way to turn back time and check out previous editions of our Point Loma Association e-Newsletter.
It's also an easy way to send a link to a friend.
Visit our PLA e-News Archives.
Thanks for letting us into your day. Have issues, comments, suggestions or story ideas? Please let us know.
YOU ARE THE POINT!
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Are You A PLA Member? Need To Update Your Membership?
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