Mountain Mike’s Pizza is now open for business in the Keil’s shopping mall at Jackson Dr. & Navajo Rd. The restaurant occupies the space that previously held the Navajo Community Service storefront which closed last summer because of the city’s budget problems.
Inside, a high ceiling and brick walls create an inviting atmosphere, with homemade photos hung for decoration. The seating area is divided into two open rooms, each equipped with two large flat-screen TVs tuned to sporting events. There’s a salad bar in front and a nook in back revealing several game machines.
The menu includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches, create your own or gourmet pizzas plus beer & wine. A medium cheese pizza goes for $11.99 ($1.99 each additional topping) or a medium gourmet for $17.49. Delivery charge is $2.
A calm morning at Tourmaline with a 7.4′ high tide (and kelp!) swamping the beach. As usual, you can spot at least a few longboarders out here even if waves are scarce. Click pics to enlarge.
I was saving a comment about a possible Peripheral Canal to post here at an appropriate time and today I saw two interesting perspectives on it, one from On the Public Record and the one it references from the LA Daily News. They make some good points and after reading them, now seems as good a time as any for my comment:
I’m concerned how controversial and emotional issues have clouded discussion about a peripheral canal or pipeline. As far as I’m concerned, a new delivery route around the delta is probably the only way to protect the southern half of the state against a complete cutoff of water from the north due to potential delta levee failures and saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels. As long as we’re pumping water out of the delta, that danger exists. When the breaking point for the delta is reached, it will be catastrophic for SoCal — and taking the long-term view, such a delta malfunction seems inevitable. As for the argument that a bypass development would allow greedy SoCal agribusiness and cities to take more water than ever, I believe safeguards could and should be implemented to assure it would not be used to increase the amount of water sent south. For me, the most important thing is to provide a safer route for transfers of agreed-upon amounts. Reliability and security is my concern.
[Feb 10: On the Public Record has an additional comment about north-south water transfers]
The Imperial Valley Press is reporting new action on the federal lawsuit filed Oct. 8, 2009 over the Quantification Settlement Agreement that authorizes water transfers from Imperial to San Diego. This is separate from the California Superior Court lawsuit that has been generating all of the recent news headlines.
To assist in tracking this and other issues, I’ve added a new page to collect posts about the two continuing legal actions, including new developments. The new page appears above on the menu bar as “Ongoing topics.”
Yesterday (Jan. 26), the proposal went to the San Diego City Council which approved “an Agreement between the City of San Diego and RMC Water and Environment, to perform the Project Management and Public Outreach for the Demonstration Project, in an amount not to exceed $3,281,353″ ($1,499,611 of that amount will be for the public outreach and education program).
This important item passed with a 5-3 vote, with Young, Frye, Hueso, Emerald & Gloria voting in favor. Lightner, DeMaio, and Faulconer against (the video shows the electronic vote tally at 6-2, but it turned out that Frye “playfully” pressed DeMaio’s button ‘yes’ before he could send his ‘no’ vote).
It’s true that’s a good chunk of money from the city’s tight budget, but this is a vital step towards reducing San Diego’s dependence on imported water and it should have been unanimously approved. The mayor’s continued opposition to the water reuse project is also troubling. Mike Lee from the Union-Tribune highlights the action in this report.
You don’t see it often, but Cowles Mountain in San Carlos sometimes develops a small streamlet that cascades down this rock outcrop. Some day I hope to catch it after a long heavy downpour (click to enlarge).
As nice as it was to have last week’s rains, the San Diego reservoirs that depend solely on watershed runoff, like Sutherland and Morena, are still seriously low. The city’s weekly reservoir status report from yesterday shows that Sutherland is 16.2% full and Morena is at 12.1%. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for more rain, although I’m not optimistic about the outlook for anything significant over the next couple of weeks (and there’s always this to consider–hat tip Aquafornia for the link).
Here are tentative preliminary reports used internally at the Water Department. The first report below shows rainfall data and the second is a routine weekly update, both issued yesterday (the latest public weekly reports are available at http://www.sandiego.gov/water/recreation/levels.shtml).
Storm runoff in a concrete channel overflowed and eroded the footing for the service road circling Lake Murray reservoir near the San Carlos Bay portion of the lake. The channel funnels runoff into two large pipes going under the road and apparently excess runoff that the pipes couldn’t handle flowed over the top and undermined the soil beneath the road. Possibly the pipes were leaking as well. Crews put up barriers and it appears they have already done some excavation, probably to determine the extent of damage before repairs begin.
Arian Collins, Supervising Public Information Officer for the Public Utilities Department responded to my questions with this statement: “There was some damage to the roadway due to the recent rain storms, and the road has been closed to through traffic. Staff will be inspecting the area this week to determine the amount of damage and scheduling repair. At this time, it may take up to a month before the roadway is repaired. Since this is City property, any repairs will be paid for by the City.”
Click pics for enlargement:
Point at which runoff from channel normally enters the pipes but was blocked and ran over the top (I'm standing on the right side of the road shown in the next photo)
Crews dug a roadcut to expose corroded pipes
The lake level is quite high but the ducks don't seem to mind
Update Jan 29: crews are working to build a temporary road bypass to allow through traffic until the repair project can be designed, funded, and approved. The crew supervisor told me that the two old deteriorated 48″ pipes under the road had plugged up during the storm, causing the heavy flow coming down the channel to spill over the road. He said the replacement pipes will probably be 60″ each. He also said since the damage is on Water Department property, expenses will be paid from water department funds, not from city taxpayer accounts.
Update Feb 8: the temporary repair is in place. Work on the permanent repair is expected to begin sometime in May. City Councilmember Marti Emerald wasted no time using this event for political advantage. On Feb. 3, she issued a press release headlined “Councilmember Marti Emerald Gets Fix For Lake Murray Sinkhole” (http://www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd7/pdf/100203lakemurraysinkhole.pdf). Quite disingenuous, because the Water Department had already begun temporary repairs and planning for the permanent repair and provided Ms. Emerald’s office with information about it when she made her request. The press release also calls it a pedestrian path, but it is actually a service road belonging to the Water Department which the public is presently permitted to use.
