A Tour of the EDCO Escondido Facility

The State of the Art in Solid Waste Disposal is on display at the EDCO facility in Escondido. Two of the three waste streams that city residents pay for removal are processed there. (Your grey “caddy” is for trash, which goes directly to the landfill.)

EDCO is a family owned company with a multi-generational workforce. They have had the solid waste franchise agreement with the City of Encinitas since incorporation. Their website describes the work they do like this:

With a focus on recycling, EDCO has developed an extensive network of Material Recovery Facilities, Construction and Demolition Processing Facilities, Commingled Recycling Processing Centers, Recycling Buyback Centers, Household Hazardous Waste Collection Centers, and an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Facility that is collectively designed to maximize recovery efforts. The collective resources of these facilities, supported by a wide array of front-line equipment and our dedicated team members, have allowed EDCO to create collection programs that are tailored to the unique operating conditions of local communities.

My tour last week included the opportunity to see the Material Recovery Facility, colloquially referred to as a “Murph” because of the MRF initials. I also got the chance to see the Anaerobic Digestion equipment, which was very impressive.

One of the first sorting steps is to remove all the plastic bags that are in the waste stream. Plastic bags are the bane of a recycling line’s existence.

This video shows the recyclable material, mostly plastics, after it has been through several sorting steps. The bed it is on is vibrating the material to help spread it onto the conveyor. There is a camera tells a machine that sends a burst of air through the conveyor to blast the plastic up into a vacuum hood where the material is sent to a bailer for transport to be recycled.

Pacific Ocean

On a cold day in January, I made a trip to the beach to see the King tide when it was high and was amazed to see a group of people getting ready to go for a swim. It turns out that I had happened along a half dozen people who were taking a test to see if they were fit to serve as seasonal lifeguards for the City of Encinitas. I recorded a video:

The City’s webpage that lists the details for seasonal lifeguards describes what these applicants were engaged in:

Before the interview, all candidates must pass the physical abilities test, consisting of a 550-yard ocean swim in under 10 minutes and a 150-yard run, 250-yard swim, and 150-yard run in under 8 minutes, C.P.R. skills test, and a dummy drag of 50 feet in 30 seconds (150 lbs.).

Just stepping up to take the test is impressive to me. Knowing that being hired for the job might lead to running, diving into the cold, rough ocean, swim with someone disabled in your arms, drag them onto shore and administer C.P.R. is very admirable.

Encinitas has always had a tremendous group of people willing to look after public safety, particularly along our shoreline. I’m grateful for all who have performed these duties.

Happy Hour Mixer at the Leucadian

You’re invited to attend a No Host Happy Hours at The Leucadian on October 18th, from 5–6:30 p.m. Ostensibly a Campaign Event, it’s really an excuse to get together and celebrate all that is good about our community.

The Leucadian has a long history in my family, being one of my dad’s favorite places to socialize. This habit was likely related to his Summer Job helping Charlie Caldwell with his moving business, which was only a couple blocks south, so an easy walk. They were also very fond of the purveyor, John Kentera, who was a local legend in the hospitality business.

There’s no need to RSVP and just Come as You Are! If you’re inclined to support my Campaign for Mayor with a financial contribution you can click on the button below.

The Leucadian is located at 1542 North Coast Highway 101.

Charlie Caldwell and Jerry Kranz posed for a portrait at The Leucadian a couple decades apart.

Train Horn Reform

Train horns are obnoxious and I think the Federal Rules regarding them should be changed. This post is a placeholder for the url trainhornreform.com.

An Appeals Court Ruling gets published

Home for the Holidays

Tomorrow is the first workday of the new year. The holiday celebration was very enjoyable, with the opportunity to spend time with my kids, grandkids and some siblings. I count my blessings every day and top of the list is the love I get from Cynthia and the rest of my family.

Welcome to 2022

I’ve never been a big maker-of-New-Year-resolutions. So I’m not going to call anything that. But I am going to try and start some new daily habits.

The first is to write every day. I’ve been following blogger Seth Godin now for a decade or so, and I’ve always been amazed at his daily emails of blog postings. Some are long and some are short, but they almost all provide a little food for thought. My hope is to express my thoughts on some of the issues of the day, including plenty of those that I get the chance to consider as a member of the Encinitas City Council.

Secondly, I am going to do my best to log my food intake every day. I’ve been a wearer of various FitBit watches for years now, thanks in large part to the fact that my son James works for the company. There will also be an effort to get more steps and exercise, but my top goal is to get a better grip on my intake of calories. I have subscribed to the premium version of the Fitbit App, so it will be a good chance to use more of the tools included with that to live a little healthier. Granted, I should have started on these habits at 32 instead of 62, but here we are. One of my favorite “follows” on Twitter has been tracking his food intake every day for a long time:

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As the old saying goes, “better late than never.”

Declaratory Relief Hearing Audio

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This [edit] was a bootleg recording of a judicial hearing held virtually with Judge Maas presiding in the matter of City of Encinitas vs. California Department of Housing and Community Development with Preserve Prop A as Intervenors, in an effort to get Declaratory Relief from the voting provisions of Prop A when needed to comply with state housing laws.

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My prediction is that Judge Maas will not grant Declaratory Relief.

At Grade Railroad Crossings for Pedestrians and Bicyclists

Encinitas council members Kellie Shay Hinze & Tony Kranz issued the following statement:

Safe, legal and accessible railroad crossings for pedestrians and bikes are needed urgently between Encinitas Blvd and La Costa Avenue. A $13 million grade-separated crossing is now under construction across the street from Paul Ecke Central School, but the design and engineering for a similar project in the northwest part of Leucadia hasn’t been fully budgeted, nor have the resources to build such a project been identified.

Long-anticipated improvements—including the North Coast Highway 101 Streetscape Project, expansion of parking areas west of the tracks and grading along Vulcan—utilize the North County Transit District (NCTD) railroad right-of-way and increase the community's use of the corridor. However, east-west connections are lacking. Installation of post-and-cable fencing began this week as part of the construction of parking improvements on the west side of the corridor in Phase 1 of the Streetscape project. Additional fencing will be constructed in the near future depending on the appropriate timing for the projects currently underway. The fencing is designed to keep accidents from occurring once parking and pathways are installed closer to the railroad and also to deter east-west crossing of the tracks.

With fencing imminent, the imperative to deliver sensible, safe crossings rises to top priority. Grade-separated crossings are less logical in this stretch of the NCTD corridor where flat topography will likely require the construction of significant retaining walls to get under the tracks. Additionally, the surrounding community favors multiple crossings rather than a single location in the 1.3 mile stretch. An at-grade approach could likely be more cost-effective and deliver more frequent crossings than a single undercross.

For over a century, the community informally (albeit illegally) crosses the tracks in a corridor that lacks reasonable alternatives within a 1.3 mile stretch.  Informal historic access favors able-bodied folks willing to risk the legal and financial costs of crossing where no legal alternative exists. A comprehensive plan to pursue at-grade crossings will, for the first time, create crossings safe for all ages and abilities. Families with strollers, wheelchairs, bikes, strollers, skateboards and scooters will be able to access beaches, businesses, parks and schools for the first time without incurring safety or legal risks. 

In an effort to accelerate the process of building safe and legal at-grade pedestrian crossings, a meeting between city and NCTD staff members, representatives from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) convened to explore the feasibility of at-grade bike and pedestrian crossings between La Costa Avenue and Leucadia Boulevard. At-grade crossings are the same type of safe crossings as the six which have been in use for the last 15 years in the City of San Clemente.

An example of a bike and pedestrian only crossing in San Clemente.

An example of a bike and pedestrian only crossing in San Clemente.

If this approach is supported by the city council, as a first step, city and NCTD staff will conduct an analysis to assess whether building San Clemente-style bike and pedestrian at-grade crossings would improve the overall safety of the railroad corridor. If the study provides data to support San Clemente-style at-grade crossings in Encinitas, a design consultant would be hired to prepare a package for submission to the CPUC and FRA for approval.

Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, whose legislation (AB 1017) signed by the Governor in 2019 to ensure more technical assistance for communities implementing at-grade pedestrian rail crossings, supports the city’s plans to bring safer crossings to Encinitas. Understanding the urgency of the issue, she has pledged her office’s assistance in navigating the regulatory approval process should the project advance to this stage.

To be sure, the costs of at-grade crossings are not insignificant, and pivoting to this alternative approach has not been considered by the full city council yet. But we are willing to work with all interested parties to accelerate the pace of finding solutions to address the need for more safe and legal crossings of the railroad corridor.

Post and cable fencing between the railroad corridor and the bike and pedestrian area along the rail trail in San Clemente.

Post and cable fencing between the railroad corridor and the bike and pedestrian area along the rail trail in San Clemente.

Short Term Vacation Rental Community Discussion

Join this Open Forum on Zoom to discuss the pros and cons of short term vacation rentals in our community. Neighbors with concerns and property owners providing transient housing are both encouraged to join in the conversation so that we can work together to make our city better.

Click here to register for the Zoom session to be held on January 21st at 6:00 p.m.

We’re hoping to hear from neighbors of STVR units as well as those who are operating them. We will use the feedback to prepare some points for discussion with the full city council.

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"Leucadia" Cover to close the campaign of 2020

Serving on the Encinitas City Council for two terms has been a tremendous honor. One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about the opportunity has been helping people solve problems. This video, produced by jazz guitarist Peter Sprague, describes one of those times and closes with a cover of the song “Leucadia” which was written by a dear friend of mine from the days of my youth, Diana Monzeglio.

I’m running for re-election to serve a 3rd term and I think it is a fitting way to wrap up the campaign season of 2020. Get out and VOTE!

Diana Monzeglio wrote and recorded her song "Leucadia" for the KGB Homegrown IV album in 1977. She was a beautiful soul who died of cancer in 1992 at the age...