- should developers of lower-income housing in high-density areas of san diego be required to provide the same number of parking spaces per unit as suburban areas?  healthycal.org looks at projects in lincoln park and serra mesa that have wrestled with this issue.

- the mid-city trolley route from old town to ucsd/utc has been selected and will hopefully be rolling in 2015…

- as a cyclist it’s been a relief to see some beat-up streets around town get a fresh paving, especially in hillcrest and university heights.  pacific highway near the airport has long been a minefield and that’s in the process of being stripped for re-paving now.

- academy of our lady of peace in university heights continues to bully its neighbors and the community, with plans to tear down nearby historical homes to put up a parking garage and other structures.  now they’re suing the city for stopping the project, claiming religious discrimination.  there’s a closed city hall session on monday 7/26 at 2pm; for more information, contact Dionne Carlson (dionneleighcarlson-at-cox.net) of the Between Heights Community Association Committee.

- since when did bangkok spices thai on el cajon, just west of 30th, become so popular?  the restaurant, a reliable option for cheap and spicy thai with a former-pizza-hut decor, was jammed last night past its 9:30 closing time.  each time we go it seems more people have discovered this spot, but then there aren’t a whole lot of good thai options in that area.  and the recent closing of dao son down the street couldn’t have hurt.

- thanks to san diego magazine for including sdurban.com in its list of best blogs in san diego!

shed a tear for the summer that wasn’t.  another day, another record minimum high temperature – 10 for the month now, or nearly one every other day.  after a brief taste of beach weather last week (the “5 days of summer”), it was back to the gloom again at the coast.  by any measure – ocean temps in the low 60′s, high temps on pace for the second coldest july ever, or a mere 3 days above normal out of the past 72 – this has been one bummer of a summer for beach-goers.  it’ll be warm in september, when the days are short and the ocean’s even colder.

…keeping things positive:  java jones has filed for bankruptcy. does this mean the closure of both the east village and newly-opened mission hills locations?   use up those groupon coupons if you’ve got ‘em.  and it’s the end for san diego news network, which had some interesting local stories but could have used more – looking at their final front page, nothing much jumps out as a must-read.

- searsucker is open downtown, with a grand opening set for next week.

- bike to mcasd on sunday 8/1 and get 2-for-1 admission, then take part in a bike tour of the viva la revolucion street art project downtown.

- construction on a rapid bus route from sdsu to downtown is set to begin next spring.  among the controversies: ripping out the old state theatre terrazzo and removing the center median on park boulevard from el cajon to university. while the terrazzo is worth saving, losing the median seems acceptable given the benefit to the rapid line.   and the irony of an auto museum owner at el cajon and park blasting a public transit project is, well, perfect:

“They’re putting in a bus that nobody wants and nobody needs,” Cooley said. “They’re going to shove it down our throats.”

driving past urban outfitters in hillcrest this past saturday, we were surprised to see this huge mural from san diego artist shepard fairey on the south wall of the building. the next day there was a writeup on the mural in the UT, and another article describing the san diego museum of contemporary art’s street art project, which fairey’s mural is a part of. huff post has more pics, and it’s good to see this project getting attention beyond san diego. when our city has public art like this gracing its harbor, it clearly could use a bit more edge.

here’s another picture of the fairey mural, looking northeast:

as someone who’s worked with climate researchers, this section of the mural rings especially true:

and this part, with a baton-waving cop saying “i’m gonna kick your ass – and get away with it”, is sure to ruffle a few feathers:

when we stopped by sunday to take these pictures, the mural was attracting several people who were doing the same. maybe mcasd’s project will engage san diegans in a discussion of what public art means to them, and its quantity/quality prior to this. based on the pictures in the above articles, these street art installations are a big step forward.

- true north has a fundraiser this saturday, july 24th from 3-8pm for californians against slavery, a group working to strengthen human trafficking laws in the state. from their website:

Human trafficking is a criminal business that profits from enslaving people for sexual servitude and forced labor. It is the second largest and fastest growing criminal enterprise worldwide; 12.5 Million slaves worldwide (80% women and children; 50% children); AT LEAST 100,000 American minors are sex slaves (sold by pimps); 14,500-17,500 people brought in from other countries as slaves each year

donation is $5 and includes music and other entertainment.

- five guys burgers is open in point loma, and it’s the first non-military-base location in san diego for this east coast chain. the yelpers seems to like it…

- take the san diego 2050 regional transportation plan survey to give your vision of the future of san diego public transportation.

- one bright side to the real estate collapse in miami is that more young people are able to rent the unsold condominiums, resulting in new restaurants and clubs in a formerly dead downtown. while the crash was more severe than san diego, check out this bloomberg article, which isn’t too far from what this voice of san diego piece says about vantage point downtown.

- apparently boi petro, which replaces the former yogotango spot in the gaslamp, has morphed from a frozen yogurt place to a brazilian bbq spot and salad bar… with frozen yogurt. will have to check out that strange combination next time we’re down that way…

- great to see hillcrest packed for the pride parade today, and all the people on the streets around balboa park during the festival there. we need an excuse to throw big parties like that more often. nbc san diego put together a good photo set from the festival; check out picture 78 for a great contrast between the spirit of pride weekend and its protesters. somehow our pictures from the parade didn’t turn out quite as meaningful:

park 2 park shuttle resumed service a couple weeks back and they’re connecting to hillcrest this weekend for pride. check out their pride line schedule and route map – they’ll be providing rides to the parade saturday morning and both days of the festival. cost is $10/day or $15 for the weekend. and the shuttle runs until 1:45 am on sunday morning, so you won’t miss a single gaga remix at the club. sdgln has more info.

driving to LA kind of sucks. between the traffic and crazy drivers, you’re wiped out by the time you get there. so is it possible to enjoy a weekend in this sprawling city without a car? we boarded an amtrak train (running late, of course) friday night in solana beach to find out. three hours later we were in our room at the omni downtown – they were doing a 2 nights for 1 pricing deal – after a relatively painless train/subway trip, followed by a short walk to the hotel.

the omni is next door to the recently-restored angel’s flight funicular, which first ran on bunker’s hill in 1901 when it was covered with victorians instead of skyscrapers:

across the street from the bottom of the railway is grand central market, with a variety of food vendors (ok, mostly taco stands), and produce/meat for sale. the pork and beef tacos we ordered from tumbras a tomas on sunday were massive and delicious – the picture doesn’t do justice to the sheer wall of pork stuffed in there:

around the corner from the market is the pershing square red line station. a quick transfer to the gold line got us to chinatown saturday morning for inexpensive dim sum at a packed golden dragon restaurant. from there we trekked up the hill to dodger stadium, avoiding the $15 parking fee and witnessing a beat-down by the cubs. built in 1962, the stadium is now the third oldest in the MLB and retains the feel of that era.

for this season at least, the free dodger shuttle to union station has been resurrected, and several buses were lined up outside the stadium, ready for the exodus:

since we were back at union station, we stopped by nearby olvera street, considered the birthplace of los angeles. while it’s mostly a tourist trap, it is home to some of the city’s oldest buildings.

later that afternoon i walked the mostly quiet streets downtown, although italian restaurant bottega louie was already full at 7 pm. pershing square park has some excellent skyscraper views, grassy areas and a sweet micheal jackson soda can mural:

say what you want about the gaslamp, but it has a vibrancy that was absent from LA’s downtown.

we did break our no-car rule when our friend picked us up to go out to west hollywood saturday night, but it was kind of fun to make use of the variety of public transportation options available otherwise. and seeing the sun make its beach appearance in weeks from the windows of the train home was a bright note to end the trip.

- originally set to open last month, hodad’s on broadway downtown will serve its first burger in september or october now, according to the UT. – the new york times covers the various residential and office projects popping up along the expo light rail line under construction in west LA.  notable quote:

Despite opposition from some neighborhood residents, Alan I. Casden, the chief executive, said greater density was inevitable. “Los Angeles is going to go vertical,” he said. “That’s the only way you can go. There’s no more land.”

meanwhile in san diego, the grantville action group meets thursday to block development near the grantville trolley stop in east mission valley, and caltrans’ report on adding 6 lanes to i-5 in north county is due this month.

- what would you do with that big empty lot on el cajon blvd. in city heights where pearson ford used to be?  developer price charities wants your input (well, kensington’s input, but who’s checking) – from the heart of kensington newsletter:

We have been presented with an opportunity to weigh in on what the Kensington community thinks would be an appropriate and beneficial use of the former Pearson Ford site, which will be developed by the new owners, Price Charities.  This large site is located at Fairmont and El Cajon Avenues, about a 12 minute walk from the Kensington library, and a quick 5 minute drive from Ridgeway and Palisades.  The site is zoned CU-2-4, which allows a mix of heavy commercial and limited industrial uses with residential uses, and is intended to accommodate development with pedestrian orientation and high density residential use.  This zoning allows the most density and the tallest buildings in the Mid-City area. We have been asked to provide our opinion on what goods and services residents of Kensington would like to see provided and would patronize.  The intent, as conveyed to us, is to find uses that would serve the communities of Kensington, Talmadge and City Heights. In response, we are asking that you email us with your ideas and suggestions.  Also tell us what you would not want to see located at that site.  This is a time-sensitive matter, so please respond soon, and send your responses to outreach@HeartofKensington.org or just reply to this email.

here’s one suggestion – a multi-story vietnamese market and community center, serving as the gateway to the new little saigon district.

- san diego’s summer without a summer continued right through the holiday weekend as we tied or set our fourth straight record daily minimum high temperature, and eighth in the past month.

- the proposed downtown library cleared a big hurdle this past week when the city council voted to start building it.  all that stands in the way is a mere 30 million in private donations, so if you’re interested in seeing it become a reality, consider making a donation to the san diego public library foundation.  according to the foundation, there will be a project-specific donation page in the near future, but for now just include “new central” in the comments section.

- filter cafe’s second location has opened at university and richmond and brings the outdoors in with floor-to-ceiling windows that open to the sidewalk.  open 24 hours a day, it should liven things up a bit on that stretch of university:

- also on university, the multi-colored led uplighting project is complete, with three blocks of trees lit up in patterns of alternating colors.  a very cool addition to hillcrest’s nighttime environment.

- LA has chinatown, koreatown, and little tokyo; san diego has anonymous bunches of asian strip malls scattered among kearny mesa, city heights and national city.  the little saigon foundation of city heights is taking the first step to address this by assigning its namesake to a six-block area of el cajon boulevard in city heights, from euclid to highland.  chock full of vietnamese businesses and restaurants serving authentic cuisine, street banners will be displayed and a neighborhood beautification project will be implemented.  this is a unique part of san diego that should benefit from greater visibility.

as we near the end of yet another cooler-than-normal june in san diego, let’s take a look at just how cool it was:

- the daily high never got above 70 degrees downtown.  that’s only happened four times in san diego history dating back to 1924; we should have about 14 days over 70.

- today’s high of 65 was 9 degrees below normal and tied a record minimum high temperature from 90 years ago.  this was lower than the average high for january (66).  a similar tie occurred on 6/11.  interestingly, this is described as “typical june weather” by local tv weather folks.

- only one out of the past 16 june mean monthly max temperatures has been significantly above normal (more than .3 degrees).  11 junes have been more than .3 degrees below normal.

- spring has been consistently cool too – 11 out of the past 13 mays have had monthly max temps below normal; 15 out of 17 aprils.  these kinds of trends suggest san diego’s spring climate has actually changed for the cooler (just don’t tell john coleman).

of course, compared to the cities sweltering back east we’re in pretty good shape.  but if you moved to san diego with beach weather in mind, that may have to wait until mid-july.

- this month’s GQ feature on m.i.a. includes a pit stop in san diego for her 2009 street scene set (timely, no?).  author gary shteyngart manages to diss the city more times in a single paragraph than an entire sunday LA Times:

Onstage M.I.A. is nonpareil, a stunning performer. I fly out to the San Diego Street Scene music festival to see her show. Maya has talked about “how the First World is collapsing into the Third World,” and San Diego, with its goofy-looking street rickshaws and omnipresent condo foreclosures, feels Third World these days. The festival is hot and stupid. All evening long I’ve been running into people who resemble the Family of Early Man, but things get noticeably better when M.I.A. hits the stage. Here’s a true mélange of humanity: white hippie chicks, some wayward Vietnamese young ladies, a woman wearing tight shorts with the legend girls don’t poop on her ass. Maya is rocking it in sunglasses, a tiny woman dominating a big venue, shooting off imaginary air guns as out-of-date dorks in porkpie hats shoot them right back. “Let’s pahr-TAY,” she shouts, and even though she’s tired (this gig was a last-minute thing), she’s just the best fucking dancer out there, and the chances of taking your eyes off her grinding form are nil. When it’s time for “Paper Planes,” the crowd has a collective seizure; even San Diego’s blonde navy-brat girls know every single word, follow every ka-ching, every bang!, every and take your money.

psst – you forgot to mock street scene’s semi-bankruptcy and failure to pay some artists.

- mission hills’ inaugural farmer’s market starts tomorrow, the 25th, and will run every friday from 3-7 on falcon street – which will be closed during market hours.

- ob’s street fair is this saturday and the san diego urban bike and social club will be heading down there at 11 am from adams ave bike shop.  meanwhile, denver’s bike sharing program has begun, and while the bikes aren’t quite as high tech as montreal’s bixi system, they’re still 100% better than san diego’s non-existent one:

on the bright side, registration is now available for the 2010 bike the bay event, the only time all year you can bike over coronado bridge.

- there’s a new scaled-back proposal for city hall downtown.

- we had dinner at the smoking goat in north park last night and were impressed by how much the cozy interior has improved (dim lighting and dark tones) since it was commonwealth cafe.  and just how do they get their “burger on brioche” so amazingly juicy?  duckfat truffle fries and melt-in-your-mouth pork belly were also highlights.  still haven’t made it to banker’s hill bar and grill, but if the chowhound posts are accurate, maybe we’ll continue to wait…