From the archives

Of special concern to North San Diego County

Ramona's grasslands, the Coaster, Fallbrook's avocados, Wildcat Canyon, the bridge between La Jolla and Del Mar

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"A good majority of them are grinders... twisted metal, and ambulances everywhere, fire trucks, police vehicles, metal-cutting tools, having to cut people out." (Joe Klein)

  • Grassy Heaven

  • Broad, open grasslands in the topography of San Diego County are the exception to the norm, which is chaparral-covered mesas and barrancas. And most of the natural grasslands, Mission Valley for example, have been developed. Two notable exceptions are the plains northeast of Lake Henshaw and the Ramona grasslands west of the town of Ramona.
  • By Ernie Grimm, Dec. 18, 2003
Outside the Cagney ranch, the rest of the grassland is broken into plots as large as 1100 and 1600 acres possessed by only four or five longtime owners. (Joe Klein)

  • How Is the Coaster Doing?

  • For nine years, the Coaster ran 100 feet from Mitchell Reiss's bedroom window in Carlsbad. Two months ago, Reiss moved from his proximity to the Poinsettia station to the South Bay "to get as far away from the Coaster as possible." The noise drove him away, as well as "other nuisances" from the trains' headlights and gathering passengers.
  • By Joe Deegan, June 3, 2004
Coaster, Solana Beach Station. "The Coaster is not a solution to the County's transportation problems. It's not a partial solution. It's not even a potential solution."

  • Grisly Grinders in Wildcat Canyon

  • Goodwin acknowledges that Wildcat Canyon has developed a reputation for being a dangerous drive and offers this explanation. "It's a two-lane roadway, it's very windy, it's up and down. Maybe the drivers have decided to go out and gamble at Barona Casino, and they drive the run too fast because they're unfamiliar with it. And there are people that drive it every day and they still drive too fast."
  • By Ernie Grimm, Nov. 29, 2001
Charles Geiser was traveling south about 3:30 in the afternoon when he found himself on the right shoulder. Overcorrecting, he swerved his '86 Toyota Camry back across the northbound lane and careened down an embankment on the other side.

  • Creamy Flesh

  • "Approximately 20 percent of the [42,000] people in Fallbrook deal with avocados in some way," says Bob Leonard, executive director of Fallbrook's Chamber of Commerce. The commercial avocado industry in the United States was founded in Fallbrook when the first avocado tree was planted there in 1912. But the city's moneymaking green fruit has seen a financially stagnant year.
  • By Barbarella Fokos, April 14, 2005
"I hate to admit, we don't buy a lot of avocados. Everyone in town has someone they know with a grove."

  • Scandal Bridge

  • The three lanes of Torrey Pines Road between the state reserve of the same name and Del Mar crown a half-mile sand berm separating the Pacific Ocean to the west and Los Peñasquitos lagoon to the east. Near the north end of the berm, the road narrows to two lanes as it crosses a concrete bridge erected in 1932. The bridge, about 100 yards long, spans the mouth to the lagoon. From underneath, it doesn't take a structural engineer to see it needs replacing.
  • By Ernie Grimm, Jan. 30, 2003
North Torrey Pines Road showing south bridge (left) in San Diego and north bridge (“high bridge”) owned by the City of Del Mar

  • Site 151’s Four Million Dollar Mansion

  • You get to Cielo from the commercial zone that's at the center of Rancho Santa Fe by driving east on Paseo Delicias, which soon becomes Del Dios Highway. The driveway into Cielo is located a few hundred yards farther east on the hilly northern side of the highway. Both "production" and custom-home sections have been designated in this community.
  • By Jeannette DeWyze, July 22, 2004
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The colonnade outside the back of the living room has been ripped out and replaced with an enormous beam.
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