Leucadia Stories

Hinze appointment shows Encinitas splits

Mayor Blakespear: “She turns residents into citizens”

The January 9 unanimous appointment to the Encinitas City Council of Kellie Shay Hinze, executive director of the Leucadia 101 Main Street Association completes a singular vote for Encinitas of what one longtime community activist ...

La Costa Ave. missing time capsule found

Open next year at Old Town museum

Back in 1966, a young Dave Naylor remembers he and his father attending a dedication of the new Interstate 5 rest area at the La Costa Avenue exit, in Leucadia. He clearly recalls a time ...

Burger issue issues

Diet-friendly, but too good to be truly good

The Reader’s annual burger issue will soon be here, and we food writers have been hard at work, taking on the grueling task of eating many of the county’s best. Somebody’s gotta do it, right? ...

To dispel the rumors

Fulano's in Leucadia not what it seems

Some Leucadia residents have been wondering for years, what’s up with the Fulano’s Restaurant. The restaurant appears never to be open. But a look through the windows shows a clean, well kept, and comfortable establishment. ...

Encinitas — roundabout capital of California

There goes the funky Leucadia vibe

Six roundabouts are planned on Coast Highway 101 between La Costa Avenue, south to Leucadia Boulevard. Most will be placed one-fifth of mile from each other. Opponents say four of the traffic circles, at only ...

Meals fit for a vegan, gluten-free caveman

Meat, grains, and gluten are optional in Leucadia

What do vegan, gluten free, and paleo diets have in common? Nuts and seeds, mostly. But, if you’re in Leucadia, they also have Nectarine Grove. The counter restaurant opened a couple months ago, and, against ...

Seawall enhancement shot down

Grandview Beach homeowners lose permanent rights to stairs and concrete

Environmental advocates at the Surfrider Foundation's San Diego chapter are celebrating a state supreme court decision that overturned a challenge by homeowners on Leucadia's oceanfront who sought to remove restrictions on seawall construction permits they'd ...

Hits and misses at Le Papagayo

Fancy food with a side of music

I was invited to a going-away party at Le Papagayo recently, and the organizer was insistent that we confirm that we would be attending. “It’s not easy to get reservations on a Saturday night,” she ...

Leucadia shop talk soon to stop

“With zoning, I don’t know if the owner can move.”

An eight-unit, three-story, residential, and commercial development in Leucadia will soon replace two businesses and a home, including North County Equipment, one of the last North County small-machine repair shops. The shop’s manager, Shane, says ...

Europa Street alley is a street, say residents

Councilmembers shut down concerns over siting of underground garage

A battle over the entry to an underground parking garage in Leucadia has been decided in favor of the developer. At a public hearing on November 9, the Encinitas City Council voted to deny two ...

Encinitas' one-man beach-renaming lobby

“It's not supposed to be Beacon’s. It's Beacon.”

For years, Leucadian Doug Fiske has been pointing out that the City of Encinitas has the wrong spelling on one of its popular beaches — Beacon’s. Until now, his plea for historical accuracy has fallen ...

Traffic-signal experiment in Encinitas

“The study shows the new lights are more intuitive and lower crashes.”

Encinitas drivers are seeing a new type of traffic signal on South Vulcan Avenue, at the intersection of D Street — something not seen much in California. And some motorists have complained of dangerously making ...

Concrete concern in Leucadia

Barricades won't be used to eliminate free, informal parking

Recently, several stacks of concrete railroad ties appeared in Leucadia, at the north end of Coast Highway 101 at Avocado Street. The ties are the same industrial style as the ones used by the North ...

Atop Station White

Leucadia lookout's plaque remains intact

Most coastal North County residents probably don’t know a piece of World War II history rests on a hilltop in Leucadia. But the residents of the Skyloft condominiums, east of I-5, do. A question to ...

Bluff-top homeowners breathe easier

Encinitas council approves sand-replenishment project

The Encinitas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night (October 14) to approve a plan to try and control coastline damage from storms. The Army Corps of Engineers project would reduce bluff collapses by adding sand ...

Vet-clinic signage considered rude to some, funny to others

Just add funk

For the past several weeks, Coast Highway 101’s Coastal Animal Hospital, has created a brouhaha over its comedic signage. Currently, Dr. Brian Evans’s 4´ x 8´ highway frontage sign reads, “In Leucadia, stinky hippies are ...

Residents pooh-pooh Surfrider erosion theory

Court case over Leucadia staircase heads to state supreme court

An Encinitas bluff tour organized by Surfrider San Diego drew a host of media and disgruntled oceanfront homeowners to Grandview Beach on Monday afternoon (June 8). Surfrider representatives had organized the tour to tout their ...

Tickets issued for crossing train tracks

“Trains travel through at 35 to 73 miles per hour… Sometimes a ticket educates.”

The North County Transit District has started writing tickets for people who illegally cross their railroad tracks. The enforcement carried out by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. covers all train tracks from the Orange ...

Awesome organic tacos, but where's my beer?

Leucadia taco shop's new location not perfect, but worth it

I could have a new favorite neighborhood taco spot — at least I will, if I ever successfully make the move to Encinitas or Leucadia. In the meantime I'll just have to be content admiring ...

Roast Highway

Move over Hops Highway, the caffeine tour has arrived

Coffee tourism hit San Diego in January with the Caffeine Crawl, a series of coffee-shop tours inspired by the pub-crawl concept. This is the second year beverage marketing firm the LAB has organized the tour ...

Flooding in Leucadia damages three businesses

Heavy rain on the morning of December 12 damaged three businesses at 1002 North Coast Highway in Leucadia. After several hours of heavy downpour, employees arriving around 8:00 a.m. found four inches of water in ...

Why walk when you can drive to the beach?

Encinitas seeks funding for pedestrian walkway under railroad tracks

The City of Encinitas has been denied, twice, transportation funds for undergrounding two pedestrian railroad crossings. Having been turned down previously at the state level, SANDAG recently denied the $4.8 million grant request. The crossings ...

First-class gas for cheaper

North County station owner explains economics of local fuel biz

Gas prices along North County’s coastline — from Del Mar to Carlsbad — usually average 10 to 15 cents higher than most areas of San Diego. However a few days ago, the FOX5 morning news ...

Leucadia funk-removal machine to start up soon

City of Encinitas to remove 130-year-old eucalyptus for streetscape project

One of the last remaining tall, old, eucalyptus trees along Leucadia’s Coast Highway 101, at Leucadia Boulevard, is scheduled to come down soon. Planted in the 1880s, images on old postcards are all that remain ...

How was I-5 traffic this summer?

SANDAG plan moves forward to widen 27 miles of interstate

On August 13, with the unprecedented support of all six cities between San Diego and Oceanside, the California Coastal Commission gave the green light to SANDAG’s long-term plan to widen I-5. After the unanimous vote ...

Boom. Just like that

Lightning threat prompts lifeguards to close beaches from Solana to O'side

With locals and tourists trying to grab in a few more days of summer, the beaches in North County were suddenly closed to all activity on August 20. Starting around 4:00 a.m., an incoming weather ...

In search of coastal sage scrub

Remnants remain in some of our coastal canyons and in special reserves.

The coastal sage plant community has been nearly eliminated in San Diego County, replaced by housing developments, shopping centers, business centers, and golf courses. However, remnants remain in some of our coastal canyons and in ...

The line-up comes ashore for Fish 101

Leucadian spot is hot, but fish tacos fall just shy of fabulous

I'll make the effort for a good fish taco, even if it means hustling up to Leucadia from Golden Hill and standing in line out on the sidewalk along PCH. That's where you find Fish ...

Remember California?

Leucadia liquor store muralized

Royal Liquor, at 1496 North Coast Highway 101 in Leucadia, is the first site of a mural project by a new Encinitas area arts group named Paint Encinitas. Cardiff by the Sea artist Skye Walker ...

Encinitas: Roundabout Capital of California

Traffic circles planned for off-ramps at Birmingham Drive

Caltrans has announced future improvements to the Birmingham Drive/Interstate 5 interchange in Cardiff by the Sea — roundabouts, rather than traffic signals. The Birmingham Drive exits are the last remaining I-5 interchanges that don’t have ...

Encinitas mayor keeps campaign promise

Teresa Arballo Barth won’t run for reelection

In an announcement that stunned many supporters, populist Encinitas mayor Teresa Arballo Barth recently announced that she will not run for reelection. In her April 5 email to constituents, she cited her original campaign pledge ...

Calypso on a Baja beach

Only the Belly Up has a greater tradition of bringing live music to North County than Gilles Knafo. He opened the Calypso Cafe in 1995 as a Mediterranean-style restaurant and dinner club. His seven-night-a-week blues, ...

Leucadia resident can’t replace stairway to sand

Coastal commission says nay to Beacons Beach homeowner

A long fight by a Leucadia homeowner to try to replace a private stairway to Beacons Beach ended sharply at the California Coastal Commission Thursday, March 13, with the commission rejecting the owner's appeal. "It ...

Auction looms for Encinitas' Pacific View school

Residents aim to stop sale of parcel that was donated in 1883

Recently, Leucadia resident Scott Chatfield woke up one morning at 3:00 a.m. and realized he had to do something to save the old Pacific View Elementary School. The 2.8-acre property comes up for public auction ...

Little Leucadia post office to close?

Postage-stamp-sized building has been there since the 1940s

The United States Postal Service, in an effort to reduce continuing losses, has been looking to close, consolidate, or downsize several area post offices. While the possible closures of the La Jolla, Mission Valley, and ...

Scott Samuels takes a Fall

New solo EP dropping in Leucadia on November 2

“It’s about falling for someone and falling out of romance,” says former Roxy Dioxide singer/guitarist Scott Samuels of his solo EP The Fall, which drops this week. “It tells the story of a shallow L.A. ...

San Diego sheriffs choose 9/11 to conduct parolee check

“They could have picked a different day,” says angry parent

Arriving parents and the students they were dropping off in front of the San Dieguito High School Academy may have been concerned on the morning of September 11. From out in front of the campus ...

Café Ipé: old-school espresso for North County

Leucadia coffee house's espresso boldly challenges the artsy java of the cutting edge coffee shops

Despite the fact that Lofty gets all the credit for fancy North County java, Café Ipé (970 North Coast Highway, 760-436-2233, rhymes with eBay) is equally serious about coffee production. The coffee shop has partnered ...

Special election wins power for the people of Encinitas

They, not councilmembers, will decide density and height zoning matters

With an extremely high voter turnout for a one-issue special election, over 40 percent of Encinitas’ voters turned out on June 18 to express their opinion on Proposition A — the Right to Vote Initiative. ...

Reduction of car lanes begins on Leucadia’s Coast Hwy. 101

Plans for a bike-, pedestrian-, and diner-friendly vision

The four-lane, tree-lined Coast Hwy. 101 through Leucadia — a roadway that’s facilitated nine decades of cruising — changed on Wednesday, February 6. Since the 1930s until 1964, the highway served as the only arterial ...

Leucadia’s Calypso Cafe closes

The Calypso Cafe, which opened in Leucadia in 1995 and featured music seven nights a week for most of its existence, held its final show this New Year’s Eve. Located in a converted house, the ...

Santa art sought from Del Mar to Oceanside

One painting depicts St. Nick smoking pot

After seeing a window painting of Santa smoking a pipe and a snowman holding a water pipe at an Oceanside smoke shop, I decided to see if there were any other businesses that had pictures ...

Stiff Drinks, Bad Carpeting

Bar Leucadian gets its music permit revoked due to cocaine sales on the premises.

Encinitas Art Auction Backstory

Over 100 people turned out for Encinitas' 101 Artist Colony's banner auction on May 20. The annual art sale invited 97 local artists to submit original paintings, on white vinyl banners, that were then hung ...

Three DUI Busts After High-Speed Chase and Crash in Leucadia

A high-speed chase that started in Oceanside on Thursday night, April 12, ended in a three-car collision on La Costa Avenue at the I-5 off ramp in Leucadia. Oceanside police observed a stolen vehicle at ...

Dr. Bill and GT Surf Hwy 101

A few words about my bike. I call him GT, but his real name is GT LTS 3. He is a brute. He was born in 1998 and listed for $4295. My wife Debra bought ...

Witness Takes Keys from Stumbling Driver

In June, an off-duty firefighter was almost struck by a black BMW in the parking lot of the Leucadia Liquor Store, according to testimony in the Vista courthouse on September 12. The firefighter-witness watched William ...

Leucadia’s Eucalyptus Trees Threaten Trains?

Encinitas resident Russell Levan spoke during the public comment of the February 23 city council meeting, voicing his concern for the cutting of eucalyptus trees along the railroad corridor in Leucadia. “Where does it become ...

The Hippies Win One

On Friday, February 19, a San Diego County superior court judge dismissed a defamation of character lawsuit against the Encinitas Chamber of Commerce. The chamber’s former CEO, Gary Tucker (also the former owner of the ...

Another Perfect Day

Snapshots of all sides of our neighborhoods.

BALBOA PARK Another Perfect DayBy downtownphotoguy, June 26Today we were in Presidio Park in the morning and Balboa Park in the afternoon. We were shooting with a variety of lenses and techniques…. It seems everybody ...

Mixed-Media Leucadia

Matt Curreri of the Exfriends has been looking for a venue where he can play weekly shows, like the dive bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side where he used to play every Sunday with his ...

Road Rage

So far, 2009 has been a bumpy road for city council members in Encinitas. Several issues have damaged relations between city officials and the public. During the past several months, public outcry over cutting down ...

Leucadia Stories

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