San Diego Community Newspaper Group
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 15, Number 2
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
Coastal cleanup calls for volunteers BY ANTHONY GENTILE | VILLAGE NEWS
This weekend, beaches and inland water areas throughout San Diego will be getting a facelift. The 25th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day is planned for Saturday, Sept. 19 from 9 a.m. to noon. “It is one of the largest volunteer events in the state and in San Diego County,” said Alicia Glassco, the event’s coastal coordinator representing San Diego Coastkeeper. “It’s a great way to spread an environmental message and also a community awareness message against littering.” At last year’s cleanup, 8,000 volunteers gathered about 160,000 pounds of trash. Glassco said she expects nearly
10,000 volunteers to be on hand Saturday. “We’re constantly growing and we’re trying to get more and more volunteers,” Glassco said. “We’ve definitely been on the upswing and we expect this to be another record-breaking year.” A unique aspect of the cleanup is that each volunteer is given a data card to record the type and amount of trash they pick up. This information is reported at county, state, national and international levels and serves as a barometer for policymakers. “The international coordinators write a big report on the state of marine debris, and that report has been used for some legislative movement at differ-
ent levels of government to push for a more well-defined marinedebris policy, which is virtually nonexistent in most states,” Glassco said. Locals can volunteer at the La Jolla Shores cleanup site, which involves both a beach and underwater cleanup. Glassco said this site is important because it is one of 34 areas of “special biological significance” in the state where the ocean is monitored and maintained for water quality. “It’s really important that no human impacts are made onto areas like that, so getting every piece of trash out before it reaches the ocean in those areas becomes more significant,” Glassco said. SEE CLEANUP, Page 5
SCHOOL IN BLOOM La Jolla Elementary School welcomed students back last week with a major spruce-up of the campus. The Bloom committee renovated the landscaping on the Marine Street Entryway, adding new benches, decorative planters and trash containers as well as a variety of droughttolerant plants and high-traffic turf in the lawn area. The school exteriors painting by Ariel Lopez and his team from M. Chavis Painting will continue after school hours and on weekends. Bloom operates in conjunction with the Friends of La Jolla Elementary Inc., supported by the PTO and in partnership with the San Diego Unified District.
ROUGH STUFF Masters Men crowd the finish line (above) during the Sept. 13 La Jolla Rough Water Swim. Girls Junior 250-yard event swimmers wait to start their event (below) on the stairs at the Cove. A solid 3- to 6-foot swell pushed into the swim entry area and kept lifeguards busy nonstop, keeping swimmers on course and from getting swept into rocky areas. Big sets broke across the cove and delivered challenging, choppy conditions for all competitors and kept spectators VILLAGE NEWS | DON BALCH glued to the action. See more photos on page 12.
Shores committeee will check codes BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS
La Jolla Shores has formed a new committee to examine the Shores zoning codes to determine whether ordinances need to be changed to protect the beach community from large projects — like so-called mcmansions — altering the neighborhood’s character. Called the La Jolla Shores Planned District Ordinance (PDO), the committee held its first meeting on Wednesday,
Surf Report SATURDAY
Hi: 9:56 a.m. 10:23 p.m. Low: 3:44 a.m. 4:15 p.m. Size: 2-3 ft. Wind: 10-16 mph
SUNDAY
Hi: 10:27 a.m. 11:10 p.m. Low: 4:14 a.m. 5:01 p.m. Size: 2-4 ft. Wind: 12-18 mph
Sept. 16. Currently, the La Jolla Shores PDO does not specify setbacks or floor-area ratios (FAR). Joe LaCava, president of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA), described the ordinance as more qualitative than quantitative, meaning it describes how the community should look but lacks exact formulas. “It was written in kinder, gentler times when people had fairly modest expectations for living
space,” LaCava said. “It was normal to have a 1,200-squarefoot house.” LaCava said expectations have changed for homes that have grown increasingly larger. Developers come along and house by house push the standard higher. For example, a neighborhood’s average house may occupy 3,000 square feet, and so a developer justifies building a 3,300-square-foot house, and another developer SEE CODES, Page 5
Head of the class
Unreal Housewives
The Bishop’s School installs Aimeclaire Roche as 11th head of the private school. 3
Rock/doo-wop musical features several mysteries amid singing. 8
Gridiron grit Special pages commemorate start of prep football season at La Jolla high schools. 10-11