A world-class eatery opened in the Village this year, and the Village embraced it as part of a de facto entertainment district anchored by the projected opening of a performing arts center across the street. But the bulk of the hot-button issues in the La Jolla of 2015 revolved around land use, ordinance revisions and construction delays – things you’d expect as the Village gears up for postmodern life in a postmodern city. We lost a great man of theater and gained a new executive director of an iconic area landmark; as well, our longstanding problems with the local Fourth of July fireworks show were consigned to history indefinitely, which was kind of cool. It was a busy year in La Jolla, with the issue of growth emerging at both extremes of the commercial climate. It’s unlikely that those issues will see any less attention during 2016. Meanwhile, here are some thumbnail sketches that outline the Village environment in 2015. JANUARY The first State of La Jolla address took place before La Jolla Town Council on Jan. 8, with land use and government emerging as two main drivers in plans for the Village. Joe LaCava, La Jolla Community Planning Association president, stated that finding ways to make the La Jolla Shores Planned District Ordinance development guidelines “more predictable” would be a 2015 priority. Paris’ tragic Charlie Hebdo murders, in which 17 journalists and others were slain in a Jan. 7 terrorist attack in the French capital, had a La Jolla component to them. The neighborhood’s French-American School held a moment of silence for the victims, as did schools throughout France. FEBRUARY The emerging topic of aftereffects from concussions in sports took a local turn. A February 13 story said film and emails showed that despite their denials, La Jolla High School officials knew the details of the injury to one of its football players. In a contest against Point Loma High School in October of 2014, the player took a vicious hit to the helmet late in the second quarter, after which he showed signs of possible injury. Protocol calls for potentially injured players to be removed from the game, but a film shows that the then-17-year-old plays nearly every down. Local media revealed several contradictions by school officials in their accounts of the aftermath. Kevin Bollaert, the so-called “revenge porn” website operator, was found guilty on Feb. 2 and was eventually sentenced to 20 years on 27 counts. Bollaert, of Pacific Beach, operated a site featuring photos of nude women and required fees of $150 to $299 for their deletion. MARCH March was the month that San Diego Community Newspaper Group, publisher of La Jolla Village News, teamed with La Jolla Village Merchants Association in a business partnership aimed at fulfilling both groups’ missions. “Our goal,” said publisher Julie Main, “is to assist the businesses and public about how the [association] works and how it can aid each individual business within the boundaries of the [business improvement district]… More information brings more understanding, involvement and long-term benefits for La Jolla.” After 4 ½ hours’ deliberation, a jury March 18 convicted Hans Antone Petersen of two counts of premeditated attempted murder in a 2013 double shooting of two men in their La Jolla homes. He was convicted of shooting Steven Dowdy, a former neighbor, and Ronald Fletcher, his ex brother-in-law. Both men figured in Petersen’s termination as a biotech executive; Petersen was eventually sentence to 50 years to life in prison plus two life terms in the attacks. APRIL La Jolla Community Planning Association approved a condominium complex to replace an animal hospital and post office satellite facility on Silver Street and declined to OK an unconventional mansion proposal on Whale Watch Way. The condo debate wasn’t without controversy, with some trustees arguing that the area is already saturated with condos. Meanwhile, the Whale Watch Way plan, which proposed demolition of an existing facility and replacing it with a two-story home, was back for a second try. One develop said the new home’s floor plan had been reduced by 20 percent. Navy SEAL Larry Wilske, who retired in 2011 after 30 years of military service and six tours of overseas combat duty, was named the new executive director of Mt. Soledad Memorial Association. Wilske said the war memorial – not without its political controversies – is at a “crossroads in its history” and that the association was almost in a position to begin talks with the city on acquiring the park. The Mt. Soledad memorial is unique in that its naming wall includes the identities of those who’ve given their lives in every war America has fought. MAY La Jolla psychologist Mark Schindler told Village News in May that he’s grateful for small favors in the wake of the April 25 earthquake in Nepal’s Katmandu Valley, which killed more than 7,000 and injured twice as many. Schindler was among those to experience the event; he anticipated that day to be his last even as he was in Nepal to celebrate his 60th birthday. San Diego’s Cadillac of food events rolled out again on May 8. The Mama’s Day culinary extravaganza brought together the city’s culinary elite to the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in an event that raised more than $150,000, used each year for providing nutritional support to those affected by AIDS/HIV or cancer. La Jolla’s Secret Garden Tour is named that for a reason – the names of the target landscapes aren’t revealed until the day of the event, which this year was May 16. It focused on six gardens in this, its 17th installment, in support of the La Jolla Historical Society’s mission of research and preservation in the Village. JUNE On June 1, the YMCA Firehouse – which has supported health and wellness in the community for 100 years – shut down as its long-awaited renovation began. The $1.5 million fix-up was to include new childcare facilities, showers, cardio and strength equipment and refurbishment of the existing structure on Herschel Avenue. The Firehouse, which has grown to serve more than 4,300 people annually, reopened on Dec. 1, and officials threw a big party nine days later. Also in June, La Jolla Community Planning Association deadlocked on a proposal to change zoning on a building at 1111 Prospect St. to allow more office space and less retail. The action came on the heels of a request by entrepreneur Peter Wagner to increase the amount of office space on the building’s ground floor from 25 to 50 percent. Wagner noted he’d been unsuccessfully trying to lease the building’s ground-floor space for retail for two years. Joe LaCava, La Jolla Community Planning Association president who’s served on 29 boards during his career in public service, kicked off his campaign for the first District City Council seat on June 28, pledging to “tell people what they really need to know about the condition of our city so they can make informed choices about how we’re going to move forward.” JULY 2015 was the year that La Jolla’s Fourth of July fireworks show got an indefinite reprieve from the lawsuits and lack of funding that had dogged it for many seasons. Deborah Marengo, a one-person coordinator and promoter of the event, announced that La Jolla Village Merchants Association, the community’s business improvement district hub, would take the show under its wing. La Jollan David Marino helped Marengo ice multi-year funding commitments to the tune of about $45,000 (the show costs about $30,000 to stage). The surplus, Marengo said, will be rolled over to support future shows. The La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, the burgeoning event with a title to match, unveiled its sixth installment on July 24 and 25, with founder and producer Fred Sweet basking in anticipation of a permanent tenancy at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, set to open in January of 2018. Work conflicts and environmental delays weighed in the construction delay of two multimillion-dollar lifeguard towers. Lifeguards at La Jolla Cove and the Children’s Pool were operating out of temporary facilities at the heigh of the summer season – work on the Children’s Pool tower was delayed from Dec. 15, 2014 to June 1 amid the ban on pedestrian activity during seal pupping season, and a fireworks show and triathlon weighed in the delays at La Jolla Cove. Some military veterans who bought the half-acre parcel containing the Mt. Soldead Veterans Memorial said the sale ends the public-land controversy that’s been a source of lawsuits and public consternation since 1989 – but our July story reported that the ACLU, which says the memorial’s cross must come down, has other ideas amid concerns for church-state separation under the Second Amendment. AUGUST The City Attorney’s Office Aug. 19 charged Mary Catherine O’Neil with vehicular manslaughter in the death of Melissa Bonney Ratcliff, a mother of three who was struck and killed by O’Neil’s car as
she stood on Girard Avenue in La Jolla. O’Neil, 92 and now living in a retirement home in the eastern United States, was arraigned on the misdemeanor charge later in August. She was additionally charged with an unlawful backing movement. Ratcliff had parked her car at a spot on Girard near Silverado Street and was standing near its trunk when O’Neil backed into her, crushing her. Ratcliff, 45, was the vice president of marketing and events of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and was on the board of the High Tech High Foundation. She was a communications professional who had served in the White House as deputy communications director for Vice President Al Gore. “Planned District Ordinance” is government-ese for a document that spells out the dos and don’ts of land use in the community – and in August, La Jolla Village Merchants Association debated sending a letter to the city suggesting the current ordinance is outdated and in serious need of revision. La Jolla Community Planning Association president CA Marengo, who had been lobbying local groups for their support of a revision, ultimately declined to write such a letter, saying several merchants board members expressed reluctance at the prospect. SEPTEMBER On Sept. 22, City Council voted unanimously to support the appointment of Brian Fennessy as San Diego’s 18th fire-rescue chief. Fennessy, 56, is said to be the driving force in the city’s helicopter plan. The city now has two firefighting helicopters with night-flying capability available for water drops throughout the county. Fennessy has 38 years’ experience that began with the U.S. Forest Service. He joined the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 1990. Fennessy assumed his post Nov. 12. Arthur Wagner, founding chair of the UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance and the central figure in the advancement of the school’s graduate theater program to one of the county’s top three, died of cancer Sept. 21 in University City. He was 92. The New York City native was named the theater department’s chairman in 1972; he’d lead the theater department to spectacular growth and numerous awards before his retirement in 1991.Wagner held many acting and directing credits and was still performing onstage at UCSD in 2012. The Arthur Wagner Theatre on campus is named in his honor, and in 2013, he and wife Molli received the school’s prestigious Chancellor’s Medal for their unflagging support of the arts. OCTOBER Perhaps ending seven years of contention over the proposed project’s bulk and scale, City Council voted 6-2 n Oct. 5 to deny appeal of the environmental document for the Whitney mixed-use project in La Jolla Shores. Barring any complications, the move would clear the way for developers Bob and Kim Whitney to demolish an existing single-story retail building and cottage at 2202 and 2206 Avenida de la Playa and replace them with a three-story mixed-used development with retail on the ground floor and condos n the second and third. On Oct. 8, three candidates trying to replace terming-out City Council member Sherri Lightner, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, held a public forum in which they advanced their ideas for Village improvements. Joe LaCava, Ray Ellis and Barbara Bry spoke on short-term vacation rentals – a topic of particular controversy amid the indiscretions of fly-by-night tenants – stating they’d encourage tougher laws that govern the practice and would redefine the term and therefore the clientele. All three cited their extensive work in the community, with Bry citing her support of the California Coastal Commission’s ban on pedestrian activity during pupping season at Children’s Pool. The closing of the iconic Jonathan’s Market in June of 2014 became a passing memory for some with the October hard opening of The Lot, a (very) high-end restaurant and movie theater complex at 7611 Fay Ave. The event is regarded as a precursor to the creation of a neighborhood entertainment district, to be anchored by the adjacent Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, set to open in early 2018. Craft cocktails, locally sourced coffee exceptional cuisine and pristine appointments mark The Lot, whose officers will open a second location at Point Loma’s NTC sometime after the first of the year. And the seventh La Jolla Art and Wine Festival, held in the Village on Oct. 10 and 11, brought 45,000 people and proceeds of more than $500,000 to La Jolla public school programs. Wearable art proved a big-ticket item, as did 3D mixed media. NOVEMBER The owner of a former Bird Rock piano store pleaded guilty in November to four counts of theft form an elder in connection with pianos placed on consignment in his store by people who were not fully paid for the instruments’ sales. Peter Schroeder, owner of the former Schroeder Piano Company, has agreed to pay $14,000 to the victims, some of whom are La Jolla residents. Meanwhile, 38 other counts ranging from elder abuse to misappropriation of funds, were dismissed. Schroeder, 75, faces a maximum seven years in state prison but is more likely to receive a sentence of home detention or probation. San Diego builder Ure Kretowicz declared he’s prepared to continue a legal battle over land use, insisting that he’ll fight a lower court’s ruling that historic beach access through his Pricess Street property never existed. “We never were aware of any open use of that area,” Kretowicz said of the path through his property to the beach below. On the lighter side, Duke’s La Jolla restaurant finally opened its doors a 1216 Prospect St. on Nov. 4. The eatery is named for Duke Kanahamoku, Olympic swimming medalist and the father of modern surfing. Guests were promised a glimpse into the namesake’s life and a closer look at the La Jolla beach lifestyle. DECEMBER Village News reported on Dec. 4 that University City High School senior Pranaya Anshu has won the Princeton Prize Race Relation Committee’s inaugural award, designed to advance discussions on the role race plays in the human experience. La Jolla perhaps isn’t as affected as the other beach neighborhoods by the thorny STVRs issue – the guidelines governing short-term rentals occasionally left in less-than-ideal condition by the boarders. Villagers attended a Dec. 3 public hearing on the matter in substantial numbers, however, weighing in on the pros and cons of a proposed city ordinance that would establish a new property use category that would affect renters and owners alike.