Last year, residents were pleased by the City\u2019s decision to approve a more dog-friendly redevelopment option for Fiesta Island, as well as endorsing a ban on electric scooters on the boardwalk for Pacific and Mission beaches. What to do about short-term vacation rentals continued however to be a vexing problem with no easy solution approaching 2020. JANUARY
\n\u2022 Dozens participate in Saska\u2019s annual Polar Plunge run to the ocean on New Year\u2019s Day morning in Mission Beach.
\n\u2022 “The biggest thing I want to change is the spirit of the town council. There has been quite a bit of drama this past year, and I want to make things better,” said new Mission Beach Town Council president Matt Gardner, a beach rental business owner.
\n\u2022 As of Jan. 1 new state laws: made surfing California\u2019s official state sport; required dogs, cats, and rabbits sold in pet stores to be obtained only from animal shelters or rescue groups; required kids meals in most restaurants to have a milk- or water-based beverage as the default choice; removed the requirement for people over age 18 to wear a helmet while riding a motorized scooter; and added a new law mandating repeat DUI offenders and some others to install a breathalyzer on their engine ignition for 12 to 48 months.
\n\u2022 Dog owners were elated as Mission Bay Park Committee Jan. 8 overwhelmingly selected the option they favored for reconfiguring the dog park on 470-acre Fiesta Island.
\n\u2022 BBP asked local psychics to look ahead and what they foresaw was Trump\u2019s re-election, a change of direction in world outlook and future problems with technological over-reliance.
\n\u2022 PB resident Kara Kay made the final four on TV\u2019s \u2018Survivor.\u2019
\n\u2022 Dan Borelli, co-owner of Boardwalk Electric Rides Pacific Beach\/Boardwalk Rides, started a second occupation: impounding improperly parked scooters. FEBRUARY
\n\u2022 Love at first bite: BBP did a feature on best places along the oceanfront to grab a slice for national pizza day.
\n\u2022 Jim and Melanie Woods of Crown Point launched a petition on\u00a0change.org\u00a0that netted nearly 1,500 signatures the first week requesting more off-leash options for their dogs.
\n\u2022 Local environmentalist Karin Zirk of Friends of Rose Creek conducted a media tour of the waterway pointing out it isn\u2019t getting the attention it deserves advocating for more City help in maintaining and cleaning up the creek and picking up trash.
\n\u2022 Charley Kausen and Natalie Sollock of PB voluntarily began picking up trash in the community while urging others to follow suit. The pair were providing $15 “loans” of branded buckets and trash grabbers for community clean-ups. MARCH
\n\u2022 Bill Walby, longtime manager at PB Hardware & Nails, retired after 23 years and was given a proper send-off on March 2.
\n\u2022 Pacific Beach Planning Group opposed allowing vehicle habitation.
\n\u2022 After two-plus years of service beautifying the community, Pacific Beach Street Guardians closed down operations.
\n\u2022 The City said it would include a pedestrian-bicycle bridge in plans for the new Balboa Avenue Transit Station, though there was as yet no funding for it.
\n\u2022 On March 14 the City announced a major expansion of its pothole repair program to fill thousands of potholes that developed during heavy seasonal rains.
\n\u2022 A ban on styrofoam, a non-biodegradable plastic product, went into effect.
\n\u2022 Local environmentalists endorsing a San Diego Green New Deal to develop a regional vision to fight climate change and build economic sustainability. APRIL
\n\u2022 Pacific Beach Town Council began pursuing a new off-leash dog park at Crown Point.
\n\u2022 At a March 25 press conference, Mayor Faulconer unveiled plans for a new ordinance once again making vehicle habitation illegal.
\n\u2022 BBP ran a feature on top beachfront spots to grab a tasty burrito.
\n\u2022 On April 11 the City Planning Commission voted 6-0 in favor of Option A, the non-dog friendly option which called for dividing Fiesta Island with a road and reducing access for off-leash dog park users.
\n\u2022 Pacific Beach residents surveyed are largely skeptical that the City\u2019s recent trade-off in reducing parking requirements to make it cheaper to build new affordable housing will work.
\n\u2022 Some PB residents voiced their displeasure publicly following an 8-1 City Council vote to reduce parking requirements to a zero minimum at new multifamily residential developments within transit priority areas (TPAs). MAY
\n\u2022 A well-attended public protest sponsored by Mission Beach Town Council was held on the boardwalk days before a full City Council hearing on new scooter regulations.
\n\u2022 The City Council voted unanimously in favor of new regulations for electric scooters and other shared-mobility devices instituting fees for operators, decreasing allowed speeds and designating where they can park.
\n\u2022 Broken Yolk celebrated 40 years of eggcellent food and service.
\n\u2022 PB Middle School student and avid surfer Adrian Scavone raised the $4,000 needed through Go Fund Me to have a state-of-the-art Flowater refill station installed on the school\u2019s campus at 4674 Ingraham St.
\n\u2022 The City Council voted 6-3 to draft a new ordinance making vehicle habitation illegal once again in residential areas and near schools.
\n\u2022 The former Mission Beach Elementary School building on Mission Boulevard, vacant since 2013, was torn down to make way for 59 homesites spanning condominiums, townhomes and one single-family detached home.
\n\u2022 The City asked the public to weigh-in on two initial concepts for new way-finding signs replacing the 30-year-old signs directing visitors to marinas, beaches, streets, boat launches and attractions throughout Mission Bay Park.
\n\u2022 BBP featured the best and most bodacious burgers on the beach.
\n\u2022 Beautiful MB dissolved, putting its support behind I Love A Clean San Diego.
\n\u2022 Campland on the Bay proposed taking over former Mission Bay RV resort and removing asbestos. JUNE
\n\u2022 The Association of National Olympic Committees announced it was moving the inaugural World Beach Games from San Diego and was looking for other cities to host the event.
\n\u2022 Campland and environmentalists debated a Campland proposal to be granted a short-term City lease to do clean-up and asbestos removal at the long-abandoned De Anza RV area. Campland claimed it was a win-win. Environmentalists contended it was a land grab delaying wetlands restoration.
\n\u2022 City planners returned with a refined visionary plan to make public park and street space along Mission Boulevard more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly at a workshop.
\n\u2022 The San Diego City Council voted 6-3 June 24 to grant Campland on the Bay\u2019s request for a five-year lease extension by the City to clean-up and do asbestos removal at the now-abandoned De Anza Cove mobile home park.
\n\u2022 Audience members practically howled after San Diego City Council voted unanimously June 17 for the more dog-friendly of two options offered for redeveloping Fiesta Island.
\n\u2022 Rose Marie Renna of Pacific Beach celebrated turning 100 years old and living in PB. JULY
\n\u2022 More than a dozen local kids splashed into the new Plunge pool in Belmont Park on July 3 to commemorate its opening at a ceremony presided over by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.
\n\u2022 Renovation of Pacific Beach Middle School began with the razing of aging buildings.
\n\u2022 Paradise Point Resort & Spa on Vacation Isle Park in Mission Bay announced plans to rebrand into a Margaritaville Island Beach Resort with an anticipated 2020-1 reopening.
\n\u2022 A new underpass and bridge moved Rose Creek Bikeway closer to 2020 completion.
\n\u2022 A BBP feature explored a proposed drone delivery program by restaurants and local government.
\n\u2022 Calling the City\u2019s new Vehicle Habitation Ordinance draconian, people living in their vehicles \u2013 seniors, veterans, the disabled, low-income \u2013 rallied in Mission Bay Park July 17 protesting “poverty apartheid.” AUGUST
\n\u2022 Momentum continued to build against electric scooters, as District 1 Councilmember Barbara Bry called for a moratorium on them, while a PB resident initiated an online petition drive to ban them netting more than 300 signatures in 48 hours.
\n\u2022 On Aug. 1 San Diego City Council unanimously passed a specific plan calling for greater housing density and multi-modal connectivity for the new Balboa Avenue Trolley Station but stopped short of dedicating Rose Creek as public parkland as a condition of project approval.
\n\u2022 On Aug. 15 aspiring teen lifeguards learned what it\u2019s like to actually work in the field, being schooled by Junior Lifeguard interns at Mission Beach on first-aid and water-rescue techniques.
\n\u2022 Several local surfers and shapers were among legends of the sport inducted Aug. 13 into the San Diego Surfing Hall of Fame. Locals honored included Skip Frye and Mike Hynson. SEPTEMBER
\n\u2022 The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges and obtained a consented-to asset freeze against San Diego-based ANI Development LLC, its principal, beach entrepreneur Gina Champion-Cain, and a relief defendant, for allegedly operating a multi-year $300 million scheme that defrauded approximately 50 retail investors.
\n\u2022 A roundabout at Pacific Beach Drive is just one improvement envisioned by a new City active transportation plan to make Mission Boulevard more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly between PB Drive and Diamond Street proposed a new roundabout at Pacific Beach Drive.
\n\u2022 After 65 years in business, the Pernicano family announced it would close its iconic north PB Pizzeria.
\n\u2022 SD Taproom was lord of the wings champ in the annual chicken wings competition sponsored by Discover PB.
\n\u2022 The City Council Sept. 17 approved a proposal to create a new joint-powers entity with cities across the region to provide residents the choice of greener energy. OCTOBER
\n\u2022 Mayoral candidates Barbara Bry, Todd Gloria, and Tasha Williamson squared off in a far-ranging debate at MBHS Sept. 18.
\n\u2022 Pacific Beach Planning Group nixed a proposed moratorium on electric scooters.\u00a0
\n\u2022 In fallout from the Gina Champion-Cain investment scandal, a court-appointed receiver closed six of her subsidiary enterprises from The Patio Group, while turning temporary operations of four of her restaurants over to the Cohn Restaurant Group.
\n\u2022 The Guardian Angels announced they were forming a new PB chapter.
\n\u2022 A PB workshop highlighted the need for more affordable housing.
\n\u2022 Friends of Rose Creek sued the City over the new Balboa Avenue Station\u2019s impacts on the surrounding community, arguing the project\u2019s environmental report failed to adequately address densification caused by the project. NOVEMBER\/DECEMBER:
\n\u2022 Some Mission Beach residents complained that scooter corrals were impeding street cleaning putting the community at risk of flooding.
\n\u2022 A compromise agreement between San Diego Audubon Society and Campland on the Bay guaranteed new RV spaces Campland was creating on the De Anza boot would be as far away from the public bayfront \u2014 and future wetland restoration \u2014 as possible.
\n\u2022 Beach residents were reporting increased sightings and pet attacks from coyotes.
\n\u2022 On Nov. 12, Mayor Faulconer joined community leaders, along with William Gardner, to break ground on a much-needed makeover for the playground at Bonita Cove to be named after Gardner\u2019s late wife Maruta, an educator and former MBHS principal.
\n\u2022 An attorney representing people living out of their vehicles claimed the City\u2019s safe parking lots program was inadequate, while legally challenging the City\u2019s new Vehicle Habitation Ordinance as being unconstitutional.
\n\u2022 Local leaders discussed a new strategic homelessness community plan at a Pacific Beach workshop.
\n\u2022 On Dec. 3, a hearing officer denied the City of San Diego\u2019s petition to revoke Lime scooter company\u2019s operating permit.
\n\u2022 On Dec. 17, the City Council voted 5-4 to ban electric scooters and other motorized vehicles on beach boardwalks. The council had nixed a similar proposal by a 6-3 vote two years earlier.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year, residents were pleased by the City\u2019s decision to approve a more dog-friendly redevelopment option for Fiesta Island, as well as endorsing a ban on electric scooters on the boardwalk for Pacific and Mission beaches. What to do about short-term vacation rentals continued however to be a vexing problem with no easy solution approaching […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"YEAR IN REVIEW \u2013 Scooters, dog parks, vehicle habitation, Plunge re-opens, Margaritaville coming, and more scooters","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}