Saturday, December 26, 2009

Restoring San Juan Creek and Doheny marsh


Pictured is san elijo restored wetlands and trails in San Diego,
could we replace the ugly concrete along the river in Dana Point with
trees and sandy trails?

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Dana Point headlands trails first impressions


Trails are beautiful with views of white water and snow capped peaks.

Trails are a bit narrow for strollers, but nice and safe fenced in trails for kids.
Great to see these trails finally in use.





Map:

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Dana Point Headlands trail opening date set!

One more week and the wait is over!

"A ½ mile public trail has been constructed on the Preserve that follows along the top of the headlands promontory.   The trail will be open to the public daily beginning December 15, 2009 from 7 am to sunset.  It is a 4-foot wide dirt trail that has a 100-foot elevational change with stairs in one section.  There are five overlooks with benches.  The trail is designed for pedestrian use only with NO dogs allowed (on or off-leash) and no bikes. "

Friday, November 20, 2009

Dana Point city hall and bike lanes?

Why does the main artery in Dana Point, in front of city hall, lack bike lanes? Strange oversight, considering city workers can see it from their window.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Update on Dana Point headland trails opening date

From the meeting minutes of Dana Point planning commision, now date for trails to open is at end of year:
"Kyle Butterwick (Director) responded that the City shares the same frustration about the completion of the public amenities. He clarified that most of the physical aspects of the improvements have been completed, but noted that there is a morass of paperwork necessary to transfer ownership of the public improvements from the developer to the City. The anticipated completion date for the dedications is before the end of the year."

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Irvine company to Dana point?


How about getting the irvine company to implement something
like the spectrum, but with maybe a bit smaller scale and with apartments on top of the shops, in the Dana Point town center? Spectrum is the only place I know in Orange county where you can observe people getting out of their cars and happily walking day or night in a safe pedestrian friendly car free environment(outside the parking lots at least, underground parking would be the best for DP). Pedestrians instead of empty parking lots is what we want in Dana Point as well...

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Headland Nature center opening date?

What is holding up the nature center, rode by there and things look mighty complete, let's get this thing going, Dana Point could use the jolt to it's economy from some nature visitors.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Why is Laguna Beach so unfriendly to bikes?

Supposedly progressive city of Laguna Beach has the worst bike infrastructure of all OC cities, why is that? They cite liability on the city meeting notes, but obviously other CA cities have been able to deal with that, so why not Laguna Beach?

Either way, keep riding but make sure to TAKE THE LANE on PCH, with the parked cars and no bike lane, its the only safe alternative. In fact I almost wonder if the vehicular cyclists are in charge in Laguna, I agree with their agenda to a degree, but its not a way to get beginners to ride and build critical mass.

We really need serious bike infrastructure in Laguna, if anybody knows whats holding it back, please let me know.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Strand Village At Headlands Dana Point

Just came across this illustration on what's planned on PCH and Green Lantern, looks nice, wonder when it will get built and who goes in? Book store and microbrewery are my votes!

http://www.riverrockreg.com/files/offering/290808031543_The_Strand_Village_Brochure.pdf

Friday, September 18, 2009

Ship wreck kids park a wreck?

UPDATE 3/1/2022: ShipWreck PARK IS REOPENED AND REPAIRED, thanks Dana Point

OLD: Actually, ship wreck park is nice for kids to play in, but as rest of Dana Point, it sorely needs tall trees that shade if from the busy street of golden lantern as well as from sun's harmful rays. This would make the park feel lot more comfortable, several visitors, mostly parents, have complained about lack of protection from the streets.
This is especially important since it's Lantern Village's only small kid friendly park, with lot of kids living nearby.

Dana Point, city leaders plant more trees along the  busy streets in particular, and let them grow to full size, this tree canopy would make our city compete with the best. Real size trees filter sun, air and provide comfortable buffer between cars and pedestrians Here comes Pasadena of the OC coast!

Dana Point town center traffic lights and bicycles.

What is the deal with lights not changing in DP town center for a bike? In other cities like Irvine there are special buttons for cyclists, not in DP. Also in NorCal there are little symbol at light where you stand for light to change, hopefully with new town center this issue gets fixed and cyclist don't have to get on the sidewalk to push button, especially since on many DP town center streets this means crossing the st since crosswalk only exists on 1 side.

What is the deal with the dana point headland trails?

I had some correspondence couple months ago with the person in charge of the headlands reserve, at that time trails opening was supposedly imminent and trails were complete, but for some unknown reason there are delays and summer is almost over and yet trails are not open.

Also supposed hours of the trails are only until sunset, hopefully we'll get to hit the trails on weekday evenings before the time change at least.

Dana Point town center happening, but delays due to city budget issues

Looks like town center plan is progressing slower than anticipated due to supposed budget issues, this is too bad since it seems that faster development would bring in new business which would actually boost revenues in this period of "staycations" and in general shopping and spending closer to home.

Hopefully city of Dana Point gets it act together and speeds up the development.

Either way, at least plans aren't canceled, 2 ways streets should be coming, sidewalks should improve, and there are reports of somebody already spotting a pedestrian or 2, likely lost, but progress either way...