New development by Pardee in Santee. They plan to give us a trail!!!! Ha,ha,ha and one more ha ha. Rather then place the trail along the hillside in the open space they have to set aside for mitigation they will get more miles if they get it set aside as part of the MHPA. So lucky us they put the trail, I mean paved road along Mast Blvd and then in between homes and it is flat flat flat and BORING. Absolutely worthless. All comments made by SDMBA a long time ago were for not. Sounds and looks just the trails in Carlsbad. These people must think we are stupid to not notice another travesty. And who are the people at the city level that just rubber stamp it as a trail they will add to their trail network and then tell you there are plenty of trails. Great another addition to San Diego mediocrity.

There's some really positive stuff going on over on Black Mountain. Check it out.

San Diego has always been about one thing....giving developers what they want, and waiving real mitigation and stresses to the existing infrastructures aside.

I've always suspected a deep vein of corruption that connects the City and County to the development industry here....lots of loose money to float around.

Getting mad at the rangers is kinda useless....they are simply paid minions who do what they are told for a pay check, good or bad.

Once you get a bit higher on the chain of command, there you start to find the real weasels. They often wear a nature-friendly mask, but all they really care about is greasing the skids for developers who cash in big here and either drop dead filthy rich or leave town filthy rich.

Speaking of Rich, I'm gonna clear my calender for Jan 31, and show up to help Rich, who, along with Eric Basil, I admire the most in the long-term struggle to fight the titanic corruption here, and move some big rocks around. BB, and all the others are starting to turn the tide in the publics' favor, and I don't think a repeat of the Wobblies' experience is gonna happen this time. Perseverance is paying off.

I'll be bringing my own steel pry bar, and a short handled sledge. Why not join us? Together, we can work off all this negative shit, and do something constructive at the same time!

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Scum on a Bike

San Diego has always been about one thing....giving developers want they want.

Bingo! More then likely the alignment for the trail in the Castlerock Development was directly related to the profit margin of the project, aka giving developers what they want,. How much easier is it to do like Pardee did on the Mesa of PQ and they did in Carlsbad and have DG paved sidewalks and DG alley ways posing as trails. Less of a hassle with the environmental concerns and more mitigation value for land you do leave open etc etc.

In Park City developers have realized that "real trails" connected to "real trail networks" are the least expensive amenities they can have. There the developers actually ask to have trails brought to their projects and the group they court is the mountian bikers. They have already witnessed world class trails and super affordable talent biting at the bit to have the work. An article by one of the papers in Orange County pointed out that property value in Irvine Ranch was increased by 15% if they had access to a trail network.

If we had more decision makers and public figures that realized this as well as appreciating the intrinsic value of something as simple as a trail San Diego would be much better for it. As a marketing tool I saw by SDMBA read "San Diego Your Year Long Mountain Bike Destination" and that should be true. But it isn't because San Diego only reaches for mediocrity and not only in trails. By the way did you know that one of our city public figures publicly professes that San Diego has 500 miles of trail. I know that because I sat in front of him and crapped my pants when he said it.

What does it take to change the culture of open space such as the one here? Vision. I think a vision where people and recreation is more closely integrated to the open space we have. The problem here is the use of open space for active and passive use by people is always done almost as an after thought or something they had to do but the they do the absolute minimal and the cities and county sign off on it.

When open space arises any Coordination with adjacent open space opportunities does not seem to happen and opportunities are lost. Open space that becomes available ,even within our parks such as MTRP, becomes more an instrument for mitigation of development (which is great for developers). You and I are told to go ride some fireroad or SDG&E service road masquerading as trail.

If you want to ruin your day go to the website "Transparent California" and see what you are paying your public servants and then ask "Am I getting what I am paying for?" because I certainly pay them more then I will ever make and Retire for. If we were getting what we pay for we wouldn't be tearing our hair out trying to get some common sense answers WITHIN OUR LIFETIME. Can anyone say Del Mar Mesa/Tunnels???

Found this on Facebook. Nice observation by Rod Simmons.

While the city has incurred cost for CEQA (California Enviro Quality Act) and mitigation (so this is not net loss habitat), other than the full time ranger staff salaries, having the mountain biking community build the trail is a huge money savings. Sitting on the Community Planning Board I see what some of these projects cost and it's mind boggling $$$$$$! City staff (the downtowners) visited the trail to inspect progress last week and were beyond blown away.

So why aren't we seeing more of this in this town? Could there be a crack in the dike?