something I hadn't thought about when hearing about drive ins... the real estate under them is worth a fortune... the Santee Drive-In just sold for $22.75 million (approx. $1.69 million per acre)

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10229421043705594&set=pcb.10229421134187856

Half of San Diego's map is marketing that stayed.

In 1955, Louis L. Kelton and Walter Bollenbacher bought roughly 1,000 acres from the Waring estate on the slopes above Mission Gorge and started building. Their construction business was called Allied Contractors. The tract they laid out became Allied Gardens

Kelton and Bollenbacher are also street names over of the 94 in emerald hills so they must have developed over there as well

Bollenbacher and Kelton built many tracts all over So. Cal. there's a few in the San Fernando Valley and in Santa Clarita.

another neighborhood use to be called Hallmark Homes and to the west that neighborhood was called Heritage Homes.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122136787623382848&set=a.122097576627382848

https://anderstomlinson.com/garden-2/low-water-garden/welcome-to-allied-gardens/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Gardens,_San_Diego

A man dressed as the iconic “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader appeared to defend the use of Flock cameras before the San Diego City Council, assuring that “this is what the emperor needs.”

 

“This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth,” the man said

He urged that the cameras be used to surveil any “rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium, because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children.”

“And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks,” he said, addressing City Council member Jennifer Campbell, before waving his hand to the audience. “Do it like this.”

His last plea was for the Flock cameras to be used to “help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing.”

“This technology is a necessary, necessary force,” he concluded.

San Diego has more than 550 Flock cameras across the city, according to the Flock tracking map DeFlock.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1431992038789213&set=a.381661467155614
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/6042349-darth-vader-flock-surveillance

see it on video at https://www.facebook.com/reel/2318039352264119

San Diego pedicabs have changed a lot based on this one. I heard it's 50 dollars per person

San Diego PD busted by the city’s police oversight commission, for harassing blacks 4 to 1 compared to whites, or hispanics, or asians

Black drivers stopped for low-level traffic violations in San Diego were more than four times as likely as White drivers to be frisked and more than three times as likely to be subjected to force, according to an analysis presented by the city’s police oversight commission, which is recommending broad restrictions on so-called pretext stops. At a community forum last weekend, the San Diego Commission on Police Practices unveiled four draft policy recommendations aimed at limiting officers’ ability to use minor equipment and administrative violations — such as broken tail lights, expired registration tags or objects hanging from rearview mirrors — as a basis for investigating unrelated suspected crimes.

Commission investigator Ethan Waterman presented a review of SDPD’s 2024 stop data, the most recent available.

According to Waterman, the department reported 103,463 stops in 2024, including about 24,000 traffic stops involving equipment violations and other non-moving infractions.

Within the low-level stop category, the commission identified significant racial disparities.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/06/18/low-public-safety-return-police-oversight-commission-calls-for-limits-on-pretext-traffic-stops/

The starting grid at a 1954 race held at Torrey Pines (LaJolla/Del Mar/San Diego) where the gold course currently is.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1467291538532119&set=a.538211384773477

seen at 6:17 am on the drive to work. I think someone's car caught on fire, and exploded. I was nowhere near to see what happened... but that smoke was HOT and went straight up to the lowest clouds, then then kept rising

 the top of that smoke, rose through the cloud cover

good coverage of the Nascar race on Navy Base Coronado, San Diego's military base in the middle of the bay. Right off... they found ta manhole cover was too high, struck by a car, and went through a radiator of another car

I regretfully report that a USD student has died, killed by a marked cop car, 130 am, on Linda Vista Road between Goshen and Brunner streets.

In 2016, the city developed a Comprehensive Active Transportation Strategy for Linda Vista that recommended installing a high-visibility ladder-style crosswalk and a pedestrian-activated high-intensity signal beacon near a staircase that serves as a shortcut to and from the University of San Diego campus

The estimated cost of the improvements was $111,000.

In order to save money, the improvement to increase pedestrian safety next to a major university was ignored. 

The damn city should be sued for ignoring it's duty, and responsibility to safety, after it conducted an investigation of how to prevent pedestrian deaths, and was informed that a crosswalk overpass walking bridge would get students off the road

Hell, the university is also liable IMHO for not insisting that the city build the walking bridge

And HOW does a cop in a cop car STRIKE and kill a person? Probably using a cell phone or the unit laptop... which the state decided wasn't "unsafe" for cops, just illegally unsafe for all the rest of us. 

So, yeah, the city of San Diego, the SDPD, and USD, I'd say they all ought to line up across the court room from the plaintiff, and try to weasel out of the jury's focus. 

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/safety-improvements-proposed-years-ago-site-fatal-usd-student-crash/4038453/

related news item, 

a city council committee meeting Wednesday, which highlighted the $116 million cost of settlements and judgements involving SDPD since fiscal year 2017.

In fiscal year 2026 alone, SDPD settlements and judgements reached a record $42 million.

a $10 million settlement for the life of Arabella McCormack, 11, who died of severe abuse in August 2022.
“An SDPD officer was alleged to have visited the home, and contributed to the abuse by directly supplying wooden paddles, not paddle, paddles to the family,”

$30 million went to the family of Konoa Wilson, the 16-year-old shot and killed by a San Diego police officer last year while running from gunfire.

A cop shot Konoa in the back. 

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/san-diego-police-lawsuit-payouts-top-116-million-over-10-years/4038308/

SDPD Annual Budget is 32% of San Diego's total General Fund expenditures.

San Diego's police misconduct settlement payouts are roughly 1/16th the SDPD budget

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) operates on an annual General Fund budget of $703.5 million,

police-related settlements and judgments have average about $42.5 million annually 

ACLU data indicates that SDPD payouts are roughly 15 million higher than the settlements paid by all other city departments combined.

The Freedom Train stops at Naval Air Station, Miramar, CA 1976

The Southern Pacific 4449 steam locomotive, known for pulling the American Freedom Train in 1975-1976.

Built in 1941 by the Lima Locomotive Works, it is a GS-4 class 4-8-4 Northern type locomotive.

It was repainted in red, white, and blue livery specifically for the United States Bicentennial celebration.

The locomotive is currently on display at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland.

 At the conclusion of its journey, the American Freedom Train had traveled 25,833 miles over 21 months and stopped at 138 cities.

oh hell, just in time for Friday afternoon rush hour, a fuel tanker truck has a fire on the tank... on I-5 new Del Mar

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1513361883532083

A judge has ruled that the city of San Diego illegally collected millions of dollars in parking violation late fees and penalties over the course of about three years

The ruling stems from a class-action lawsuit involving parking citations issued within San Diego city limits between Feb. 22, 2022, and March 31, 2025. According to the ruling, the city owes plaintiffs more than $16 million.

The lawsuit alleges the city failed to follow requirements in the California Vehicle Code when issuing notices for parking citations. Under state law, the city must mail an initial notice giving recipients 14 days to pay a parking ticket without penalty.

A judge found that the city instead sent notices with late fees already added, according to the lawsuit.

The city of San Diego denies the allegations. The city has not responded to the judge’s ruling nor NBC 7's request for comment in time for publication.

The city’s website still states: "The court has not determined whether plaintiff or the city are correct. There is no money available now and no guarantee that there will be."

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/city-san-diego-illegally-collected-millions-parking-ticket-late-fees-judge/4031282/?break=nbc673&_osource=newltr_station_Hdlines_knsd

Flossie Beadle's attempt to stop the destruction of the cork elms 1960s, trees that were doomed by the road expansion from horse and buggy use to 4 lanes wide

Lakeside Historian Flossie Beadle blocking the excavator

Flossie Beadle tried to save them from being cut down on Woodside but in the end even her shotgun could not stop the removal the the trees to make the road wider, so, instead she talked the community into helping her transplant seedlings/offshoots to all the lakeside schools, like Lindo Park school.

the Cork Elms on the West side of Lakeside were imported from Australia in 1893, by the El Cajon Land Co, and planted by the school kids in Lakeside

There were 50 planted on each side. These were the only lane of Cork Elms in the USA. 

In Feb 1956, seven of the shade trees were cut down from the south lane for an entrance to a proposed shopping center (Safeway Vons) and though the promoter was on record as having promised that the trees would be preserved as an asset to the shopping center, of course, he was lying his ass off. By 1967 all the cork elms were cut down, or destroyed by pipeline construction destroying their roots

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3952879468177821&set=gm.2102025210362015&idorvanity=671136676784216

https://www.facebook.com/groups/671136676784216/posts/1102197400344806/

http://lakesidehistory.org/lakeside-township/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/497495314854913/posts/1078798483391257/

In 2021, history repeated itself just feet away from the Cork Elm location. 

Lakeside resident Billy Ortiz learned from the county that 22 jacaranda trees the Lakeside Garden Club paid for, that he and his grandson helped plant a decade before, were scheduled to come down.

Volunteers planted them on a property along Woodside Avenue, in tribute to some trees long gone.

the Jacaranda trees at the front edge of the land alongside Woodside Avenue had to be removed by April 9, 2021 because most were unfortunately planted by volunteers within a 50 ft. easement established by the City of San Diego to protect existing water lines that connect the property to the main water service. 

Others interfered with the construction of the parking lot and number of spaces for the library and construction of the building itself.

Nearly 130 years ago, and a few feet away, school children planted 50 cork elms. In 1956, county officials wanted to take the trees down to widen the road. In the way was town historian Flossie Beadle.

According to a county spokesperson, the cost of relocating the trees is $10,000 for each tree and not financially "viable."

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/neighbors-rally-to-save-jacaranda-trees-at-site-of-new-lakeside-library

1967 snack bar at the Santee Lakes park

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1434853848681066&set=a.572562251576901

taking off from Palomar Airport, flying down the coast over San Diego, in an ultralight (once he's in the air, change your video speed to 2x, and turn the audio way down)

what the hell is wrong with the city streets dept? There's a hole in the street so big, it's earned a two safety cone cover.... in the middle of the damn street? Fix the hole! Fill it in! Plate over it!

a scoreboard on your squadron's hanger? Damn cool. Nice to see the IH in front of it too.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=782234894938594&set=gm.10173873164415533&idorvanity=110663305532

I found a set of streets named after fighter planes

only a couple miles from what was the NAS Miramar airbase, which is now MCAS Miramar

just so you know, this is what wasting time in rush hour traffic looks like every day after work

Al Bahr Shrine, part of the fundraising arm of the Shriners Hospital in San Diego, CA. is looking for a 1931 or older vehicle to use as a parade car

the photos show what they can do as part time volunteers, 

Would you be willing to donate a car to help the kids? 

Any questions you may have can be answered by Bob, by calling 619-550-8849, or email sandogbob@gmail.com