Letters to the Editor: Nov. 21, 2008

Skatepark not perfect

Regarding “Skatepark Ready to Ride” Nov. 14 issue: Wow, a glowing review. Actually, if you asked any of the pros there that day as well as anyone from the design company, you’d hear a list of problems with the bowl. Great street course, but the inexperienced contractors who tried to build the bowl (a very specialized type of concrete work), made some really fundamental mistakes. But the city hired a more reputable skatepark firm to fix some of them, so the visitors on Nov. 22 may not notice.

Unfortunately, San Diegans will be footing the bill for some severe concrete reconstruction. The problems could have been avoided in the first place by hiring qualified contractors, as the design company had urged, rather than inexperienced contractors who lack the skill to build the world-class skatepark bowl that San Diego deserves (and paid for, and will pay for again in order to fix some of the problems). Unfortunately, they won’t be able to correct all of the mistakes. So the park won’t quite achieve the status we hoped it would.

Del Mar has an opportunity to gain from the high-speed rail proposition passed in the recent election. It includes funds to improve present rail systems such as Amtrak between San Diego and Santa Barbara. That route is already the second most popular in the United States.

A new high-speed rail line would run from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim. Trains on that route could then run, at lesser speed, along the present Amtrak line to San Diego if some improvements are made. This is the way the original French high-speed line was developed.

This would include tunneling under Camino del Mar, bringing us terrific benefits:

• The end of the dangerous rail crossing and blatant horn blowing on Coast Boulevard
• Get trains off the bluff and give us a gorgeous, safe walkway
• Save on the $25 million highway bridge repair at the south end of town by replacing it with a much cheaper filling in of land

Emerging from the tunnel, the tracks could no longer slice across the heart of the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon, but run parallel to the highway and then on a sweeping curve along the southeastern fringe of the lagoon.
In past years there have been various scare yarns about a train tunnel here, but the successful boring of the latest subway tunnels in Los Angeles negates them all.