Our Readers Write: Children’s Pool, vending, La Jolla Boulevard

Letters to the editor:

Do we really want the Children’s Pool to fall into ruin?

To the La Jolla Light reader who objected to repairing the seawall at the Children’s Pool (“Children’s Pool seawall should not be repaired,” Feb. 2):

Exactly what alternative would you prefer? Leave it to the seals, you said. But in fact, the seals need the seawall in place, because without it they would have no beach for their rest.

Without repair, walks on the seawall are already forbidden because one section of handrails recently fell into the sea and more are sure to follow. The concrete at the base of each upright is gone, and the handrails are weak from rust.

Alongside the seaward side of the wall is a rip current that flows out to sea at approximately 7 mph, faster than most humans can swim. In fact, divers ride that current to reach deeper water.

Partly because of a reputed drowning there, Ellen Browning Scripps donated the seawall nearly 100 years ago specifically to provide safe entry into the otherwise turbulent water for swimmers young, old or handicapped, a phrase that is repeated four times in her will (available at the La Jolla Historical Society). Accordingly, the city of San Diego guaranteed to maintain it.

An estimated 3 million guests a year visit the Children’s Pool in addition to local devotees, making it a community model of nature study. Are we satisfied to see the wall, stairs and bordering fences fail? Without their repair, we are doomed to live alongside a continuously disintegrating ruin.

Phyllis Minick

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Let nature take its course

To believe that we, as citizens of La Jolla, were ever entitled to the right to tame and twist the wild and natural Pacific Ocean to meet our recreational needs seems heady to me.

I have always thought that the whole concept of building a wall to create a play space was pompous to begin with.

Nature happens, and the message should be clear that the ocean is asking to lose the enclosure.

Debra Duford

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Separate the good vending activities from the bad

What could be a better use for a public park than practicing a yoga stretch or having a picnic? (“Service activities in parks are next to face regulations under San Diego vending law,” Feb. 2, La Jolla Light).

Agreed, the vendors of swap meet merchandise along our beaches were allowed to slip into excess. The watchful stewards of our La Jolla parks and beaches are doing the right thing by getting the city to enforce the existing laws and consider new ones.

Of course, the way to separate opportunists enjoying rent-free businesses in our parks from casual artists selling prints while they paint our coastline, or yoga teachers being compensated for group exercise, is to put a stiff fee on the business license covering this activity, with police ticketing those without licenses.

Jeffrey Denning

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Bike path can take cycling heat off La Jolla Boulevard

In regard to “La Jolla traffic group revisits ideas for slowing speeding and increasing bike safety on La Jolla Boulevard,” (Jan. 26, La Jolla Light):

No reference is made to what I regard as an asset in any plan to increase bike safety on La Jolla Boulevard.

There is an existing bike lane/bike path labeled the La Jolla Bike Path that runs parallel to La Jolla Boulevard from the intersection of La Jolla Hermosa with Turquoise in the south up to Nautilus Street in the north.

Why not increase bike safety on La Jolla Boulevard by shifting some cyclists off La Jolla Boulevard and onto the La Jolla Bike Path? Cyclists who want to bomb down the boulevard can continue to do so. Cyclists who would prefer not to ride on La Jolla Boulevard at all can get a really pleasant alternative.

All that is needed are some modest repairs and some improvements to the riding surface, and a bunch of much better signage.

Robert Schreiber

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La Jolla Boulevard needs a pave

Thank you, La Jolla Light, for printing a picture of one of La Jolla’s finest streets.

When was La Jolla Boulevard from Pacific Beach to La Jolla last paved? I guess never.

Josef Rennleitner

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What’s on YOUR mind?

Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. You also can submit a letter online at lajollalight.com/submit-a-letter-to-the-editor. The deadline is 10 a.m. Monday for publication in that week’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period. ◆