La Jolla Shores Association to fill 5 board seats

Residents of La Jolla Shores will vote to fill five available seats on the La Jolla Shores Association board before its March 10 meeting. Six candidates are running for the seats, which carry three-year terms.

Ballots are emailed to registered members of LJSA and will be available on the organization’s website, lajollashoresassociation.org, said LJSA secretary Charlie Brown.

Any resident, business owner or property owner with a physical address in the La Jolla Shores Planned District is eligible to vote.

The ballots must be sent to the LJSA post office box by Wednesday, March 10. Ballots will be counted that afternoon at the home of LJSA board member Brian Earley, with the results announced at the 6 p.m. meeting.

Below are the six candidates, along with statements they made at the Feb. 10 LJSA meeting via Zoom:

Pam Boynton (incumbent): “I’ve raised my kids here,” said Boynton, a resident of The Shores for 49 years. “I’ve really grown to cherish this area. I’ve had the good fortune to travel a lot, but nothing is like The Shores.”

She said she wants “this opportunity to serve on the board to make a difference and to preserve and protect this beautiful area.”

Janie Emerson (current board president): “My family and I have lived here since the late 1960s,” Emerson said. “My mother helped write the [Planned District Ordinance] for La Jolla Shores way back then.”

Emerson, a graduate of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla and UC Santa Barbara with graduate work at San Diego State University, said: “I love The Shores. It’s always been a wonderful place, and there are so many great things that we want to do looking forward. There are new areas in The Shores that would like to join us, and I would like to see how we can do that to make this area even stronger. We have started out doing some ecological things and sort of got sidetracked on that, and I think that would be wonderful to get those back up and running again. This group has become even more prominent in the groups in La Jolla. I’ve seen nothing but good things going forward with this organization, and I would like to be part of that if you would like me to stay.”

Rick Kent: “I’m the newcomer here,” said Kent, who moved here 3½ years ago after living all over the world. He said he and his wife of 40 years “fell in love with The Shores. The main issues I’m interested in is maintaining a balance between that neighborhood feel that you want but also recognizing that we’re sort of the crown jewel of San Diego tourism. I’m interested in wildlife and environment protection, both above and below the ocean. Preservation of views and view corridors is also really important to me.”

He said he also wants to maintain “the sort of beachcomber rather than Gucci feel that other parts of La Jolla have, and the safety, both with respect to crime and ... the physical dangers of maintaining our streets.”

Terry Kraszewski: “I’ve owned my business, Ocean Girl, on Avenida de la Playa for 21 years,” Kraszewski said. “I love our community so much. It is a really close-knit community; everyone’s looking out for each other and it’s the best part about it.”

She said she previously served multiple terms on the board and is a member of the business district and the nonprofit Friends of La Jolla Shores.

“I’m a native San Diegan and the author of children’s books,” she said. “I love the ocean so much and want to make sure we do everything to protect it and keep our neighborhood nice and friendly and open to everyone.”

Sharon Luscomb (incumbent): “I’m a native La Jollan; I’ve grown up here, gone to school here,” Luscomb said.

The owner of La Jolla Kayak on Avenida de la Playa said: “I’ve been on this board multiple times in different capacities; I’ve seen a lot of great things that the group has done and I really am especially interested, with COVID hitting ... being involved in successfully making sure that Avenida de la Playa businesses survive. I’m happy to serve again if you guys will have me. I always enjoy being a part of it.”

Jeff Scott: After working around the world with various companies, Scott currently teaches at UC San Diego and a university in Seattle.

“My interest is mainly in sustainability,” he said. “I taught sustainability at Columbia [University] when I was an administrator there. ... [La Jolla] is a unique place from the standpoint of economic development, from a standpoint of the natural beauty and obviously the ocean is an incredible asset. It can’t be squandered.”

Scott said he’s “mainly focused on the university. I have a really good idea of how universities grow, and there’s a lot to like about how universities grow in terms of cultural life and economic development and activating the neighborhoods and so forth. But there’s also a lot to be cautious about, and I worry that universities sometimes are not as sensitive to the effects that they have on the communities. We need to have development, but it needs to be smart and it needs to be thoughtful and sustainable.” ◆