Corey Levitan

La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) pulled off one of San Diego’s first online community meetings on Thursday, April 2, virtually electing a new president via the communications app Zoom. Diane Kane took over immediately from Tony Crisafi.

La Jolla resident Scott Flavell was grappling with his own coronavirus-caused problem: laying off workers in his Kearny Mesa factory. It manufactured postural correction products for the chiropractic industry — not exactly an essential business. As Flavell left a local market and seeing grocery employees working closely with others, a simultaneous solution to both problems suddenly dawned on him. His factory would switch to manufacturing face masks and donate them to grocery stores. He shifted production and made 10,000 masks at an initial cost of $3,000, but offering them for free.

Here’s what is known about coronavirus as of March 30, 2020

Nearly all of La Jolla’s religious institutions and churches have moved their services online in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) and the government’s mandates against social gathering. Here is a roundup of how local clergy are holding daily or weekly services through live-streaming and recorded videos.

Storm water is not a friend to Coast Walk Trail. Luckily, Brenda Fake is. The La Jollan, who lives adjacent to the trail, is attempting to raise $18,000 to $20,000 to repair major erosion that has occurred due to rains and pedestrian use. So far, she’s got $4,500. Friends of Coast Walk Trail — which Fake founded in 2011 with Paul Teirstein and residents north of Coast Walk Bridge — wants to resurface the trail, level the walking path and remove invasive vegetation along the trail, which runs west of Torrey Pines Road between Coast Walk and Cave Street.

It’s not just because she’s the president of La Jolla Parks & Beaches (LJP&B) that Ann Dynes has a unique perspective on La Jolla’s parks and beaches. From the balcony of the condo she shares with her husband (former University of California president and UC San Diego chancellor Bob Dynes), she overlooks the park and the beach at Whale View Point. Dynes also helped found the San Diego Parks Foundation; worked with La Jolla Conservancy; and with the LJP&B board, advises the City Parks & Rec Department on improvements needed for La Jolla’s parks and beaches.

Here are noteworthy updates for La Jolla and San Diego County residents regarding coronavirus-related business relief packages; assistance for low-wage workers; COVID-19 testing; childcare services; documenting the virus crisis; and research efforts.

More than half of San Diego County restaurants have completely closed, industry leaders say

La Jolla residents are facing the coronavirus pandemic the same as they do everything else — in different ways. Some only leave their homes for non-essential trips, others spend more time outdoors. Some fear for their lives and livelihoods, others look for silver linings. All of this is due to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s March 19 executive order mandating California’s 40 million residents to stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs and errands, acquiring food, seeking medical care or getting some exercise.

La Jolla Shores Association (LJSA) voted to seek legal counsel on whether to pursue a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) suit filed against UC San Diego during its March 11, 2020 meeting at Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Martin Johnson House. The suit would aim to reduce, delay or halt construction of UCSD’s Future College Living & Learning Neighborhood, which is expected to break ground near La Jolla Village Drive and North Torrey Pines Road in September.

During a private meeting Feb. 28 with La Jolla community leaders, UC San Diego agreed to a public forum at which it will present both its long-range campus plans and a recently completed traffic study regarding the impact of the Future College Living & Learning Neighborhood. The Future College Project is expected to house an estimated 2,000 undergraduate students, contain classrooms and space for retail and conferences, and offer 1,200 underground parking spaces along Torrey Pines Road near La Jolla Village Drive.

La Jolla Community Foundation (LJCF) and Enhance La Jolla board members hosted a public forum presenting the new La Jolla Village Streetscape Plan, March 5, 2020 at La Jolla Recreation Center. The plan intends to remake the upper part of “The Dip” (Prospect Street between Girard and Herschel avenues) into a pedestrian plaza including new street trees, lighting, sidewalk improvements, benches and crosswalks. The lower part of Prospect would switch from one- to two-way traffic, with lost parking replaced by diagonal parking on Girard between Prospect and Coast Boulevard.