Corey Levitan

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.

It’s no secret that greatly admired La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps greatly admired Abraham Lincoln.

In 1942, three La Jolla High School (LJHS) seniors graduated without finishing their spring semester.

County can now test for coronavirus The County Public Health Laboratory is now able to test for the novel coronavirus, the cause of the respiratory disease COVID-19, according to the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA).

To the world, Barry Goldwater was a five-term Arizona Senator, the architect of the modern conservative movement and the 1964 Republican presidential candidate defeated in a landslide by Lyndon Johnson.

In the latest salvo of a long-running war inside the ranks of La Jolla Parks & Beaches (LJP&B), the community advisory group on Feb. 24 voted 8-7 to defeat a motion that would have banned its recommendation of any new event that charges admission, that constructs fences and/or that vends for profit in Scripps Park until the City issues its Master Parks Plan with other guidance.

The extremely heavy lifting is over for the La Jolla Maintenance Assessment District (MAD).