Tag: San Diego

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 3, 20229:02 pm

The Urban Jungle Gym

What qualifies as a park in one of San Diego’s supposedly trendier neighborhoods? Answer: North Park Mini Park—and, yes, that’s the name of the community seen in the Featured Image. When I think of a park, particularly in a coastal region with three Summer seasons (Early, Mid, and Late), lush space with grass, greenery, and trees comes to mind. Apparently, not in North Park, where cement rules.

Say, can some stereotypical, anti-carbon emissions, stop climate change citizen living there explain the environmental benefits of building another edifice that absorbs heat and in the process quite likely also contributes to global warming? Wouldn’t heat-reducing, carbon-dioxide absorbing, oxygen-producing plants, shrubs, and trees make more environmental sense and be more interesting a refuge for residents?

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 2, 20228:03 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Saunter

The backlog of unpublished kitties is so long that I stopped taking every photographic opportunity. Hopefully, regrets won’t follow that decision. We resume with a longhair that my wife and I assumed was feral on first sighting: Alley separating Louisiana and Texas, on Jan. 13, 2022. The animal posed for some time before passing into a property facing Texas.

The Featured Image captures that moment. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/145 sec, 77mm; 11:58 a.m. PST. We next saw the feline along Louisiana, but on the other side of Meade, three days later. Because of location, I assumed we had come upon a different cat, but Annie correctly identified the two sightings as the same beastie.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 1, 20227:38 pm

Be Mine

The menacing palm that you met in April 2021 dresses in holiday-appropriate attire, like Uncle Sam garb for Fourth of July. Now he’s ready for Valentine’s Day in 13 days and has been at least since I captured the Featured Image on Jan. 4, 2022. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/4, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 28mm; 2:04 p.m. PST.

Composed as shot, the moment comes from Leica Q2. If you live in, or visit, San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood, you can see this terrifying tree on North Avenue between Meade and Monroe.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 31, 20229:10 pm

The Future of Transportation?

As part of its strategy to reduce so-called carbon emissions, San Diego is building bikeways through various close-in neighborhoods. The one starting at Georgia in University Heights and ending at Fairmont in City Heights is complete. My wife and I drove the length along Meade Avenue on Jan. 29, 2022 to attend the free-admission Lunar New Year celebration sponsored by the Little Saigon Foundation. However, Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park and the surrounding area was so packed, and parking so scare, we did a drive-by only.

A series of traffic circles and speed bumps has greatly reduced vehicular traffic along Meade—not that a marked increase in bikers is apparent. What I do see, and this is something that should trouble city planners and their long-term goals: An alarmingly greater number of motor-powered bicycles. Everywhere. Some are pedaled, too, and most are battery-electric. But not all.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 29, 20229:41 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Cuddles

For the last Caturday of the month, meet a kitty whose appearance is remarkable. I first spotted the black in a side alley separating multi-unit residences on Jan. 13, 2022, around 4:45 p.m. PST. My wife encountered the same shorthair sometime later, either on that street or the next. She doesn’t recall which but says the animal crossed Meade Ave.

That’s where we both met the meowing kitty three days later, one block further along. The tiny eyes, seemingly fixed stare, wide face, and white whiskers give impression of something stuffed rather than living. If I hadn’t heard the cat or seen it move, I would guess that some child lost a plushie.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 28, 20229:59 pm

The House on Cleveland

Today’s question: How much longer before this lovely home is demolished and replaced with something ill-suited to the street? On Dec. 2, 2021, I used Leica Q2 to take the Featured Image, after my wife read about the property in University Heights Community Association News. Photo vitals, aperture manually set: f/4.5, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, 28mm; 12:18 p.m. PST.

According to public property records, the place sold for $1.595 million during October 2021. UHCA News reports: “This charming Victorian home at 4350 Cleveland is 2,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and built in 1905, according to the 2015 Uptown Historic Resources Survey Report”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 26, 20228:10 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Muncher

We continue to work through the backlog of sighted and photographed kitties—some held back in hopes of identifying them. Meet the eighty-fourth feline found behind door or window. For privacy purposes, I edited to prevent peeping into the room behind and also choose to withhold the street.

For months, I have walked by and wondered what that ceramic-looking thing was on the cat tree. It’s a food dish! The shorthair munched away (hence, the nickname) as my wife and I walked past on Jan. 2, 2022—the first and only sighting, so far. Two minutes later, at 10:10 a.m. PST, Muncher finished breakfast and posed.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 24, 20229:33 pm

Surprise in the Sky

Importing the Featured Image into Adobe Lightroom Classic revealed unexpected dirt on lens. Where did those specs come from? But zooming in close revealed something else: A flock of birds set against the clouds—and half-Moon. So I cropped to give you another peek at the amazing detail Leica Q2‘s 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens captures. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, 28mm; 9:24 a.m. PST, Dec. 26, 2021.

The close-crop won’t win awards for composition, but it’s not meant to. There’s a certain satisfaction to how the intended object, and story about it, becomes something more. Since crane also is a bird, surely there is a clever way to describe the happenstance (not that I can think one; perhaps you can).

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 23, 20228:27 pm

The Film Shooter

My wife and I made Panorama Drive part of our Sunday walk routine—entering the loop at Louisiana. After we exited onto Alabama, at cross-street Madison, Annie pointed out a group of people meandering down the sidewalk ahead. She wondered if we should choose another way. Understanding that everyone would have to squeeze by, I asked to continue on. Before proceeding even 10 paces, I saw the cameras. Lots of them. We had come upon an apparent photo walk.

We passed through the throng, with many people stopping to shoot anything and everything about. University Heights is one of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods. As such, in part because of different construction eras—following world wars, for example—the housing architecture is distinct and varied. The contrast is striking compared to what locals call North County, where whole areas of homes look one and alike.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 22, 20227:00 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Mizu

It’s Caturday, and I’ve got a backlog of unpublished felines. Let’s celebrate! We bump to the front of queue, Mizu (yes, real name), who my wife and I met yesterday in the alley between Louisiana and Mississippi. She was friendly and cautious—and happiest when invited inside to visit a neighbor.

Mizu initially and unexpectedly rushed across the alley to visit with us, but a passing car caused her to retreat beneath another vehicle. I used iPhone 13 Pro to capture the Featured Image and two companions. Vitals: f/1.5, ISO 50, 1/4831 sec, 26mm; 12:32 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 20, 20228:18 pm

Where the Palm Crown Fell

Now I understand why the city of San Diego cut down the majestic palm on my street that South American Palm Weevils had infested. The dead, or dying trees, are dangerous. What a story we tell today, with accompanying photographs. Read and look on.

Walking with my wife along Meade Ave. in University Heights, I told her about the restaurant that Canadian officials closed for accepting dog photos instead of vaccination verifications for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19. Wanting to confirm country, I asked Annie to stop at cross-street Georgia, where I pulled out iPhone 13 Pro and web-searched. If not for that 30 seconds delay, we would have missed the disaster that had occurred at the corner. She saw the aftermath and called me to look.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 19, 20228:41 pm

Blasting Bureaucratic Bungling

For the first full day since San Diego road crews etched “North Park” into two traffic circles located in University Heights, the correct community name is displayed. I asked “Who Authorized This?” on Oct. 1, 2020, regarding the, ah, mishap at Alabama and Louisiana streets along Meade Ave. The city constructed the roundabouts as part of the Mid-City Bikeways project.

Restoration at Alabama started before Christmas 2021 but was repeatedly delayed by rainstorms. Work there completed last week and at Louisiana yesterday. The process was arduous and messy—and not just from the actual physical disruption; clutter and confusion replace the previous clean etching of letters and design. As such, I wonder if all the money and industry invested to correct the misnaming was wasted.