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Although the official summer season is winding down, this is the time when many residents start to enjoy what some call “locals summer.” It’s that window of time when the weather is still warm, but the peak tourism season has passed, making it an ideal time for locals to enjoy our beautiful beaches and all Carlsbad has to offer with less crowds. I’ll share some activities perfect for enjoying locals summer this weekend, along with these updates:

• Reducing speeding on Tamarack
• How to safely share our trails with wildlife
• Help pick our next book for Carlsbad’s biggest book club
• What a library card gets you
• Meet the Author Event at Dove Library
• Family Movie Night under the stars
• Stepping up to protect our waterways
• At ArtWalk Carlsbad, you can be the artist
• Get involved: Upcoming meetings
• Remembering 9/11

Reducing speeding on Tamarack

If you’ve driven on Tamarack Avenue between I-5 and El Camino Real, you’ve probably noticed some new features along the road around Valley Middle School. I’m talking about a series of raised crosswalks and speed tables – which look like extra wide speed bumps. 

• New flashing lights at the raised crosswalks are now installed, the last part of a short-term plan to reduce speeding in this specific area.
• In this case, engineering, or how a roadway is designed, is a self-enforcing way to address speeding without impacting people who are already driving at safe speeds.
• These new features are a result of the city’s work with the community to calm traffic in a way that meets the needs of everyone who lives, walks, bikes or drives in the area.
• A long-term redesign of the street is still planned for the future.

Speed tables

• Two “speed tables,” which look like extra wide speed bumps, are installed near Adair Way and west of Crescent Point Road.
• Speed tables have ramps on both sides, with a flat top that’s about the length of a car.
• The speed tables help signal drivers to slow down.

Raised crosswalks

• Raised crosswalks have been added at Sunnyhill Drive, Valley Street and James Drive.
• These help reduce speeds and make it easier for drivers to see pedestrians as they cross the street.
• Flashing lights have been installed at Sunnyhill and James, which alert drivers to watch for pedestrians or cyclists at the intersection.
• The raised crosswalk at Valley Street is paired with the previously installed pedestrian signal, which stops traffic when a person presses the button to cross.
• If you’re on Valley Street making a right on Tamarack, please follow the “no turn on red” sign to safely allow pedestrians to cross.

Why it matters

• Many homes and several schools are located on or just off Tamarack Avenue.
• At this week’s Traffic & Mobility Commission meeting, the Police Department shared the latest data on traffic collisions in Carlsbad.
• Police data from July showed that unsafe speeds were still one of the top causes of collisions.

I also want to mention that our local traffic safety emergency formally ends this week on Sept. 8. Even though the local emergency proclamation expires, traffic safety will remain a top priority in Carlsbad. We’ll continue to focus on the three Es of traffic safety – education, engineering and enforcement – using the framework of our Safer Streets Together Plan. 

We will have an official report on what’s been accomplished, using a year’s worth of data, at a City Council meeting in October and will keep you posted when that’s scheduled.

How to safely share our trails with wildlife

We’ve been hearing from some residents that they have noticed an increase in coyote sightings recently in our community. During the spring and summer months when temperatures are warmer, coyotes, rattlesnakes and other wildlife are more active. Here are a few safety tips from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to keep in mind while enjoying our city trails and open space that these critters call home.

Coyotes

• Never feed or attempt to tame coyotes.
• Keep your dog on a leash under six feet long. Never leave small children or pets outside unattended or let them wander far ahead of you while hiking.
• Don’t hike alone and stay on the trail; don’t wander into tall grass.
• If followed by a coyote, make loud noises. If that fails, throw rocks in the animal’s direction.
• At home, install motion-sensitive lighting around your house and trim ground-level shrubbery to reduce hiding places.

Help pick our next Carlsbad Reads Together book

Every year in April, the community gets to become one giant book club through our Carlsbad Reads Together program and connect through a love of reading.

We’re planning ahead for next year’s program and would like you to help us pick our next book. You can weigh in by taking this brief online survey by Sept. 19.

City staff have developed a list of 10 possible books for next year based on the program’s selection standards and we’d like to know which are your top picks.

The final Carlsbad Reads Together selection will be based on community feedback and author availability and announced in 2024.

What a library card gets you

If you don’t already have a Carlsbad City Library card, now is a great time to get one. And I’m not just saying that because September is Library Card Sign Up Month. It’s because here in Carlsbad, our city libraries are about so much more than books.

With your library card, you can check out movies, audiobooks, music and even streaming entertainment. In all, you can access a wide range of resources that support life-long learning. Not to mention our e-services, including the Libby App, which puts tens of thousands of free e-books and audiobooks at your fingertips.

You can sign up for a library card at any Carlsbad city library location by showing a photo ID and proof of your current address (you don’t have to be a Carlsbad resident). You can also fill out an online application to get a temporary card that will allow you to access most eResources.

You can learn more about all the library has to offer by visiting our website.

A love of reading, for all

Speaking of reading, this Friday is International Literacy Day. We’re proud to help advance literacy through several programs and services offered by our Carlsbad City Library.

One of those is an online program that helps adults earn their high school diplomas and career certificates to open pathways to job opportunities and more. We also have a Literacy Services program that offers adults the chance to improve their reading and writing skills, with guidance from trained volunteer tutors in a supportive environment.

If you know someone who could benefit from better reading and writing skills, please pass along this information:

442-339-2878

literacy@carlsbadca.gov

Meet the author event

I always love a good whodunnit, so I wanted to invite you to come listen to acclaimed author William Kent Krueger discuss his brand-new novel “The River We Remember.” William will visit the Schulman Auditorium Monday during a meet-the-author event at the Carlsbad City Library.

Monday, Sept. 11

12:30 p.m.

Carlsbad City Library

Schulman Auditorium

1775 Dove Lane

Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

You can learn more about the book on the library website.

Family Movie Night under the stars

Bring family and friends, a blanket and low-back chairs to Stagecoach Community Park on Friday for a night of activities and an outdoor showing of “Night at the Museum.”

Family Movie Night

Friday, Sept. 8

5 p.m.

Stagecoach Community Park

3420 Camino de los Coches

• From 5 to 7 p.m., enjoy a movie-themed FunZone with bounce houses, obstacle races, crafts, games and activities.
• No registration required, wristbands for the FunZone can be purchased for $5 at the event.
• There will also be food and beverages for sale, including pizza, nachos, hot dogs, ice cream and popcorn.
• Our feature presentation, “Night at the Museum” (rated PG) will start at dusk with a run time of 1 hour, 48 minutes.

Stepping up to protect our waterways

Carlsbad’s ocean, lagoons and creeks are part of what make our city special, which is why protecting the environment and natural resources is one of five goals in the City Council’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. But having these treasures also comes with a responsibility to keep our waterways clean.

If you’re looking for a way to help, registration is now open for the upcoming Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 23, organized by I Love A Clean San Diego.

You can sign up to volunteer at one of two Carlsbad sites (South Ponto and Tamarack State Beach) or, if those spots are full, you can help at any site in the region.

More importantly, you can help protect our waterways every day by preventing runoff at home and keeping pollutants such as fertilizer, trash and chemicals from entering our storm drains.

• Make sure sprinklers are watering your yard, not the sidewalks
• Use non-toxic or natural products for pest or weed control
• Always pick up after your pets
• Sweep instead of hosing down your driveway
• Take your car to a car wash, where water is recirculated, instead of washing it at home
• Call the Storm Water Hotline to report pollution at 442-339-2799

At ArtWalk Carlsbad, you can be the artist

Painters, sculptors, photographers and all kinds of artists from the U.S. and Mexico will show off their work this weekend at ArtWalk Carlsbad. It’s a free, interactive art event and fine arts festival nonprofit ArtReach San Diego is putting on along Armada Drive.

If you’re planning to go, we hope you’ll stop by the city’s Pop Up Art activity to create a fun, Flower Fields inspired art project. We’ll provide all the supplies.

Also, a heads up that Armada Drive will be closed between north and south Fleet Street from 9 a.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday. Traffic will be detoured along Fleet Street.

With so many people walking, biking or driving to and from ArtWalk, please remember to slow down, share the road and stay extra alert.

Get involved: Upcoming meetings

The next City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Sept. 12, starting at 5 p.m. in the City Council Chamber. Topics to be considered include:

• An update on the city’s investments
• An agreement for the design work needed for the refurbishment of the city’s fleet maintenance building
• Appointing a resort representative to serve on the advisory boards of the Carlsbad Golf Lodging Business Improvement District and the Carlsbad Tourism Business Improvement District, which work to promote tourism in Carlsbad
• Introducing an ordinance to update the part of the Carlsbad Municipal Code on meetings to include current practices, clearer guidelines and recent City Council direction
• Adopting changes to parts of the Municipal Code that cover the Beach, Parks, Senior, Housing, Arts, and Traffic & Mobility commissions to make them consistent, and to formally rename the Traffic & Mobility Commission the Traffic Safety & Mobility Commission
• Adopting a change to the speed limit on southbound Carlsbad Boulevard between Manzano Drive and Island Way from 50 mph to 45 mph
• Adopting objective design standards for multifamily housing and mixed-use developments that will give the city more control over what these projects look like while complying with new housing laws
• The development plan for a 156-unit rental apartment building on five lots on Carlsbad Village Drive and Grand Avenue
• Appointing one member to the Historic Preservation Commission
• Establishing a pension trust to minimize the potential impact of pension cost changes on the city’s budget
• Options to encourage electric-only power in new multifamily residential developments, phasing out natural gas

A link to the full agenda and staff reports is available on the city’s website. You can watch the meeting live on the website or on the city’s cable TV channel.

Two city commissions and committees are also meeting next week:

• Sept. 11, 6 p.m. – Historic Preservation Commission
• Sept. 12, 9 a.m. – Legislative Subcommittee

Remembering 9/11

As we near the solemn anniversary of Sept. 11, I want to take a moment to recognize the heroism and unwavering courage of the first responders and the thousands who lost their lives 22 years ago. For more than two decades, the spouses, children, parents, siblings, and friends of those lost that day have carried a pain that I cannot fathom. These loved ones are missed, but remain etched in our memory and will never be forgotten.

Scott Chadwick

City Manager