Viewpoints of time & place

"Just as travel underlines that obvious but ever-surprising fact that, from wherever you view the world, it looks different, so does history offer intellectually something of the same insight. Our surroundings have been the home to countless generations of people estranged from us by time, for whom the assumptions and realities of life were, in a myriad of ways, fundamentally different. That realisation [sic] should be revelatory, inspiring and admonishing in equal measure."

From the March 13, 2013 issue of Country Life magazine

"A Plea for Palomar", by J.H.Y., 1901

A poem written about Palomar Mountain, which had earlier been known as Smith's Mountain

Fell my oak and fell my pine-tree; send my cedar to the mill;
Strip the tangled pine from off me; roll my boulders down the hill;
Grade my summit; till my valley; tear away my woodland pride;
Parcel me in city lots, and run a railway up my side;
Rule my streets with dull precision, block by block, in order time,
Here a church and there a depot, where the tiger lilies grew;
Mar God's handiwork about me; let my beauty be a myth;
Then, defaced and desecrated, call me after Mr. Smith.

But while yet the stately cedar sentinels the sylvan lawn;
While at times from yonder thicket peeps the nimble-footed fawn;
While the glory of the morning breaks on precipice and peak,
And the winter sees my waters leaping down to Panama Creek;
While the valley smiles beneath one, stretching westward to the main,
Mile on mile of rolling pasture, green alfalfa, golden grain;
While I look on Catalina, far beyond the ocean shore,
And the gleam of sunny waters on the lake of Elsinore;
While I dominate the lowland, hill and valley, near and far,
In my majesty and beauty, let my name be Palomar.

Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke speaks on open space, circa early 20th c.

So far the tourist has not discovered it [Africa], and I would like to see it in its undisturbed glory before railways and air routes have arrived, before luxury hotels and nightclubs have grown up like poisonous fungi - before it’s been tarnished and made ugly for civilisation [sic] which is unable to let things well enough alone.

From Bror Blixen: The African letters, edited by Gustav Kleen, 1988

What is "Reasonable" to You?

Tonight, the Carlsbad City Council and Mayor will vote on the proposed Quarry Creek development plan by the McMillin Company. The Carlsbad Planning Commission recommended the plan after some slight alterations. However, as the proposed plan stands now, there are still too many issues to allow the plan to be approved. If you agree, I have included contact information for our mayor and council.

McMillin representatives stated at the Carlsbad Planning Commission meeting on February 20th, that they had listened to all “reasonable” requests in their planning of the Quarry Creek development, which will be built behind Kohl’s, off College and the 78. I have a few questions about what is reasonable.

Is it unreasonable for Carlsbad residents to expect the Carlsbad Planning Commission, the Carlsbad Mayor, the Carlsbad City Council to represent residents’ interests over a developer’s?

Is it reasonable for residents to expect the city government to use funds set aside for the purchase of open space when we passed Prop C in 2002? The Buena Vista Creek Valley was number one on the list. Our city has a dedicated open space plan. In this instance, the city could gain open space for residents, for our community without spending any of that money. The City Council just needs to scale back the number of houses they will allow in Quarry Creek.

Is it reasonable to be hired to create a development and then state that you cannot make a profit unless the city’s general plan for the area is thrown out and that you be allowed to build more than twice as many houses, which would as a matter of course, destroy the Buena Vista Creek Valley, a wildlife corridor?

Is it unreasonable for the residents to expect their city government to turn down that company’s business and meet with other developers, who would be interested in building 293 houses as allocated to the former quarry land?

Is it reasonable for the Carlsbad school district to keep one school open and allow more overcrowding in that and other north Carlsbad elementary schools for the benefit of McMillin’s profits and to the detriment of the students, the district’s budget, and the quality of life in Carlsbad? Educational quality isn’t just about high test scores; it’s also about small class size and amount of money spent per student.

Is it reasonable to use low-income residents and affordable housing as a smoke screen by creating the impression that not supporting McMillin’s proposal will negatively affect the building of affordable housing units? The fact is, no matter how many houses are built, 65 must be affordable housing units. So supporting McMillin’s proposed plan does not benefit low-income families at all. Another fact is that they were supposed to build 98, but got that number reduced to 65. Low-income residents and supporters of affordable housing should actually be protesting the proposed plan and demanding that the number be reinstated to 98.

This doesn’t even touch on the reasonable desire of Carlsbad and affected Oceanside residents to not have to deal with greater traffic issues than they already experience in that area today.

It looks like I have a different definition of what “reasonable” means. I have personally never met anyone who lamented that more houses haven’t been built. However, I have met many, many people, of all different political persuasions, incomes, Carlsbad residents and others, who value open space. This doesn’t just mean manicured parks and designated trails, but true open space where wildlife can prosper and future generations can still have the benefit of seeing what the land looked like before development.

If you feel that it is reasonable for McMillin to follow our city’s Adopted General Plan and build 293 houses, including 98 affordable housing units, which would protect our open space in the Buena Vista Creek Valley, prevent additional overcrowding in our schools and on our roadways, please contact the Carlsbad Mayor and City Council before tonight.

Contact info: council@carlsbadca.gov

Operatic History in Letters

The following excerpt is from a 1905 letter written by Florence Shipley to her mother Julia. Born in 1882 and recently a high school graduate, Florence was traveling around the country visiting friends and relatives of the family. This letter was written during her stay at the Rockwood estate in Wilmington, Delaware, home of her father's cousin, Edward Bringhurst. In this excerpt, Florence's discussion of opera includes the singers Johanna Gadski, Marcella Sembrick, Enrico Caruso, and Ernestine Schumann-Heinck, as well as Lucia di Lammermoor, the opera by Gaetano Donizetti and the comic opera, Love's Lottery.

I am very glad to know that you went to hear Madame Gadski, and that you enjoyed it, but it is too bad that the attendance was so poor at the concert.

I do not think that either Philadelphia or Wilmington is at all musical, for they do not have the opera here at all, and at Philadelphia they only have it about once in two weeks during the New York season.

The singers come down from New York and then return there after each performance, and they do not give any matinées, so I have not been able to hear anything so far. We did plan to go up and hear Madame Sembrick and Caruso in Lucia di Lammermoor when they sang it there a short time ago, but the weather was so stormy that we had to give it up.

Madame Schumann-Heinck will be in Philadelphia all of next week, but I heard her when I was in Washington. A great many people think she is wasted on light opera, but if she gets as far as San Diego you ought certainly to go and hear her in Love's Lottery, for it is charming, and very funny. Mary and I enjoyed it immensely.

Interestingly, not only did Madame Schumann-Heinck "get as far as San Diego", she was instrumental in providing the funding for building the organ pavilion in Balboa Park. She also lived here, both in Grossmont and on Coronado. See the article below for the full story.



Johanna Gadski: href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4412827"

Marcella Sembrich: href="http://www.berthelsenart.com/special_feature_marcella_sembrich.html"

Enrico Caruso: href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/97583/Enrico-Caruso"

Lucia di Lammermoor, synopsis: href="http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/history/stories/synopsis.aspx?customid=55"

Madame Schumann-Heinck in Love's Lottery, a review: href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F5081EFE395F12738DDDAD0894D8415B848CF1D3"

Ernestine Schumann-Heinck: href="http://www.balboaparkhistory.net/glimpses/scheink.htm"

March

As in the Roman year, so in the English ecclesiastical calendar used until 1752 this was the first month, and the legal year commenced on the 25th of March. Scotland changed the first month to January in 1599. This month was called Martius by the Romans, from the god Mars, and it received the name ‘Hlyd Monath’, i.e. ‘loud’ or ‘stormy month’ from the Anglo-Saxons.

From The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden, a naturalist who created this journal for the year 1906. She never allowed anyone to see it during her lifetime. She was born in 1871. After attending art school, she worked as an illustrator. She met her husband, Ernest Smith, a sculptor, while she was living in London. She died tragically, in 1920, drowning in the Thames while gathering buds from chestnut trees.

Early 20th c. San Diego County News Tidbits, Part II

Oct. 1905 – Home Co. telephone line tall post and four wires are on its way through town.

Feb. 21, 1906 – [A wish for a newborn girl] May she grow up to be a good woman and live to see her great-grandchildren.

June 1906 – San Luis Rey river still flows a good stream to the ocean.

March 1909 – Auto Club erecting sign posts on coast road marking every turn and danger point along the way as well as distances, directions, etc.

Dec. 1909 - Mr. Gainer…has embraced the Hindu religion and has traveled twice to India to learn more of its philosophy.

April 1910 – Halley’s comet could be seen all through April and will pass between us and the sun on May 19, 1910, and after that it will be seen in the evening sky. It will come again in 75 years.

May 1911 – C.S. Libby purchased old Christian Church on First and Hill St. in Oceanside. Will make it into a neat modern residence.

June 1911 – Mr. Baird moves to Long Beach, has a position with a motion picture concern. An expert photographer.

June 10, 1911 – W.R. Clark and family drove a team of horses down from Greenfield Monterey Co. in three weeks. Automobiles were counted on the trip – came to 640 cars.

July 1911 – W.S. Kelly has learned to run his new auto fairly well but says his family are shy of riding with him yet.

Oct. 1911 – A law passed in county requiring all travelers to have lights on their vehicles.

Sept. 1912 – Charles Kelly sold 52 horses to a purchaser from Imperial Co., Carroll Borden rode ahead leading two horses and Earl Frazee and Forrest Borden came along behind and kept them going. Many were wild but we took them down the 101 Highway to San Diego and camped in Mission Valley the first night. Only a few cars on the road then.

Jan. 1914 – Six airship passes in ten days in January. Pretty soon we won’t get out of bed to see one.

Dec. 1914 – Water is here in Carlsbad. We have seen it with our own eyes.

Jan. 1, 1915 – San Diego Exposition gets under way. Everything that would make noise was used after midnight.

June 1915 – Flying machines are so common these days that we merely take a peep to see which way they are going and then forget them.

June 1915 – Sam Thompson, of Orange, has five acres west of Highland, which will be planted in Avocado trees. This fruit is little known in this country, only a few trees having been grown in this vicinity but it is a staple product in Mexico and other Southern countries.

Feb. 1916 – High school pupils finding trains always late since the floods have taken to walking three to five miles to Oceanside.

Oct. 1917 – WWI housewives are asked to have meatless and wheatless days.

Oct. 1918 – Save fruit-pits, nut shells, etc. to make gas masks for our government.

April 1919 – Passenger plane is making daily trips between San Diego and Los Angeles. The fare is $25.00.

Sept. 1919 – The Carlsbad grammar school is growing larger again. Enrollment, now 18.

Sept. 1919 – President Wilson passed through on the rear platform of a train. In San Diego they rigged up loud speakers and they claimed that more people heard him than any man in the world.

Oct. 1921 – Mr. And Mrs. Abraham Lincoln Kentner from South Bend, Indiana visiting E.G. Kentner at the Twin Inns.

After his wife, Minnie Kelly Borden, died in 1919, Mr. Borden started looking for an assistant. In 1920, he said, “I am still in need of a helper on this paper. Someone who would rather do good than get rich.” In 1921, “Not yet having found an assistant who would be my successor, I am facing the apparent necessity of dropping the work for want of physical and financial ability to keep it going.” The last paper was dated January 1923. After printing the paper for 38 years, he was forced to stop because his health gave out and he died a year later.