See you next year! It’s been a year of great things in Pacific Beach and here at the Beach & Bay Press. While we’ll miss our readers over the next couple of weeks, we look forward to bringing you all the local news that’s fit to print in the new year. Look for our first issue of 2014 on Jan. 9. Happy holidays and happy new year to you and yours!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013
SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER GROUP
BEACHANDBAYPRESS.COM
Waving in the
holidays PHOTOS BY PAUL HANSEN
The Pacific Beach Holiday Parade wound its way down Garnet Avenue after the inaugural Santa Mile run on Dec. 15. The Grinch, Santa, toy soldiers, marching bands and much more turned out for the festive event. See
all the photos, Page 4.
ALL THAT JAZZ Mission Bay High School’s top-notch jazz band The Preservationists will perform at the school’s “Snow and Tell” winter concert on Dec. 19. COURTESY PHOTO
Sounds of the season at Mission Bay High By BART MENDOZA San Diego has many great holiday traditions, but when it comes to music, few can touch the heart like the annual Winter Concert at Mission Bay High School. This year dubbed “Snow and Tell,” the concert takes place on Dec. 19, 7 p.m., bringing together all of the school’s music pro-
grams for a special performance of seasonal favorites, swing standards and jazz. More than 100 students across all grade levels will participate. “We have a very strong jazz program, so everything has that jazzy flavor,” said Mission Bay music director Jean-Paul “JP” Bal-
mat. “We will be playing everything from Duke Ellington (‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’) to Vince Gauraldi (‘Charlie Brown Christmas’).” In addition to the school’s
SEE MUSIC >> PG. 6
A GREEN FUTURE? Steps can be taken to make Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Mission Bay Park more environmentally friendly, but it won’t be an easy task. Urban design experts told residents at a recent Town Hall meeting that making the community more economically diverse will be one hurdle to overcome. ETHAN ORENSTEIN
Residents learn of the hurdles, benefits to a greener PB By DAVE SCHWAB Residents in Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Mission Bay Park learned during a Dec. 11 Town Hall meeting that there’s a lot they can do to make their communities more eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable. That was the mostly upbeat message delivered by several members of the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT). SDAT members are nationally accredited professionals in numerous areas of expertise, including urban design, planning, landscape architecture, renewable energy, and traffic and transportation. They were invited in by local stakeholders to offer their expertise on how best to make beach communities greener, cleaner and more economically lean. But the news the SDAT team delivered wasn’t sugar coated: There are some problems to be overcome in making oceanfront neighborhoods more sustainable. One obstacle to be surmounted is that beachfront communities need to become more economically diverse. “You have 30,000 employed people living in this area and 27,000 of them work elsewhere,” said SDAT team member Tom Liebel, whose
expertise is in integrating sustainable design principles into adaptiveuse and historic-preservation projects. “That’s 73,000 car trips a day by people who don’t work where they live.” Liebel said if beach communities ultimately want to become more economically viable and environmentally sustainable, they’ll need to “think about how to create development where you don’t need to own a car.” Liebel added that adapting the urban environment to make it more sustainable will require “changing behavior.” “We need to move more toward walking and biking,” he said. “That’s good for the environment. You need to find alternatives. That means looking at public transit.” Paula Reeves, an SDAT team member who specializes in developing transportation projects, told beach residents they “need to have a long-term vision in thinking about the future.” “Start today,” Reeves said. “Think creatively and be innovative and work as a community in improving conditions for biking and walking. Engage the community. Put pedestri-
SEE ECO-DISTRICT >> PG. 14
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