San Juan Capistrano Ramos St. & Los Rios Parking Lots: Ducks Welcome!

Less than 1 acre, it's hard to imagine how the latest peripheral parking expansion (see foto in slide show), estimated at a cost of $455, 746 became so bloated and in such heated dispute, is still an unresolved $605,746 neighborhood boondoggle.

Unlike political animals, water doesn't lie (although it does settle and rest), who knows, maybe the perimeter of these lots will be perfect vectors for mosquito populations where smaller, more isolated outlier puddles become stagnant and are left undisturbed for 5 days or so? Can you say West Nile? Mr. Roger knew you could!

The final tab remains murky and unknown, but the City in its pithy ironic verbiage calls the $150,000 differential thus far a "funding shortfall."

One thing IS certain: Both of the more recently developed lots will be useless for large blocks of time during and immediately after significant rainy events. As SJC is ramping up its year-round-visitors promo strategy, where will those hordes park?

There's been no respite, no closure for those who live or have a business in close proximity, most grossly and acutely effected by the incompetence, ineptitude and sub-par deliverables in regards to the air pollution from the newest extension.

Then again, isn't this all too typical of Capital Improvement Projects (CIPs) when municipal government takes the lead, is in charge? In the private sector heads would roll, employees fired.

In spite of allowed contingency funding, they're still not done, have run way over budget (by 1/3 and counting), innumerable neighborhood physical inconveniences, dislocations, delays and adverse impacts which the bad actors at City Hall allege were unforeseen. Really?

So they get paid to turn their heads, become deaf, dumb and blind when hired, oblivious to obvious potential deficiencies, flaws? Then why are they called "planners?"

They've taken far longer and have burned through more precious CIP earmarked funds destined for other parking-related proposals. This is where poor design, poor planning and contracting with the "lowest responsible vendor" become neighborhood nightmares, locals bearing the brunt and ignored by their own governance.

The email chains and exchanges are rife with righteous alarm yet reasonable, calm, respectful petitions by neighbors, who you guessed it, got stonewalled. Or "We'll get back to you on that," but they never do, hoping you'll just give up. Or die. Or move.

The grading and excavation contractor certainly didn't perform responsibly, and neither did City staff empowered with project oversight. Turned out that myself and several neighbors provided surveillance, supervision and inspection duties, including video footage proof of violations.

Together, we tried to keep this site in compliance because God knows the City didn't until the outrage became loud, when their feet were being held to the proverbial fire by regulatory agents.

Mother Nature has revealed what myself and my Los Rios District friends feared: Unmitigated significant impacts that should/could have been avoided.

Sub-standard particulate migration management practices (BMPs), leading to multiple formal complaints to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD). This includes at least one citation, plus an ongoing investigation after 3 site visits by AQMD last summer into the fall.

Dust blanketing the northern quadrant of Historic Los Rios, neighbors forced to close their windows in summer weather. Coughing residents, hostages actually, with unhealthy air in the immediate environs.

Neighbors hosing down their windows, fruit trees, vegetation, bikes and cars left outdoors which were covered in dark soot for months on end.

This included several salient facts (spoiled/polluted soil piled too high while waiting for export, dust migrating off-site, failure to dampen sediment to inhibit migration, etc.) that we had to point out, that went unresolved by the City until AQMD investigators intervened. THEN the City paid attention.

In spite of being repeatedly asked, to this day the City has refused to provide the cartage logs for the excavated spoils. What we sought 9 months ago has been stonewalled and ignored: What was in that ≈ 1000 cu. yards of contaminated soil that the vendor hauled away, where was its final destination and did the recipient know what kind of damaged goods they accepted?

In my previous column, "San Juan Capistrano Parking Lot: Cutting Corners Has Consequences," both myself and Los Rios Historic District residents and business owners had hoped that the City and its contractors would do the right thing. [1]

It has become abundantly clear that the City never pondered, wasn't proactive or preemptive regarding what significant rain events would reveal, easily predictable/forseeable btw, the poor surface hydrology planning aspect doomed.

Unsurprising to me, quite obvious, likely and probable, I repeatedly crossed swords with staff and pointed out the under-valuing (undersized and substandard onsite detention BMPs, drainage planning) but they claimed it met minimal water quality protection standards.

Minimal being the key word here, don't you love it when your City's indifferent attitude is that getting a barely passing grade suffices? Think that's what they tell their kids? "Freddy/Janey, just get a C. Your mediocrity is adequate, if your career winds up in municipal governance, you'll learn that standard will be rewarded, k?"

6 inches of gravel over a heavily compacted dirt sub-base (90--100 lbs./square inch), one pitifully under-sized percolation basin pit instead of multiple catch basins, and Voila! Duck ponds aplenty. The ground cannot absorb anything once saturated, and that compaction basically traps the rain from sub-surface infiltration (downward percolation).

Perhaps, due to the reduced swallows population nearby, the City should consider putting a duck on the City seal? Because that's what's happening in its parking lots: Places where in the future, for many weeks those lots will be unusable. Any car or truck driving around in the mud will gouge the soft upper surface, are we having fun yet?

And until they've dried out (good luck with that, there's no drainage to be had), all of those who want FREE PARKING will be screwed. TSOL. Which defeats the original purpose, free peripheral parking for commerce employees, locals and visitors.

The Los Rios Park lot is decomposed granite (DG), and it too is not only muddy when even slightly wetted, but the pot holes are rampant. Locals and visitors unfortunately already know this all too well. Another stellar example of poor design in initial planning phases.

Has it never occurred to the City that the environmentally correct thing to do was build them for rain harvesting and re-directing for treatment of the surplus supplies falling onsite, helping offset expensive imported water from elsewhere? That these peripheral lots would dry out faster as well, thus leaving them functional for longer periods of time?

With all of the alternatives, ones that would have led to quicker drainage, more stable surfaces, including reclamation of excess or surplus for reuse of those thousands of gallons of free rainfall supplies........ for all of the pomp and circumstance, the braggadocio, the boasting in Council Chambers and media interviews? No foresight.

"Only the mediocre are always at their best." Jean Giraudoux

Swallow's Day on March 25th, with the parade and the downtown district's activity levels high, demands for proximity parking will be great, and unfortunately interesting in a bad way.

Another atmospheric river event, with around 1-2 inches of rain for our area was predicted today by meteorologists (Thursday, March 16th). Starting around Monday night (3/20) , probably over several days duration through Wednesday night, look for these lots to be vacant or cordoned off that day---as they are in the photos provided above.

About the time those upper strata, permeable surface Los Rios lots are barely beginning to dry out, the pools and ponds subsiding in size and moisture content? 100% replenishment and another few weeks of closures or inaccessibility will happen, yet who exactly at City Hall really cares?

Upside is that migratory ducks WILL be hanging around for another month or longer. Thus all is not lost. Or bring your bathtub or shower rubber duckies down, maybe a sailing race across the abandoned lots to raise funds for a City gone to the birds?

Think Hardy (Sons of the Desert), in theatrical, drama queen exasperation turning to Laurel: "Well Stanley, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"

Indeed here's another fine mess, avoidable, but when you go cheap you get cheap.

[1] https://patch.com/california/l...