Scoops and Hoops

Northern Exposure

TO PROTECT AND SERVE: The sign at the border checkpoint just south of San Onofre has been changed from “U.S. Customs and Border Patrol” to “U.S. Customs and Border Protection.” One disgruntled commuter isn’t impressed. “The waits are the same,” he says. “And I still question the logic of having a border checkpoint 60 miles north of the border, at the midway point between two American cities.”

THE LATEST POOP: Carlsbad’s popular beachfront walkway has become a battleground pitting dogs against humans. With the city fast approaching buildout, the nearly mile-long clifftop sidewalk north of Tamarack Avenue is becoming increasingly crowded with joggers, power walkers and dog walkers. Pet owners who fail to heed the signs to clean up after their pets, despite a generous supply of poop bags, are getting the evil eye——and in some cases, more——from their fellow pedestrians, particularly if said pedestrians happen to step in a pile of poop. One recent Sunday, a jogger chased down an elderly man whose Maltese had dropped a load in the middle of the sidewalk and demanded he go back and clean it up.

RINGS OF FIRE: North County entrepreneur Patrick Deluz was recently profiled in Fortune and on CNN for creating battery-powered Hula Hoops with pulsing, colorful lights. The 58-year-old owner of Psychedelic Sensually Interactive Hoops, based in Encinitas, sold his first hoop three years ago and now has customers all over the world, including circuses, ice shows and aerial shows. Six of his hoops——made of transparent tubing with LED lights, and retailing for $250 to $400——were used at the opening party for Cirque de Soleil’s Ka in Las Vegas. The wave of publicity——not just from the national news outlets but also by the blogging universe that’s picked up on those stories——has brought tons of new business, putting Deluz at a crossroads. “I’m sort of in this interim stage,” he says. “Right now, they’re all handmade, and I’ve got about as much work as I can handle. So I have to get serious and make that jump, get a manufacturer so I can get them made cheaper but still maintain the quality.”

GOLF SNOBS: The Crossings at Carlsbad, at $70 million the world’s most expensive golf course, is trying to live up to its highbrow image. The public course is courting well-heeled golfers with a new loyalty program. An annual membership in the “club” costs $179 for Carlsbad residents, $189 for residents of San Diego County and $279 for all others. Benefits include discounted fees, two complimentary rounds of golf and a brass bag tag. The course’s proposed 2008 budget, by the way, projects a $890,000 loss for this year, mostly for planting and maintaining natural habitat, which occupies about half of the course’s 400 acres.

MAKE ROOM: North County’s newest resort opens this month: Sheraton Carlsbad Resort & Spa, next to Legoland and The Crossings at Carlsbad. The initial footprint features 250 guestrooms, with another 100 to come later. The resort also offers 25,000 square feet of meeting space, a high-end spa (Ocean Pearl, with signature marine-based treatments using “organic, hand-harvested ocean mud”) and a restaurant (Twenty/20 Grill & Wine Bar, serving “artisanal vineyard California cuisine”). When complete, the resort will be the second-largest hotel in North County, by room size.

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »