Home Care In Camino, CA

Writer’s Note: This project was supported by California Humanities Emerging Journalist Fellowship Program. For more information, visit www.calhum.org.

Any views or findings expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

On the southern end of Los Angeles County in the heart of San Pedro is a little aquarium doing big things to restore and protect the coast.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium — operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation — focuses on education, research and conservation to connect people to the underwater world of coastal Southern California.

School and group visits, beach clean-ups and interactive exhibits put people in contact with some of the region’s smallest aquatic species.

On April 11, the parking lot was packed with big yellow school buses and hundreds of elementary school students. Sixth graders Jacob Najera, Prince Whittington, and Nicholas Martinez squealed excitedly about the “fish” they touched.

Despite the happy chaos, one section of the aquarium remained quiet — the aquatic nursery — where the gurgling of the huge cylinders “growing live foods” stretched to the ceiling could be heard.

The aquarium is using the nursery to raise critically-endangered species that can be re-introduced to the wild, including the white abalone. Native to Southern and Baja California, the marine snail was the first invertebrate to be included on the endangered species list.

“We don’t see them here anymore,” Research and conservation curator Brenton Spies said. “We don’t have a lot of sea stars here either. A lot of the invertebrates found in the tide pools are taking the biggest hit.”

The aquarium’s research is also determining what interventions could help. The larvae being reared in the nursery are exhibiting how climate change is impacting animals found off of the coast.

“Climate change is increasing coastal erosion, sea level rise and ocean temperatures at an alarming rate and we’re monitoring those impacts on the species found off the coast here, especially off Palos Verdes which is going through a lot,” Spies said.

There are also a lot of fish and octopuses that rely on smaller animals for food. The destruction of the tidepools is altering the ecosystem. Without as many small tide pool dwellers, algae are dominating.

Climate change, overdevelopment and pollution created a vicious cycle that’s throwing off the ecological balance essential for a healthy coast.

“Urban impacts on the coast include fancy hillscapes and landscapes,” that are more susceptible to landslides, Spies said. Flooding caused by severe weather erodes steep hill and cliff faces that fall, damaging the beach and ocean ecosystems below.

“There are many homes where people have manipulated a lot of the coast. Tide pools are getting filled in or deteriorating, and our beaches are getting washed away. That impacts a lot of the animals that we have here,” Spies said.

El Camino student Glenys Rich, 21, of Rancho Palos Verdes, has been working at the aquarium for three years and before that, she was a high school volunteer.

“Climate change has affected a lot of the tide pools. The water comes up too high, causing erosion that pulls away the sand on the beaches,” Rich said.

Rich described how new currents are bringing pollution. Sediment runoff from agriculture and the streets is also poisoning the ecosystem. Erosion is shrinking the beaches, so there’s less area for animals to live.

“Sea stars have a withering disease that causes their arms to fall off and they die,” Rich said. “No one knows why.”

The aquarium’s research might determine the cause.

Spies said coastal development has dominated the coast; there isn’t a lot of wild space left. But there are ways new construction is still having devastating effects.

“The barrier walls built to protect the cliffside homes are increasing erosion because the waves hit the walls and water that is unable to penetrate the earth, bounces back much stronger than regular wave action so it sweeps much more of the cliff bottom and beach out to sea,” Spies said.

Spies urges South Bay communities to become more active, get educated on climate change and development, and eat sustainable seafood.

“And vote with the environment in mind,” Spies said. “Choose legislators that focus on rehabilitation, conservation and restoration.”

CHRIS HARDY

Do the iconic mission bells along California’s El Camino Real evoke a past so painful, we shouldn’t be reminded of it? That’s a question explored by Alta contributor Marcela Davison Avilés in “The Bells Toll. But for Whom?,” an article that appeared in our Spring 2020 issue—and it’s a question Alta readers were eager to examine. Here’s a small sampling of the responses Avilés’s article inspired:

Moral Judgments

Why today do we the living make moral judgments, based on contemporary norms, about the moral actions of people who lived centuries ago? Think for a moment: Junípero Serra and others lived and acted (rightly or wrongly) according to the societal and religious moral understandings of their own times, just as we individuals do today.

But societal and religious moral judgments change because living in time, as we all inescapably do, reveals to us values that earlier people did not know, perceive, understand, accept, enact, etc. If we judge people and their actions only by the norms of the present day, so shall we too be judged.

When we do, we violate the inescapable meaning that we humans live in time, in history. Moral and legal norms perpetually call each of us, individually and in society, to live in more moral ways, but we live in time and, because of that, human moral judgments change/grow/develop.

John F. Foster, Whitethorn, California

Ugly Behavior

Gentlepeople,

We Americans have been responsible for some very ugly behavior, which needs to be discussed as part of our history, especially with our children and adolescents. Removing the bells does not achieve this. Leaving the bells as a reminder of what happened, with the true history being provided for all of us and taught to our children, is the way to prevent repeating the past.

Rosemary Tisch, Saratoga, California

For the Love of California

I love every inch of California. Mostly I love cruising her highways, always alert to some stunning scenery, natural or man-made. When I was new to the state, I often found myself on a portion of El Camino Real, identified by road signs. Then I started noticing the carriage bells out in the country, spaced about a mile apart, consistently reminding me of the route. Driving through the city of Monterey, I was surprised to find a bell or two still guiding my journey. I saw them again on the route to San Diego as well as the road through the great redwoods.

I don’t know who erected them, but I am always intrigued by these subtle reminders. They make me think of older times when, instead of a 300-horsepower conveyance, I might well be guiding a team of horses and a stagecoach. The bells are an elegant symbol, unique to the Golden State. They should be treated as treasures, never to be removed from our roadways.

I may live in New York, temporarily. But I will always be a Californian.

Lee Ponton, New York City, New York

Father Serra Wasn’t Perfect

Maybe Father Serra wasn’t perfect, but the missions are a big part of California history, and I think the bells honor the missions and the history in an affectionate way.

Richard Orton, Santa Monica Beach, California

Share your opinion on the bells of El Camino Real (or anything else Alta-related) by sending a note to [email protected].

After ten years of shaping the Bay Area restaurant scene, owners Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain will close their Oakland restaurant, Camino, at the end of December.

“It’s our dream restaurant. It’s exactly what we wanted it to be,” Hopelain told Eater SF. “I don’t want to change it to accommodate anything: our personal lives or what is happening around us or business pressures. We don’t want to change it to make [running it] easier, so it seemed like the right time to do it, while were still in love with it.”

The restaurant is centered around a large, wood-fired hearth upon which almost all of Camino’s dishes are prepared. It’s a physically demanding kitchen, which Moore has been tending constantly since the restaurant opened in 2008.

“At this age it just gets harder and harder. It’s a very physically demanding job,” says Hopelain. “I know that because worked on the line like five times this year because we were so short staffed.”

Staffing shortages and the Bay Area’s rising cost of living are just a few of the reasons behind closing the restaurant, which has been an extremely personal project from the start. Moore and Hopelain, both of whom worked for many years at Chez Panisse, founded a restaurant known for its sometimes strict dedication to its owners’ ethos, from buying organic to using whole animals. The menu changes daily, creating a environment that requires Moore’s constant attention to keep that vision alive, says Hopelain.

“He has a vision that is best played out when he is there and it just requires so much,” says Hopelain. “He is there all day from 9 a.m. til midnight and he loves it but he’s also in his mid-50s.”

When Eater spoke with the duo in May to celebrate ten years in business, their vision for the future was open-ended. “Without Russ in the kitchen, there’s no Camino,” said Hopelain at the time. “ My dream would be to have someone working here who we could hand it over to. I’m talking way down the line, but that would feel really good and then they could do whatever they wanted with it after that.”

Now, the restaurant has been sold to new, yet-to-be-announced owners. Until the liquor license is fully transferred in December, Moore and Hopelain plan to continue cooking, holding the book and dinner parties they’re known for, and adding a few extra “ragers” into the mix.

“You want to end something at the peak of it,” says Hopelain.”When you still love it and are proud of it, it hasn’t crushed you yet and you can still stand.”

In the meantime, the couple’s other restaurant, The Kebabery, will remain open. Stay tuned for more details on closing date, celebrations, and the restaurant’s new owners.

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Avangrid plans to build the 57 MWdc / 44 MWac Camino Solar project, its first solar project in California, where the company currently operates more than 500 MW of renewable energy assets through six wind energy facilities.

To be constructed by Cupertino Electric Inc. in Kern County, the project is adjacent to Avangrid’s 189 MW Manzana Wind farm and will employ more than 100 people during construction. The project is expected to be commercially operational in 2025 and will generate roughly $15.5 million in local taxes during its lifetime. With more than 105,000 panels, the construction will be completed approximately one year after the start of mobilization.

“We are thrilled to announce Camino Solar, a significant milestone for our company in California,” said Pedro Azagra, CEO of Avangrid, a sustainable energy company that is part of the Iberdrola Group. “This project further strengthens Avangrid’s commitment to developing the renewable projects needed to address climate change, while also contributing to the local economies in the communities in which we are present.”

Avangrid is the third largest renewable energy operator in the United States with 8.7 GW of installed and operated capacity, and one of the top renewable energy developers in the country.

“Cupertino Electric has built more than 40 renewable energy projects in Kern County, California, and we’re honored to be involved with Avangrid’s inaugural project in the area,” said Chris Martin, VP of operations, energy for the electrical contractor. “Bringing clean energy to communities big and small is our specialty and why we’re ranked the largest solar and storage contractor in the U.S.”

Headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, with approximately $41 billion in assets and operations in 24 U.S. states, Avangrid has two primary lines of business: networks and renewables. Through its networks business, the company owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Through its renewables business, Avangrid owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation facilities across the United States. The company employs more than 7,500 people.

Tags: AVANGRID Inc., Cupertino Electric, utility-scale

A mixed-use project adding offices, shops and restaurants along with a four-story parking garage is set to replace the corner of downtown San Juan Capistrano where the Camino Real Playhouse has operated for decades.

City leaders have agreed to the sale of the property on which the playhouse sits and an adjacent parking lot.

Dan Almquist with Frontier Real Estate Investments, the developer behind a number of other projects in San Juan Capistrano, said his plan will be an opportunity to bring new creative professional spaces, restaurants and shopping experiences to downtown, along with much-needed parking to keep up with growing interest in the area.

The project includes a new, more than 27,000-square-foot building to house the offices and businesses. Replacing the parking lot will be a four-story structure, accommodating about 196 spaces and another roughly 2,600 square feet of retail space.

The playhouse property is required to be sold as part of the dissolving of more-than 400 redevelopment agencies in the state, including San Juan Capistrano’s. The city gets part of the proceeds from the sale, but the remaining will be doled out to other entities that deferred property tax revenue for the redevelopment agency, including the county and other school and special districts.

The City Council authorized the sale of the parking lot property for about $1.3 million and the playhouse property for nearly the same price, $1.33 million. In the theater site sale, the city will get about 10% of the proceeds.

Development agreements approved by the City Council this week stipulate that construction kick off within three years of the date escrow closes on the properties, and the project should be completed no more than two years after that. The playhouse operators will be able to keep the community theater open until 30 days before demolition of the property, according to the agreement.

Almquist said he anticipates crews will break ground in 2024, allowing the playhouse to finish out that year’s season before the work begins.

Leslie Eisner, president and artistic director of the playhouse, said the theater’s leaders are looking for a new home and funding help to continue operating once the project begins. The Camino Real Playhouse has been putting on shows for more than three decades, and also hosts acting classes, comedy shows and private events.

“It would really be a shame after so much time and effort and work and blood and sweat that went into this theater – and we have close to 10,000 patrons a year that come into this theater – if it just goes away,” Eisner said.

While the playhouse was incorporated into original design plans for the project when an agreement was signed with the developer in 2017, Almquist said he began exploring the possibility of a broader proposal bringing a new performing arts center to downtown.

“It wasn’t really feasible to have everything on this one site,” he said in an interview this week. “And the thought of maybe a bigger vision is something that we’re trying to explore and figure out how that might work.”

He maintained he is still “fully committed to arts in the downtown,” and said he is working with local groups on the concept for a new center that would incorporate community theater. One idea that has been floated is to build it adjacent to the Historic Town Center Park.

“For me and the things that I’ve been involved with in the city, I’ve always followed through and done what I said I was going to do,” Almquist said. “I’ve spent a considerable amount of time and money already really trying to make this idea, this vision of a performing arts center in San Juan, a reality and I fully anticipate that’s going to happen.”

Eisner said the goal is for the playhouse to find its own location regardless of any future plans for a new performing arts center, which almost definitely wouldn’t be built until after the community theater has packed up and moved out.

“Under any circumstance, we still are going to need to find a new home to perform in, to store sets and props and costumes in and to build our sets in,” she said. “Even optimally, let’s say it were built in two years, we still are going to need to find another home.”

Playhouse leaders are looking for potential properties across south Orange County, she said, and hoping for support from a city.