Encinitas City Hall Apparently Knows Trendy Color When It Sees It

When last we left Fazal Bandukwala, he was battling to preserve the purple front with black awning at his Gamma Gamma clothing and trinket store in Encinitas.

Eye-catching and trendy, he said. A nice addition to

the let-it-all-tan-out attitude of the beach community, he said.

An eyesore, the merchants association said. A non-conforming use of color and design, city planners said.

That was in May when Bandukwala was notified that his new awning and paint job would have to go. He was stunned.

He suspected that his merchandise--”post-MTV clothing and accessories”--or his customers--young and offbeat--must be bugging other storekeepers along Old Highway 101.

He filed an appeal with Encinitas City Hall. He gathered 2,500 names on a petition. He entered the Halloween window display contest and won.

Patrick Murphy, director of planning and community development, turned down Bandukwala’s request for retroactive approval. He said purple with black doesn’t fit with the “Santa Fe (New Mexico) style” of light colors and airiness that the city wants for Old 101.

A distraught Bandukwala asked the City Council to intervene. Tuesday night, the council voted to uphold Murphy’s decision and not to grant Bandukwala a hearing.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Bandukwala said. “If they think Encinitas looks like Santa Fe, they’re crazy. What about the red and yellow taco stands across the street?”

True, much of Encinitas does have colors and designs that expose a libido for the ugly. But those were approved before cityhood, Murphy notes.

Does Murphy find the purple front and black awning ugly?

“I don’t think that’s a term we utilize as professionals to describe color or design,” he said.

How, then, would he describe Gamma Gamma?

“It’s incompatible with the adjacent structures and does not convey an appropriate use of color to ensure compatibility.”

Bandukwala will be informed to conform or face legal action. He’s thinking of a countersuit.

“It’s not like I’m trying to put a big rooster on my roof or something,” he said.

Is That What Speed Bumps Are For?

Four in one.

- Watch out for blind drivers in downtown San Diego.

How do I know there are blind drivers?

Because the elevators at the 11-story parking garage attached to City Hall have Braille numbers, that’s how. Must be there for a reason.

- The recent series of fatal accidents have not hurt Navy recruiting in San Diego. So far, at least.

The vice chief of naval operations told a House subcommittee that he believes recruiting may slump as parents and would-be recruits worry about accidents that have killed nine and injured 45 since Oct. 29.

But a recruiting spokesman in San Francisco says no impact has been felt yet in San Diego or other West Coast recruiting stations.

- Reporters from two tabloid television shows, “A Current Affair” and “Crime Watch Tonight,” are in San Diego prowling around about the Broderick murder case. Stay tuned.

- Patrick Flynn, a law student at the University of San Diego, spent 90 minutes this week picketing the downtown courthouse in favor of decriminalizing the use of drugs.

He says he’ll picket once a week until it happens. If so, remember you read it here first.