As Some Walls Try to Go Higher, Others Come Tumbling Down

Wall to wall news.

* A mini-flap has kicked up over singer Janet Jackson’s request for a county permit to build an extra-tall security wall to keep fans and paparazzi away from her pricey new home near Rancho Santa Fe Farms.

The local planning advisory group, on a split vote, has backed Jackson. But that hasn’t settled the matter.

One letter writer to the Rancho Santa Fe Review says a member of Jackson’s entourage was rude to local children and that maybe Jackson and her Jeep should move back to Malibu.

A second writer responds that Jackson should be applauded for her charity work and the first writer should butt out.

* Caltrans has decided to split the difference in the views vs. noise dispute along Interstate 5 in Solana Beach.

It will not be building an 8-foot-tall wall on the west side of the freeway between Del Mar Heights Road and Via de la Valle to block traffic noise. Despite pleas from homeowners.

But it will be building a 3 1/2-foot-tall wall, tall enough to cut some noise but still not disturb the view motorists have of the ocean and fairgrounds.

Don’t look for it soon: the project goes to bid in mid-1993.

* When the Berlin Wall tumbled two years ago, East German journalist and runner Wolfgang Loescher was suddenly free to run all those marathons that had been off-limits.

So he’s been running and running ever since: first in Europe and now in the United States.

Sunday the 38-year-old Loescher will run the San Diego Marathon. And later write stories on his San Diego experience for two German sports magazines.

The San Diego run will be his 92nd marathon, pre- and post-wall.

Why, you might ask, is the San Diego Marathon, which used to start in La Jolla and go along Highway 101 into North County, now being run entirely in Carlsbad?

Answer: Because marathon organizers got tired of seeking permission to run through Del Mar.

They felt Del Mar was trying to thwart the marathon by building a bureaucratic wall, so to speak.

Vote of No Confidence

The public record.

* An after-lunch speaker (me) asked members of the Kearny Mesa Rotary Club how many would vote against Supervisor Susan Golding for mayor strictly because of her husband’s criminal conviction and lingering feelings that she may have known what he was up to (or should have known).

Two-thirds raised their hands.

* Compassion collapse?

Volunteers and donations (blankets, clothes, towels) for the city of San Diego’s homeless shelter program at Plaza Hall downtown, Dec. 23 to 26, are significantly behind last year’s.

Donations can be dropped off at fire and police stations; volunteers can call 260-8128.

* Possible candidate for Congress from the new San Diego district: Alan K. Uke, 39, a Republican, president of Underwater Kinetics of San Marcos, which makes sporting equipment.

* The 2nd Annual benefit concert for the To Children With Love Foundation (481-2923) is next Friday at the Jewish Community Center in La Jolla, featuring singer Rebecca Conley and a silent auction. The group provides assistance to children with HIV or AIDS.

* North County bumper sticker: “Take My Advice. I’m Not Using It.”

Rolling Nuptials

Larry Lindbloom and Christine King, both 42 and from San Diego, wanted somewhere unique to get married. Why not at Lindbloom’s workplace?

So the pair will be married today aboard an Amtrak train going from Los Angeles to San Diego. Lindbloom will have the day off, but normally he’s a conductor on the L.A.-San Diego route.

A Los Angeles judge will officiate at the rolling ceremony, and 100 San Diegans will join the party.

Passengers will also be invited to join in the celebrating, which will be conducted in proximity to the bar car. They probably won’t have to be asked twice.

TGIF is the order of the day for commuters on the Friday afternoon run.

Amtrakers refer to it as the Zoo Train.