California 2007 Trip Day 1

The following few posts are from a trip through California in November 2007. The object of the trip was simple - visit as many City Halls and collect as many zoning maps as possible while traveling through central and coastal California. Why City Hall? It made it easy to get directions from the online map applications. Why zoning maps? I like zoning maps.

Unfortunately, as you'll see from the text. All I really visited for the most part was just City Hall and a small area around it. Most of the text are my thoughts on the trip and the costs of hotel, food, gas and the zoning maps. Yes, it's fairly dry reading but it's my only record of the trip. At the end of each day there is a slide show of the images taken during that day. Click on the screen to go to the set in Flickr.

Read on ...
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November 5, 2007
After a late start last night, I got in to the Laguna Hills Lodge around Midnight or 12:30. Cost for the night was $130.90. I went to bed shortly after 1 AM but had trouble getting to sleep. I had a 7 AM wakeup call. After getting up and dressed and getting breakfast, I was on my way somewhere around 8:30 AM – a little later than I’d hoped. I was able to visit all 9 Town Halls on my list and get some form of zoning map from each. Some maps were free. Others cost between $2.15 and $20. I was finished about 4 PM (so I had lunch). I was rather surprised that I could get everything on my list done today. Basically, I only stopped to get maps and photos and not much else. Also, I was lucky that whichever city I visited during lunch (San Bernardino, I think) had people there during the lunch hour.

In addition to zoning maps, I was able to get a road map for each city except Mission Viejo. They were about $5 a piece, but I also bought some extra maps. Between the driving maps and zoning maps, mostly paid by cash, I ran out of money quickly and had to get $100 from WaMu. I may have to replenish my cash daily.

After finishing with Palm Springs I headed for Victorville. The directions worked fine. Unfortunately, I reset the wrong dial when I got gas. Now I have to remember to subtract 7 miles from the trip indicator. My total for the day, then, was 358 miles (approximately) compared to 343.3 miles estimated. The only thing I’m not sure of is how to get back on the I15 going the other way since I think I went past my exit to get to the Motel6. The cost for the night is $42.79.

Here is the rundown of each city. I’ll only mention items that were unexpected and details like costs.

Mission Viejo:
Directions were fine. I had no problem finding the Town Hall. I Got pictures of the town hall. The zoning map (a smallish color print, readily available) was free. I got it about 8:30 AM.

Oceanside:
City hall had a nice fountain in front with ducks in the fountain. The library was in front. There are a North and South building. I got pictures of all of this. The map cost $10.

Vista:
I forgot to take pictures of the town hall. It seemed somehow temporary, although it was on cement foundations. Next to the main area (with no parking; I had to park illegally) there was a dirt lot which looked like it might be the space for the permanent town hall. The zoning map cost $5. It’s about 20 sheets that may show the whole city. Since it’s hard to read, I haven’t looked at it much yet.

Escondido:
I had a little trouble finding the place. I parked a block away and walked back to find it. The building has a nice art deco look. There was a fountain and park in the back. The fountain wasn’t working (water shortage). A few homeless people were in the park. As I was driving away, I saw a giant bunch of grapes at the edge of the park. I got pictures of everything but that. Downtown also looked pretty good. The zoning map cost $4.50

Temecula:
I actually had to call the town hall to find it. It was in a business park and, while the directions were correct, the numbers for the buildings in the park weren’t linear. After I was given some other clues, I found it without a problem. The building looked like a regular business park building other than the flags out front and a lot of notices on or near the front door. The map cost $10.

Riverside:
There was major work on the freeway going through/around riverside. Amazingly, all of the exits in the directions were still open. When I got downtown, it turns out Main Street had turned into a city walk, so the directions got me close, but not quite there. After parking and dealing with a new-fangled parking meter, I walked the city walk, looking for the town hall. After going the wrong way for a few blocks and back-tracking, I finally found it. I liked the architecture of the building. However, it was obscured by other buildings in front of it. There was a park with a working fountain (actually two) beside it. There was also another park across the street. I have pictures of most of this. The zoning map was free.

San Bernardino:
The directions were accurate, but it would have been nice if it had pointed me at the parking garage that I found by accident. I found a legit parking space on the second try (the first try was on a floor reserved for a hotel). The town hall was a dark glass building. However, it had a nice waterfall staircase beside it and a statue of MLK. The zoning map cost $20. I had to go to the IT department to get it. Big map, but I got warned not to handle it to much so the colors don’t come off.

Banning:
I’m down to my last two for the day. Banning is a small town. I actually had the address slightly wrong. I probably still would have missed it. I went out the other side of town very quickly. When I turned around I found the building. It’s a non-descript adobe style. There was a park to one side with a fountain that was turned off. The map was $15.

Palm Springs:
I seem to have come in on the bad part of town. I also missed a turn because the directions were unclear. After buying a map, I was able to get to the town hall without the original directions. The town hall was near the airport. The directions described an odd U-turn that was unnecessary. A left turn had been put in to get people to the town hall. The building had a statue of someone on a horse outside. I didn’t look to see who it was. The map was $2.15. This was the one city where the City Clerk actually had the map.