Garcia did not limit his potential for being caught by being ambiguous. His first, middle, and last names will make it easy for him to be caught, if anyone cared.
The problem is not so much in what Garcia did on Lenser Way as much as it is why he had the opportunity to do it. Lenser Way is a street that is about a 100 yards long. It meets Dan Way in a sweeping, non-controlled intersection. Lenser Way's access is off of Rock Springs Road while Dan Way is fed by Mission Avenue. This is what Lenser Way looks like today:
What is of interest about the intersection of Lenser and Dan ways is that this is where the entrance to the Family Fun Center used to be. The FFC, which offered the community a miniature golf course, batting cages, go-carts, an arcade, and other varying attractions, remained a popular draw up until the time it closed down and was demolished in 2006. The lot now sits vacant.
Garcia got his chance at a Community A-hole award because of two separate actions by the city of Escondido, which is hereby granted two honorary Community A-hole awards for these actions.
The first action by city council was to approve a plan for a mixed-use, commercial/residential development for the space where the FFC and a vacant K-Mart sat. The FFC did not have the competitive power to match the potential tax revenue that the new development could bring in, so away it went. Yet in 2006 the economy began its nosedive, and soon after that, projects slated to begin saw their backers and developers pull out. The portion of the lot where K-Mart sat did get a Lowes, but the FCC side did not get built upon, leaving the community with a dirt lot rather than a family attraction.
The second action by the city was directly a result of the creation of the new vacant lot. Lenser Way became a shantytown as the economy continued its free-fall. This shantytown did not consist of tents; rather, the street became a place where displaced individuals could park their motorhomes while waiting out their misfortunes. The street is short, and, as such, I don't remember a time when more than four motorhomes lined the street. Truckers used Lenser Way, as well as Dan Way, to sleep overnight given the area's proximity to State Route 78, Interstate 15, and a 24-hour Denny's restaurant.
The city cleared the shantytown on a Sunday morning this past spring, after having posted eviction notices approximately a week prior. There is not a lot of traffic in this area on a Sunday morning, seeming to suggest the city's desire to playdown its action. More recently, the city worked on the intersection of Lenser and Dan ways, adding no parking signs on both sides of the road, access control at the Rock Springs Road/Lenser Way intersection, and repairing the sidewalk with fresh concrete in which we find our friend David Luis Garcia's inscription.
Escondido has made many missteps in its time. From its inception (the water bond issue of the early twentieth century) to its 2006 heyday of bigotry (the council pushing ideas of roving citizenship checkpoints and suggesting concerned residents turn in neighbors they suspect of being illegal immigrants), history shows a series of bad moves. Garcia is the victim of the city's wrong moves, but it does not excuse him from knowing better.
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