Alpine resident Bill Smith said SDGE has been “cutting power off at least once a month for the past three or so months. Not everyone can afford a generator and people who have solar panels lose the credit for the entire day. We all have wells here and can’t run the water without power.”
"Over the years, there have been accidents and several fatalities of both parents and students,” said Alpine resident Sal Casamassima. "Most recently, an Alpine student coming from Steele [Canyon High] was involved in a head-on collision with, coincidentally, one of the [Alpine School District] employees."
Further east of Alpine Boulevard, Ace points toward the fence separating the street and the freeway embankment. "Now, see the rust on the chain link here? The fire started about a mile and a half east of here in the center divide. It jumped on the other side of the freeway, it burned across that mountain up ahead, and it jumped across the freeway right down here, and jumped into Alpine. Where that fence was rusted was one of the areas that burned across the freeway."
We discussed it, though, and living out here where we do at the back edge of old Deercreek Canyon (Harbison Canyon/Alpine), nestled up at the edge of the vast expanse of scrubby bouldered hills surrounding us, living with coyotes is a part of our everyday lives. He agreed with me that they are not menacing creatures, only a beautiful part of the landscape here and that we are encroaching on their territory.
We swing across Alpine Boulevard and park. It’s a long, low, white-painted brick building with a shingled roof and a canvas sign in the bay window — “Alpine Beer Company.” This is where Pat McIlhenney, a retired fireman, has been making craft beers and winning the World Beer Cup again and again. Putting Alpine on the map.
Here we could raise animals and grow a garden, learn the old arts of canning, butchering, milking, and cheese-making. The '70s provided this back-earth movement, and our few neighbors, like my family, immersed themselves in it, regardless of the distance between our homes.
Alpine occupies the 13 miles between Flinn Springs and Descanso, a mile or two north and south of I-8. Alpine has no mayor or city council, and its self-governance is limited to the 15-member Alpine Community Planning Group that meets one night each month at the Alpine Community Center on Alpine Boulevard. The planning group's decisions on such issues as zoning and land use are purely advisory
The developers claim the group’s disagreements are merely petty bickering. The ruralists, on the other hand, believe the two groups are in real conflict over Alpine’s future. In fact, many ruralists see the developers’ use of the word “bickering” as one tactic in a strategy to sabotage Alpine’s attempt at collective community planning.
Alpine resident Bill Smith said SDGE has been “cutting power off at least once a month for the past three or so months. Not everyone can afford a generator and people who have solar panels lose the credit for the entire day. We all have wells here and can’t run the water without power.”
"Over the years, there have been accidents and several fatalities of both parents and students,” said Alpine resident Sal Casamassima. "Most recently, an Alpine student coming from Steele [Canyon High] was involved in a head-on collision with, coincidentally, one of the [Alpine School District] employees."
Further east of Alpine Boulevard, Ace points toward the fence separating the street and the freeway embankment. "Now, see the rust on the chain link here? The fire started about a mile and a half east of here in the center divide. It jumped on the other side of the freeway, it burned across that mountain up ahead, and it jumped across the freeway right down here, and jumped into Alpine. Where that fence was rusted was one of the areas that burned across the freeway."
We discussed it, though, and living out here where we do at the back edge of old Deercreek Canyon (Harbison Canyon/Alpine), nestled up at the edge of the vast expanse of scrubby bouldered hills surrounding us, living with coyotes is a part of our everyday lives. He agreed with me that they are not menacing creatures, only a beautiful part of the landscape here and that we are encroaching on their territory.
We swing across Alpine Boulevard and park. It’s a long, low, white-painted brick building with a shingled roof and a canvas sign in the bay window — “Alpine Beer Company.” This is where Pat McIlhenney, a retired fireman, has been making craft beers and winning the World Beer Cup again and again. Putting Alpine on the map.
Here we could raise animals and grow a garden, learn the old arts of canning, butchering, milking, and cheese-making. The '70s provided this back-earth movement, and our few neighbors, like my family, immersed themselves in it, regardless of the distance between our homes.
Alpine occupies the 13 miles between Flinn Springs and Descanso, a mile or two north and south of I-8. Alpine has no mayor or city council, and its self-governance is limited to the 15-member Alpine Community Planning Group that meets one night each month at the Alpine Community Center on Alpine Boulevard. The planning group's decisions on such issues as zoning and land use are purely advisory
The developers claim the group’s disagreements are merely petty bickering. The ruralists, on the other hand, believe the two groups are in real conflict over Alpine’s future. In fact, many ruralists see the developers’ use of the word “bickering” as one tactic in a strategy to sabotage Alpine’s attempt at collective community planning.