Back in the 1960′s when the utilities were moved underground (thanks Helen Yunker), Pierpont Boulevard was widened with space allocated for attractively landscaped medians. Local resident Larry has come up with a brilliant plan to revitalize the medians. Leading by example, on the median closest to Marina Park, he has turned the soil, buried the volcanic rock mulch, planted always-green succulents, and covered the rest of the median with local beach cobbles. (For those who don’t know, our beach cobbles are a beautiful landscaping material and are available, for free, from the Lifeguard headquarters at the near San Jon Road. But call first; don’t drive through their gate and across the bike path without permission.)

Larry’s idea is, if everyone in the neighborhood would adopt just a couple feet of their closest median we could have beautiful medians along all of Pierpont. Great idea!

The Petite Rêve Cafe is lower Seaward’s ray of hope. Keep them in mind for warm drinks and incredible pastries, both for cold mornings and holiday parties.

Joanafina’s Mexican Restaurant closed down, reminding me of an idea from a while ago.

Seaward Avenue’s potential has never been realized and it’s difficult to know if the cause is poor planning, disillusioned property owners, or just a numbness born of frustration. In any case, we have something that most communities don’t have – a relatively small, cohesive, and mostly self-contained neighborhood with clear boundaries. It raises the question as to why we don’t have more active involvement with the businesses along Seaward.

The idea is to have a neighborhood-owned restaurant. Shares in the restaurant would be offered to Pierpont residents and all shareholders would be entitled to discounts on their meals. Tourists and other diners would pay regular prices. The neighborhood’s active involvement in the menu and management, combined with a strong motivation to support the business, would virtually ensure success. And, following this model, Seaward could be cleaned up one building at a time.

And wouldn’t it be great to be able to take out-of-town guests to YOUR restaurant? There’s an opportunity here for someone with restaurant management experience.

A couple of days ago, I decided to ditch DirecTV and see if we couldn’t get our fill of TV from the internet and over-the-air channels. My plan backfired because when I called Charter to sign up for high-speed cable internet access (our AT&T DSL just doesn’t cut it) they talked me into trying their TV and telephone services as well. With a 30 day money-back guarantee and no contracts, I thought I’d give it a try.

But then I thought, there must be hundreds of close neighbors in the same situation, making the same decision. Pity we aren’t sharing our research and experiences because there are so many factors that are specific to Pierpont. For example, we don’t have access to Verizon Fios, which would be my first choice if it were available. One neighbor has told me about his surprise to find that he can get hundreds of free channels with a rooftop antenna but there are a bunch of tricks to getting it set up just right.

Anyway, I thought I’d resurrect pierpont.com to see if we can’t start sharing some of our ideas.