Halloween on a Saturday (Finally)

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. If exercising your right to vote isn’t motivation enough, here’s another one: voting is the fastest way to stop the campaign texts and mailers. Campaigns get daily lists of who has already turned in a ballot, and once your name is on that list, most of them take you off theirs. They don’t want to waste money convincing someone who’s already voted.

How to vote:

Find every vote center and drop box at sdvote.com. You can also sign up at california.ballottrax.net to get a text when your ballot is counted. Questions? Call the Registrar of Voters at (858) 565-5800.

Okay, confession time. I spent part of this week staring at early voting numbers for fun. If you’re a political nerd like me, you’ll get it. If not, feel free to skip ahead to the bridge drama.

As of early Thursday, 31,553 of Oceanside’s 110,127 registered voters had already returned a ballot. That’s 28.7%, ahead of San Diego County (25.7%) and lapping California as a whole (18.4%).

Here’s how we stack up against the neighbors:

That puts O’side in second place. Carlsbad, enjoy it while it lasts.

Inside the city, District 3 is leading at 32.8%, followed by District 4 (28.6%), District 1 (26.8%) and District 2 (25.7%). Here’s the twist: Districts 1 and 2 are the only ones with a council seat on the ballot this year, and they have the lowest turnout so far. Things are picking up, though. More than half of Oceanside’s returned ballots came in over the last nine days.

The retirees are carrying the city. Voters 65 and up make up 29% of Oceanside’s registered voters but 55% of the ballots returned so far. Among voters 18 to 29, it’s under 10%.

If you want to go down the rabbit hole yourself, Civiq’s ballot return dashboard lets you dig into any city, council district or school district in the state. To be clear, it doesn’t show who anyone voted for. What you can see is just about everything else: registration, age, gender, ethnicity, and how many ballots come in each day. The numbers come from what the Registrar of Voters reports daily.

If you’ve been watching the College Bridge and counting down to December, the city just stopped counting with you.

Before you grab your pitchforks and march on City Hall, know that this one isn’t actually a city project. Lennar, the homebuilder, is building it. When the city approved Lennar’s North River Farms development back in 2019, it required the company to widen the College Boulevard bridge to handle the extra traffic the new neighborhood would bring. So Lennar is paying for and managing the whole thing, and the city gets a bigger bridge out of it.

Well, in theory the city gets a bigger bridge. Right now, that bridge is stuck. Work on the north side is on hold while Lennar waits on a federal permit, and Lennar is still answering questions from federal officials about its application. The city says it’s working with Lennar and the Army Corps to speed things up.

The signs approaching the bridge used to say the project would wrap up in December. The city has taken the completion date off to avoid confusion, which is a polite way of saying nobody wants to guess anymore.

When it’s done, the bridge goes from two lanes to three in each direction, with widened sidewalks on both sides. What it won’t have is a striped bike lane. Cyclists will share those sidewalks with pedestrians, and if you know anyone in O’side’s bike community, you’ve probably already heard how they feel about that.

In the meantime, the south side reopened to pedestrians and cyclists in August and stays open while the north side waits.

King tides had a big week, and anyone trying to catch a train out of Oceanside had a rough one.

A coastal flood warning covered San Diego County’s coast through Thursday afternoon, with high tides running about a foot and a half above predictions. Metrolink cut Oceanside off Monday through Friday, stopping Orange County Line trains at Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, with no replacement buses. Weekend Metrolink service isn’t expected to be affected.

Mark your calendar for next weekend too. All coastal rail service (COASTER, Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink) is suspended Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8. Regular service should be back Monday morning, so plan your San Diego trips accordingly.

🚒 Tour the fire station - Oceanside Fire Department Training Center - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 9 a.m. OFD opens its doors for the morning. Bring the kids, and they might get to sit in a fire truck. Info

☕ Dance at a Coffee Rave - The Hangar 76 - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 9 a.m. Oceanside’s first morning rave. Costumes, a DJ and specialty drinks. Yes, at 9 a.m. Info

🎃 Hear Haunting Histories - Weese History Center - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 10:30 a.m. Ghost stories from Oceanside’s past, courtesy of the Oceanside Historical Society. Info

🧙 Join the Witches Paddle - Oceanside Harbor, far south end of I Dock - Sat., Oct. 31 @ noon. Grab your board, kayak or dinghy and your pointiest hat. You don’t have to be an Oceanside Yacht Club member. Info

🍬 Trick-or-treat at the Spooktacular - Mission Marketplace - Sat., Oct. 31 @ noon. A magic show, a balloon artist and trick-or-treating until 3 p.m. Kids get a free pail. FREE Info

🎭 Catch Carrie: The Musical - Sunshine Brooks Theater - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. It’s closing day, so this is your last chance. Mature audiences. Info

🏒 Watch the Shock vs. Fresno Falcons - Frontwave Arena - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 6 p.m. Halloween Night on the ice. Wear your costume, but leave the mask at home. Info

🧜 Party with Sirens & Seafarers - The Rooftop Bar - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 7 p.m. A haunted high-seas costume party with DJs and ocean views. 21+. Info

🎤 Glow up at Scareoke - Junkyard Sports Bar & Grill - Sat., Oct. 31 @ 7 p.m. A Halloween glow party, then Scareoke from 9. All ages early, 21+ after 10 p.m. $5 cover from 9 p.m. Info

🌽 Get lost in a corn maze - Mellano Farmstand - Sat., Oct. 31 & Sun., Nov. 1 @ 10 a.m. Last weekend for the pumpkin patch and corn maze. $5 parking. Info

🎨 Wander the art museum - Oceanside Museum of Art - Sun., Nov. 1. First Sunday means free admission. FREE

🗳️ Vote - Any vote center in the county - Tues., Nov. 3 @ 7 a.m. Polls close at 8 p.m. See above for everything you need. FREE

🧹 Clean up the park - Ron Ortega Recreation Park - Thurs., Nov. 5 @ 3 p.m. A litter cleanup with I Love a Clean San Diego and Green Oceanside. FREE

🤠 Line dance at Boots at the Yard - Junkyard Sports Bar & Grill - Thurs., Nov. 5 @ 8 p.m. Line dancing with an instructor and a country DJ playing Honky Tonk hits. Info

🏓 Play some pickleball - Junior Seau Beach Community Center - Sat., Nov. 7. A beachside pickleball tournament put on by the city. Info

⚽ Watch Icons vs. Creators - Frontwave Arena - Sat., Nov. 7 @ 5:30 p.m. An indoor soccer exhibition. Info

🎶 Hit A Sublime Life Sobriety Festival - Oceanside Civic Center - Sat., Nov. 7 @ 11 a.m. The 3rd annual free sober festival, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with music, art, wellness workshops and recovery resources. Info

Vista’s Fright Night is tonight. Downtown Vista Village is hosting free trick-or-treating for the whole family. North County Daily Star

Bike the Coast rolled out of O’side. More than 1,300 riders hit the coastline on Oct. 24 for the annual ride, raising over $10,000 for the National MS Society. Every ride finished at the Oceanside Pier, with routes from 7 to 100 miles. North County Daily Star

Escondido is still saying no to AI data centers, for now. The City Council unanimously extended its temporary ban on artificial intelligence data centers for another 10 months. City Planner Garrett Smith has said no developers have actually approached the city yet, so the pause gives Escondido time to write rules before any do. The Coast News

A civil rights icon has died. Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and civil rights activist, died at 96. Times of San Diego

That’s it for this week. Go vote, wear a raincoat over your costume, and enjoy the extra hour on Sunday. If you use it to sleep, I respect that. If you use it to eat leftover candy, I respect that more.

Know something I should cover? Send it to [email protected] or slide into the DMs.

If you liked this, forward it to a neighbor. It’s free, and it’s cheaper than buying them full-size candy bars.

-Ryan