Stephan:Congratulations to Sigurd for receiving iCommute's annual Diamond Award for Commuter of the Year. The SANDAG iCommute Diamond Awards honor companies, organizations, schools, agencies,
and individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to promoting sustainable transportation choices in their workplace, school, community, or through their own commuting practices. Congratulations are due as well to the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition for receiving the Program Excellence award for hosting the first CicloSDias, and for the valet bike parking and educational programs it provides. Finally, JO Commuications, which provides communications consulting services to the Bike Coalition, received the Best New Program award. JO Communications owner, Jamie Ortiz, was commuter of the year last year. She and her company are doing great work on behalf of cycling in the San Diego region.

La Jolla Elementary School in La Jolla is one of 329 schools across the nation to be named a 2016 National Blue Ribbon School, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King announced Sept. 28, 2016.

The National Blue Ribbon School designation for La Jolla Elementary recognizes that it is a campus where students achieve very high learning standards, according to the Department of Education. These "Exemplary High Performing" campuses are recognized among their state's highest performing schools, as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests. The award affirms the hard work of students, educators, families, and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging content.

This new walk facility acts to protect the many young school children that cross the street coming and going to school.

There are new sidewalks with "bump-outs" that shorten the distance between safe zones. They also act to slow traffic by narrowing the lanes and prevent parents in cars from making u-turns and passing others who are loading or unloading children. It is a very simple design and very functional. The original crosswalk was in the middle of the block so didn't have signal buttons to activate walk signals. This new crosswalk has flashing lights on the new signage that are controlled by buttons at either side of the crosswalk. Very nicely done City of San Diego!



I came upon a display of the local school's art, produced by the students. As it turns out, the majority of the proceeds from the La Jolla Wine and Art Festival go to the local schools to help cover the costs of programs that are not funded by the school district. I was so impressed with the quality of the art from all the different grade levels. It shows the value of these programs and what any student is capable of if given the chance and guided by real instruction.

There was also a student band stand but I didn't hear anything as they were on break. I continued along my way, enjoying all the booths with very nice art works.