14 Comments

1. 

   W.C. Varones on August 21, 2010 at 7:04 am

   1) 1-5 congestion: CalTrans and the dirty Feds are planning a big expansion to 12 or 14 lanes. That may relieve the bottleneck at the merge and could be good for commutability and property values in Solana Beach to Carlsbad.

   2) “Professional gambler?” Hard to imagine somebody putting together that kind of scratch as a gambler. You sure he’s not a guy who was already rich who now gambles as a hobby? Kind of like “professional day traders.” And if he bought 18 houses, presumably many of them like this one in the bubble, what’s that say about his gambling instinct?

2. 

   W.C. Varones on August 21, 2010 at 7:19 am

   Dude is a Las Vegas real estate developer with big political connections. Big donor to dirty Harry Reid and has been indicted for money laundering three times though not convicted.

3. 

   Jim the Realtor on August 21, 2010 at 8:10 am

   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HFI/is_1_53/ai_82625830/

   Don’t worry, I gave up hope long ago that you would ever catch me doing something right.

   http://www.lasvegasdreams.com/12376/85623.html

4. 

   W.C. Varones on August 21, 2010 at 9:22 am

   Touche!

   But what do you mean “gave up hope long ago that you would ever catch me doing something right?”

   Though I’ll confess to a general cynical outlook, I’ve never said anything negative about JtR.

5. 

   Jim the Realtor on August 21, 2010 at 10:53 am

   It may not seem negative.

   But this is personal for me. I am killing myself over here to bring transparency to those who want it. I rarely offer an opinion, just a crack at seeing what I see. But the constant beatdown on what’s presented here gets taken personally after this long.

   I think we’re working the same side of the street too – you’re trying to do some good for the community with your blog, which is commendable.

   We ought to work together.

6. 

   GameAgent on August 21, 2010 at 11:31 am

   Jim…
   Transparency is like a flashlight. When you turn on a flashlight in a dark room, the cockroaches scramble. Just keep a can of Raid (aka your Delete key) handy to get rid of the blind cockroaches. Everybody hates cockroaches so just trash them.

7. 

   Sol on August 21, 2010 at 12:03 pm

   So much to enjoy about this montage.

   The I-5; I think I’ve finally convinced the Hub to exit right about there from now on, instead of playing stop & go all the way to Carlsbad Village. I’d much rather do the same thing on the coast road with a much better ocean view along the way.

   Jacked up pick-ups never did it for me (back in the day), I liked the muscle cars. My husband has a picture of me standing beside his personally rebuilt high school ride, complete with custom paint job, framed in the man cave. Oh yeah, we met cruising Central! lol

8. 

   osidebuyer on August 21, 2010 at 12:26 pm

   I remember seeing that monster flame truck when I was looking to rent there on Garfield in Carlsbad. Those are ocean view properties on that street, I bet the neighbors love seeing that thing sitting there every day

9. 

   Taxed2Death on August 21, 2010 at 1:06 pm

   Adding lanes to “relieve congestion” does not work, and wastes tons of money. Once there are no more bottlenecks, motorists who took alternate routes to avoid heavy traffic return to the road they’d been avoiding, and everyone’s back to Square One. Backed-up traffic at peak times is normal, and is not something that needs to be “fixed.”

10. 

    Local Boy on August 21, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    Widening the freeway worked for OC. The I-5 is much better through Santa Ana to Anaheim than before the widening. Not widening it will cost even more money–I read a study done showing what a lost hour traffic meant in economic terms–it was incredible. I am not looking forward to the years of construction, but the money doesn’t concern me–if they don’t waste it on the freeway, they will waste it somewhere else–at least this way I’ll have some benefit and so will those who work on it!

11. 

    clearfund on August 21, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    This guy was backing a bunch of spec home/lots in Santaluz with some builders…all inferior stuff…never got built…paid $800k for dirt plus costs and likely the lot value today is $300..if that.

12. 

    shadash on August 21, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    Jim,

    Did you notice in the articles you cited that your gambler guy credited a lot of his wealth to buy and flipping RTC golf courses?

    This economic downturn is supposed to be 100x worse than the Junk Bond days yet there’s almost no bank loss assets available to buy.

    Very odd…

13. 

    W.C. Varones on August 21, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    Jim,

    Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was questioning the man’s self-description as a professional gambler, not your accurate reporting of his self-description. I still think he made a lot more as a developer than as a gambler.

14. 

    3clicks from da beach on August 22, 2010 at 8:24 am

    Traffic is not bad from Sorrento Valley to Encinitas. But some are OK with five lane access streets (one way – that is) to their neighborhood. It’s mini Silicon Valley for some and they are used to it.