Sporting Dancing Shoes

DENISE AUSTIN, MOVE OVER: Poway’s Westview High School was hailed in a recent ABC News profile as a leading example of what the network calls “the new face of physical education.” Aside from traditional team sports, students at Westview and other schools can now choose from a wide swath of activities, from tennis and swimming to step aerobics and Filipino dance. Westview’s P.E. teacher Paige Metz was singled out for a series of cross-training exercises in which students jump rope, climb up and down stairs and sidestep up a ramp, all in the pursuit of getting at least 18 minutes of continuous cardiovascular activity.

THE FLYBOYS: The final tally is in. Financial-disclosure forms show pilots spent more than $65,000 to defeat Oceanside Councilwoman Shari Mackin’s bid for reelection in last November’s election. Pilots were ticked at Mackin because in 2005 she voted against accepting a federal grant to make improvements to Oceanside Municipal Airport. The Oceanside Airport Political Action Committee raised $38,600, while the national Airport Owners & Pilots Association chipped in another $26,600. The total is more than Mackin’s entire campaign war chest of nearly $61,000.

NO HORSING AROUND: In the wake of the death of Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby–winning colt euthanized in January after suffering injuries in a race, officials at the Del Mar track are installing an $8 million Polytrack surface designed to dramatically reduce catastrophic injuries suffered by Thoroughbreds. Del Mar is the second racetrack in the state to replace its old dirt track with a synthetic one, following Hollywood Park. Last year, 18 horses had to be euthanized at Del Mar, 10 of them after being injured in races and the remaining eight after suffering falls during training. Synthetic tracks will be mandatory at all major racetracks in the state by the end of this year.

BUYER’S MARKET? San Diego County lays claim to three of California’s 20 most-expensive homes, according to Ultimate Homes magazine——and all three are in North County. Second runner-up: a six-bedroom Rancho Santa Fe home on an 8-acre lot with two guest houses, a movie theater and bowling alley, valued at $36.5 million. First runner-up: another six-bedroom Rancho Santa Fe home, this one with 12 bathrooms, on a lushly landscaped 9-acre lot, pegged at $40 million. And the most expensive home in all of San Diego County: a $50 million, oceanfront house in Del Mar with four bedrooms, and an indoor garden in one of its six bathrooms. (The list, by the way, does not include a 54,000-squarefoot mansion in Rancho Santa Fe assessed at $58.1 million——the owner says that figure should be about $35 million.)

LEGGO MY LEGO: After a record year for attendance——1.65 million visitors in 2006 and an average 20 percent summer and fall gain from the previous year——Legoland is once again in expansion mode. Slated to be open by this month is Miniland Las Vegas, the latest addition to a cluster of miniature Lego-brick cities that already includes New York, New Orleans and San Francisco. The small-scale Sin City will include the Strip, a wedding chapel, signature hotels like the Excalibur and the Venetian and “real-life sounds recorded in Las Vegas.” (That’s from the press release; we really don’t want to go there.) And the Pirate Shores attraction, which opened only last year, is already growing with the May addition of Captain Cranky’s Challenge, in which guests sway back and forth on a pirate ship that sits on a U-shaped track and rotates in two directions.

A DEATH IN ENCINITAS: The tragic death of Ryan Hwang, a 14-year-old San Dieguito Academy student who was run over by another student during lunch break while walking along Santa Fe Drive at the Interstate 5 overpass, has triggered calls for a sidewalk along the south side of the street——as well as a traffic light at the southbound freeway exit onto Santa Fe. One blogger even posted a detailed map of the accident scene and noted that turning left off the freeway onto the road is a challenge, particularly when traffic from the nearby high school is in full swing. “With the rain we had, it is quite conceivable the 17-year-old driver saw an opening and accelerated too quickly for the wet pavement,” Bonnie Wren wrote on her Web site.

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