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Jacobs Balboa Park Consultant Paid Lobbyist $40,000
And if you want to know why you will never read this story in the UT, note this tweet: lrnbogart Lauren Bogart Thanks @PRSAsandiego for a great breakfast this morning with Jeff Light... gained valuable insight on @sdut's recent changes! 31 Jan— February 10, 2012 9:02 p.m.
Consider the Condo
A fairly lightweight article, Ollie. What I get out of it is that you can get lost in your own town, that there are fewer highrises under construction now than at some points, and that housing styles change over the years. All stuff that anyone should know. Basically, it seemed most like a promotional piece for the condo project that your co-worker Barbarella is attempting to sell her unit in. I can't imagine why else that development was given such a high profile photo, caption and text. I guess you one-name people have to watch out for each other. Also: not every family could afford a $2000 house then, or there would not have been any $1000 houses. Your pricing translation is flawed. One big reason is that 30 year loans were not available, typically homes were offered at 50% down and the balance in 5 years. And even today, I don't think most of MY friends would have $12,500 in ready cash available. By the way, "Victorian" is an era, not a style. The little shacks built then were as much "Victorian" as the large Colonial Revival and Queen Anne mansions of the time.— April 21, 2011 6:46 p.m.
SOHO vs. Developers: What’s Worth Saving in San Diego?
I don't know how you can be "worlds apart" from old books and still be a literate human over 30, because that is the obvious origin of my name. And I call BS on your conspiracy theory and a retraction from you would be in order. I wrote most of what you or anyone has read about the GH fountain, including the "rogue bushes" line. I've been at it (including getting it on a SOHO home tour) since before the MAD was a twinkle in anyone's eye. Please disassociate that fountain's history with your politics. And I have never once been to a GHCDC meeting, could not say with confidence who a single board member or staffer there is, have never been to their offices since they moved from B'way, and have never been a member. I knew who you were right away, because you are the only person in the world has had a bad thing to say about that fountain. Everybody else (who has seen it) thinks its cool. I'm sorry your "world fell apart" because you had to pay $60 per year. And you must be mighty annoyed with your failure to turn GH into tea-bag-central. And if you are truly a fan of honest government, SOHO's legal fund is always taking contributions, because that is what the current lawsuit is about.— October 2, 2010 4:39 a.m.
Toxic Waste Is History
I wish everybody could see the extent and the potential usefulness of the buildings here, you would be amazed. The buildings are to be demolished with no plan (or perhaps a secret plan) in the works. Cleanup should be simple other than the scale of the site. Few if any of the buildings have any historic flooring materials, all are dirt (material removed already) or concrete. In fact toxic material removal projects are happening now under existing buildings. The Port/Airport Authority does not want the public to know what is here, both for the history and the adaptive reuse possibilities, that is the real rush to demolish. This will become another parking lot, storage lot for shipping containers, or self-storage place. As well a land bank to develop high-rise housing should the airport ever move.— March 18, 2010 1:34 p.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
And also to Onamission: If "That’s right preservationist can see past 1920" is your idea of a complete sentence, if you spell "smarter" as "smatter" and if you can't control posting the same message twice, then please don't talk about who should "go back to high school."— April 21, 2008 8:04 p.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
"You on the other hand, hate progress. If you tried to be more tolerant of different tastes, cultures and lifestyles, you might be mature enough to see different points of view. By onamission 6:50 p.m., Apr 19, 2008" You don't know a thing about me, and your comments are both wildly speculative and dead wrong. If you know anyone else who was the only White man at an Indian sweat lodge and drove a 20 year old car to the antiquarian bookfair in LA the same weekend, just speak up. I'm happy to live in a diverse block, with a lesbian cardiologist on one side and a straight part-time pest control man on the other. I'm on a first name basis with homeless men and guys who own high rises downtown. I don't need you telling me about diverse cultures. And, yes I do walk at night in 92102. The fact is that EVERY historic building I've seen demolished has been replaced by something worse, and I challenge you to name one that has not. That's the biggest reason that I'm a preservationist. I'm in full support of good new work, and I'm friends with several architects who are doing it.— April 21, 2008 6:37 p.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
Taxcollector: I'm not sure what any of this has to do with SOHO, most of the people quoted in the article are not speaking for SOHO, and are not on their staff or board. I think Bruce Coons is the only one. YES, a 501(c)3 group IS allowed to lobby a legislator. They are not allowed to support a candidate or subsidize them in any way. Non profits ARE allowed to support ballot propositions. Why you think that hiring a PR/Lobby firm would be any different from doing it in person is beyond me. For example, I've never been to a City Council meeting without seeing Father Joe Carrol from St. Vincent de Paul there. The Building Industry Association (a nonprofit) is in mayor Sander's office frequently. The council and mayor receive visits from Senior Adult Services, the Zoo, The Old Globe, college presidents, The Nature Conservancy, etc.— April 21, 2008 6 p.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
"City Heights on the other hand, with its many craftsman homes has none and there is less than a handful in Logan." If you have a property there you would like to have designated, I will support you all I can. My guess is you have no interest in having this done. "Once a property is historical it can never be undesignated or moved from its original site." This is an absolutly uniformed bit of nonsense. Please refrain from talking about things you know nothing about. We have (unfortunately) demolished or moved many designated properties. Even ones on the National Register. Ever been to Heritage Park in Old Town? "If organizations such as SOHO or other preservationist want to force private properties to look like something out of the 20’s, they should be offering to pay for it out of their organization’s checkbooks." It will happen. "And they should look into low income areas to help first." How do you know what SOHO looks into? Do you read their board minutes. Or is it just because you don't read about it in the La Jolla-owned U-T? The huge majority of historic designations are done with no preliminary input from SOHO. "What ever happened to the property rights this country was formed on? If you don’t like this country’s capitalistic principles, I suggest you move to Cuba" You need to get your story straight. Are you against poor people or rich ones? You are coming from both directions at once. Its beyond your primitive understanding that there are both poor and rich people in town that are preservationists. I'm guessing you have some sort of job that you vaguely think historic preservation will harm, because of your inability to adapt to the lack of open land to build on, and you are spinning in circles trying to appeal to both Ayn Rand and Bario Logan at the same time.— April 18, 2008 9:17 a.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
"New developments in construction, energy, utilization of space and safety will undoubtedly require the removal and construction of better and smatter (sic) properties." A "green" building takes 65 years on average to mitigate the energy spent in the original construction of the building and the demo debris. And we know how you feel about 65 year old buildings. "Private properties need to be larger than the old 900 square feet cottages being designated as historical." Make up your mind, is it 900 sq.ft. cottages or the mansions of the rich that are being designated? "Communities today shouldn’t have to move to the suburbs to raise a family" What does this mean? You can't raise a family in, say Mission Hills? "Preserving the historical facades of private properties has no merit in the true economic and social values of our future." Just because you don't value it does not make it so. You could also make the argument that picking up litter is not use. "People should realize that properties as young as 35 years are being considered historical" Please name one here in town. I can hardly wait. "most historically registered properties are in affluent areas" That's because it costs 4 or 5K to have a report written and printed up. Poor poeple have other things to do, like work to eat. Besides (as if you didn't know this) poor people here tend to live in rental properties owned by wealthier people. Perhaps the city should subsidize historical reports.— April 18, 2008 9:14 a.m.
Victorian house preservationists worry that San Diego may kills Mills Act exemptions
Arkangel: as a "student" of economics you should defer to the professors of economics until you can present a more cogent paper than they do. You clearly didn't read or didn't understand the report. Nobody is saying that tearing down a single family house and building apartments or a huge spec won't make money for the owner and builder. What is being stated is that not doing so adds value to every property in the blocks nearby. Just as building a maximum sized new building will devalue all the properties nearby that wish to keep their properties as single family homes and not as accounts to cash out. Take a spin, for example, down 35th Street South of Adams. Would you want to live in one of the few remaining single family homes next to the "higher and better" ones? After more than one or two houses on a block are scraped and maxed-out the properties on the block will never be restored, ruining everybody's experience. As odd as it may sound to the capitalist in you, many people buy houses because they think its a nice place to live the rest of their lives and raise their children, perhaps passing the home down to the kids. Not every one does the math about what an empty lot will fetch, and those who do can't be allowed to do a "taking" of usage from those who don't. Ray Huffman is dead, get over it.— April 17, 2008 11:46 a.m.