PatMartin
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Bypassing Bylaws in Golden Hill
To Honest Government. I would like to clarify a few of your statements. I was on the CDC Board for three years almost ten years ago. Hardly "since the dinosaurs roamed Golden Hill Park". Also, you were correct to say I was on the CDC Board when I organized a Prayer Vigil across the street from one of the homes which took part in the Planned Parenthood's fundraiser. It was determined that even though I was a member of the GHCDC Board, I was allowed to orgnize the Prayer Vigil. That being on the GHCDC Board did not preclude me from organizing on other issues in the neighborhood.— September 20, 2009 10:38 a.m.
Bypassing Bylaws in Golden Hill
Friday September 18, 2009 As a newly elected member of the GHCDC I would like to state that my main reason for wishing to serve on the committee is an unquenchable desire to make Greater Golden Hill an even better place to live in than it already is. Integral to the current level of quantifiable progress is the voter approved M.A.D. whose fiscal agent is the impeccably managed and motivated CCDC. My husband and I, veterans of civic action groups, are impressed with M.A.D.’S can-do attitude, which, it seamlessly does if not fettered by ulterior impediments and those with personal not community agendas. So both in fact and in gratitude we define M.A.D. by the aptly felicitous acronym of: Making a Difference, Rhetorically may I ask? Is the GHCDC trying to kick off members of the committee who are cantankerous? No (they are not). Is the city trying to get rid of them? No (they are not). May I add that the process for new nominations includes letting the members who are let go by a lottery system to re-apply for another appointment. Facts [Uncontested and irrefutably positive) ü If (today) I see graffiti I call M.A.D. (Making a Difference) and the graffiti is gone often the next day (that is huge and in Master Card talk: priceless). ü If I see an abandoned couch I call M.A.D. (Making a Difference) and the couch is gone and recycled often the next day (and not under the freeway in a homeless encampment). ü Weeds in the gutter? Call M.A.D. (Making a Difference). ü Sweeping? They (Making a Difference) manage to sweep the entire Greater Golden Hill Area in the span of a month (every month). Finally, as a resident who has lived in Golden Hill for 33-years, and who once upon a time used to carry a 5-gallon bucket of paint in our station wagon so we could continually paint out the scourge of graffiti, and who as a founder of the Golden Hill Trash Tigers, picked up trash for 20-years alongside of a group of often 100-kids of all ethnicities, having M.A.D. (Making a Difference) is a Godsend, and a capstone in the arch of civic integrity. In closing the glue that holds the GHCDC together is a mutuality of civic mindedness, a band of brothers and sisters, who sacrifice their time and efforts for the common good not for personal enrichment. By Pat Martin— September 18, 2009 7:49 p.m.
MAD: Monies Available for Debauchery
Pat Martin’s Letter to The Reader of July 25, 2009 2nd Version- Re: The M.A.D. Assessment District Our family moved to Golden Hill 33-years ago. Right from the get-go there were numerous intractable problems that I had never experienced before as I was raised in El Cajon. Namely, trash and litter, loud noise, roving dogs, gangs and crime. Instead of moving out we choose toughing it out and neighbors organized to combat these problems. One such committee was the Golden Hill Trash Tigers. With the concerted help of community caring adults and gung-ho neighborhood kids (sometimes numbering one hundred on a single sweep of all ethnicities funded by our own efforts with a stipend to each child) we personally picked up trash for 20-years. A sibling group was started in South Park. Yes, through blood, sweat and tears, we did make a difference predicated on the hundreds and even combined thousands of hours of totally volunteer efforts. That was then and this is now and to look at the robust, healthy, clean and mostly gleaming streets and houses, it is hard to conceive of the herculean efforts which expunged the apathetic mindset that back then equated to neighborhood blight. Of course old volunteers never die they just roll up their sleeves and never say why. M.A.D., it seemed to us who had been in the trenches of urban decay, would be like hooking the community up from the exhausted engine of volunteers to a new locomotive of permanent community upkeep that could be passed on to the future and whose burden of costs would be shared by like minded people whose hierarchy of values places community and not themselves very near the top of their list. So we have voted in M.A.D., to me another way, at a very reasonable assessment, approximately $74 per year far less than a weekly coffee and cheesecake, to efficiently keep Greater Golden Hill a better place to live, love and ruminate. To me, the best part of this assessment is not that i don't have to pick up trash anymore, but that all the money collected goes to the Greater Golden Hill area. Having jump-started my little corner of the world into a renascent Golden Hill, in my heart of hearts I firmly believe that M.A.D. is that viable transitional link from volunteer adult and children trash collectors to a professional maintenance group. A group that will guarantee to us a future that will maintain and sustain Greater Golden Hill as a golden shining light long after I am gone. Pat Martin, Golden Hill— July 25, 2009 3:47 p.m.
MAD: Monies Available for Debauchery
Our family moved to Golden Hill 33-years ago. Right from the get-go there were numerous intractable problems that I had never experienced before as I was raised in El Cajon. Namely, trash and litter, loud noise, roving dogs, gangs and crime. Instead of moving out we choose toughing it out and neighors organized to combat these problems. One such committee was the Golden Hill Trash Tigers. With the concerted help of community caring adults and gung-ho neighborhood kids (sometimes numbering one hundred on a single sweep of all ethnicities funded by our own efforts with a stipend to each child) we personally picked up trash for 20-years. A sibling group was started in South Park. Yes, through blood, sweat and tears, we did make a difference predicated on the hundreds and even combined thousands of hours of totally volunteer efforts. That was then and this is now and to look at the robust, healthy, clean and mostly gleaming streets and houses, it is hard to conceive of the herculean efforts which expunged the apathetic mindset that back then equated to neighborhood blight. Of course old volunteers never die they just roll up their sleeves and never say why. M.A.D., it seemed to us who had been in the trenches of urban decay, would be like hooking the community up from the exhaused engine of volunteers to a new locomotive of permanent community upkeep that could be passed on to the future and whose burden of costs would be shared by like minded people whose hierarchy of values places community and not themselves very near the top of their list. So we have voted in M.A.D., to me another way, at a very reasonable assessment, approximately $74 per year far less than a weekly coffee and cheesecake, to efficiently keep Greater Golden Hill a better place to live, love and ruminate. To me, the best part of this assessment is not that i don't have to pick up trash anymore, but that all the money collected goes to the Greater Golden Hill area. Having jump-started my little corner of the world into a renascent Golden Hill, in my heart of hearts I firmly believe that M.A.D. is that viable transitional link from volunteer adult and children trash collectors to a professional maintenace group. A group that will guarantee to us a future that will maintain and sustain Greater Golden Hill as a golden shining ligh long after I am gone. Pat Martin— July 25, 2009 2:20 p.m.