downtownrealist
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
City bucks for “twinkle lights”
It is not accurate to credit the Downtown San Diego Partnership for paying "a couple hundred thousand dollars" for tree lights downtown. While they do administer the "Clean & Safe Program" via a 10 year contract with the City, the money for the program is completely generated from mandatory assessment fees added onto the property tax bills of all downtown real estate owners. The Downtown San Diego Partnership itself does not own real estate downtown, so pays no assessment fees, nor does it use any of its members' dues to pay for "Clean & Safe" services.— March 17, 2016 8:34 p.m.
Media spin and legal drama merge in Briggs battle
BlueSouthPark, I think you refer to Briggs' appearance at the Feb 24 "rally" to renew the downtown PBID. The DSDP had lots of supporters there to "rally" for PBID renewal. Only 3 brave people spoke in opposition. Since petitions were hand distributed by the DSDP (after Briggs got paid off with PBID assessment money) and not mailed to all owners, thousands of owners probably have no idea that this renewal is even happening until they receive ballots (to be mailed by the City soon and which have to be returned to the City by May 11). To move the process forward to balloting State law requires requesting petitions from property owners paying 50+% of weighted assessments, but only 41% of the petitions submitted requesting renewal came from private property owners. The rest came from the City's very large FY16 proposed property assessments. The City petitioned itself! Nice! Check out the City TV Channel 24 archived video (Agenda Item 331). It's very long, but the most interesting part starts at the 4th hour mark when the City Attorney and mayoral staff try to explain why the City signed petitions. Pretty lame: that a City "non" vote would be considered a "no" vote at the petition stage but not at the ballot stage. What about the 59% of weighted assessment to be paid by private property owners who didn't sign petitions? Aren't those considered "no" votes as well???— February 26, 2015 5:50 p.m.
Marco Li Mandri wants to get around Prop 13
Just to be clear, the Downtown San Diego Partnership paid LiMandri's $10,000 January invoice with public money, not from private Partnership funds. The Partnership's Clean & Safe program's bank account, which is used to pay all of LiMandri's $10,000 per month consultant contract invoices, is reimbursed monthly for all Clean & Safe program expenses from assessments paid by downtown property owners. (Assessments are supposed to be used for services of direct benefit to the properties that generate those particular funds.)— April 25, 2012 12:48 p.m.
Downtown Garages Might Have to Wait, Says San Diego Unified
Finally, someone standing up for the schools that are getting the very short end of the stick from downtown CCDC controlled redevelopment and the 1992 tax sharing agreement the school district was persuaded to sign. I hope any additional money that the San Diego Unified District is able to obtain from downtown tax increment $$ can be spent wisely (i.e., where it's needed most and not on CCDC priorities within CCDC's area of influence.) And what about all the other San Diego redevelopment areas? How much, if anything, are they contributing to the public schools?— February 25, 2011 2:12 p.m.
Should The Banks Pay Us?
Glad you got your street lights fixed. It's been a frustrating experience in my downtown neighborhood as well. The Downtown Partnership's "Clean & Safe" program is supposed to monitor the street lights and see that the City fixes them - downtown property owners pay extra for that service through extra assessments on their property tax bills. I admit that when/if all the downtown street lights are working, downtown IS better illuminated than many other San Diego neighborhoods, but keeping the lights working requires constant complaints. Faulconer's office is of no help, and you're right, his office rarely even acknowledges emails from constituents - on any topic - and spends too much time on photo ops. The Downtown Residents Group is, unfortunately, a shill for CCDC projects. CCDC encouraged too much speculative building - a disaster for many downtown apartment/condo buildings in which units are now selling for half (or less) of their selling prices of a few years ago and rents are down or units remain empty. Even the designated newer "affordable" units have to offer incentives to get and keep renters these days! It's time to phase out the downtown CCDC redevelopment area and let the money generated downtown be sent to the City's General Fund to be used for the many maintenance needs (particularly streets & sidewalks) of both downtown and the rest of the City - not used to fund a downtown football stadium! (CCDC generated money cannot be spent on maintenance.)— March 11, 2010 4:57 p.m.