Illustration by Jay Allen Sanford

Once a nurse’s dorm for the nearby hospital, by the turn of the 21st century it had devolved into the most fleabitten of fleabag hotels.

Never checked out

I rarely, if ever, check the author of an article of the magazines I read. About two paragraphs into “Nothing Friendly About the Friendship Hotel” (Feature Stories, February 17) I didn’t have to; I just knew I was experiencing the divine grace of another masterpiece by the Rock N’ Roll Comic himself, Jay Allen Sanford. And of course, the name credit at the end confirmed my intuition for the holy.

Thank you, sir, for delivering us a taste of the bad ol’ nasty days, the blood-soaked black-outs in the Golden West, the dirty deals in the Pickadilly, the REAL San Diego we Gen X’ers cherish in our depraved and lascivious memories. These odes to the odious are the truest of American art forms.

And this painfully edited and sanitized society is in desperate need of a whole shit-ton more of gems like this. I wonder when Mr. Sanford wrote this exquisite song of the squalid and if it was published first elsewhere. It is an imperative that we revive literature like this!

• Bryan Varela
• Mission Beach

Kori Jensen

KOCT- Oceanside City Council Workshop, Jan. 27, 2021

Kori Jensen still lives on Pacific Street

This office has been retained to represent Kori Jensen, a resident of Oceanside and a newly appointed member to the Oceanside City Council, City Council District No.1.

This will constitute a request for a retraction and correction under California Civil Code, Section 48a. On February 1,2021, the Reader published a story {"Oceanside councilwoman doesn't live at 815 North Pacific Street," Feb. 1) about Ms. Jensen’s appointment to the vacant Council seat in the City of Oceanside.

There are two false statements in the story that Ms. Jensen is requesting be corrected.

The first is the headline which falsely states:

“Oceanside councilwoman doesn’t live at 815 North Pacific Street.”

The second statement that is requested be corrected is the second to the last paragraph which falsely states:

“Records show that Jensen became registered to vote at 815 North Pacific Street in July, 2020.”

The true facts are as follows:

• Ms. Jensen purchased her home at 815 North Pacific Street in 2001 and lived there for two years before moving to Encinitas.

• She then returned home before purchasing a townhouse as a fixer upper in 2007 where she could live with her son.

• In 2008, Ms. Jensen moved back to her home at 815 North Pacific Street.

• In 2012, Ms. Jensen first registered to vote in City Council District No.1 - she has been continuously registered to vote in the District since.

• The July 2020 filing at the Office of the Registrar of Voters was not a new voter registration filing. It was a change of party filing only.

Ms. Jensen does not dispute that she has rented her home for short term rentals. Many homeowners do.

During rentals, Ms. Jensen has maintained all of her personal property in a segregated section of the house under terms that make them inaccessible to the short term renters. Those nights when renters are in the house, she has stayed with her long-term boyfriend (of 12 years) who lived in a small apartment two blocks away, also in District No.1.

Under California law, one’s “domicile” is where an individual must register to vote. Ms. Jensen has been domiciled at the 815 North Pacific Street home for many years.

The headline given to the story is false. The Reader utilized the phrase “doesn’t live at...” in the context of representing, as a fact, that this was not Ms. Jensen’s home. It is, by any definition; significantly, it is her domicile and that was the context in which the article addressed her residence. You also erred on the registration issue which is easily verifiable.

Please advise that you will make both corrections and that the corrections will be as conspicuous and prominent as your original story.

Thank you very much. We will appreciate your anticipated cooperation.

• Robert P. Ottilie
• Downtown San Diego

Author Ken Leighton responds:

What Mr. Ottilie does not respond to and which I understand remain germane in the D.A.’s investigation is that:

– Ms. Jensen told the city of Oceanside and the city of Oceanside in fact listed 815 North Pacific Street as an “un-hosted unit” which means the owner does not live there.

– Ms. Jensen told the MLS listing service used by the real estate industry that her other home in Carlsbad is owner occupied and that 815 So/ Pacific is not owner occupied.

After this article appeared, the sign in front of 815 North Pacific promoting its ongoing short-term rental availability has been taken down. Also taken down was the Airbnb ad that advertised its ongoing availability and which had positive reviews from people who had rented it throughout 2020 and 2021. Screen shots of these ads exist.

It was these facts that I assume motivated the city of Oceanside to initiate a district attorney investigation.

Windy wordsmith

The climate change crisis has, in recent years more than ever, shown itself to be an issue that can no longer be ignored as an inconvenience to be dealt with sometime vaguely in the future (“The right mountain in East San Diego County to plant that wind turbine,” Neighborhood News, February 2) .

CALPIRG is advocating for Governor Newsom to speed up California’s clean energy timeline from 2045 to 2030. This will be a necessary victory in the fight against climate change, and it will set a precedent for quick and substantial change. Our planet has already seen a great deal of damage from decades of harmful fossil fuel burning and other forms of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. There were few Californians that didn’t feel the repercussions of the 200 wildfires this past year alone. Facing the orange-hued skies and toxic air was a wake-up call to so many people.

• Amy Boymoushakian
• La Jolla