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Loma Portal residents object to recycling operation
There have been similar complaints (influx of homeless, increased crime, trash, disturbances, "unsavory" people, etc.) in South Park concerning the recycler in the Gala lot at 30th and Hawthorn. Living a few blocks away, I've not seen any such related negative outcomes of the recycler's presence, nor can I find evidence of increased crime in the SD Police crime mapping data in my area. People have always delved into the blue recycling containers on trash day, and the frequency of the early a.m. raids and the type of person doing it haven't changed since the recycling unit was installed in Gala's lot. If you don't want people in your trash, take your recyclables in for recycling yourself. The effort to recycle is important and it's good to have local centers.— October 30, 2014 2:09 p.m.
The Twitter exemption
Totally cool, Dorian, that you caught her tweet and tweeted her back. Did she reply? She really lives in a bubble if she didn't know, or, if she did know that her camera activity was prohibited, what a little snot she is.— October 22, 2014 10:44 a.m.
Shy of the bull's eye
Everyone in South Park, no matter whether you wish the Gala grocery store would remain, wish it would transform into a hipster-grocery, wish it would become some type of neighborhood-owned co-op, or wish the lot could be packed with infill units, PLEASE give a kind word to the Gala employees who will be losing their jobs on Sunday Oct 19, 2014. I'm sure they would be glad to hear words of kindness and appreciation at this time. Some of the employees have worked at Gala for over 20 years and have no prospects currently. They are stressed and worried and hoping to find something else to enable them to earn a living. Do anything you can to be nice to them. If you know of any openings, share the info with them. Residents of South Park received a mailer this week announcing a new store (El Super) that will be in the space Albertson's occupied and abandoned at 4421 University. If anyone knows when that grocery might open, and how positions there could be obtained, pass the info along to the Gala employees. There are [labor issues with the El Super][1] corporate parent, but a labor issue is better than no job and no hope. [1]: http://www.cluela.org/campaigns_elsuper— October 17, 2014 5:38 p.m.
Shy of the bull's eye
Lois - Check the hourly wage for workers at Gala or any other small local business that has one or two workers. Do their workers have health insurance? Target is a good opportunity for workers compared to small businesses. The loudest local opponents of increasing minimum wage are local restaurant owners, one in particular in North Park. Traffic and parking: I've lived here longer than you, closer to Gala. There's NEVER been a traffic problem there... not counting the Walkabouts hosted by SP Business Group (who push hard to bring the world into SP and aren't concerned by traffic - they want it), or last weekend when SP Abbey hosted a huge, NOISY beerfest impacting the neighborhood for blocks in a way that Target never will. Everyday parking in the TargetExpress lot will continue to be free, with 117 dedicated spaces for Target. There'll be no problem finding parking in the lot. It'll be a neighborhood convenience Target serving primarily an area inside 94, 805, and maybe 1.5 miles north. If he chooses, Captain Kirk will continue selling coffee from his cart; recycling and food trucks will probably continue. Hard to imagine more people in the area than the number that already come here for restaurants/alcohol - Hamilton's, Stone Beer, Rose Wine, South Park Abbey - further away than Golden Hill/North Park. But I hope some people further away WILL be driving once in a while to South Park just to go to TargetExpress; it will help ensure that Target stays to serve those of us who are within walking distance and will use their services intensively. Your thought that "the neighborhood in general shopped elsewhere for groceries" is incorrect. Lots of people, everyone in my neighborhood, everyone I know, from 28th St. to Bancroft, from Juniper to A St., went to Gala for things, every day, by foot or by car, in addition to weekly drives to Costco, Albertson's, Smart & Final, etc. Gala will be missed and hundreds of locals will have to find more distant sources for the groceries Gala provided. You may not have a complete sense of what routinely happens here midday, mid-week, or weekends, because your business is on Adams Ave and you spend time there; maybe you buy groceries on the way home at a store (corporate TJ's?) en route from work. That's fine. I don't know how you choose to shop, it's not my business. But your claims about what other people in SP do miss the mark. You are very public about your business life, thus everyone knows that you support the Adams Ave Business Assoc activities designed to draw huge crowds into that neighborhood. It doesn't make sense that you are objecting to a very practical addition to enhancing everyday life in South Park. Target is a positive direction for the neighborhood - more useful than another bar, restaurant, or infill. Be happy!— October 15, 2014 9:18 a.m.
Shy of the bull's eye
You should say "[**Some**]Residents aren't pleased" because **some** are very pleased. All of the residents who have depended on Gala grocery store for many years are sad that the grocery-function of the business in the building is ending, but given the alternative of infill high-density apartment/condo units, or a Wal-Mart or Savon, Target is excellent. Target is among the more responsible corporations, treats its employees well, and tries hard to be a customer-responsive vendor. On the petition are names of numerous residents of North Park, East Village/downtown, or Golden Hill, plus a few people who own property here but don't even live in the city. I guess the petitioners living in nearby areas come into the neighborhood for various reasons (restaurant food, bar alcohol, tattoos, little-store eclectic goods, etc.), but they don't live here. Their outrage about corporations seems a bit overwrought - I assume they never set foot in the big corporations (7/11, Starbucks, Edward Jones, and Stone Brewery) already present here; Gala was part of the huge IGA corporation. South Park also has its share of real estate offices representing large corporate parents. Arguments about traffic are not even believable, and Target will not be in any real competition with any of the small local shops. As a longtime resident, I'm looking forward to TargetExpress, as a place to pick up online orders, make returns of online purchases, and as a way to save myself the long trip and a lot of gas to go to Mission Valley or Sports Arena Target when I need household or personal items not sold by Target online. Yaay TargetExpress! Can't wait. I'll go to Miller's Market (the Gala owners' other store) or Food Bowl for the small groceries that I depended on Gala to provide. Not the end of the world. Let's welcome this and make it work, because if Target doesn't get the business it needs, it may pull out. Then what? I know a few developers who are lusting after that nice big lot and would love to turn it into a huge, built-to-the-curb moneymaker. Some of the anti-Target people include architects, builders, realtors, and developers. Let's have a nice store for the residents here, with plenty of free parking and open space, and appreciate it.— October 14, 2014 5:02 p.m.
Would-be railroad baron backstory
Good digging, Dorian. An amazing story. Love saying the word *Tembabichi*! As do the other persons involved in the PIR, the Nevada judge Steven E. Jones has an amazing history as a crook - hard to know why MTS would touch any of these people. Another Jones: Why did Robert D. (Bob) Jones resign from MTS in April 2013? He's now Pacific Region Senior VP at Genesee & Wyoming Inc., a rail company that purchased Rail America, which Bob Jones had been with since 2002. Rail America had its own story of financial losses, [public money, and hedge funds in 2007][1]. [1]: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,…— August 6, 2014 10:44 p.m.
If we were transparent...
What a fab selection! Jarrett has been a defendant in several breach-of-contract suits filed in the past few years, including one by the City of San Diego. And a history with a whole load of companies and business interests, and the obligatory tie to Florida (West Palm Beach), a must for downtown players: He's the perfect guy for Civic SD. UPTOWN BUILDERS INC SAN DIEGO/MARTIN LUTHER KING JR FOUNDATION E SMITH & COMPANY, INC HARBORSIDE SCHOOL, INC CARTER REESE NO 4 LLC CARTER REESE NO 9 LLC RA JARRETT CONSTRUCTION, INC CARTER REESE LLC MAX DEVELOPERS, INC— August 4, 2014 7:05 p.m.
No qualified electors here, folks
Did any of the hoteliers ever impose the tax on hotel guests? Was the annual assessment imposed on each hotelier collected and kept in a City fund while the court battles played out? In any case, if this foolery hadn't been ruled unconstitutional, the hoteliers could have paid their assessments without ever passing on the tax to their guests. Although who paid the illegal tax wasn't the critical issue for the court, to avoid this bumbling illegal attempt to make the non-voting public pay for it, the hoteliers could have simply formed a CC-support entity and contributed or fund-raised the amounts they want to pool to expand the CC. This privatization overreach by San Diego's former mayor and his City Attorney is very closely allied to their overreach in allowing formation of illegal "commercial" MADs. If legally upheld, I believe that Faulconer, Goldsmith *et al.* would have viewed the CC-financing scheme as a model for all sorts of other borderless special assessment districts (eco-districts; art districts), in which only owners of certain types of businesses would vote on a tax that they would add to the bill for any service and every item purchased from them, with the extra revenue under their control to "improve" the district.— August 2, 2014 9:32 a.m.
Anti-wage boost group spends $114,000
Wow. That is one hell of an ugly UT editorial. It truly smacks of megalomania. But wait, lucky locals, we have a softer side of Manchester world: The corporate family of KPBS and their partner VoSD has repeatedly covered the minimum wage story by addressing the potential of loss of "financial freedom" of their media go-to guy, their bro, the popular, cool, self-made businessman, Matt Gordon (Urban Solace), if he is forced to comply with the half-way livable minimum wage ordinance. As he frames it in VoSD, putting a bit more pay in a worker's pocket won't come back to enrich *his* business: "*I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm pretty sure that someone who's making $10 an hour and now is going to make $11.50 an hour isn't going to all of a sudden decide to stop going to Walmart and McDonald's and Burger King for hamburgers and towels and sheets," he said. "They're not going to suddenly go to Urban Solace and stop at Pigment on the corner on the way out to buy a $200 candle because they got a raise for $1.50.*" A $200 candle? Is that the world he he lives in? Is the goal of a livable wage to be able to buy expensive restaurant food and overpriced decor? Jeez! Heads up, **unelected** business people: all of you who use the Manchester and other corporate-shill media to bemoan the Council wage decision, and who support government by referendum, will lose business from people like me. Please, won't some other restauranteurs and shop owners contact KPBS, the UT, and VoSD, and describe how hurt your bottom line will be, so I can know to add your business to my list of places to avoid?— August 1, 2014 3:25 p.m.
Property-tax hikes ahead, San Diego
I know from looking at many County Treasurer-Tax property records, SDLookup, and/or Zillow, to see what was paid vs. what the current assessments are, for properties in some of the poorer neighborhoods surrounding downtown, that many of the buyer-investors have enjoyed several years of tax savings by getting their assessments lowered. Wealthy investor-type people always do this kind of penny-pinching saving, not because it is necessary to save their ass, but because it is a life-style habit of increasing their wealth. They can afford to wait till the market turns up to make another move.— July 28, 2014 7:19 p.m.