San Diego's changing bugs

Great article, but can you please ask Dr. Hedin an ant question? Three or four years ago, ants were everywhere in our neighborhood east of Balboa Park golf course. They invaded every room, all the time, all year long. We could leave nothing in the trash, sink, or on the countertop. They were in the soil all over the yard. There were news reports of their colonization of the US and California. We have not seen an ant in a year or two, however. How could they just disappear here but not in Point Loma?
— November 21, 2019 3:45 p.m.

Vagrants and adversaries, make way for Target

The South Park Target Express is just fantastic. We buy our milk, eggs, cottage cheese, cream cheese, one type of sliced bread, and various other things there, in addition to buying veggies and meat from Food Bowl. Weekly or semi-weekly trips to TJ's, S&F, and Costco cover the other stuff. Love having Target in the hood. NP will love it too. Too bad OB is so ridiculously backward.
— November 18, 2017 6:35 p.m.

Maintenance assessment fee fight flares up in Del Cerro

The Marti Emerald who voted for and supported every MAD when she was a councilperson must be the evil twin of the above commenter Martha Emerald. Only in San Diego ...
— July 8, 2017 2:40 p.m.

Maintenance assessment fee fight flares up in Del Cerro

The photo accompanying this article is taken right at the intersection of Airoso and Dartford. Someone cut away deadwood from tree growing in the strip of land alongside Airoso and piled the branches on the ground along the curb. Take a Google tour or a real-time drive in the area and look all around. There isn't a single leaf in the gutter anywhere. The neighborhoods and streets are meticulously neat and tidy. How easy for the scores of homeowners or their weekly yard workers on any of the nearby streets to put the pictured deadwood in piles for curbside greenery recycling! Or just haul it away or break it up and put it in the trash. All 2400 homeowners need not pay **$150/year, forever,** to deal with a simple, small cleanup on one bit of city curbway. This photo is so typical of the MAD promoters: in Golden Hill in 2007 the "horrifying" promotional MAD photo was of one sack of trash and one bit of graffiti on a dead-end street. Cleaning it took 5 minutes. Getting rid of the illegal MAD took 5 years. By the way, what Rawlins is pushing for Del Cerro is not a MAD, as defined by the State of California. Based on the scope mentioned by Rawlins, i.e., to *"improve medians on College Avenue and Del Cerro Boulevard, install new streetlights, increase the maintenance of neighborhood parks, and clean canyons and repair sidewalks*" is a PBID, a Property/Business Improvement District. It goes beyond a MAD, in which the assessment paid by a property owner has to confer special benefit to that owner's property, and not to the whole area or to the areas' businesses. San Diego has played a little game by conflating MADs and PBIDs. As a charter city, they think they can get away with it. Irony: The La Jolla MAD being sued (plaintiffs represented by Aguirre) has on its board one of the plaintiffs' lawyers for the successful Golden Hill action, and Aguirre was the City Attorney who let Marco Li Mandri form the Golden Hill MAD. Only in San Diego.
— July 7, 2017 9:59 a.m.

Grape Street dogs poisoned?

Giardia is a parasite, not a virus. Fecal material from an infected dog would have to make its way into the water bowl in order to transmit it the parasite to an uninfected dog that drinks from the bowl. Clean the bowl out carefully and add fresh water.
— July 6, 2017 3:54 p.m.

Marco Li Mandri wants to get around Prop 13

And here's Marco! http://granicus.sandiego.gov/MediaPlayer.php?view… Starting at 00:5:33, Marco...go on, and at and 00:6:15 and 00:06:50, see Marco's admissions that the code he wrote in 1998 and 2003 has "some problems." Ha ha! Watch Marco nervously scratch and fidget. Watch Marti and Todd love them some Marco. Write your City Attorney and tell him what you think. And yes, if you keep watching, you see Marti talking to Hueso's brother about his taxi cab business.
— April 25, 2012 6:34 p.m.

Marco Li Mandri wants to get around Prop 13

San Diego council loves scoundrels like Li Mandri and Zucchet. Why? Why can't San Diego pols and our council hall be the nexus of an honest, clean, transparent, demanding take-no-s*** government? We could do so much with a reputation that transcends Enron-by-the-sea. The payoff would be HUGE! Start now. This day, this minute.
— April 25, 2012 5:52 p.m.

Marco Li Mandri wants to get around Prop 13

goodlead writes: "*when the courts ruled it had violated the State Constitution in forming the Golden Hill Maintenance Assessment District -- and probably other MADs as well"* Bingo: The other identically formed assessment districts run by business groups and the Economic Development department are indeed equally illegal on unconstitutional grounds. They are: 1. Little Italy MAD (formed and run by Li Mandri) 2. Adams Avenue MAD 3. Central Commercial MAD (formed by Hueso in 2000; Li Mandri was paid to do the setup) 4. City Heights MAD 5. College Heights MAD 6. Hillcrest Commercial Core MAD 7. Ocean Beach Newport Avenue MAD It is going to be really interesting to watch the Council do the annual renewal on these illegal districts, coming up in about a month. What will happen to the City's favorite phrase: "Maintenance Assessment Districts (MADs) are legal mechanisms by which property owners within a specified district can vote to assess themselves..."?? Can't say that now!!! The Municipal Code Li Mandri wrote for Casey Gwinn in 1998 and 2003 created these! Will council now rescind these and try to use Li Mandri's new code? Why are San Diego's council and downtown pols hooked on shady characters? They never, never, never go away (like Madaffer). And the likes of Kehoe, Hueso, Atkins, Peters, Young, Faulconer, Gloria, and Marti Emerald, and, alas, now David Alvarez, love them. San Diego could do so much better.
— April 25, 2012 5:10 p.m.

Marco Li Mandri wants to get around Prop 13

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City to Implement "Pay First, Litigate Later" on Disputed Tax Assessments?

Thanks for bringing this to light, Dorian. If you want to see the chilling video of the Rules and Open Government (ha ha) Committee presentation, look at it here: [link text][1] It starts at about 1:11, then the sound is lost because the Deputy City Attorney screws the mic, but the clerk fixes the mic around 1:15. Must watch. The attorney's office language is very sloppy, casually mixing up "tax" and "assessment," which have very different legal meanings. Makes you think they don't really get it, or care. Chilling. Create stumbling blocks, ha ha ha. Marty and Lori find it sooo amusing. Yeah, city. A statute does not = municipal code. Just try it. Epic fail. [1]: http://granicus.sandiego.gov/MediaPlayer.php?view…
— April 20, 2012 6:41 p.m.