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Postseason Mashup
A great story about the San Diego connections in the upcoming playoff game with Forty-Niners and Saints this weekend but you forgot to mention the biggest connection by name,Alex Smith. Perhaps an omission like that could only be attributed to PTSD.— January 14, 2012 2:10 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
Who am I Fred, who are you. I am contributing to this forum because it is important to me. I rushed home from work the night of the vote and googled for the results of the supreme court decision and this is the story that appeared first.It was upsetting to me so I took the time to write. I have been frustrated for many years with the Henderson's and Bauder's of this city who seem hell bent on returning it to the sleepy beach town of their youth. They claim to be watchdogs but they don't speak for many of us. This was the first time I have been compelled to write anything. It appears the followers of this blog live in a bubble, kind of like right wing radio geeks who allow for no dissent. I am here to tell you their is a whole world out here of people who are not happy about this decision. If you have read my posts I have been nothing but polite and highly critical of CCDC from the start. Who am I, I am a home owner, a business owner, an Army Veteran, Art School grad. I made scraped enough money together tending bar and managing restaurants to buy a 110 year old building in rough part of the East Village,that nobody wanted. I worked 2 jobs and spent every dime fixing the old place up. My wife and I were pioneers, kicking the bums off the porch, clearing out the crack dealers,picking up trash,painting over graffiti. Working day and night trying to build some sweat equity. This was before the downtown ballpark was even a rumor. I have lived through the changes every day for 15 years. I am amazed that people who don't live around here think they know what is better for me than I do. This is my life, this is my experience. However flawed, the process of development has been a positive thing for us. I love this city and this neighborhood and I plan to live here forever. I am from Chicago, a town famous for its corruption and back room deals. It is also famous for a vibrant downtown,beautiful parks, public art ,architecture, and museums. Sometimes the ends justify the means.— January 4, 2012 10:45 a.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
Don, one thing that has been left out in this discussion is the benefit of tourism dollars and specifically t.o.t. The most recent numbers I could find on total number of tourism dollars for San Diego are for 2009. $6,958,000,000 a year,$29.6 million a day or $221.00 a second by visitors. In the last decade we have seen an improved downtown helped pave the way for many new hotels. These guests are paying t.o.t, plus creating 1000's of new jobs. Eliminating blight,adding attractions and developing the center city has been a tax windfall for San Diego. Your argument is over simplified that all tax assisted development is charity for billionaires. It is definitely populist rhetoric but in reality it ignores harder to track revenue streams and benefits of an improved inner city. I wonder how many great monuments of the world including art, theaters, stadiums,parks would have been built without tax dollars. I doubt that anyone would visit Rome if it wasn't for the great monuments built in the past with so called charity for billionaires. When we are all gone these improvements will be our legacy, I would rather have a beautiful stadium than an abandoned bus terminal. I doubt the people who work at Horton Plaza or the Convention Center think it is a failure. To dismiss all service industry jobs as meaningless as some of your other contributors to this blog is an insult. You can make a good living working in the service industry. A bartender/server at a busy restaurant makes just as much as a union construction worker, and how many construction jobs will be lost with the end of CCDC dollars?— January 3, 2012 7:58 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
Thank you Salt,you nailed it!— January 2, 2012 6:06 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
I hope you are right Don, I am sure you will keep us posted on where the money goes from whatever mountaintop you sit on now. Although we may disagree on this issue and I must confess as someone who stands to directly benefit from urban renewal my view may be slightly skewed, I admire your your bright and shiny squeaky wheel. At least I had a place to share my opinion no matter how wrong it is. Keep up the good work,thanks.— December 31, 2011 12:08 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
I realize now that this is not the forum for dissent, but I do not speak for anyone but myself, based on my real life experiences. I guess 15 years in the front row of this debate has given me a different perspective on the value of developing neighborhoods with tax dollars. I know my view is definitely different than that of a elderly man who lives in Colorado, who seems to be the all knowing authority on how to spend your tax dollars. I will not dispute the overwhelming evidence of the failure and corruption of an all to powerful CCDC, that is undeniable. My original point is that taking all that money from San Diego and throwing it into the California general fund is not a win for the city. All this high-fiving and spiking the football over a supreme court decision that takes money away from the city is like dancing at a funeral. I saw a city go from skid row, to the place to go, did some fat cats get fatter, did some toes get stepped on,were bad compromises made,was their dirty back room deals, yes to all of it, but has a radically better city arisen from blight the answer is undeniably yes. Perhaps if I lived in Colorado instead of the East Village I would feel differently.— December 30, 2011 9:43 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
Well you have me surrounded and I am out numbered. I shall retreat to the Neighborhood coffee shop, before I get my haircut at Floyds,the new barber shop, then head over to J-Wok a great little restaurant for lunch, then off to Horton Plaza to watch the ice skaters before I take in a movie. On the way back I will admire the new architecture, poke my head into the new hipster clothing store that just opened then head over and check on the progress of the new library, whisk by the new law school, check in at the new UPS store for a package, say hello to my friends at the Bowling alley,The Cowboy star and Cafe chloe and call it a night.— December 30, 2011 12:13 p.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
Wow I am the loan dissenting view point. Is this really a dialog or just a bunch of people patting each other on the back, Ditto heads. I stand by my description of the the area by the ballpark before and around 1997, an out door boarding house a homeless encampment. It is amazing how revisionist historians like to look back and reminisce about the good old days before the man came in and ruined every thing. The East Village is a large and diverse neighborhood,and varies block by block where I live was surrounded by vacant lots that have now been developed. Darfur no,blighted yes. Since this blog is full of stats, how much did Bruce Henderson cost the tax payers with his lawsuits to try and stop Petco. Me thinks in the millions. How much money did the average persons taxes go up for the Ballpark? Your taxes stayed the same its about allocation of the taxes you are already paying,with all the money that is frittered away by the bureaucracy at least CCDC has something to show for the money they spent. Now that the CCDC money is gone is Mr. Bauder going to track where the billions go and how the average citizens lives have been improved? Or is just going to underfunded pension funds. Sorry that doesn't help improve San Diego.— December 30, 2011 9:19 a.m.
Supreme Court Knocks Out Redevelopment Agencies
This is an overreaching decision that throws the baby out with the bath water.It is crazy to say that their is no blight downtown or anywhere else for that matter. Has their been misuse and misappropriation with CCDC funding yes and that can be said for every other organization that handles money on the planet. Yes Coronado is a good example but I have lived in the East Village for 15 years and in 1997 it was a like a Darfur refugee camp. Literally 100's and 100's of homeless people living on the street ,bed role after bed roll lined the streets like a giant outdoor boarding house. Blight was every where. The area where Petco now exists looked like a post-apocalyptic landscape. Where was the outrage then,where was the press,where was Don Bauder. The financial problems of San Diego and the state were not caused by using tax-payer money to build nice buildings and ballparks.It was caused by mismanagement of retirement funds. Their are many new nice new low income housing projects throughout the East Village. Have you driven down Market Street going East lately? It is checkered with new low income mid-rise buildings. I don't understand the Bruce Henderson's and the Don Bauder's of the world who are so anti-development. Would they prefer the giant gaping hole that sat on the corner of 10th and F to sit and rot for another 30 years . I prefer the apartments full of young people who live there and work in the neighborhood, and shop and support the local business's that surround it. If you are blind to the blight that still exists I will take you on a tour, it's not hard to find. Would not a better solution have been to have better oversight and more rigorous examination of how the money was spent. Don't the taxes from new development go into the cities coffers? My neighborhood was a crack ridden, crime ridden,insane, discarded, unsafe cesspool when I moved in. Now it is one the most entertaining, exciting and interesting places in San Diego. A source of pride for the city. Thank you CCDC a job well done. This money will now be reallocated to corrupt and bloated unions so we can now have 10 guys standing around a man whole eating lunch instead of 5.— December 29, 2011 9:25 p.m.