Letters

LETTERS

Number One

Saw your article on Chris Cantore (Blurt, February 7) and had to laugh. When Clear Channel and I parted ways after nearly 15 years (where I was almost always in the top three ratings-wise), I was number one the day they let me go. On my way out I had to stop at HR and pick up my rating bonus check.

Shannon Leder Jensen

via email

Very Heartening

“The Ron Paul Posse” (January 31) by Dorian Hargrove was very heartening as Paul advocates return to Bill of Rights constitutional government with a sound gold-silver backed currency constitutionally controlled by congress and not the Bank of England’s for-profit subsidiary, Federal Reserve Corporation, with a Delaware private incorporation charter dated 3-9-14, File No. 09042817. Its bagman the IRS — another for-profit private corporation and subsidiary of the Bank of England — was incorporated (Delaware) 7-12-33, File No. 032570, as a for-profit corporation — as is the CIA, Delaware incorporated 3-9-83, File No. 2004409 and subsidiary of British intelligence MI-5 and MI-6 wholly owned by the Bank of London.

Ron Paul would prefer to abolish the above organizations and their stranglehold on the U.S., who posses no constitutional delegation of authority for their existence here. All Republican and Democratic candidates, excepting Paul, are owned by these private corporations who are not governmental agencies. Currently we are potential terrorists under Bush and need to be brutalized and tortured by Homeland Security, this national federal police having, again, no constitutional authority for such. All police powers were delegated to the states. Paul would attempt to alter or abolish this Gestapo force; if elected, he will need our help and likely our last chance.

Finally, House Joint Resolution 192 of 1933 declared “the American people the enemy of the United States Incorporated.”

Leland Cassander

San Marcos

Multicolored Mishmash

Thank you for the recent article on condo development in Hillcrest (“Condos Come, the Village Goes,” “City Lights,” January 17).

Two of the buildings mentioned, a bunkerlike concrete high-rise at Sixth and Upas and the multicolored mishmash on Fifth Avenue at Thorne, are eyesores that the residents of Hillcrest are now stuck with. The unfinished high-rise has sat untouched for weeks. There are also two developments nearing completion in the vicinity of Vons on Washington Street that carry on a San Diego tradition of mediocre architecture tarted up with strange embellishments that are apparently somebody’s idea of trendy. One of them could have been an attractive modernist structure, but the developer chose (incredibly) to crown the roof with what looks exactly like a long wooden storage shed, painted an ugly prison gray.

In my opinion, the Egyptian at Park and University and the pleasant Atlas at Fourth and Pennsylvania (which replaced a 1970s sprayed-stucco horror) are the only recent Hillcrest complexes that blend harmoniously with their surroundings. The interesting art deco “Deca” at Robinson and Park will probably look better once its landscaping is in. A huge new brown wood complex on First Avenue south of Laurel in nearly Bankers Hill is such an awful mess that it deserves a lifetime triple onion award.

There are also a couple of gracious complexes north of Washington Street that show what a developer with a modicum of sophistication can achieve. The towering “stair step” condo at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Redwood is one of the best-looking buildings in the city; a real beauty.

Virtually the only San Diego architect who has successfully created a coherent, sophisticated style using elements from San Diego’s architectural past is the man responsible for the Kensington Lofts on Adams Avenue. Apparently no developer has thought to ask him to design a building in Hillcrest. I suspect that his designs are too classy and tasteful to find wide appreciation among developers.

The real estate industry advisor who would love to bulldoze all the “obsolete” (probably anything built before 1980) buildings in Hillcrest and turn the area into another generic University Towne Centre should cause shivers in anyone who appreciates historical architecture and what vestiges of “vintage charm” and atmosphere we have in San Diego. It is certainly true that there are pre-1930 buildings in Hillcrest that are neither charming nor architecturally interesting, and some have been ruined by hideous remodeling, but others are one-of-a-kind treasures and fascinating oddities, links to San Diego’s early days. The only obsolete buildings whose disappearance would be universally welcomed are most of the dreary piles from the 1960s and ’70s, but many people live and work in those structures, so that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Most people here appreciate the many improvements of the past 20 years: the Uptown Center; Village Hillcrest; and the beautification along sections of University, Washington, and Fifth Avenue; the upgrading and landscaping of certain blocks in the village area; the restoration of some picturesque old houses, apartment buildings, and bungalow courts; but the proliferation of ugly condo developments, along with the continuing demolition of interesting structures dating from the early 1900s and replacing them with bland stucco boxes and parking lots, threatens whatever charm Hillcrest has left.

Jeff Hanna

Hillcrest

She Loves Us

I read the Reader every week. About a month ago or so I saw the “Roommate from Hell” article. I loved it. It was one of the first things I would jump to when getting the Reader, until you guys changed it to the “Dumped” article, which is not nearly as entertaining. Not sure if there weren’t enough stories sent in or what happened, but I just thought I would let you know my opinion. Other than that, everything is great. I love the Reader!!!

Savannah

via email

“Roommate from Hell” and “Dumped” run as stories become available. — Editor

Too Good To Be Wasted

Thank you ever so much for bringing back Ben Katchor’s “Shoehorn Technique.” I was so disappointed that you had canceled it, and I was so pleased to pick up my Reader today and see that “Shoehorn Technique” has been returned. This particular episode was especially funny. It’s just a matter of time till these cartoons are collected in book form. They’re too good to be wasted. For your information, Ben Katchor, the cartoonist, has been placed in a category with George Harriman, who created “Krazy Kat,” which was the most original cartoon of its time. I think Katchor has come up with something essentially all his own. Nothing similar to it is available anywhere, and I do thank you for bringing it back, and I hope you will find room among the classified ads for “Shoehorn Technique” every week.

Irv Jacobs

La Mesa

Cartoons run as space permits. — Editor

He Enjoys Us

I thoroughly enjoy reading your publication every week. I would like you to bring back the “News of the Weird” section. It has not been in for two weeks now, and before that, it was cut down by one half.

Ronald E. Long

San Diego

“News of the Weird” runs as space permits. — Editor

Vain Gringos

I just picked up a Reader. I haven’t read one for like… God, I used to read them all the time. But every page is like some kind of ad for Lasik or Botox and stuff like that. It seems like just a bunch of vain gringos or something. It seems pretty bad, how everything is about stuff that’s looked down upon in most societies.

Greg Gonzales

Chula Vista