Letters from near and far

Get over Yourself, Rolando

I’m writing in regard to your City Lights story, “City Sides with Developers, Residents, Developers Again.” I really appreciated this well-written and informative news piece. It shed better light on the situation than the many rumors going around via people in the neighborhood. So, I thank you.

As a resident of the College Area, I find it very frustrating and hard to understand why some residents are upset about this new development being built. For starters, the land it is being constructed on was vacant for years. Once a strip mall, it was demolished some time ago and simply sat there getting more and more disgusting. Up until construction started on this new development, it was filled with homeless people and drug users. It was pure and simple blight, complete with rubble and graffiti. Why in heaven’s name is all that better than a clean, new housing complex?

The biggest issue, though, is that those of us who live in the College Area have to deal with students and their evidence on a daily basis. We must deal with the noise and the garbage, as well as the drinking and the “pranks.” For example, this morning I woke up to find the neighbor’s gate from several houses down on my front doorstep, blocking my front door!

Many of these students don’t realize nor care that they are living in a neighborhood — not on campus — and that there are families here that work hard and want to raise their children without red Dixie cups thrown in their back yards after a loud 3am game of beer pong. I’m all for having the college experience, but if you want to act like a jerk, go live on campus. If you want to live in a house in a neighborhood, then follow the rules of being a good human being!

Many students in the neighborhood live in houses that have been converted to “mini-dorms” by investors who literally would purchase perfectly good homes at lower prices while still outbidding families.

Then, once purchased, the investors mutilate these houses so that they become 9-bedroom, 7-bathroom minidorms. No, that is not an exaggeration.

Enough is enough! When I saw the construction going up on the formerly vacant and crime-ridden lot that was once a strip mall, I jumped for joy! Why? Because this new construction will take students away from our neighborhood and put them in a contained complex across El Cajon Boulevard!

Not only that, but it will mean that these mini dorms will have to be sold and families will be there to buy them (so long as they’re willing to knock down the unpermited extra rooms that the investors built, and restore the houses so that they’re livable again).

The way I see it, the reason why the people of Rolando are protesting this new development simply comes down to a “not in my back yard” mentality! I’m sorry but what makes the people of Rolando think that they’re so special? They believe that they shouldn’t have to have students closer to them? We’ve been dealing with it for so long, and they’ve been more or less immune. Now that this new construction is going up, it will not only contain the students to one large built area, but it will most likely make it so the people of Rolando won’t even have it as bad as people in our neighborhood have.

Meanwhile, it will improve our neighborhood greatly!

Really, Rolandoans? You are belly aching about this changing the dynamic of your neighborhood? Pfft! Get over yourselves! You won’t have students living in a house next-door to you. You won’t have to clean up condoms and party trash from your front or back yard. You won’t have to deal with students walking past your bedroom windows in the middle of the night yelling at the top of their lungs about how drunk they are and waking up your children! You won’t have your cars defaced with Aztec slogans! You won’t have students passing out in your driveway!

Make way for the new development. I welcome it with open arms and I hope it is finished soon and that it goes smoothly!

• Joni Kaplan
• College Area

Indiscriminate Breeders

I’m calling in about the article on the cover of the October 24 Reader titled, “Green Invaders from Mexico.” This article talks about the many, many parrots coming from Mexico.

Let’s just say that anyone driving around — especially in Rosarito — can see people selling these birds along the main boulevard. These little birds are crammed into cages, sometimes four or five little birds crammed into a tiny cage — and it’s awful.

The real problem here is the fact that these birds wouldn’t be being bred so indiscriminantly if they didn’t have a place to sell them. And some of these customers are U.S. citizens. People in America need to know where they’re getting their parrots. Who is the breeder? What is the background information on the birds they purchase?

This is a very cruel industry, breeding parrots indiscriminantly. It’s very sad to see this along the streets of Tijuana and Rosarito.

Please, people, buy your birds from reliable sources and take away the business from these indiscriminate breeders in Mexico.

• Vivian Dunbar
• San Ysidro

Questions from Delaware

Re Neighborhood News, “New San Diego Central Library Holds First Board Meeting,” October 8.

As a previous eleven-and-a-half-year resident of downtown San Diego I love to keep up with the changes and progress there.

First off, congratulations for the latest gem of Sun Diego, the new Central Library! No doubt it will be the highlight of many city tours.

Now for four questions:

1. With $196.7 million spent on the new Central Library, why the extremely limited operating hours?
2. With miles of shelf space, will there still be a “stacks department” in the basement?
3. Will the library still show foreign films like DIVA?
4. Where did the popular Lee’s Cafe, of the Gaslamp Quarter relocate?

Asked on behalf of my San Diego friends.

• Coby Taylor
• Wilmington, Delaware