"An inappropriate picture of O.B."

Horrid statements regarding O.B.

To Joseph Miravalle. Hello, Joseph. I read your article regarding Ocean Beach, and I have a lot of problems with your assertions.

First, don’t say “seven blocks” when you only talk about two. You talk about all the things ob-chians do not have a concern with. You totally failed to look at north O.B. You failed to see that no one in O.B. goes anywhere near Sunshine Company.

All you did was paint an inappropriate picture of O.B. Mothers and Raglan blow away the burgers at Hodad’s. No discussion about the mellow feel of dog beach and the best pizza at Surfrider. I’m appalled by your portrayal of O.B. as “a place to get high and go to Hodad’s.” We consider that inappropriate and lame.

I am more than happy to work with you on an article that properly shows O.B. I walk the alleys at night; I help people day and night. Feel free to contact me, spend some real time in O.B., and write a real article instead of a tourist call to do drugs at the beach with hippies.

Looking forward to you contacting me and correcting all of your horrid statements regarding O.B.

• Keith Herron
• Ocean Beach

South Bay is the backwoods of craft brewing

Thanks for the article "Craft beer seeps into new neighborhoods." The true backwoods of SD County craft brewing has been the South Bay. We are kinda-sorta starting to catch up.

Note 3rd Avenue in historic downtown Chula Vista. And Groundswell Brewing (of Riverdale and Santee) will soon open a tasting room, and there are a few other places to sample craft beer already in downtown.

With any luck it will become a mini-hub of tasty brew. It’s long overdue.

• Name withheld
• Chula Vista

Hallaj: "O Thou Whose closeness girds my very skin."

Devoted to the belly and the crotch

I long ago stopped hoping that the Reader would morph into something more than a substitute for toilet paper. Your September 7 issue is a case in point.

I started with the back pages and eliminated 17 pages purveying pot. The article on the bail bond industry was worthwhile. I plowed through numerous pages devoted to the belly and the crotch.

Finally, I found your article on al-Hallaj on page 36 "Mansur al-Hallaj — Sufi mystic," The article does not mention that he was crucified after his hands and feet were cut off by his Islamic murderers. I believe the author mentions that al-Hallaj had come to believe in Christ.

The Waterfront page is okay. Lastly, I found Garrett Harris a writer I can respect. Most of the rest of the issue was placed next to the toilet, in the event that it is needed.

• (Via voicemail)

Father Bratso Krsic: "We hope and pray there are not many people in hell."

Adepts of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Why do you even bother with “Sheep and Goats”? As in your August 31 issue, it is nearly always the same thing.

There is “the resurrection of Christ” — someone who never existed. There is “salvation,” whatever that means. There is “triumph over death and sin,” whatever sin is supposed to be.

They claim to “profess the Orthodox Christian Faith,” while many other sects would dispute that. The Bible has been changed many times and is not historical.

They are so generous. They feed the homeless “every third Wednesday.” Then of course we go to heaven as “our soul separates from our body, since it is immortal.”

Of course, there is no evidence for any of this nonsense. Most of these people have gone to some religious or theological school, not a real school.

Why don’t you have some atheists and adepts of the Flying Spaghetti Monster respond to your questions?

• Ed Erickson
• Solana Beach

Neighbors on Albatross

Photo by Matthew Suárez

Literally appalled

Good morning. I was just reading your article in the August 31 issue regarding "He said he would destroy our neighborhood," and I honestly can’t believe the picture identifying the neighbors you wrote “Dawn is the black woman, Carol is in the black shirt and glasses.”

I’m just absolutely appalled actually that you would refer to the woman as “the black woman” when you could actually have easily identified her as “the lady in the orange sweater” or something like that. After last week’s contentious article — or a couple weeks ago — article about water for the “illegals,” I’m finding it more and more difficult to believe that you’re not a racist magazine.

I just moved back here from Northern California, and I’m literally appalled at what I’m reading. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Please, whoever is writing these articles: rethink your verbiage. It is effective. And very, very disappointing.

• Cathy Cresser
• Bay Park

Dawn is the black woman

Dear San Diego Reader editor, I am writing to you in regards to the August 31 publication. I wanted to bring your attention to a photo caption that was the featured in the article "He said he would destroy our neighborhood."

The photo (page 16, right-hand side) includes a community of individuals with the caption “Dawn is the black woman, Carol is in the black shirt and glasses.”

I find this caption very unprofessional, upsetting, and racist. I suggest that the editors and writers of the San Diego Reader learn how to properly compose a well-written caption. For example, use directionals to identify the people or describe both woman by what they are wearing.

I hope I am not the first person that has brought this up. Please do the right thing and issue Dawn Taggett an apology, in addition to carefully reviewing future captions/articles.

• Name withheld

Editor responds: A mix-up in the editorial process resulted in this story going to print with place-holder captions. We regret the oversight.

Extremely too many pot ads

I’m writing about the letter about the pot ads [Letters, August 31]. I agree with Dave. Very much, wholeheartedly.

Your paper used to have wonderful articles and lots of ads and short stories, but now you’ve taken up most of them with pot ads. I don’t know why you have to depend on pot ads, but there’s just extremely too many of them.

• Gary Colburn
• Carlsbad

They can “technically” arrest you

Ian, your attempt at public service might have the opposite effect (“Do growlers count as open containers?”)

Your fundamental error is asking a cop the intricacies of a law that he will never be arrested for. No cop gets arrested for open container — nor DUI, for that matter — unless there is an accident. Even then, there are many exceptions.

“Hogwash,” you say? This week there is a video going viral of a cop assaulting and kidnapping an on-duty emergency room nurse while three other cops stand by and watch. What makes you imagine the cops who find this acceptable, when witnesses abound, will finally be moved to act when they find one of their buddies on the side of the road with a half-full growler?

Billy Hernandez of the SDPD even confirms that cops have complete disregard for the law. The law states that containers with a broken seal — or, lacking a seal, with contents removed — will be stored in the trunk. Billy says he has no problem putting these items in the back seat of his car, a clear violation.

“But how do I prevent getting arrested?” That’s the point, isn’t it? The truth is, just like the ER nurse who broke no law, you can’t. Billy Hernandez confirms this. He says even if police know that your growler has had no contents removed they can “technically” arrest you.

Since a citation is a sworn statement, Billy is admitting that the police can lie. And there is nothing you or I or anyone else can do about that.

• Gregory K Wade
• Orange County

I do say Hogwash. Mr. Hernandez has admitted nothing beyond being a customer of local breweries. He recommended taking steps to seal a full growler as a common-sense effort to comply with both the letter and spirit of the law’s prohibition of an unsealed container.

A bad cop in a Utah hospital in no way reflects upon Mr. Hernandez nor any other San Diego police officer that I am aware of.

• —Ian Anderson

My eyes constantly scan the landscape for shade.

Mariana Vasquez

Thank you for not being so PC

Re: “You left water in the desert for illegals?”

Thank you for not being so PC and giving in. Yes, they’re illegals, a proper term in Mexico. If you are in a country where you don’t have the proper documentation, you are call illegal.

What respect do the illegals show to our laws? Jessica, stop playing who is native and who is not. The so-called natives also came from Europe and East Asia. We are all foreigners to this land. The term “illegals” is used in Mexico, and they don’t have a problem with it. The term is not dehumanizing, it is a fact.

“Me voy de illegal” is a term used in Mexican songs. That term is sometimes used as a badge of honor. There are illegal immigrants in Mexico too, they just don’t complain — they know that under the Mexican Constitution they have no rights.

• Pablo Aldaz
• Tijuana, Mexico

CBS news said “criminal aliens”

Re: Letters column

This probably will not be the last word on this by a long shot. On September 8, 2017, the CBS News Service wrote the words “criminal aliens” in a piece they were doing about a canceled mass raid by ICE. I do not know if they wrote it that way because that’s the way ICE refers to them or if it was the journalist.

Is that a better way for the Border Angels than “illegal”? Probably not. All I can say is they must be doing something wrong, otherwise we are wasting a lot of resources on ICE and the Border Patrol for nothing.

• Sam King
• El Cajon

Eight-point type is elder abuse

Your maybe-8-point type (Neighborhood News/Golden Dreams) is elder abuse, and I would applaud anything you can do to make all type at least as large as the Letters column.

Maybe as readers grow older it becomes more difficult to read everything. I have enjoyed the Reader for decades — Don Bauder’s incisive investigative reporting and great features on the Alessios, C. Arnholt Smith, the Dan Broderick tragedy...you name it.

Can you give us 90% of the copy but increase type size 10%? I don’t want to miss anything!

• Mike Schaefer
• University Heights

San Diego is following San Francisco

Regarding: Neighborhood News

I am commenting on almost all the news and opinions posted in the publications of this area. There is not much of anything positive about this place. There is a saying “You can’t fight City Hall” that has been around a very long time. It still rings true. Only now you can add, “You can’t fight Big Money” to it.

My advice to all is get out while you can still afford a U-Haul. San Diego is following San Francisco. They’ll find a way to force you out whether it will be bulldozing your neighborhood, raising prices, or just making it hard to get yourself heard. There is no stopping progress, whether it is for the good of the people or the environment or not.

Big Money is here to stay. Let them build their Metropolis, it will be under water in a few years while we are living safely in the hills of Montana.

• Lori
• East Village