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Manchester’s U-T joins Briggs fray
Matt, what McDonald says is totally wrong: you have the biggest class in town and many appreciative students. You spare no one; your writing is honest and straightforward, whereas reading the UT is like reading a textbook that has been doctored by the Texas State School Board.— February 27, 2015 3:38 p.m.
Media spin and legal drama merge in Briggs battle
Please, feel free to add something to Potter's report, if you can, rather than complaining about me and what I know! For the record, I think the sleaze and hit job being orchestrated by KPBS, Goldsmith, and the tabloid associated with KPBS are worthy of your comments. All I know about are peripheral interactions between Goldsmith and Briggs, and the timing of those actions is curious. If you are not able to see Briggs' failures in addition to his successes, that's your problem. Prove me wrong on the details of what I know about, if you want to, but don't question my motives, please! I would never question your motives. Or maybe I should? Enough, already. Write something about what Potter covered. I'd like to read your input on it.— February 27, 2015 9:19 a.m.
Media spin and legal drama merge in Briggs battle
I don't know what you are pushing, but the subject here is Briggs and Goldsmith. You can return to any real subject you choose, but surely you should realize that I think KPBS, Inewsource, Michell, DSDP, and Goldsmith (and their buddies at VoSD) are agenda-driven hacks. But Briggs IS incompetent, a media hog, and a dupe and a jerk now, just as he was when he went after Filner and every time he filed a stupid lawsuit that had no chance of winning. This Potter report is great, but just because the lying sleazebags, Goldsmith and friends, go after someone in the dirtiest way, doesn't mean that the someone is without defects. Maybe you should watch the video of Briggs delivering his comment in front of Council last Tuesday, and reconsider my points about his stupid assessment lawsuits, AND his self-serving statement about his $50K payment with taxpayer dollars. He put himself out there, in public view, sucking up to Michell and Goldsmith, in the most curious time frame. It is worth considering this recent interaction with the same people now determined to destroy him on another front.— February 26, 2015 8:42 p.m.
Media spin and legal drama merge in Briggs battle
downtownrealist: Yes, sorry, I typed the wrong date. It was indeed an insider "rally," aka the City Council hearing on Feb **24** - Item 331 on the docket. As you explain, the purpose of the hearing was to confirm receipt of legally required **supportive** signed, individual parcel-number-linked petitions from property owners who would pay 50(+1)% of the calculated total assessments, the only way the Council can approve the next step, a legal, binding vote on ballots mailed to every parcel owner in the proposed assessment district. The State law is silent on whether it is allowed and proper for the City to sign the petition. When the law is silent, you can be sure Goldsmith will start talking shit. Goldsmith (and oddly, Briggs) made the excuse for the City petitioning itself, to make up the difference between 41% non-support and the 50(+1)% green light to vote to assess, by claiming that they only want to give the owners the chance to vote. That is nonsense! Why even have a law requiring approval of 50(+1)% of property owners if, when there isn't 50(+1)%, if the City plays games and forces the issue to a vote no matter what? And of course the City and DSDP wouldn't want every property owner to know about the required support by petition: they want to suppress early opposition and understanding of the details. It's much quieter, cleaner, and safer if only insiders know about the petition. To treat Goldsmith and Briggs with their own medicine, consider that anyone who does not vote "NO" on the final ballot is essentially voting "yes," and watch your mail for your ballot and vote "**NO**".— February 26, 2015 6:54 p.m.
Best slow-smoked meat in San Diego?
Do you like everything you eat to be blackened (i.e., burned)? I don't like burnt meat, but I know it's commonly accepted on BBQ meat cuts, unfortunately; perfect browning during cooking makes for a delectable taste, whereas going beyond that into a blackening yields an unpleasantly bitter taste. The other elements of your meal are also burnt (the cheese is not brown - it's black, and the toast is burntin one corner). Burnt toast and cheese, as seen in your photos, are never desirable or tasty. Burnt toast can be used as an emetic and is unpleasantly bitter; burnt cheese proteins lose all of their natural texture and flavor. To achieve a crisp topping on mac/cheese requires use of a buttery crumb mixture.— February 26, 2015 3:14 p.m.
Media spin and legal drama merge in Briggs battle
Briggs made an extremely odd and somewhat sycophantic appearance at the Council hearing on Feb 25, 2014, in support of renewing the downtown PBID and imposing ever-increasing assessments on downtown property owners over the next 10 years. Briggs' San Diegans for Open Government [lawsuits][1] against Downtown San Diego Partnership over the PBID formation and expenditures seem to have been resolved. DSDP, a nonprofit entity run by Kris Michell, has previously spent property owners' assessments in ways that Briggs recognized are not legally allowed (e.g., legal fees, consultant fees) by State law governing assessment districts. However, in dropping his lawsuits over this issue, now that Michell is his new BFF, Briggs has been paid $50,000 by DSDP. Briggs' [settlement agreement][2] makes it clear that application of assessments toward legal costs surrounding his lawsuits is NOW perfectly proper. “Because the exclusive subject matter of the DSDP case was the scope and application of revenue received from assessment payers, the DSDP’s payment of its attorney’s fees and costs related to this action, including that of the mediator, are proper expenditures under DSDP’s Management District Plan & Engineers Report…” There are valid legal problems that any competent lawyer and lawsuit could bring to court, and win, concerning the PBID and the city's MADs, but Briggs' suits stupidly missed the mark. He has done more harm than good on this issue. Goldsmith and Michell must be laughing gleefully (all it took was $50K of property owners' assessment money to buy him off): now that Briggs has called off the dogs on the assessment issue, Goldsmith et al. will take him down. [1]: https://sandiegans4opengov.wordpress.com/author/s… [2]: https://sandiegans4opengov.files.wordpress.com/20…— February 26, 2015 9:51 a.m.
Destroyed orchid
Good grief. Union bosses? Was the mural on the UCFW building along the chain-linked freeway side road at 2001 Camino del Rio South? As for the art, it was a nice enough cartoon, but the only internet image source for the lost mural I could find is on the Whalen's website. It seems not to have been given a lot of attention anywhere else, all these years. I wouldn't say their reputation (?) has been harmed... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2014/d…— December 30, 2014 5:19 p.m.
First at beach to break the $3 barrier
Please **do not** buy Valero Industries gasoline: Valero, a giant Texas oil company, works hand-in-hand with Koch Industries to use PAC money to block environmental initiatives and to produce anti-science propaganda.— December 15, 2014 10:30 a.m.
Everybody wants a seat in La Jolla
If Joe is going to be around forever, he'd better be good at long-range planning. A whole lot of La Jolla will be [waterfront eventually.][1] And then it just won't matter who is king of the hill. [1]: http://i1.wp.com/spatialities.com/wp-content/uplo… http://www.sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2014/d…— December 11, 2014 11:31 a.m.
Some will lose Sunroad’s parking game in Kearny Mesa
The right to build, or develop, includes the right to build parking garages. The planning and development decision-makers in San Diego will be happy to allow construction approval for private pay-to-park multistory buildings, when the failure to require every developer to provide adequate free parking reaches a tipping point. The misguided City philosophy has nothing to do with being "eco-green" - it's much more about being corporate-dollar-green. If you've ever lived in Boston or NYC, you know what it means to pay dearly for parking near your home.— November 16, 2014 5:33 p.m.