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Golden Hill Citizen Asks City to Enforce Vagrancy Laws
Actually, Mr Starr, you should just complain to the Downtown San Diego Partnership (the arm of the Redevelopment Agency group, Centre City Development Corporation, involved in the privatized property tax collection business known as the PBID, or "Clean and Safe"). The 19th and C underpass is not inside the Golden Hill district, but rather is inside the downtown district. If the biggest offense is that the presence of the homeless in the underpass "makes walking toward downtown 'difficult'" for your tenants, call on CCDC/DTSDP. Surely they will be happy to help you. Maybe your area could be called "adjacent to blight" and you could get some $$ out of it.— March 25, 2011 6:33 p.m.
Sam Marasco Markets Vivid Vodka
Wow, Matt, you have the best radar! "L.A. City Council to mandate use of condoms by porn actors"... I want to see anything equivalent to this on our Council docket!— March 24, 2011 7:59 p.m.
Golden Hill Citizen Asks City to Enforce Vagrancy Laws
The most recent ARJIS report for the past 1-month period shows little crime for the 7 to 8 blocks north/south and east of the 19th and C underpass. In the past month, one commercial burglary, one public drunkenness, and one theft were reported. That's it. I sympathize with your tenants and understand that their displeasure could impact your rental income, but if the people huddling under the public property overpass are trespassing and violating your private property, please report the incidents. Being smelly isn't illegal. Urinating and defecating in public are citable. You and your tenants can report those violations, if you witness them and then stand by to wait for the police to arrive. But what are the "vagrancy laws" to which you refer? Penal code, please? The United States Supreme Court has held statutes or ordinances which declare a person to be a vagrant if he loiters, wanders, or roams about, to be void on grounds that such statutes are too vague to meet constitutional requirements. Sounds like Democracy, yes? The good, the bad, the ugly, all bundled up in our system, which protects us all to one extent or the other, more fairly than most other systems.— March 24, 2011 9:13 a.m.
Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge Opens to Little Fanfare
Exactly, Visduh. Those are property tax dollars that were retained by CCDC, instead of being distributed into the general services pool of property tax dollars. The limited-use bridge, built in a time of dire budget needs, is what you get when a private organization is allowed to keep and control general property taxes. It doesn't matter if anyone thinks the bridge is useful to a few people, or if it's architecturally interesting. It's irresponsible to buy expensive toys when you can't pay for basics. The dire economic picture was clear when this bridge was first cost-analyzed 5 years ago. Reckless. Feckless. Selfish. Self-serving.— March 21, 2011 11:23 a.m.
Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge Opens to Little Fanfare
Kudos to The Reader journalist Hargrove for mentioning a long-forgotten bit of info about the PUC. It led to me discover this interesting San Diego Business Journal story from Sep 2007: http://www.sdbj.com/news/2007/sep/10/rising-price…— March 20, 2011 8:25 p.m.
Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge Opens to Little Fanfare
CCDC spokesperson Joyce Sumner attended the Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee meeting on March 9. She announced that the bridge would open on Tuesday, March 15 "to no fanfare." When asked by a Planning Committee member about the cost, she said she did not know...suggesting that "CCDC had put in $9 million, and she thought the total cost was around $20 million." Actually, the bridge did appear to be in use all day on Tuesday, March 15, the same day that the San Diego Unified School District layoff notices went out. Guess that was a bad day to announce a $27 million bridge-to-nowhere opening.Maybe that is why the U-T's Showley waited until Friday to post an official "bridge now open" story???? I want to know why Sumner professed ignorance of the costs at the Planning meeting. The CCDC website has the total cost summary. Come back to Golden Hill next month, Joyce. Someone may ask you to explain your data deficit. I might add that rightwing KUSI had the story on Friday, and reported the cost to be $11 million! Our own Fox-light channel!— March 20, 2011 7:36 p.m.
Fight Over North Park Bar Spills Into the Streets
deserttrat: If the Smiley daughter present at the hearing was Elizabeth (Beth), she's a CPA at Squar Milner. Squar Milner always has employees at the Urban Land Institute events for businesses and is very connected to the San Diego real estate development world. ULI's Executive Director, Mary McLellan Lydon, sits on the Planning Commission. OK?— March 14, 2011 10:46 a.m.
Fight Over North Park Bar Spills Into the Streets
This is a sidebar (no pun intended) to the bad bar issue...but... bottom line, Cook and Nguyen play with the big boys: They lost a bit on their Woolworth bldg investment, on paper, anyway (tax-loss write-offs probably cover it)...Woolworth Bldg, 3067 University, was sold on 3/22 07 to Partage LLC/Partage Ventures LLC for $2 mill. The LLC is registered to wealthy Richard K Huang (also of Appletree Educational, with ties to a Nguyen family member). The private ownership generated paltry taxes...is this because of Historic Designation? A paltry $2800/year on a $2.08 mill assessment. Sweet deal. But now, if you look at the SD Treasurer website for the parcel's APN, 4531520300, you'll see what happens when the Redev Agency owns a property. The county now collects zero taxes...bye-bye tax revenue, even if paltry.— March 14, 2011 10:18 a.m.
Fight Over North Park Bar Spills Into the Streets
Also, from the Fall 2007 North Park Main Street (BIA) newsletter: "The Woolworths Building (formerly the African Alliance) is undergoing remodeling. Owners Adam Cook and Cuong Nyugen intend to maintain most of the historic facade and hope to accommodate five new businesses." That's curious. As of Sep 2010, the U-T reported: "The old F.W. Woolworth Co. building that has sat vacant on University Avenue for two years could soon undergo a makeover. The San Diego Redevelopment Agency is seeking proposals from developers to repurpose the 15,600-square-foot structure that it acquired last month for $1.95 million. The structure was identified as contributing to the historic character of the University Avenue commercial corridor by North Park Main Street, a nonprofit charged with revitalizing the area’s business improvement district and the historic heart of the community. The building had been purchased in early 2007 by owners who wanted to open a restaurant, but those plans never came to fruition." Wonder how much Cook and Nguyen made or lost by selling to the RA for $1.95 million?— March 14, 2011 9:02 a.m.
Fight Over North Park Bar Spills Into the Streets
Further: A past House of Finland (one of the Balboa Park organizations) newsletter promoted the bars and businesses of Cook and Nguyen. "Ruotsalainen" is a Finnish name, and Adam and Mira Cook are HoF members. Small world of insider-San-Diego gets smaller.— March 14, 2011 8:52 a.m.