Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
East Balboa Park
It looks like eucalyptus bark...beautiful.— December 1, 2010 6:58 p.m.
East Balboa Park
Thanks, Jerry. It is a nice walk, and thank you Park & Recreation for your efforts and good planning. I love walking and driving both directions along Golf Course Drive, and love having a golf course so close to home. It's sort of our sweet, homely South Park version of those uppity "golf-course communities." An elderly neighbor told me that the stretch of park fronting 28th Street was used as a soldiers' tent camp site during WW II, and that it was all very exciting! The neighbor said that she would rollerskate over to the camp and would bring South Park neighborhood home-baked treats for the soldiers.— December 1, 2010 4:05 p.m.
San Diego Family Feud — Electronic Survey Says!?
dougw, As you observed, certain people who show up at the CPUs have "better access to City Staff, too." Indeed. Many of the people who show up at the CPUs as "community members" are among a group of people who have been granted access to City Staff in private meetings, prior to the CPUs. In these private meetings with CPCI staff and with paid consultants, local agenda-friendly community members are encouraged and coached on how to push certain aspects of the CPCI agenda. These people, compared to ordinary residents and property owners, have careers that directly revolve around obtaining City contracts and depend on direct financial benefits from City Planning decisions. For instance, following private meetings with paid CPU consultant Mark Steele and CPCI's Bernie Turgeon, a business owner from a South Park restaurant (who does not own the property in which his restaurant exists), a local resident who owns a construction company but who is in serious financial straits, and a North Park (not even a GGH resident) architect/developer, among other South Park Business Group members and realtors and property investors, attended the Greater Golden Hill CPU and were armed and ready to push land-use changes that would increase density. They were assigned to different tables, the better to propagandize and masquerade as ordinary attendees; they looked bored with having to hang with the few real community members, and ended up looking happier in a huddle together at the end. Very obvious. Bill Anderson looks bored the whole time, floating around the room doing not much. He must really hate these things. Other City-friendly attendees at the GGH CPUs included friends and family imported from Tijuana and Chula Vista by the staff of the GGH Community Dev Corp, just to pack the room with City-friendlies who added that all-important "diversity" quotient; people who are dating Council district representatives and have lived in GGH for only a brief time, but suddenly take a leading role in proclaiming exactly what is necessary to alter GGH for the better; people posing as GGH residents but who are really employees of certain large firms (e.g., Carrier Johnson) that routinely appear before the City Planning Commission for development project approval; and so forth. The list of plants in the audience is long. It's true, very few ordinary people know about these CPUs (there is no substantive public outreach) or can make the time to attend; the meetings are thus populated by a small group of City allies, those who stand to benefit by supporting exactly what the City has already decided will happen. It is a colossal waste of money and it is a stinking joke. What more could you expect in GGH, represented by Hueso and Gloria? By the way, Todd, you threatened that the CPUs would be canceled if Prop D failed. What are you waiting for? An audit?— November 22, 2010 8:48 p.m.
Channel 10 Airs Mayor's Deposition in Crime Case Tonight
I understand that you don't think that, Don, and I have great respect for you as a totally honest journalist and reporter. You are the best. You see this case as a single issue. I don't. "Shady" isn't so much the problem with Mr. WT; it's more about his incompetence; greed; willingness to play the game, to be a sycophant, to screw over people, and to use the system to benefit himself and his friends; and jealousy. All playing out inside a system that encourages all of those attributes, until they become a reason for the strongest players to weed out the poorest players. Keep up the good work. I know you hate for me to comment on this subject, but I'm uncontrollable...sorry.— November 11, 2010 9:43 a.m.
South Park's Granny Flats — City Says Yea, Some Citizens Say Nay
Yaay for ice cream! Right on a2z. And yaay Founder: right-o boo for more bars. We have enough. I love crepes, too, and the wine bar is ok by me because it closes at 10 or 11. Bars in the middle of residential areas should all close at 10 or 11. I do support my local businesses as much as possible, IF they sell what I need at a price I can pay. I'm not quite getting greenisgood: seems to be suggesting that if a business located in a quiet, mostly single family zone can't make it without more customers, then the business owner should hop on the bandwagon with the city in promoting a change to the land use code to create a bigger customer base. Good way to get your business on a boycott list.— November 5, 2010 12:24 p.m.
Walmart Woos; San Diego Plays Hard to Get
I posted this on another story, but it fits here, too: Demographics - Looks like the wealthier communities get to have the lower cost food-vending stores typically found in supercenters. Tony Young's district is wealthier than Hueso's or Gloria's. Costco on Gateway Drive probably has customers from districts 1, 3, 8, and 4, but you have to have a car to get there. Hard to imaging hauling much home from Costco on a bus or by walking a cart out of the lot. http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D3 median household income: $48.2K http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D8 median household income: $51.7K http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D4 median household income: $59.2K Copy and paste the url and change the district number in the url, to see the other district median household incomes. D1, $108.5K D2, $64.7K D5, $99.8K D6, $68.9K D7, $68.8K— November 4, 2010 9:51 a.m.
South Park's Granny Flats — City Says Yea, Some Citizens Say Nay
#25 one more thing: check out these demographics. D3 (which includes South Park) and D8 (which includes Golden Hill) have lower median incomes than D4 (Tony Young's area) and any other districts! http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D3 median household income: $48.2K http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D8 median household income: $51.7K http://profilewarehouse.sandag.org/profiles/est/c… D4 median household income: $59.2K Copy and paste the url and change the district number in the url, to see the other districts. D1, $108.5K D2, $64.7K D5, $99.8K D6, $68.9K D7, $68.8K— November 4, 2010 9:37 a.m.
South Park's Granny Flats — City Says Yea, Some Citizens Say Nay
#25 greenisgood, I don't think you have any immediate worry about artists or anyone finding a place to rent. Although these articles emphasize many things, including my fear, that investors want somewhere to invest right now, and inner city community apartments/multirentals are said to be where the money is, still, there's a pretty stable rental vacancy rate in San Diego and rents aren't rising. No need to throw the small enclaves of near-downtown single-family neighborhoods under the train yet. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/27/va… "San Diego isn’t the only place that’s suffering a prolonged construction hangover from the go-go years at the beginning of the century. Unlike past slumps, real estate is not poised to drag the economy out of a recessionary funk. “We really don’t need much new of anything,” said one interviewee in the annual Emerging Trends report, issued by the Urban Land Institute, a Washington think tank." http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/02/ap… "In San Diego the local apartment association survey showed a 4.9 percent vacancy rate, compared with 5 percent in January and 5.4 percent in July 2009 Rental rates over the same period have remained relatively unchanged -- $1,192 in July 2009, $1,189 in January, $1,183 in July. ... Robert Pinnegar, executive director of the San Diego County Apartment Association, said even if prospects look better nationally, he is not hearing the same from local owners. "Where San Diego was the bright spot [in the state] at the beginning of the year, I'm hearing some operators offering rent concessions, giving away rent when leases are due," Pinnegar said."— November 4, 2010 9:12 a.m.
South Park's Granny Flats — City Says Yea, Some Citizens Say Nay
#28 That's right, and thank you for a great point. Also, what about in expensive SFR neighborhoods, where some large homes are built on two or more abutting parcels, with plenty of landscaping but also room to add buildings? Owners of those homes often apply for permits to build independent living units of more than 700 SF, supposedly for their maids, gardeners, nannies, etc. But wouldn't the proposed ordinance change allow additional living units, potential rental income-generating units, in these same SFR neighborhoods on the average-parcel size? If so, you'd think that these wealthy SFR owners would fight the ordinance change. When the City pushes this through with a compliant Council, I'm sure the wealthier SFR-area owners will have lawyers and a plan to exclude their SFR neighborhoods. Most owners in the poorer areas will never know what happened. Actually, I believe that the City is not really worrying about suburban growth or green-ness or housing demands. I think they are more worried about investment demands. The ULI (our local ULI has a board consisting of friendly, supportive City Planning heads and staff) recently issued a report, "Emerging Trends in Real Estate." http://media.signonsandiego.com/news/documents/20… It makes it clear that the downtown suburban neighborhoods targeted for infill are investment opportunities right now (after hotels, of course!): "investors should “follow where educated, energetic, creative young people want to be.” Inevitably, that path leads to the same group of highly favored metropolitan areas with 24-hour attributes" Put in the word "infill" in the search tab of the pdf, and click through. You'll get the idea, if this one sentence doesn't say it all. South Park is an investment opportunity for the City. For me, it's a quiet, single-family neighborhood with mainly only permanent residents. And they get pretty quiet around 10 or 11 pm, so they can get up at 6 am and go to work and get the kids to school. No 24-hour "attributes"! Love it that way!— November 2, 2010 2:32 p.m.
South Park's Granny Flats — City Says Yea, Some Citizens Say Nay
#25 Your points are sort of incoherent, but feel free to tie them together and explain???? 1. You want more people "that don't have the really high incomes to live here." Among districts citywide, SP and GGH have a population consisting of those with almost the lowest, if not the lowest, median incomes, including owners who live in their properties, and renters. 2. You "don't want a neighborhood only for the middle aged and successful." If you really do own a home here, you should be happy. There are young families, middle-agers, elderly, and plenty of absentee investor-owners of uncertain age, not to mention lots of renters from all walks of life and age groups. And not a few unsuccessful people who paid too much for a property and have lost it to foreclosure and short sale. Drive around SP and look for those properties. You'll find a good number of the unsuccessful, if that's what you want. 3. You say "Artists and entrepreneurs need need places to live." If you live here, you should know that artists and entrepreneurs do live here. I'm betting you are one of the entrepreneurs. 4. You say "New bars and restaurants would be better in my opinion." Better than what? Rental units added to everyone's backyard, or garage conversions? That's the subject here. And SP has new bars...Station Tavern, Alchemy, ...what? You don't like Hamilton's? You want more bars? I don't. 5. You say "to ignore that some of these buildings would be better served with some investment is narrow minded. Some of the homes could be improved and we would all be better off." What? Invest all you want. You want to improve my house? Come on by and I'll put you to work. Again, the subject here is the City changing the ordinances so that single-family-zoned neighborhoods are turned into multi-rental areas. Oh yeah, I think green is good too. But the green I'm thinking of is probably not the green the City, the investors, the restaurant-bar owners, and the realtors are thinking of.— November 2, 2010 11:45 a.m.