San Diego's Code Monitoring Team: Foxes guard the henhouse

Wow. I should have approached Mayor Sanders’ office when we constructed our new facility in Grantville. Maybe he would have given us $400,000. Yeah, right!
— December 19, 2013 8:29 a.m.

San Diego's Code Monitoring Team: Foxes guard the henhouse

Wasn’t Marcella Escobar-Eck the City official who signed off on the plans for the illegally too-high Sunroad building near Montgomery Field? Just describing her as the former director of the Development Services Department doesn’t quite do her justice. Also, it seems that her current job is a consultant for developers. Ads for her company (http://atlantissd.com/ ) are all over the pages of VoiceofSanDiego.org these days.
— December 18, 2013 11:59 a.m.

Jefferson law school's dean admits school's errors

I was curious if TJ School of Law received a redevelopment agency subsidy for its new building in East Village. In my Google search I ran into this result: “Sickening Fourth Tier Stench Pile: Thomas Jefferson School of Law.” (http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com/2010/10/sick… ) Nice title. The “Third Tier Reality” website starts with a nice, one-paragraph overview suggesting why someone, who is not 100% deluded, would go to a school like TJ. Anyway, I could not find any information suggesting that TJ received a subsidy. So, maybe this was one thing CCDC actually did right.
— December 13, 2013 9:16 a.m.

Bowls full of money and mushy teams

A few days ago I read a post on Twitter announcing the SDSU Aztecs were going to the potato bowl. I thought it was a joke. My mental image—a bowl of russet potatoes. The next day I read in the U-T the Aztecs were overjoyed to play in the “Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.” It must be true. But, this was the first I ever heard of the Potato Bowl. I checked their website (http://www.famousidahopotatobowl.com/ ). They’ve been playing the potato bowl for 17 years. That’s a surprise. Anyway, Idaho in late December should be a fun time for the Aztecs. That should teach them to play better next year. PS: To be broadcast on ESPN.
— December 11, 2013 4:13 p.m.

Seaside Courier debuts in North County

Wow. How can one expect a publication owned by Jim Madaffer to be better than one owned by Doug Manchester? When he was City Councilman, besides voting to underfund the pension and pushing special pension deals for union chiefs and using state park funds to fund road studies and inappropriately spending CDBG funds and creating redevelopment areas that should not be and transferring those TI funds to downtown and etc…he was using the Mission Times Courier as his personal tool for promoting himself and his agenda. One reelection he had his mom or mother-in-law, I don’t remember which, write a Mission Times Courier editorial promoting Jim. He also uses these papers to promote other political endeavors, like Prop 99 over 98. This was 2008, when Prop 98 would have eliminated eminent domain for private benefit, and the League of Cities and Madaffer brought forth Prop 99, a sham initiative that prevented eminent domain for private benefit only in very limited situations, like situations where eminent domain wouldn’t happen anyway. I will admit that the mother-in-law story was relayed to me, because I typically do not look at the Mission Times Courier. When I do, however, like if someone e-mails a link, I am usually bombarded with a flashing array of banner ads. My suggestion: if you should look at the Seaside Courier internet edition, shield your eyes from the blinding/dazzling effects of the banner ads, especially if you have a low seizure threshold.
— November 8, 2013 11:11 a.m.

Faulconer claim not "flawed" — it's a blatant lie

Yet, a Voice of San Diego “Fact Check” somehow labeled Faulconer’s Billion-Dollar-Savings claim “Mostly True.” http://voiceofsandiego.org/2013/11/04/fact-check-… In the same article, however, the VOSD “fact checker” labeled Fletcher’s similar Decreasing-Pension claim “Misleading.” Amazing. Maybe over there at Liberty Station the VOSD folks are spending too much time over at Stone Brewing. Anyway, I will go with Mike Aguirre’s assessment: Faulconer is “materially misleading.”
— November 6, 2013 1:19 p.m.

U-T referred to as Manchester's "personal campaign machine"

However, how do you explain today’s U-T article which is critical of Kevin Faulconer’s assertion that Prop B saves $1 billion that can be used now for infrastructure maintenance/repairs? Isn’t Faulconer the Republican’s and Manchester’s anointed one? Did this slip through the editorial cracks? The U-T article also cited Mike Aguirre, noting that the pension is costing the City more, not less. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/05/faulco…
— November 6, 2013 11:23 a.m.

Lousy Sacramento Kings closer to getting new arena

Watch out for Darrel Steinberg in 2014. He wants to bring back SB1, which is legislation to create Infrastructure Financing Districts in the guise of “Sustainable Communities.” These entities will have eminent domain authority—taking private property to hand over to real estate developers—for any reason. He also wants to bring back another bill to gut CEQA even more, so it will be easier to create IFDs. The proposed funding method is tax increment financing. The TI will come from city and county general funds.
— November 1, 2013 12:22 p.m.

First look at Waypoint Public

Hopefully, Waypoint will let the staff work for tips and not automatically add that into the bill. And hopefully, they kept at least one of the Linkery’s cooks. I had a very good grilled yellowtail sandwich there once.
— October 31, 2013 12:15 p.m.

San Diego mayoral race whoppers abound

During Sanders’ term the City recovered $50 million that could go back to paying for neighborhood upkeep, but that was because Governor Brown killed redevelopment. Fletcher/Faulconer/Sanders, however, did everything they could to keep the redevelopment/corporate welfare/drain on City finances alive. Aguirre is the only one of the top mayoral candidates to fully comprehend the problems with redevelopment, and he tried to block the transfer of redevelopment funds from Grantville to downtown. Based on track record, if the state should resurrect some form of redevelopment, don’t be surprised if Fletcher/Faulconer try to funnel this money to downtown interests.
— October 24, 2013 8:21 a.m.