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Downtown San Diego condos – kinda like roller coasters
Do the math: The average wage in San Diego is just over $40k per year. Take away just 25% for taxes, and you're left with $30k net. That's $2,500 take home pay per month. If half of it is going to housing, (which is high), you can only pay $1,250 per month for your mortgage, HOA, and taxes combined. Nothing downtown at that price. Well, let's assume that all the people living downtown are exceptional and make double the average in San Diego...$80k per year. Still only $2,500 per month for your housing. So your spouse or partner must make at least another average ($40k) salary just to make ends meet on a one bedroom place. Either one of you lose your job, and you're in trouble. No 401k or retirement savings to dip into for a rainy day now... In other words, under any foreseeable combination of circumstances there are going to be a growing number of those who cannot afford their downtown condo in the next several years, and almost certainly the alleged values of these properties must drop further from where they are today. It's a lot cheaper to rent, with no risk of going further under water, I can't understand anyone who is buying at today's prices. Look at craigslist and see... The elected officials of our nation, and San Diego especially, at the behest of their development and finance backers, threw fuel on the housing fire during the bubble years. Now, with unemployment shooting up and people's savings wiped out, how will they respond to the new crisis? One thing is certain. CCDC's job is over. It built out downtown, as it promised, and now we've got too many condos that are simply too expensive for most San Diegans to ever buy. Now the city needs to concentrate on encouraging wealth creation not through property speculation but by actually producing things of value. I'd like to see the city encourage start ups in some of these vacant units, especially the ones near the ground floor, where telecommuters and knowledge workers can actually find well paid work here. We'll see what happens over the next decade, but I predict it's going to get uglier still if we don't adapt to the changes in the world around us, or hold our heads under the sand.— December 4, 2008 7:33 a.m.
SDPD -- Got An Attitude?
San Diego police just unilaterally changed the Constitution. See, you're entitled to "equal protection under the law" unless they decide you're not. It's that simple. Do something Officer Johnson or his friends don't agree with...then you're on your own and no longer subject to the protection everyone else gets. Not only can any cop beat you for they're own private reason, but any civilian who likes can beat you with absolutely no consequences...no, with an official wink and a nod encouraging them to beat you harder. That's some fine police work, there Officer Johnson. Next question, how many SDPD officers are currently abusing steroids? They're not tested for it, but look how huge and instantly aggressive they've become, hair trigger tempers...and when high ranking officers like Ron Weiss or Jeff Jordan post online, it's clear they consider the citizens to be the enemy. It's just like they were on drugs that make them paranoid, or something...how can they look like body builders when they're putting in all that lucrative overtime. Are they taking some shortcuts? Just the kind of folks we want as cops. For this they get the fattest pension in the land? As a former member of the San Diego Crime Commission, let me say that I'm disgusted at what the SDPD has become. They've lost support from the public because of their own misbehavior and greed. The case above, a violation of the constitutional right to "equal protection under the law", shows that San Diego "law enforcement" is not worthy of the name. I urge Vega to find a lawyer and sue these clowns in uniform in civil court for damages. Fred Williams— December 4, 2008 6:21 a.m.
Andrea Tevlin, San Diego's budget analyst, too busy to talk
We need more transparency all around. Who does Andrea work for? Sanders or San Diego? We're getting the involuntary ostrich treatment...having our heads shoved down in the sand now matter how we struggle to get a look around. The Reader has been locked out of City Hall for how long, Don? Matt? WTF? The mayor and council just unilaterally decided, "Oh, we only talk to journalists who report the right type of news with our spin and no contradictions." What a bunch of cowards. Or crooks... If they won't cut obvious turkeys like CCDC and SEDC (and how about that Housing Commission, huh?) they're simply not serious. I'm looking forward to what the new council will do. How ironic than in "republican" San Diego, fiscal sanity might finally be restored by two gays and three liberal women. (In your face, Madaffer!) Don and Matt, keep up the great work. Keep reminding everyone that we don't have to continue paying for Moores and Spanos' stadiums. We don't have to honor corrupt deals behind closed doors. We don't have to continue down the path we've followed for the last two decades. Best, Fred— December 4, 2008 5:49 a.m.
U.S. facing bear market till 2017?
Don, are things bad enough in San Diego that we'll finally get the council to stop paying tens of millions annually to Spanos and Moores? Will we convince the city that CCDC, SEDC, and the Housing Commission are albatrosses? Can the egregious Grantville eminent domain abuse be stopped? See this new video: Grantville is Not "Blight" --http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Tczeiw0lU There are so many opportunities to cut waste right now. Then there's the public employee pensions...which voters seem unwilling to touch going by the results of the election. Don, what do you propose for getting the city out of its hole? Best, Fred— December 2, 2008 7:15 p.m.
Stinkpen
OH, well then, Fumber I take it all back. I didn't realize. I had mistakenly thought you were referring to how I'm a vomit INFECTED blow hard, not how I'm an inane bloated vomit CAKED blow hard. I thought I was invested rather than infested which infected my thinking and affected my effective invective. I sincerely regret my error and apologize for any misunderstanding. Best, Fred "Inane Bloated Vomit Caked (Infested) Blow Hard" Williams— November 24, 2008 12:22 p.m.
Stinkpen
Russl, There's only one way to become bile infected, my friend. Someone has to puke on you. I got infected when Fumber drank a bottle of his mother's Maynard's Premium Arizona Rattlesnake Swill Chardonnay. He stole it from her knick knack shelf where it sat, prominently autographed by the Tool frontman himself, next to her large collection of Santorum memorabilia. Anyway, Fumber waited until his mom had gone to bible study, and he snatched her bottle, chugged it all down. Within half an hour he thought he would die. As a last resort, he called his only friend in the world. Me. Being the forgiving and generous guy I am, I dashed over to his little room in the basement of his mom's home, and found him slumped amidst the pizza boxes. Fumber had spewed vomit all over his keyboard. I pulled him outside so he might get a bit of air that wasn't befouled by the stench of old sneakers and yellowed crusty sheets, and in the process I think a small amount of his bile might have got into an open wound. Even the open air didn't stop him from chocking and sputtering, and laying on his back in the dead weeds of his mom's front lawn, he stopped breathing. Ice rays bounced around my stomach. Would I have to? No, I couldn't. It's just too horrible to contemplate. But in the end, I couldn't just let this kid die, choked by his own vomit from Maynard's wine. I pinched his nose and tilted his jaw, opening the airway. Ensuring there was a good seal, I blew hard, inflating his chest. When I pulled away, his exhalation was strong enough to blast a buzzard off a manure truck. Gagging, I somehow managed to continue. I put the gruesome horror out of my mind, concentrating on saving Fumber's life. He stirred, and then his eyes flickered to life. Groaning, Fumber grabbed me with his powerful fat arms, squeezing me into his man breasts, forcing my face against his ghastly stench hole. Then his slimy tongue was wiggling, probing, pushing and finally worming its way into my mouth. I have to stop. The trauma of remembering is too much...if Fumber's mom hadn't come back and beaten Fumber off with her King James Extra Large Red Letter Illustrated Edition with Concordance, I don't know if I would have survived Fumber's groping attack. That's how I came to be a bile infected blow hard. Signed by a Celebrity Souvenir Swill thrown up by Fumber which forced me to reluctantly resuscitate him, thereby ruining my life forever. Russl, how did you get infected?— November 24, 2008 11:41 a.m.
Who’s the Diva?
Do they really have almonds in Switzerland?— November 21, 2008 4:57 a.m.
Red, White, and Green Day
Josh, you missed the hospitality suites, dude. Next time, be sure to hit the Grant and the Westgate. That's where the candidates put on the feedbag and open the free booze spigots. Great fun. Great election. Can't wait to do it all again in two years.— November 20, 2008 5:02 a.m.
San Diego economists divided on how deep recession will be
I can tell you one thing I've got that my good friend Fumber sorely lacks -- capitalization. I know that MsGrant loves my humongous capitals. Everytime I start a sentence, or refer to myself as the subject, I'm sprouting a big letter right up into the sky. Fumber's missing a few apostrophes to aid his contractions, it's for sure, whether he's aware or not, MsGrant's been noticing... But what MsGrant loves the most is when I sentence her witho...a...nice...long...slow...ellipsis...ahhh.... Other than these few trifling matters, Fumber and I are exactly identical in every detail, as we all well know. So I suggest you bullies find someone else to pick on. Fumber is feeling hurt and lonely, like he doesn't have any friends and no one truly understands him. After the disappointments of the elections, he's taken to spending long hours in his room in front of a computer posting incoherent ramblings revealing more about his rich inner life than many care to know. So leave Fumber alone, you nasty people who make fun of him still living with his mother, unable to find a job, friendless and alone. Shame on you all. (MsGrant, I think you owe Fumber a freebie. It might cheer him up.)— November 18, 2008 8:56 a.m.
The Future Looks Blight!
Minimum cost to host Padres: $10 Million annually. Minimum cost to host Chargers: $5 Million annually. Yet, it's likely much more expensive to the city. Chargers mouthpiece Fabiani claims the city loses more than $25 Million are year hosting the Spanos family hobby at Qualcomm stadium. The situation at city built but Moores controlled Petco Park is grim. Attendance is dropping, the condos all around are empty, the small businesses are closing. How much does it cost the city when a whole section of downtown is like a glass and steel ghost town? How much has the city lost on this so far? There has been a complete news blackout on this story, with the Mayor and others refusing to face reality and stop paying for this fraud. We also don't know the true cost of additional public safety required to keep too often violent and destructive fans in check. At both Petco and Qualcomm every game results in more arrests than any local beach sees on a summer weekend. Instead of subsidizing these folks, how about making them pay their own way for a change. Does anyone ever question the extra trolley service San Diego gives away to all the baseball and football games? No other San Diego events are given this massive boost by the taxpayers through the MTS, headed by sports-subsidy slut, Harry Mathis. We still don't know how much the Port District and CCDC gave away to IT rip-off artist, sports mogul, and downtown developer John Moores, but we do know he's hired shills like Jack McGrory and Steve Peace to game the slot machine we call local government. I say it's long past time we gave away tens of millions every year to two of the richest men on the planet. When we're cutting libraries and recreation centers, but still paying off these guys, our priorities need a 180. At the minimum, we can save $15 million annually by cutting off the professional sports subsidies. But I bet it will end up saving us a lot more money when we add up all the gifts we've been showering on these parasites. Mayor, Council...time to knock it off. Moores and Spanos can pay their own way. Best, Fred Williams— November 15, 2008 5:24 a.m.