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Emails show SDSU fight against KPBS unionization
I just don't know how or why KPBS even exists, with all of its wretched programming. Those horrible old Welk and other 50s- and 60s-era shows are run and rerun and rerun and are on every single time I click through the local channels to see what's on. The few times I happen to see some semi-political discussion, it is sycophantic and pretentious, if not right of center. It's the worst, most useless programming ever. In the 1980s, I was a donor and supporter. Those days are gone.— December 3, 2013 2:12 p.m.
San Diego's Salton Sea plan might get expensive
How will the developers of Travertine Point provide water to the planned community of 16,600 houses adjacent to the Salton Sea? http://articles.ivpressonline.com/2013-01-15/trav…— November 23, 2013 3:35 p.m.
Downtown Partnership denied taxpayer money to fight lawsuit
Dorian, For the most recent filing, FY ending 6/30/2012, the foundationcenter.org 990 form for DTSDP (EIN 951729734) shows that the nonprofit's president, Kris Michell, was paid $187,586 ($12,000 of that was a bonus). Four other employees made from ~$57K to $103K per year. DTSDP's total revenue was $6,307,459 (PBID plus membership fees and a cut of the city's parking meter revenue, plus fees collected on business owners and for banners, plus almost half a mil for selling transit passes). The downtown property owners' assessments (PBID) comprised $5,089,699 of the revenue; without collecting those monies from property owners, Michell's group would be small potatoes. In the 990 filing, justification for being allowed to claim tax exemption must be stated: the PBID seems to be the only raison d'être.— November 14, 2013 8:50 p.m.
Downtown Partnership denied taxpayer money to fight lawsuit
"will not be reimbursed *at this time*" [italics added] Even though it will be a violation of State law, the DT SD Partnership will eventually get the property owners' tax-bill special assessment money, after Goldsmith and Carmen Brock do their dodging and hedging and there is some sort of agreement by Briggs to withdraw the suit. FatCat: Of the collected total county 2013 property tax revenue ($3,821,244,316), 3.4% is collected as special assessments in neighborhood MADs and the downtown PBID. That money is turned over by the county to the city, to distribute to the administrative boards of the MADs and the PBID (for the PBID, the admin is the Downtown San Diego Partnership). Much of the collected property assessments distributed to these boards goes not for real and special services to property owners, as the law specifies, but for admin stuff and anything the boards want to spend it on, with very little oversight. It takes a lawsuit to stop improper use and reimbursement of the assessment dollars. Ojeda will return to giving the boards money for just about anything they want as soon as the spotlight is dimmed. In 2013, only 0.7% of the property tax revenues is destined to go to libraries. Wouldn't if be wonderful if the city promoted property-based special taxes on everyone in the county in order to fund libraries' needs (see [Reader article][1] on library patio)? If only the city would undertake equal PR efforts to support causes other than privatized special assessment districts, we'd have a much finer city. [1]: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/nov/13/ra…— November 14, 2013 8:47 a.m.
San Diego sides with Carmel Partners in Rolando project
Yaay, the easy-access links to City Lights and Under the Radar are back at the top of the News Ticker page. Thanks, Dorian, and thanks Reader webmasters!— November 7, 2013 10:42 a.m.
Will Jacobs fill Fletcher's coffer to help win mayoral battle?
"[A]bout the time Filner's problems were beginning" hardly covers the reality of City Attorney Jan Goldsmith's Machiavellian efforts to destroy Filner from Day One, as unashamedly outlined by Tony Perry in the Nov 3, 2013, article in the LA Times.— November 4, 2013 6:59 p.m.
Shipping industry moves to rescind Barrio Logan community plan
Is Sutton the [James R Sutton][1] of San Francisco and Sutton Law Firm? If so, he's an original Fletcher for Mayor donor and a man involved in just about everything/everyone, including the Jacobs crew. Why not Barrio Logan industrial business owners, when he is ready to work for all of these other groups: COALITION FOR AFFORDABLE PUBLIC SERVICES, CITIZENS FOR LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY, CONSUMERS FOR OPEN COMPETITION, CALIFORNIANS FOR AFFORDABLE AND RELIABLE ELECTRIC SERVICE, THE FOUNDATION ON GAMBLING ABUSE, CALIFORNIANS AGAINST HIDDEN TAXES, THE CLEAN AIR ALLIANCE, TAXPAYERS FOR THE CONVENTION CENTER, SAN DIEGO INAUGURAL AND TRANSITION FUND, THE SAN FRANCISCO 2004 SWEARING-IN COMMITTEE, LOS ANGELES LOBBYIST ASSOCIATION,CALIFORNIA URBAN ISSUES PROJECT, 2004 SF DISTRICT ATTORNEY INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, Steering Committee Member at San Francisco Parent Political Action Committee, California Political Attorneys Association, San Francisco Parks Alliance, Neighborhood Parks Council, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Wonder what he sees in Fletcher and what Fletcher sees in him? Oh yeah, where does the Fletch stand on Barrio Logan? [1]: http://www.campaignlawyers.com/sutton.html— November 2, 2013 7:50 p.m.
San Diego sides with Carmel Partners in Rolando project
By the way, Dorian, could you check with the Reader website designers and see if they can reinstall the links to City Lights and Under the Radar that used to be at the top of the NewsTicker main page? It was simpler to access all three pages with the links there.— October 31, 2013 8:07 p.m.
San Diego sides with Carmel Partners in Rolando project
Great reporting. I'm sad that, going forward, San Diego neighborhoods will routinely be destroyed by the ghosts of Jerry Sanders and Kelly Broughton, and the all-too-real apparitions of TGlo and J Goldsmith (soon to be aided by TGlo's new hire, privatization expert Stephen Goldsmith, former "*chief domestic policy advisor to President George W. Bush in the 2000 campaign and Special Advisor to President Bush on faith-based and not-for-profit initiatives*." )[Wikipedia]— October 31, 2013 8 p.m.
San Diego overlords and unions — who can stop them?
Dear Bob_H: "*a real renaissance in these outlying commercial districts*" You must be deluded. The ratty streets in the mainly commercial urban outlying areas are as ratty as ever, unless you are distracted by colorful BID banners, expensive designer trash cans and benches and bike racks (replacing or competing with the simple, low-cost City ones), hipster bars (yes, some sell hip food, but w/o alcohol they wouldn't make it), and Redevelopment/Housing commission-subsided multiunit built-to-the-curb/parking garage monster projects. Those are all essentially built with tax/private assessment monies imposed on business and property owners, locally and statewide. The nonprofit managers/owners/builders making the deals and the profits are insiders with the ULI-MainStreet-labor crowd, and sit on every board they can get on. City departments in charge of infrastructure planning and maintenance have been stripped of their real functions and are subservient to the private circles of boards and advisors. (One example: the recent demand of the former Redev board, now Civic San Diego, to be given control of permit issuance and compliance.) The goal of the architect/developer/builder/business association groups is to turn the "outlying" areas into continuations of the dense core area downtown. Infill/densification has been the rallying call for the ULI crowd since the beginning of the real estate boom-scam-bust era in East Village, Barrio Logan, Golden Hill, City Heights, North Park, South Park, Hillcrest, University Heights, Grantville, and Ken-Tal. They never stopped during the recession, but just rebranded their goals (green, eco-friendly, walkable,buy local, no-free-parking, pro-bicycle, blah blah blah) and fine-tuned their Land Use jargon to make it seem like packing low-density-zoned neighborhoods with "granny flats" was right out of Leave It to Beaver-land and Happy Days, where everyone walks and ride bikes to nearby (high-priced) "small" businesses and never need leave their neighborhoods. Over the years the players whose careers depend on building, building, building have grabbed generous subsidies to throw in a few so-called low-income units in order to get fabulous deals on loans and exemptions. Get real. There is also no emoticon for your hype.— October 2, 2013 9:17 a.m.