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Billboard cash attempts mayor's race influence
Who needs a mayor anyway? Just need the UT's PR machine (in coordination w the local radio/tv flacks) and its owner's money, plus a majority of bought-and-paid-for councilmembers. Faulconer and Zapf were equally coordinated by Tom Story of Sunroad to do the company bidding ... with a bonus: they all got to prank out a mayor they could never control, by blaming him for being something he'd never be (on the take, like the councilmembers). A perfect, extra-governmental society. For the biz, of the biz, by the biz.— September 23, 2013 1:04 p.m.
Proposal for newly drawn assessment district in North Park once again in the works
Yankee: That's correct. Actually, the State cedes regulatory control of sidewalks, which are part of the public roadway and curb, to municipalities, but State law actually governs sidewalks Through municipal codes, owners of property abutting these public rights-of-way have some responsibility for the sidewalk. The main responsibility is to do no damage: do not plant trees near or drive heavy vehicles over, to avoid causing break up of concrete; do not remove, deface, or alter in any way that causes public harm or danger. If through ordinary aging or nature not caused by the property owner the sidewalk is damaged, the municipality has responsibility for maintenance as they see fit. If you simply want a more beautiful or a unique sidewalk, the expense for improved aesthetics is yours, with permission and contractual agreement and supervision of the city. You can only be charged for repair or replacement of what belongs to the entire world's public, not to you, if it can be proved you ruined it or made it hazardous. Our General Fund, along with State Streets and Highways, Transportation, and Gas Tax funds, pay for repair or replacement. Only if groups of adjacent property owners agree to form an assessment district specifically to build or repair the walks abutting their properties can a pool of people be charged for any work on a stretch of existing sidewalk.— September 23, 2013 8:40 a.m.
Proposal for newly drawn assessment district in North Park once again in the works
You got it. Just look at the locations of the "former" (irony = quote marks = Civic San Diego) redev neighborhoods. Barrio L, City Hts, parts of NP, southeastern SD, etc. Same locations that have the abusive and illegitimate assessments on property owners. In fact, the Assessment Grandmaster, the ruler of Little Italy and man behind the curtain in the creepy-named New City America, Marco Li Mandri, frequently sat in on the North Park PAC redev meetings, often bragging about the influence he had in the City Council, and advising spending MAD money on sidewalks and other illegitimate items that have nothing to do with what the people voted on in the original NP MAD Engineer's Report. The former Exec Director of the Downtown PBID refused to agree to budget PBID assessments to pay for public porta-potties, making clear that he knew was legal/not legal for PBID expenditures. He's gone and the looting is on, full bore.— September 22, 2013 5:44 p.m.
White bread for lunch bunch
Yeah, Matt, do you have to remind us of everything these salesmen do? No one else does. And what do you mean, "white bread"? TGlo claims he's Native American, Filipino, Dutch, Puerto Rican, and probably lots of other things, depending on what he's selling on a given day. I like the caps on "Small, Disadvantaged." TGlo making sure we *get* how dear TGlo is.— September 20, 2013 7:27 a.m.
Proposal for newly drawn assessment district in North Park once again in the works
Founder, The GH owners had to sue to stop the legal violations. It's the only way to stop the City from getting away with law-breaking. I thought that the outcome of the GH MAD decision would stop the City from violating the assessment laws. I was wrong. Even Park & Rec, which manages your MAD, caved in to the greedy demands by NP Main Street BID members to use the MAD funds illegally. The NP MAD isn't my concern, but if you ever think that our city government learns lessons about violating laws, think again. I was following and reading about the NP MAD via their published minutes from June 2011 thru March 2012. Andy Fields and Beethoven Burks from Park & Rec, and Anthony Bernal, all sat in and encouraged/approved the idea, in meeting after meeting, that the NP Main Street BID proposed for using your MAD funds to pay for six $1200 decorative (and unnecessary) trashcans. And other illegitimate stuff. One existing City concrete trashcan even had to be moved, to accommodate the MAD-installed decorator version. I took photos of the whole undertaking. Andy Field told them not to worry, that the GH MAD decision wouldn't affect the NP MAD or any other MADs. And it won't, until someone sues their ass. I have to admit, I was amazed at the brazen disregard for State law. NP Main Street publicly bragged about usurping the NP MAD, and this was when they were sure they were going to get the overlay MAD and control all of that money. Bottom line, about assessment law: they are called "maintenance" assessments, because that's all they can do, and ONLY to capital projects or other specific undertakings that the MAD voters specifically voted on. That is, if entire stretches of sidewalk need replacing, and property owners adjacent to and bordering that stretch want to pay for it to specially benefit their property, then there must be a cost analysis, published in an Engineer's Report, and a specific ballot for, e.g., a "Sidewalk Replacement MAD," and when the assessments (ONLY on the people who own property along the sidewalk) repay the loan or bond or whatever was used to finance the project, that MAD is over, except for recalculated assessments that may be voted on for maintenance of that sidewalk. I see currently that there is something being discussed called NP Main Street Sidewalk Project, concerning more than $200,000 of new red sidewalk on University. I can't tell if the plan is to have all of the NP MAD payers pick up the tab for NP Main Street's project. You'd probably know. It makes me sick, and I'm glad not to be involved. We live in a corrupt city, through and through, and I'm ashamed of Park & Rec for getting involved. Sue them if you want it to stop. Landsberg's latest attempt is going nowhere, because of the SDOG lawsuit, even though TGlo pretends he is trying to help. But as soon as that suit is settled, won, or lost, it'll be back to business of the City breaking the law any way the business groups want.— September 19, 2013 4:23 p.m.
Park(ing) Day: parklet preview in University Heights
I always wanted to sit in a low-wall cage on the street. Exhaust fumes really do enhance food and drink, and the cage wall is completely protective from impact by cars and buses going at normal speed. Cool, man! And such a great photo-op for TGlo! After all the years that I hung further back on the sidewalk, away from the bus benches that I had seen hit by curb-jumping runaway cars, and stayed away from the sidewalk adjacent to busy street traffic to avoid being a pedestrian victim of a collision ...now I can get right out into the asphalt, sit right down, and feel safe. Who carries the liability insurance for this? Think how many trash cans Cafe Calabria could have bought for Angela Landsberg for $40,000.— September 19, 2013 7:57 a.m.
Proposal for newly drawn assessment district in North Park once again in the works
Dear Angela Landsberg, If you know a NP business area property owner who wants a trash can in front of their property, or wants a repaired or replaced sidewalk, just tell them to buy it, do it, and take care of it as part of their overhead. Why should anyone else cover their costs? Residential owners do this on their own. It doesn't cost much for any property owner or business owner to take care of their own property or storefront. And I am not going to do it for them. I take care of my trash and sidewalk, businesses can take care of theirs. Oh, and FYI: it is not legal (see the State laws, please) to use PBID or MAD assessments to replace and repair sidewalks. Of course, you didn't know that, did you? and TGlo's office didn't remind you of that, did they? Propaganda is cheap, Angela. But it doesn't fly in the courthouse.— September 18, 2013 6:31 p.m.
GOP and Koch-backed think tank operative gives Nathan Fletcher funding assist
Speaking of Frye et al., is Steve Hadley really back at work in a City job, for TGlo? Or is this just some freaky mistake? http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-hadley/32/751/8… I had hoped Hadley would speak up for Filner with the kind of respect for due process that he expressed in his Seventh Day Adventist church resignation: http://www.atoday.org/article/766/news/2011/pasto…— September 16, 2013 8:14 a.m.
Hotel owners behind police clashes with union give big to newly minted Democrat Fletcher
Are all the Patels in the world part of the Asian-American Hotel Owners Association? I've never seen an organization with so many board and staff members with the same last name! http://www.aahoa.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Abou… I remember first coming across the Patel name when looking at ownership of one of the oddest "yes" votes on the TMD, The Ebony Inn Motel. It's that ratty hole-in-the-wall place at 740 N 32nd.— September 14, 2013 9:31 a.m.
City Attorney's Office responds to sexual harassment lawsuit on Filner's behalf
Millet-legacy feminism: Ellen Pao's sexual harassment suit against her senior partner for giving her Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing. Pao recently joined Reddit, especially to discuss pareidolia. How perfect is that? Lawsuit unsettled to date. Mailer was never, to my knowledge, sued for harassment. His contentious experiences with women in court involved money, marriage, and divorce.— September 12, 2013 8:07 a.m.