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The "D" Word
Oh no! Not the No-Free-Parking Parking District stuff again! Donald Shoup is rising from the dead! Thought that all died a well-deserved death in 2007, when Peters, Faulconer, and even the U-T editorial board buried it...jeez! OK: here's a beginning basic primer: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080322/… City Planning/Bill Anderson/Jerry Sanders/privatization POV: Parking lots w/free parking do NOT generate the tax base that high-density multi-use development generates. Infill.Infill. Infill. No free parking. Except for limited-space infill-residents-only underground spaces. All others pay the meter on the street. Meter revenue goes to Business Associations, who continually get City Planning contracts to study the Parking Problem. BIDs rule! If Big Business/Republican Donor-Types own parking lots, then the POV becomes: Eliminate all free street parking, and put Parking Lot owners on a Parking District Board.... Who will then study the Parking Problem, year after year, and will be given revenue from street parking meters to further study the Parking Problem. Reading assignments: http://www.nopaidparking.org/about.html Page 5, Item 9, of http://www.lajollacpa.org/minutes/ljcpa020410min.… http://www.lajollabythesea.com/docs/parking/Brief…— April 28, 2010 6:37 p.m.
Letters
^ Agreed. And if it is real, repeat: whacked.— April 28, 2010 3:28 p.m.
Letters
To Dr. What-an-Insult: Wow, it is totally shocking that you would respond so cruelly to Dorian. Disregarding your strange comment, "I am unsure I have ever been paid", your personal attack on a patient is unprofessional and really, really, unbelievably off the mark. I can't imagine that Alvarado's board would agree that you should have submitted in writing these hurtful accusations. I will write the hospital board and suggest that they evaluate your behavior. You could have taken the opportunity to apologize to Dorian for any perception that you weren't meeting his needs, and you could have explained why he might have felt that way and how you really felt (well, I guess we do know the latter, now). You, the supposed un-brain-damaged professional, should have been the one to recognize that the wrong chemistry existed between you and your patient. YOU should have helped Dorian to access a physician with whom he felt comfortable. Having worked inside a hopital as a professional, I know what everyone knows: (1) being a patient almost always has its horrible moments and experiences, and (2) hospital personnel are a mix of the good, bad, and ugly. And sometimes they hate patients on sight, and patients sense it. Further, everyone knows that doctors don't have the time, nor do many have the personality, to interact with every patient successfully. It is inevitable that the wrong chemistry will pop up between doctor and patient, and part of the doctor's duty is to recognize this and to help redirect the patient. Shame on you! Sorry, Dorian. You and Aimee don't need this kind of ugliness in your lives. Just chalk it up to living in the real world...LIVING, thank goodness!— April 28, 2010 2:33 p.m.
Escondido's Moral Minority
What can anyone expect when the United States Representative of Escondido is Republican Brian Bilbray? Defending the recent Arizona law that allows local police to stop and demand proof of citizenship from anyone whom police suspect might not be a citizen, Bilbray stated (on Chris Matthews' show, Hardball) that the police wouldn't be unfairly stopping citizens, because they could tell by looking who was illegally in the country: "They will look at the kind of dress you wear, ...there is different type of attire, there is different type of -- right down to the shoes, right down to the clothes." Way to go Bilbray. You set the tone for Escondido. Where did Bilbray learn to speak English, anyway? Here is the rest of his ungrammatical statement, verbatim: "It's mostly behavior, just as the law enforcement people here in Washington, D.C. does it based on certain criminal activity. There is behavior things that professionals are trained in across the board, and this group shouldn't be exempt from those observations as much as anybody else."— April 28, 2010 12:17 p.m.
Is This Thing On?
Founder, thanks for the report. The city CPU websites should post minutes of the meeting. Posting the minutes should be a legal requirement, as is posting the agendas. There was a change of venue, by the way, following the publication of Dorian's article. Collaborative Services sent out an email on April 23 announcing that they "added a second Open Mic Presentation night. Some of the presenters originally scheduled for April 26 have graciously offered to move to the second evening." ULI was pulled from the single-day #1 position to Day 2 next-to-last position, date yet to be determined. A note: the South Park Business Group does NOT operate a BID. There is no BID in any part of Greater Golden Hill/South Park (although the Golden Hill Community Development Corporation collects a tax from ~4000 mostly residential property owners and spends all of the money, illegally, just like BIDs do). A Business Improvement District is a legal entity in which the City of San Diego allows a private group to impose and collect a private, additional tax on all businesses in a geographical region. The businesses must pay the extra tax when they pay their business license tax annually. No business can opt out; the City Planning dept enforces the extra tax and gives all of it to the private group. The South Park Business Group would love to rule over a BID, with its guaranteed tax revenue going directly to the group. As of now, the SPBG is only a loose collection of some small shop owners, bar owners, and a few owners of the newer, pricier restaurants, plus the local realtors and PR people. They meet monthly and voluntarily pool their money to promote their business interests. If they succeed in getting the City to proceed with a BID formation process along 30th, SPBG could collect money from other businesses that do not NEED promotion, such as grocers (e.g., Gala, Food Bowl, and Miller's), 7/11, liquor stores, etc. A number of the SPBG regulars are actually located in North Park, from the north side of Juniper up to Kalmia. Cyndi Meeves, of NP News, is now attending the monthly meeting. It has been noted that SPBG CPU attendees are suggesting in the CPU meetings that the "border" of South Park should be extended up 30th to Kalmia. Then their North Park business friends could be part of a voting block to enforce a BID on the largely disinterested South Park businesses that do not need promotion to attract customers. As it is, the SPBG already manages to get small (~$8500) annual "grants" from the taxpayer-funded BID Council to promote themselves. They want much more: an imposed, automatic tax, without having to do the work to apply for grants and without having to explain what they need the $$ for.— April 28, 2010 9:48 a.m.
Mayor Sanders’s committees are almost wholly made up of downtown boosters
Mr B, You wrote this article a while back, but I just came across it while looking at some other aspects of lobbying. Question: How can the City of San Diego Planning Department be a client of a registered San Diego lobbyist? In the list of 2010 registered lobbyists, www.sandiego.gov/city-clerk/pdf/lobbyistregistrat… MW Steele is said to represent the Planning Dept. The BID Council, which was created by and is run by the City, is also listed as a lobbyist. How does this all work?— April 25, 2010 9:45 a.m.
Is This Thing On?
Thank you, SDaniels.— April 24, 2010 3:45 p.m.
Is This Thing On?
Consultants: Outsourcing is not cheap. The contract between the City and Collaborative Services http://www.sandiego.gov/planning/community/profil… for the Uptown/Greater NP/GGH Community Plan Update ("public outreach and facilitation") is for $725,740, of which subcontractors Warner Architecture & Design, and Translation Solutions, get $105,875 and $71,575, respectively, for graphic design and translation services. Can I get that handout in Arabic and Tagalog, please? For a breakdown on the percentage of CPU funding spent on consultants vs City staff, see page 6 (in response to a question on page 3): http://www.sandiego.gov/fm/pdf/090430referral.pdf The Collaborative Services subcontractor, Warner Architecture & Design, redesigned downtown El Cajon in 2005: http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/200508… It didn't work out too well: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/05/el… http://www3.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/12/e… Hire someone to update your community, and they will. They will never tell you it's OK the way it is, or that it just needs tweaking.— April 24, 2010 3:06 p.m.
Is This Thing On?
http://www.ulisd.org— April 24, 2010 11:50 a.m.
Is This Thing On?
The etymology of 'charette' is from the French, for 'chariot', a vehicle that will transport something. In San Diego, use of the charette-style meeting by City Planning and Community Investment and allied groups is such that the word deserves to have an etymology related to 'charade', as in 'a symbolic action' or 'an almost transparent pretense'. CPCI/Planning Commission-sponsored charettes in San Diego's older communities are where the hopeful residents can be made to think they are participating in really, really wonderful things that will happen in their community. But what the City considers wonderful is increased tax base and development: the City's stated goal of the CPUs is Infill. Infill. Infill. Note the top of the list of speakers: the Urban Land Institute. This group (http://www.ulisd.org/)is essentially the City Planning department, all dressed up as a warm and fuzzy "nonprofit": ULI's executive director, Mary McLellan Lydon, was recently appointed to the Planning Commission by her admiring friend, Jerry Sanders. The City's Bill Anderson and Janice Weinrick sit on the ULI advisory board, along with developers. The Redevelopment Agency (i.e., City of San Diego) is a sponsor of ULI, as are most of the developers and builders in San Diego. Lydon has a long resume touting her participation in creating the downtown PBID, in the Downtown San Diego Partnership, and in consulting for many developers and nonprofit groups in the formation of MADs and BIDs (she handles the PR). Please attend the meeting and be prepared to probe beyond the warm and fuzzy stuff of the charade.— April 24, 2010 11:45 a.m.