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Today the saddest day ever for Chargers fans
I think there is an answer for Horatio. All the money that ticket buyers poured into the Spanos coffers, and all the money spent at the stadium on wildly overpriced food, souvenirs, and especially suds will now be in the pockets of the former attendees. They'll have more money to spend on things that are often real necessities, such as adequate food, medical care, dental care, clothes, car repairs, and will spend much of the old Charger money that way. Oh, they'll also spend on other entertainment venues like concerts, movies, Aztec games, etc. All of those dollars flowing into other activities will mean jobs, many jobs. Moreover, without the drain of the cost of season Charger tickets, small businesses will prosper, and their owners will have money to put into charitable activities. And that means jobs again. In other words, the money that went into supporting the Chargers and their stadium appearances isn't gone--it is just being redirected. That silly piece on the front of the U-T today (Saturday) about the loss of Charger charity is phony. There will be more, not less, money in the area that can go to charitable operations.— January 14, 2017 3:37 p.m.
Report of layoffs at Green Flash
A classic example of doublespeak. Lay off a couple dozen people, and claim your payroll count will grow. The overall count, including the new east coast operation, will have to grow. We might also wonder if some of those folks who were shed had declined to move across the country to the new production facility. The craft brewers have been flying high for a long time, and with the proliferation of them and the multiplicity of offerings just locally, they were due for a correction. This may be just a slight adjustment, or some of them may be in for some really tough times. We will see.— January 14, 2017 9:30 a.m.
Spanos and SD's sweetheart Chargers Park deal
So, on top of all the other abuses and outrages by the owners of the Chargers, but especially the Spanos gang, they have been a major corrupting influence. The treatment the club received from local politicians wasn't exactly vote-buying, but it was hugely motivated by a desire to keep the fans (and others who were drinking Charger kool-aid) happy. I've called the Chargers and stadium issue the third-rail of local politics, wherein no elected official ever wanted to tell the truth to the voters, and assiduously avoided votes that seemed to go against the team. We shall see in the next couple local elections if that is still the case, or if it is really over. If the malignant influence of the Spanos gang in local politics is really gone, the saga would make a good movie. I'd suggest calling it "Deliverance, Too."— January 13, 2017 8:01 a.m.
Today the saddest day ever for Chargers fans
Yes, the commentators on radio had scarcely gotten their breaths when they were talking about a replacement team. Do they ever quit? Ans: No, not as long as there are "fortspans" who live and die by their favorite teams. But pro football has peaked, and will just go downhill from here. The issue of injuries, especially those to the brain, won't go away, and as more of the public learns about the havoc, that public will gradually and inexorably turn away from pro football. In fact, it is already happening.— January 12, 2017 6:02 p.m.
No news is bad news in North County
Never heard of the two listed in the headline either. Monthly is not often enough for many advertisers who need to jack up the consumers at least once a week. We do have these other weekly papers, one oddly named The Paper, and the other the Coast News (which now has an inland edition too.) They come often enough that advertisers can come to depend on them to appear frequently.— January 12, 2017 3:28 p.m.
Today the saddest day ever for Chargers fans
Like Ponzi, I don't think this is the end of it. As I posted earlier, this may just be brinksmanship, where Deano hopes that Ronnie, Kev-boy and the rest of the local pols who want to have everything both ways will coalesce into a bloc that will cave in. There's still a possibility of that happening. And then they'll keep the door open to returning if they can get that stadium somehow--as long as it isn't at the expense of the Spanos gang. So, while they may play elsewhere this year, we haven't heard the end of it. It may be a saga that will never end, at least in the lifetimes of anyone over the age of ten or twenty. I'm noting that the resistance to taxpayer subsidized stadia for the NFL is mostly (3 out of 4 metro areas listed above by Don) in California. Could that be because the state is now struggling to stretch its tax money, and all its cities are in the same predicament? Are the voters and politicians finally awake to the fact that a dollar spent to subsidize a ball club (owned by a billionaire) is a dollar that isn't available to repair a pothole, fix a leaky water main or sewer line, buy a book for a library, put a cop on a beat, or staff a fire station. Those are real dollars folks, not some ink marks on a ledger. They come out of the pockets of taxpayers, and need to be spent very efficiently. Sadly, in some places like the city of San Diego, they are not spent in a non-wasteful way. Does this mean that Nick Can-of-peas will retire from the U-T? What will he do if there is no local NFL team to fawn over?— January 12, 2017 3:15 p.m.
Chargers get an extra 48 hours
This smacks of just one more round of brinksmanship by Deano. He's been doing that for years, and it hasn't worked yet. But what else can he do? Offer to build his own stadium with no public subsidy? Nah, nevahappen. But maybe it's for real this time. That dark shadow may soon be gone, and local government can get back to its real role. Kev-boy might, and I stress the might part, start to work on keeping his campaign promises to repair the infrastructure. Hey Kev, how about resurfacing Poway Road through Sabre Springs?— January 12, 2017 7:46 a.m.
SDG&E again asks for 2007 fire cost reimbursement
Based on what I can learn, I don't use enough electricity to bother with solar. That part of my comment wasn't emphasized. My son, who lives in a 45-year old house in central San Diego, does have solar. On hot days he needs to run the AC, and does that with the power that his panels generate. So, he pays nearly nothing for his use of the AC and his electric clothes dryer. Does it pay for him? You might say it does, but I've yet to be told just what the installation cost him. As a former financial analyst, what I want is "show me the money." When I can learn about that, maybe I'll change my mind. BTW, we've been in this same house for just about thirty years, and have no plans to leave. Plans can change, sometimes abruptly, and if solar means staying put, well, I don't think I can plan that far ahead. BTW, in 1985 we did go "solar." That was a solar water heating system, and over the years I can't be sure that it really paid off, despite the state and federal tax credits that paid for half the cost. In the intervening years I've replaced the 80 gallon tank three times (they're not cheap), and had the absorbers in the panels renewed once, and have had to buy parts to keep the photovoltaic pump working. Did I come out ahead? I like to think so, but I can't be sure.— January 11, 2017 7:41 p.m.
SDG&E again asks for 2007 fire cost reimbursement
This is the first time that I can remember any other Reader comment maker asking what I think. (And that's after I've posted over 5500(!) such comments since 2008.) Should I be flattered? The far more frequent reaction is someone telling me that I don't know anything, and should never comment. Disclosure: I am a Sempra shareholder. I bought SDGE stock over two decades ago, after the Edison merger was rejected, but prior to the So Cal Gas merger that created Sempra. At the time I bought the stock, I was wary. Since then I've been satisfied with its growth and dividend stream. Having said all the above, I also know that ever since the Arab oil embargo of 1973/4, when our economy was severely jolted, my pocket has been picked every month by SDGE. Not once was there ever a coherent explanation of why San Diego electric rates had to be the highest (or nearly the highest) in the nation, nor why that situation persists. It wasn't as if SDGE had a super-sharp electrical distribution system. They pay their employees very generously, far better for similar positions than just about any employer locally. In so doing, SDGE buys loyalty, or what passes for it, employees who keep their mouths shut. We have a home that uses electricity for only those things for which there are no substitutes, except for our all-electric kitchen, which was not our choice. We have no central AC, and use gas for water heating, home heating, the clothes dryer, and an outdoor gas grill. So, we don't have a large electric bill. But I still resent the size of it and the rate per kilowatt hour. Worse yet, here in Vista, we seem to get service that is not much more reliable than some spot in the third world. If the wind blows we have a power outage. If it rains, we have a power outage. If there's a full moon, we have a power outage (OK, I'm exaggerating.) So, what's the problem? If we pay these sky-high rates, shouldn't the electricity provider give us first-rate, first-world reliability? Yes, it should. So, why don't we get it? Mismanagement has to be the explanation. If SDGE pulls this off in full or in part, it will send a signal to all the other utilities in the state that they can screw up, incur millions of dollars of preventable costs, and just pass them along to the rate payers. So, why bother to do things right? Why make sure your gas storage field in Porter Ranch won't leak? If they pull this off and get some relief, it will just enable more of their managers, along with the So Cal Edison managers and the PGE managers to sit back, laugh and scratch, and overpay themselves and their minions. Final point: Those costs that Sempra wants to recover should have been expensed already. If they get that almost-$400 million back, it will be a windfall to shareholders. I don't want it. Nobody associated with SDGE/Sempra deserves a cent.— January 10, 2017 6:12 p.m.
Gas-price hike protests in Tijuana
Could that country maybe, just maybe, go through a Trump-style rebellion against their establishment? This presidente is PRI, if I recall correctly, and now makes his PAN predecessor(s) look like statesmen. When, oh when, will the Mexican people decide they have had enough from these political parties and their hack candidates? Neither party has really made any progress, even though each departing presidente claims to have made a grand turnaround. And wouldn't it be nice if our south county area were not so tightly bound to TJ with all its foibles, nuttiness, homicides and mordida?— January 9, 2017 9:13 p.m.