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City's pension liability zooms up by $937 million
But, but, but, Jerry Sanders told us that the pension problem was solved (by him presumably.) Does this mean he didn't tell the truth? Oh, say it isn't so, Jerry.— December 21, 2016 4:41 p.m.
Even drought-tolerant trees die in San Diego
Of those inadequate numbers of trees in SD, too many are eucalyptus. If you want shade, the "euc" isn't your tree. They are tall, and tend to have branches shear off unexpectedly. Arborists in the area generally don't like the imports from Australia. Their advantage is that they will grow almost anywhere they are planted, and once established, usually don't need any special watering. The natives, oaks and sycamores, are native only to canyon bottoms, close to stream beds. They can be grown elsewhere, but the oaks especially need irrigation to survive. If we go back a couple centuries, we would find no heavily forested areas outside the mountains. The area had for its forests the chaparral, aka sage scrub, the varied considerably from coast to foothills and up to higher elevations. Unlike so much of the US, the area just didn't have anything like vast boreal forests, or rain forests either. This is a complicated subject, and if the developers keep planting fast-growing eucalyptus and pines in all the new developments, and planting them in fill, the trees will disappoint. Such trees end up too large in about thirty years, are prone to tearing loose and falling down in wind storms, and have to be removed. When removed the process starts all over again. Of course, SD could do much better. Its neighborhood parks often have few trees; you can see that more were planned and planted, and later removed and not replaced. Oh, Kev-boy, those missing trees are also part of the "infrastructure" that you promised to restore and repair.— December 21, 2016 3:58 p.m.
If Chargers move to L.A., they'll have two losing teams
Since these team mascot names are so critical, how about Deano just coming out and calling his team "The Studs?" "The 'LA Studs' today won a huge victory over the hapless 'Weenie Raiders'". Wouldn't that put the Spanos team in a new role and position?— December 19, 2016 8:34 p.m.
If Chargers move to L.A., they'll have two losing teams
Don, I have to disagree with you on your assertion that the Chargers are thoroughly disliked in San Diego. There's still a big fan base in the population, folks who expect the city and county to "do whatever it takes" to satisfy the Spanos gang and keep the team in town. I am inclined to agree that many voters who once were neutral or indifferent to the team now have had enough of the posturing by Deano, and do dislike the team. But it seems obvious that the Mare and a goodly number of city council men/women still regard anything that might urge the team to leave as the third rail of local politics. Very few voters will get really happy if the team leaves, and the fan base will be outraged. So, for them, and if they are reading the electorate correctly, they have little to gain and much to lose if the Chargers decamp. A recall campaign would have little chance of succeeding. Too many of the voters in the city are brain dead, and would not see that outrageous giveaway as anything to get upset about. After all, the stadium has been sitting there for all or most of their lives, and a new facility would be nice. After being lied to about the cost to them, which would be alleged to be nothing, there would be little outrage.— December 18, 2016 9:05 a.m.
City sued over storm-drain failure
Just one more part of the city's infrastructure that Kev-boy promised to start fixing. But he hasn't done any fixing, other than talking about it. Talk is very cheap, while doing the work is costly, especially if the city workforce does the repairs. San Diego may well be the next third-world city in the region.— December 17, 2016 10:24 a.m.
Is Chinese hotel a good fit for Trump's Pentagon West?
This is an excellent piece of reporting by Matt. The whole thing would likely have passed with no notice by the "usual suspects" in the local media or even national media. It was refreshing to see China referred to as "Red China" in the headline. That term or "Chinese Communist" (sometimes shortened to "Chicom") have been banished in recent times, probably due to misguided political correctness. Make no mistake that the current government of China is the same one responsible for turning the Korean War into a stalemate at the cost of thousands of American lives, the Cultural Revolution, and recent persecution of Falun Gong. That regime is not friendly to the US, despite all the trade that goes on between the two nations.— December 17, 2016 9:22 a.m.
State bar exam tough for local law school grads
While it may be true that legal fees, i.e. hourly rates, are staying high, one thing that is declining is law school applications. It is becoming known that a J.D. is no longer a ticket to riches, and that many law school grads don't end up with high-paying jobs, or fat law practices. The smart money that for years knew that a law degree was a good investment now knows just the opposite. With a reduced supply of new law school grads, the opportunities will get better in time.— December 17, 2016 9:13 a.m.
The Goring of Detroit
Can you or Sports Fan explain what supports those affluent suburbs when the auto industry, the reason for Detroit and vicinity becoming an industrial powerhouse in the early 20th century, is only a shadow of its former self? I mean, there has to be something there to make those suburbs rich and ritzy.— December 16, 2016 8:07 a.m.
State bar exam tough for local law school grads
While those admission tests can be properly criticized for being biased in favor of certain social classes and those with intense prep-school work, they do function as a weeding device. Stanford with its long history and high standing can fill its law school classes with those who, based on test scores, will succeed in school and in the profession. There's a pecking order in this state, and any student who cannot secure admission to one of the "better" schools will want to try for whatever school will accept him or her. And so it is that Jefferson along with Golden Gate, La Verne and Whittier end up with the lowest scoring students on the LSAT. To a large extent, those schools just had students who were less prepared, were more distracted, and just plain harder to educate. And as a result they didn't get enough out of the school to pass the bar exam. Success breeds success, and failure gets more failure. The veiled comments about the pass rate have me wondering. In recent years the California bar exam, once considered a real killer, was seemingly becoming easier to pass. The success rate for first-time takers was increasing steadily. Was that "shocking?" It may have been, but nobody seemed dismayed by that. Now the trend is going down, based on a single year's results, and they are shocked to see that outside the top ranked schools, fewer passed. Maybe that's just a reflection of someone deciding that the pass rate was too high, reflecting the exam having been dumbed down. If the standards have been tightened, that may be good for the profession and for the public. It isn't as if there's a shortage of lawyers at all.— December 15, 2016 8:40 p.m.
The Goring of Detroit
Detroit, if we are to believe just a small part of what we read and hear, is the largest disaster area of any major US city. Oh, others have had their hollowing-out problems and major losses of population, such as St Louis, but Detroit has become an urban basket case. Its finances couldn't be worse, and the social ills are just out of control. Yet Detroit continues to tax fund sports venues. Huge swaths of its neighborhoods that were occupied and bustling not all that long ago are now urban ghost towns. Detroit can't deal with those messes, but it finds $ millions to build sports complexes. There is no rational explanation for these things. But that doesn't mean that SD has to get in the race for idiocy.— December 14, 2016 5:18 p.m.