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U-T print circulation continues to plummet
These are indeed dismal circulation figures for what once was a major city daily paper in a county of more than 3 million residents. Off the top of my head, I don't know how many households that represents, but with households getting smaller all the time, I'd guess there are close to 2 million households. And on a weekday, only 145,000 of them see a copy of the paper? That's approaching the vanishing point. The good news here is that when the rag backs the stadium scam, very few folks know it, and of those who do, plenty of them will vote the opposite way. Years ago, when I was making use of newspaper circulation figures, I'd run across smaller cities where the dominant daily newspaper (or maybe two where there was a morning and an evening paper) covered as many as 80% of the households. Those were paid subscriptions, meaning that the readers wanted--and I'd guess liked--what they were getting enough to shell out real dollars for it. Last time those U-T circulation figures came out, I described the decline as catastrophic. So, what is even worse than that? I'm running out of words to use. Final comment: You describe the editorial content now determined by the LA Times as middle-of-the-road. I'd say that it is left of center, just about the way most major dailies are today. No paper is free of bias, least of all those owned by tronc.— October 17, 2016 1:33 p.m.
County supervisors to consider Julian development
You and other readers may want to study the huge fight that Neal Blue had in Telluride, Colorado. From what I can gather, he lost and lost big in the Colorado courts. The controversy sounds rather everyday, unless you've been to Telluride. The topography of the area makes all the difference. But again, he had the attitude that since he owned the land, it was his to do with as he pleased. And Telluride was a hot spot for the "in" group and skiers, so it was all the more compelling for him to pull it off. The problem was that if he did it, Telluride would cease to be the unique spot that it is, and be reduced to just another Colorado ski resort town.— October 16, 2016 5:58 p.m.
Chargers advertising — lies, lies, lies
And so the $5 million campaign of lies begins. Will they pull it off? With the sort of brain-dead voters that reside in the city (and in So County, but that's another story) this travesty may well succeed. After all, a simple Yes vote keeps the Bolts here, and it won't cost nuthin'. Well, it won't cost me nuthin'. Hey I like the Chargers, especially when I'm sober enough to know what's going on. Yeah, vote Yes and be happy!— October 15, 2016 8:27 p.m.
Local landmark(?) restaurant repurposed as mausoleum
An experience or two with his Casa di Baffi 'way back in the 70's cured me of any good feeling for the old jerk. From time to time, one or the other of the U-T columnists, including Can-of-peas, would write a column praising the restaurants or ol' George. Over the years, I've expressed my opinion of him as a restaurateur. So, let's leave it there. Haven't those two properties been vacant for over a quarter-century? Maybe that qualifies them, on the basis of consistent disuse, as a graveyard of abandoned dreams. Is a mausoleum any different? The neighbors in that thriving, though funky, 'hood want to see something--anything--built on those properties, and one can't blame them. The P family will want to get a fat price for the spot, even if it means putting George to rest in an ordinary cemetery. The family looks to really clean up on that 3% share of the Bolts, and this will just be frosting on their cake.— October 15, 2016 8:17 p.m.
What got into Wells Fargo?
In Japan, if there's a mistake made, or the company does something wrong, the president usually resigns in disgrace, after making some humiliating apologies. A little of that approach would go a long way to cleaning up some corporations in the US, but will likely never take hold. But every time one of these CEO types bites the dust after a scandal, I let out a little cheer (too faint to be heard by others), and smile. Now if we could fix it so that no bonuses are paid to these miscreants when their heads roll, we would be on the way to reform.— October 15, 2016 4:49 p.m.
No four-story wall on Cresita Drive
Is the new number a big secret? Just how many fewer units and fewer beds? Inquiring minds want to know. Whatever the agreement now calls for, this comes across as a typical developer ploy that is done over and over in the city and all through the county. And what's the ploy? Simply put, you ask for more than you expect to get (and maybe even more than you would ever want.) The neighbors howl, and then you meet with them and the city or county and negotiate a "compromise." Everybody knows that compromises are good, don't they? Oh, they don't? Hmmm. Well, after the negotiation, everyone walks away satisfied, or at least as satisfied as they think they can be with a lousy deal. But usually the developer is very content, having gotten everything he wanted or at least hoped to get.— October 15, 2016 4:16 p.m.
What's in a stadium name?
Oh, wow. Spanos and his gang are spending $5 mil, and Jake counters it with $5K. That contribution is a token, and nothing more. It's equivalent to countering $100 with a dime. Big difference that will make in the outcome, not. Actually this is an amusing story. It's watching Bad Guy A vs. Bad Guy B. Impossible to root for either one; sort of like taking sides in Chi-town in the 20's as Al Capone battled rivals for dominance in organized crime. And so, ol' Irwin brings a pea shooter to a gun fight. You can't make this stuff up.— October 15, 2016 9:32 a.m.
County supervisors to consider Julian development
Regardless of where the phrase originated, it was used to telling effect by Howard Jarvis in the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978. The Blue(s) brothers are maybe the greediest pair, and the most obnoxious too, that most of us will encounter. Everything they do, and especially where it involves development of vacant property, seems to rankle the neighbors, and end up in a fight. Does Linden really need to keep a few thousand dollars of tax abatement? Might it be possible to develop that ranch and make the Julian neighbors proud? At their ages, it's time for he and Neal to start thinking about how they will be remembered. I'd think they would prefer to have a positive memory, rather than as a pair of greedy, rapacious, land-destroying developers of mediocre facilities. But that doesn't look like what will happen.— October 15, 2016 9:25 a.m.
A bumpy road through Civita in Mission Valley
In the past two to three decades, the city allowed over-development of Mission Valley. Parts of it now seem gridlocked at any time of day. Rather than plan for the traffic loads, the city did its usual thing and allowed the building to take place, and now there are too few streets and roads to handle all the traffic that was generated. In a typical manner, now the city is trying to add some traffic-carrying capacity by adding streets, or adding to existing streets. This one will just create more gridlock where it tries to put cars onto I-805, which is itself overloaded. But it gets some of it off the valley floor. There has been no real vision of managed growth by the city or the city council in recent years (if there ever was.) This all just occurs willy-nilly, and then after it becomes a mess, the city might come along and try to fix it. I feel for these residents, who it seems bought a bill of goods about an urban village that now will be sacrificed to handle more traffic generated outside.— October 15, 2016 8:08 a.m.
Layoffs at Stone Brewing
Agreed. Actually, I didn't care for their beers, and I'm always looking for a new brew. And I wasn't impressed by the restaurant in Escondido either. My take on Stone was less of an operation with a passion for its product, and more of a promoter building an empire. The notion that it is being packaged for sale to Big Beer sounds about right. After that buyout of Ballast Point for a huge price, I think we can look "forward" to others of this genre selling out for $ billions. That's sad, because they really did reform brewing, and made beer something interesting.— October 15, 2016 7:35 a.m.