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Claims of a "seriously toxic" coastal commission
According to hard-hitting LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, Governor Brown's "at-will" appointees to the Coastal Commission are central among those hoping to get rid of CC executive director Charles Lester. Brown could remove these people in one phone call and gut the movement, but Brown has been silent on this planned lynching of Lester and remained aloof from the controversy. Lopez has written three columns on this matter in the last few weeks, but Brown, arrogant and wrong, has not even returned Lopez's phone calls. Dozens of conservation and environmental organizations have waded in to save Lester who is regarded as fair and honest. Let's hope they prevail.— February 3, 2016 9:49 p.m.
Gaslamp 15, we hardly knew ye
Looks like movie theaters are going the way of newspapers -- out of business. That particular movie house always was an inhospitable site and I am not surprised it has closed, but I'm sorry to hear it. Maybe now Reading will spruce up its Clairemont 14 multiplex. The Gaslamp theater was virtually inaccessible unless you happened to be partying in the area or living in the neighborhood. The interior was multi-level and creepy with long escalators, empty hallways and few staff. Not exactly a social space. You make "two blocks from Horton Plaza" sound like a hop, skip and jump, but getting into the HP parking structure is a hassle, getting out on foot heading in the right direction is problematic and finding your car later in the vegetable/fruit maze is a miracle.— February 3, 2016 12:58 p.m.
Tarnished trustee departure begets costly politics
All politicians are NOT bought and paid for, AlexClarke. Presently elections in this country are more likely to be bought and paid for, thanks to the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" ruling, but there are principled elected officials at every level -- including school board -- who follow the rules, who study the issues to become well-informed and who resolve to vote in the public interest. A democratic system depends on informed wide public engagement. A flawed system brings public ennui, few candidates and even puppet candidates who, once elected, answer to their funders and narrow self-interest. (Few elected officials are such obvious special interest tools or as crudely venal as San Diego's Marne Foster.) We'd be better off overhauling our election system to produce more candidates, more voters, more focused public attention on issues and people. We'd be better off if our election system operated more democratically with inclusive (rather than restrictive) voter rules, public financing only, Sunday elections and a drastically shortened election cycle.— February 3, 2016 12:19 p.m.
Tarnished trustee departure begets costly politics
I'm with Katie. This is the first time Richard Barrera's blatant double-duty as a school board trustee and years as head of the AFL-CIO Labor Council (to which all local teachers belong through their union SDEA) has ever been broached (and then tossed off) by this Readerwriter -- who also never took any interest in the SCPA wrongdoing of Marne Foster and her protection by Barrera or Superintendent Cindy Marten. Unfortunate. And speaking of failure of community caring about a quality school board, Barrera ran unopposed in his second election; Mike McQuarry was unopposed in his first election, and until LaShae Collins surfaced, it looked like Foster herself was going to run unopposed. That's three out of five board seats unopposed, folks. Pathetic. As for the school district "investigation" into Foster, I believe there is none, Matt Potter. It was officially disbanded the minute the District Attorney got involved, according to VOSD reporter Mario Koran -- and that was long after superb SCPA principal Mitzi Lizarraga was lost, having been hounded out of her post with the complicity of Superintendent Cindy Marten, who seems to have been afraid of Foster as well as under the thumb of Richard Barrera who was her godfather in arranging Marten's original outside-the-box superintendent appointment. Disgraceful.— February 2, 2016 11:58 p.m.
K.C. gun-for-hire has mayor’s back
Then we have unspeakable people who finance their own campaigns and dance to their own tune. We are in trouble on so many fronts here in the USofA, folks, one scarcely knows what to do. Newspapers are disappearing; Supreme Court says corporations and PACs have free speech rights; public education is in the tank; economy is on the brink of recession (again;) climate is measurably warming; old rockers and great actors are dying off. Let's hope Iowa youth show up at the caucuses and give Bernie Sanders the win we all deserve.— January 31, 2016 1:03 p.m.
San Diego Tourism Authority unveils $10 million national campaign on behalf of city
Decline and Fall -- part of the natural order. Embrace it, fellow citizens.— January 30, 2016 3:12 p.m.
Could San Diego voters kill Raiders and Moores schemes?
A ray of hope here? Basically you seem to be saying the City Charter requires a public vote on spending taxpayer money on any merga-project that benefits a private entity, unless some super-sharp lawyer finds a way around that rule. Also, that Mayor Sunny's recent calls for a public vote to publicly finance a new football stadium are not the principled ethical expression that seem: that's been the law for the last 17 years. Finally, that that City Charter requirement dating from 1998 and passed by a two-thirds vote of the people also might kill off Steve Peace's fever dream for a THIRD new stadium here, for professional soccer. I saw the US Women's Soccer Team play Ireland at Qualcomm last Saturday and was struck by how false the narrative that's being peddled about needing a new stadium -- for any professional sport. We are being lied to. Let's keep Qualcomm. Let's spend to repair our streets, curbs, sidewalks and streetlights and to assist the hordes of homeless all over town.— January 29, 2016 6:35 p.m.
Bands for Bernie
Kind of a big mess, plus Saturday night is supposed to bring a "rain event." Bernie is a lot better organized than these guys.— January 29, 2016 5:54 p.m.
Saldaña to challenge Faulconer
Lori Saldana is brave and idealistic and has a mile-wide martyr's streak, but as a candidate she will get to talk tough about Mayor Sunny. I'd forgotten that she disenrolled from the Democratic Party. Probably she got her teeth whitened on dwbat's Indy dental plan. ;-)— January 25, 2016 7:44 p.m.
Saldaña to challenge Faulconer
Lori Saldana, Cinderella step-child of the San Diego County Democratic Party, decides to run for Mayor at the eleventh hour. Just amazing. KPBS Midday Edition today had an interview with coy Democratic Party chair Francine Busby and County Labor Council firebrand Mickey Kasparian who alluded to an unnamed female candidate whose name would be announced shortly. Voila, it has come to pass! Kasparian, who probably appreciates Lori's progressive credentials, expressed regret that Dem Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and Dem State Senator Marty Block had decided to duke it out for his State Senate seat rather than have former City Councilmember Atkins run against Mayor Sunny. I didn't hear the whole interview, but I recall that Busby warmly had ushered former Republican Nathan Fletcher into the Democratic Party and she's probably sad that Irwin Jacobs' boy Nathan is nowhere to be seen in the coming mayoral contest. Kasparian stated unequivocally that Labor will not be supporting centrist Dem Congressman Scott Peters in his next re-election bid because Peters voted in favor of the NAFTA-ish TransPacificPartnership (TPP) trade deal with many Asian countries. This will of course once again open the door to the possibility of a Republican congressman from that swing congressional district that includes La Jolla. Where do I register as an Independent?— January 25, 2016 2:32 p.m.