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U-T circulation plunging
The U-T is better by far than ATT, an organization that, if there were a god, would be swept away in a great flood. Since November when my DSL modem conked out, I thought I'd switch to faster much-advertised ATT U-Verse, minus all the TV stuff. Just a land line and faster internet was what I wanted. Install U-Verse? It's impossible. Call the main phone number to complain? Get caught in an automated labyrinth, wait forever and then get "Asia" or "an official representative of ATT in the Philippines" after about 25-45-65 minutes. Sometimes you are disconnected and get to start over from scratch. When there is connection, there is deafening background noise as ATT "agents" apparently work from cell phones on the teeming sidewalks of Manila. Foul-up is ATT's default mode. Cancel U-Verse and give me back my old DSL and local-only phone service? Incompetent techs come repeatedly to the house to remove their handiwork. Phones die, internet dies, sometimes there's sporadic operation, but many days and nights are spent like "Little House on the Prairie." Total system breakdown on Christmas Eve. Tech on vacation. Go-to boss never calls back. No technician to fix systems and no mechanism to stop daily robo calls promising help "tomorrow." No way to stop robo harassment, apparently, short of perfecting the installation. Well into this new year of 2016, after another long hold-with-muzak, an angel from New Orleans registers my service on the phone, walking me through on-line forms I'd never seen or heard about, taking time to help a sputtering customer. To conclude: since then I have received numerous ATT bills, each amount-due different from every other, along with threats to shut down my "service" toute suite with penalties accruing until restoration. So today I spent another hour and a half on the phone, until a Filipino agent/saint set the account to rights, forgave sums that were not mine to pay, ascertained that I was not harboring any ATT "equipment," and allowed me to pay what I owed by VISA card. I asked if now I could throw away the half-inch ATT file I'd accumulated, and the representative said, "Better keep it for the record."— January 22, 2016 9:04 p.m.
U-T circulation plunging
When the sole metropolitan daily newspaper of a major city is on the skids, there are serious negative civic repercussions, even if the Reader keeps hitting its marks and other journals sporadically publish "stories." Our GOP Mayor Faulconer, who replaced shooting-star Bob Filner, is a sunny public relations mouthpiece and is running for re-election UNOPPOSED in this big city, even with majority Democrat registration. City Council has been rendered powerless by Strong Mayor provisions and internal defections within its Democratic majority. Two of five sitting School Board representatives were elected UNOPPOSED and a third member, warmly praised by her colleagues while under investigation for wrongdoing by the District Attorney's office, also may run for re-election UNOPPOSED. The novice Superintendent of Schools overtly plans to end racial and socioeconomic integration (busing and magnet schools) and has unilaterally announced that 135,000 kids will start school in August 2016 (rather than after Labor Day) even though a majority of families polled last year (after school ended) opposed such a radical change. Not a word of dissent from any quarter. We don't all buy the U-T anymore so its resources are shrinking daily. Thus we don't hear regularly or repeatedly about what's happening in our community -- what needs attention, what needs interpretation, what's unacceptable, what needs to change and improve. We don't share a common source of reliable information anymore and we are losing touch with each other, losing interest in our present and losing control of our future.— January 21, 2016 10:25 p.m.
Marco Rubio hits up Californians
Lynn Schenk was a congresswoman? Oh that's right, a long time ago and for two years only. But she sure does keep her hand in local political fundraising.— January 21, 2016 8:29 p.m.
You bought her a new stadium
Too true. LATimes sportswriter Bill Plaschke just wrote a scathing column on how nobody in LA ever liked the Chargers, ever went down to San Diego to see a game, ever wanted them up there in Inglewood or anywhere else, even Carson. He said the Raiders have fans in LA, but the Bolts? Never.— January 20, 2016 5:43 p.m.
Did Irwin Jacobs just seal Kevin Faulconer's fate?
Boemac, why would you imagine I am a monk? And why would you imagine a Republican politician who once was married to a well-placed GOP operative and then divorced her, who looked at Dem political registration in our city and then turned himself into a registered Democrat while simultaneously becoming a protege of mega-millions-Dem-donor Irwin Jacobs, and who took up a very public romance with a divorced up-and-coming Democratic state assemblywoman, would get "back together" with his ex-wife? Have you never heard the expression "moving on?"— January 19, 2016 6:33 p.m.
SDSU's high cost of finding there there
Well, architecturally speaking, the idea has merit. Harvard Yard has gates that set it off from the prosaic mean streets of Cambridge, Mass. Just imagine a McGrory Gate. But SDSU might need some stucco or serpentine brick walls to complete the prettier picture.— January 19, 2016 6:08 p.m.
Delaware North to California: Drop dead
I will accept your word for it, but your version would make the state parks people perennial dolts, which I choose to believe is not possible. Diane Powers did develop Bazaar del Mundo from a dusty little motel, but she must have made a fortune over the twenty to twenty-five years she ran the place and, at a certain point, she should have capitulated to a higher rent. Doubtless we would all be happier of she had had a viable option to review her terms.— January 17, 2016 9:06 p.m.
Did Irwin Jacobs just seal Kevin Faulconer's fate?
I forget what it was now, but I was surprised that boemac's comment was accepted earlier in the day. I appreciate the Reader's pretty broad "standards" that limit "free speech." I just saw a movie trailer for a Melissa McCarthy film that was as crude and rude and violent as anything I've seen for a while -- women menacing other women verbally and then engaging in physical combat. Gross, offensive and unnecessary. Ditto for your gratuitous remark, boemac.— January 17, 2016 8:55 p.m.
Phew. No fees for SOHO
Let's not forget to thank Judge Timothy Taylor for his sensible rulings in this matter. The Jacobs parking garage plan would have destroyed the graceful Cabrillo Bridge at the western entrance to the Park, but the notion grew from a genuine problem that still exists: poor nighttime access to and egress from Balboa Park's iconic Old Globe Theater and other institutions. Patrons still have to hoof it from distant parking lots. How about frequent tram service from outback parking that stops at the Globe entryway and all other important landmarks? Former Mayor Filner's excellent idea to restore the Plaza de Panama to the people was fine, but it did not get people to places they want to be without their cars.— January 17, 2016 4:11 p.m.
Delaware North to California: Drop dead
Delaware North claims ownership of the Ahwahnee Hotel name? Incredible and appalling. There's no question DN destroyed the charming and colorful ambiance" created by Diane Powers in Bazaar del Mundo, but as I recall Ms. Powers still paid $1 a year in rent even at the end of her very successful tenure there -- and that was ridiculous too. Bungling all around in Old Town, but the Yosemite name-grab is sacrilege.— January 16, 2016 10:28 p.m.