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Mission Beach land-use ordinance kicked in the teeth
City lobbyist disclosures indicate that Ms. Escobar-Eck has not only has she made campaign contributions to several council members, she has organized fund raisers for eight of the nine sitting council members in their most recent campaigns. This ins known as "The San Diego Way". Some might call it "bought and paid for" but it's perfectly legal and it's disclosed. The only problems the public has is making sense of the disclosures and their lack of timeliness as an election nears. Someone could do the citizenry by publishing, perhaps monthly, a summary of the latest disclosures. How much voter interest they would generate would depend on how they're packaged. No doubt in my mind they would negatively affect contributions. What would be even better would be to limit the length of campaigns to perhaps three months.— April 29, 2016 3:22 p.m.
Pacific Beach Foot Traffic, Retail, Up in Smoke
PB is a market that caters primarily to outsiders, mainly young singles and heavily at night. This was pointed out to me by a swing shift SDPD Sergeant years ago when I was preparing for a ride-along with him on a Thursday night in the summer. I watched in amazement as a string of cars began arriving as dusk settled in, and it continued for several hours. Parking is inadequate, so the so-called "revelers" park anywhere they can, in front of homes or sometimes in driveways, even at curbs at intersections. Large groups of young women together and young men together descend on the local bars and restaurants to have a few, maybe get lucky and "hook up". There's often live entertainment as the night continues, and most restaurants stop serving food pretty early, although the booze flows until 2 AM. Most retail businesses have long ago shuttered, and you might legitimately ask, "Why don't boutiques, appliance stores, repair shops, stationery stores and the like stay open late to capture this demographic?" The store owners will tell you they attract few of these out-of-area visitors, even in the afternoon, and those they do get often cause trouble because they're drunk. That's the bottom line. People come here primarily to drink and maybe get lucky with the opposite sex, or as one former President of the Town Council put it, to do things they can't do in their own communities. Bar and restaurant proprietors are making a killing; they control "Discover PB", are expanding their capacity and getting rich. Over serving is rampant, the police are complicit for not cracking down where they can and by stationing manpower on Garnet and Mission Blvd. to prevent or break up fights and handle accidents, in effect providing supplemental security instead of requiring bars to police themselves. When residents call for service during nighttime "bar hours", they are often told no one is available because they are busy at the bars. Bar owners attitude toward community efforts to control their activities is what you'd expect, total opposition. Just follow the money.— April 6, 2011 11:20 a.m.