Border Clarifications

The news titled “Border Patrol to the Rescue” (Neighborhood News, December 6) is almost certainly misleading. When crossing the border by car you will be inspected by a U.S. Customs Agent. Very rarely will you find a Border Patrol Agent working near the vehicle lanes. Most likely the woman seeking help was attended to by a Customs Agent. So, to clarify, Customs works the vehicle lanes, Immigration Inspectors work the pedestrian crossing, and Border Patrol works the areas where people try to enter without being inspected. Like the mountains, desert and sea. Border Patrol Agents wear green uniforms. Customs wear blue and Immigration wear white. I am writing this to inform that not every officer working the border is a Border Patrol Agent.

Blake Finlay
via email

All Wet

I read with interest your article “Bay Dreams” (November 29 cover story). Your last interviewee, Rob Quigley ... for all his big ideas, his head’s a little in the clouds. He says there’s no place you can actually stick your toe in the water, or literally touch it. Well, there are launch ramps, if you’ve ever launched a canoe or a kayak, where you can get your feet wet. Has he ever looked at Spanish [Landing]? There’s a beach there where children are cavorting in the water all the time. Same thing goes for Shelter Island. He should open his eyes.

Captain Broom
Harborside

Canal Dreams

My letter is pertaining to “Bay Dreams,” by Bill Manson (November 29).

I would like to say that I agree with Rob Quigley’s idea to “continue the city grid, 200-by-300-foot blocks and wipe out Seaport Village, which is an aberration,” and continue the grid like it used to be years ago — let the city touch the water. I agree totally with that. However, he mentions creating a bay within a bay by digging out landfill and letting the water back into the original shoreline. I agree with that, but I would continue it up to and including the airport, which is also on tidal land. It used to be Port Authority land and now it’s Airport Authority land.

Without copying another city, I think that Venice, California and the adjacent Marina del Rey would be a very good example for us to...not copy, but at least emulate in some way and make a San Diego version of it, having little canals cut into the land, kind of like where NTC has that Liberty Station housing. When you pass the airport on the right, there’s a canal that goes in and there are boats in there.

They could do dozens of canals on the airport property and tarmac, and have waterfront housing and office and retail, and increase the value of that property into the billions of dollars. Of course, that would entail moving the airport to Miramar, which I realize was voted down recently, about four or five years ago. I was on the panel for that — but it was very poorly done, kind of an online panel. And the whole promotion of the new airport was a disaster.

The airport has to be moved, canals have to be dug, and you could double the size of the waterfront — at least the San Diego portion of it — and have mixed use. No more noisy planes, and you could start going up in height. Because right now you cannot add height anywhere in the flight path. Also, the value of property in Point Loma would skyrocket, not to mention Mission Hills, to not have noisy planes landing and taking off.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. I’ve talked to all kinds of people about it, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a pretty well-done article. I also agree the football stadium should never be built downtown and the convention center should never be added onto downtown. This wall of convention/touristy kind of uses are blocking off the whole waterfront and view from the people. These so-called signature buildings have actually been a disaster for San Diego, and the quicker their expansion is stopped, the better.

Lee Juskalian
Encinitas

Foolhardy Regardless

Regarding City Lights: “Will SD power structure accept climate change?” November 29.

One of the joys of having a job as a predictor and recommender is that one seldom, if ever, needs to make a decision, nor ever be held accountable for making lousy predictions and/or recommendations. Experts are just OK at understanding and explaining what’s going on (across myriad fields), and just plain bad at predicting. Look at the just-completed presidential election. How many pundits and pollsters predicted Obama would win by 100 electoral college votes? If one believes, as I do, that predicting is terribly difficult and, thus, too often a terribly inaccurate cult, then to act on these predictions in a major way is foolhardy. It is a real dilemma! Foolhardy to act, and foolhardy not to act.

Paul Jester
via email

About Yoshimi

Jeff Smith’s review of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (“In Sickness and in Health,” November 29) is informative and checks all the boxes — provenance of the creators, cursory plot summary, accolades to technical wizardry, and the accomplishments and merits of the various actors — before it degenerates into snarky speculation. Clearly he doesn’t see the mosaic for the tiles.

Yoshimi isn’t about anime, or music, or robots, or flash, or the lyrics of a song. It’s a figurative story about the heroic efforts of a young Yoshimi afflicted with lymphoma who struggles mightily to survive. It’s about her journey from onset, the confusion of diagnosis, through treatment to remission and then recurrence, and how she goes down fighting. It’s about the people in her life and how they stand by her or not. It is a story, happy and sad, that many of us have either experienced firsthand or through someone we know.

Maybe Mr. Smith was busy making notes or maybe he is just emotionally obtuse, but most of the people next to me in the theater were moved to tears at the conclusion. The people I knew who saw the show spent the next day walking around lost in reflection of the loved ones they lost to cancer. This is theater that will affect your life.

Director Des McAnuff has produced plays at the La Jolla Playhouse since 1983 and is one of America’s finest dramatists, in collaboration with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is likely his finest moment. Don’t miss this chance to experience his empathetic vision of life and loss. You won’t regret it.

Tim Barger
via email

Entertain Me

I almost passed on the Hitchcock movie after reading the Scott Marks' review. What a mistake that would have been. It was a way- above-average movie, as are almost all of those starring Anthony Hopkins. It gave a nice history of Hollywood movie-making, ’50s lore, and Alfred Hitchcock as a human being.

We all know his movies, but to see him deal with everyday life, jealousy, and his own foibles, far outweighs any criticism of the star as “encased in a Martin Lawrence fat suit, outfitted with a bad latex nose, and suffering from an oscillating dialect.“ And who among us knows or cares that the movie was “shot in ’Scope, a ratio Hitch despised and never used“? What I want from a movie is entertainment and emotion, and what I want from a reviewer is how likely I am to get that from it. Scott Marks didn’t deliver, but Hitchcock did.

Joe Abbinanti
via email

Just a Hint

In response to “Hispanic Vote Calls Shots in San Diego” by Don Bauder (City Lights, November 21).

The GOP signed their presidential loss, etc. when they sanctioned Alabama and Arizona. There was no way Obama would have won because, up to that point, Republicans had the money and the number of votes, I believe. Even the smallest hint of racism or sexism can have very negative consequences.

Cesar Lopez
Chula Vista

Overzealous Volunteers

We are homeowners in Talmadge since 1968. We would like to respond to your article on the Talmadge Neighborhood Patrol (“Neighborhood Watch”).

Overzealous volunteers continue to patrol our neighborhood under the guise of protection. There have been several incidents where they have crossed the line between safety and intrusion into privacy. We agree with Mr. Simpson and apologize to him for the mistreatment he received from the Talmadge Patrol.

Nancy and Allan Rabin
Talmadge

Unfortunate Ensembles

I was disheartened reading your Style Stalker section (November 21). I am an employee of UCSDMC Hillcrest, and I happened to notice a photo of a young woman with the caption “1 in 3 suffer from pattern blindness”. This young woman, Atale Amare, is actually an employee whom I know, and I feel that she should not have been chosen for this content. She was actually in her work uniform. Anyone who spends time in Hillcrest will notice lots of people wearing this unfortunate ensemble. She is a very pleasant person who works hard every day and I feel it was unfair to include her.

I understand the concept of this, but hardworking people in their uniforms (no matter how god-awful) should not be made fun of. Besides, how many of us have had to wear silly uniforms? I feel Atale deserves an apology and so do numerous other UCSD employees. If not an apology, at least an attempt to not include people like Atale should be made.

Elizabeth Chaney
via email

The More Things Change...

By virtue of a head of grey hair and a grumpy outlook, I, a nonagenarian, retain the privilege to impart my wisdom to the callow youth who subscribe to the Reader. I find a few things in it to arouse me from my lethargy. In the November 21 issue a sentence caused the buzzing in my head to change frequency. It was something about the GOP not winning Hispanics because, in their countries of origin, they are accustomed to big government (City Lights: “Hispanic Vote Calls Shots in San Diego”). It seems to me they used their cabezas to get over, under, or around the fence to leave those countries and come here. Seems they forgot that part of the reason why they left those countries was because of the big, tyrannical governments, and that they wanted to be in America, a place with more freedom to live their lives. So, now they want to change this country to be like what they fled?

My folks escaped — literally — from the old country. They came here, worked hard, made a good living, and gave thanks every day for this citadel of freedom. They had their hopes fulfilled and didn’t want to change things here to be like the place that they left. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out.

Old White Guy
San Marcos

The Magic of TJ

Just finished reading your magnificent article, “We don’t belong to Mexico and we don’t belong to the U.S.” (November 15 cover story). Wow! I loved it! I was born in L.A. and was raised in Tijuana. This story was magic, very interesting. I liked all the beautiful references. Mostly I liked, “Tijuana should stay raw and eccentric.”

I love that people are scared of TJ, because this is our little magic paradise. I would never change it. This article brought back all the magic and beauty and mysteries of my TJ. Thank you so much.

Chad Deal, great article! I’m going to check you out. It was too short! This article is so cool, it should have been longer. Great job.

Edna Lopez
Spring Valley

Do Something for Yourself

Thank you, Reader, for years of wonderful service. “Life’s Not Easy” (November 8) was a wonderful cover story and I hope young people read it, and how the gentleman turned his life around.

That’s what it’s going to take, people being responsible for their own actions. I feel bad for anyone who has gotten into trouble and now finds themself on the streets. But you have to do something for yourself rather than continue in the same way. It’s pure insanity. I certainly pray for those people. It’s unfortunate that some of them are out of their minds. Life isn’t easy, but we have to make choices and have determination to make change.

I thank God for you, Reader, that you put that out there. We’re not all bad. It takes recovery, and recovering one’s life, every day.

Merry
Gaslamp