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Letter-writer garners fan base
Vote Amberger
Go Team, Go
A great letter by Mr. Amberger in your latest edition (February 18), with which I agree 100 percent. Count me as one among the “tens of thousands of people in San Diego who don’t care one lick about the Chargers.” Boss Spanos got screwed by the NFL and now wants to screw the taxpayers of San Diego. Does anyone believe that if the Carson stadium had been approved, he wouldn’t have left? He would have been gone like a shot.
- Name withheld
- via voicemail
Vote Amberger
Hey, letter writer Ronald Amberger (“Take Back the City,” Feburary 18). Would you run for mayor? You mirror my feelings exactly about the rich, useless, pro sports teams like the Chargers and the Padres who want the public to build them a new stadium.
I have always thought if people really love football, baseball, and other team sports, the community would be far better off if they supported their local high school teams. Show up at those games and donate your time and money to them. College sports are also corrupt, with coaches earning millions of dollars.
Vote Amberger! Impeach Faulconer!
- Phyllis
- Normal Heights
On Their Own Nickel
Re: “Can Bruce Henderson Be Detained at Guantanamo until This Is All Over?”
Why Matt Potter chose to go back and dig up the sickening old news about the bad old San Diego city politicians, the meddling San Diego Union-Tribune, and the greedy, lying San Diego Chargers defies understanding. It’s old news. By now, anyone who watches TV, listens to the radio, or reads the San Diego Reader knows that Bruce Henderson was right all along about what a lopsided deal the city council signed with the Chargers “almost 20 years ago.”
But that was then, this is now. Why didn’t Mr. Potter devote more of his article to the facts of the latest round of the little people of San Diego versus the big money and downtown power interests (aka taxpayer monies given to billionaires)?
In September 2015, the Taxpayers Alliance (Headquartered in Washington, D.C.) published a report entitled “How NFL Stadium Subsidies Waste Money and Fall Short on Their Promises of Economic Development.” TPA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.
The Spanos family has already accepted money from the San Diego taxpayers under false pretenses and now they’re getting ready to do it again. Wake up, San Diego. We need our taxpayer funds for roads, infrastructure, better education for the poor, incentives for businesses to move here and train, educate, and employ the unemployed — and to create new jobs for the underemployed.
If the Spanos family wants to build a new stadium, let them do it with their own billions and their own borrowing power. If they do it well, the value of their franchise will increase geometrically as it should in a market-driven American society. And if the people of L.A. are stupid enough to want to donate their taxpayer funds to the Spanos family, let them.
But the people of San Diego should go to school about their past mistakes — a la the Bruce Henderson saga so well documented by Mr. Potter — and tell the billionaire Spanos family they can put their new stadium anywhere they like as long as it’s on their own nickel, just like most other American business men and women have been doing since 1776!
- Mike MacCarthy
- Clairemont
Hillcrest Is the Solution
Great article on Hillcrest. You did a good job in presenting both sides of the issue.
Hillcrest won an award from the American Planners Association a few years ago for being one of the top ten neighborhoods in the United States. It was praised for its balance of housing density, walkability, green space, and amenities. But for some strange reason, outsiders are constantly demanding that Hillcrest change. The reasons they give are that it is not dense enough, not sustainable, etc. This is nonsense.
What is really going on is that we have some property owners who think they are entitled to downtown prices for uptown land. And since they can’t sell their property for that amount of money, they pressure the city to rezone Hillcrest for higher densities — which means high-rise buildings — and then try to convince the gullible that this will result in more affordable housing.
News flash: High-rises are not affordable housing. They are expensive housing, and are only profitable for developers if they provide luxury units.
We who live in Hillcrest value the beauty of our community. That beauty depends on front and back yards with landscaping. All of that would disappear with dense in-fill development where buildings took up the whole lot. If that happened, Hillcrest would no longer be walkable and beautiful, and people would no longer want to live here.
It is also a fact that Hillcrest has very few “through” streets because we are surrounded by canyons. So, increasing the population of Hillcrest by almost 50% would result in traffic gridlock — which is already bad right now. Developers are not going to build high-rises without parking. So, “building up” will not mean that people get out of their cars and take public transit.
It is not Hillcrest that is the problem when it comes to “smart growth” and climate change. Hillcrest is the solution — a solution that other communities should emulate by increasing their own density to Hillcrest levels.
San Diego is full of sprawling, low-density development. Environmentalists should concentrate in those areas and leave Hillcrest alone.
Last, the city has not maintained its infrastructure for the current population of Hillcrest. Our streets are full of pot holes, and the city has not taken care of its water pipes, etc. Until it does that, not even one more unit of housing should be built. If businesses can’t make it here, let them go elsewhere. No one forces them to stay. And if outsiders can’t afford to live here, let them live where they can afford to live.
A lot of them sneer at Hillcrest and say — falsely — that it is undesirable. Fine. Then stay out. We don’t want you here.
- Andrew Towne
- Hillcrest
Nobody Cares about Tijuana
You’ve got 12 pages of ads for medical marijuana dispensaries. That’s ridiculous. You’ve got more pages of ads for dispensaries than any other paper in the county.
You guys should cut down your ads and add more editorial. Expand the food section, or the movie section, or stories, or something else — not just 12 pages of ads for dispensaries. Last I heard, there were only five approved dispensaries in the city of San Diego.
Also, why do your food writers and editors continually advertise restaurants in Tijuana that nobody cares to go to? They also stick to the South Bay and the central parts of the city — City Heights and Barrio Logan. They never cover the coast or North County at all — or any place in the east. They always stick to the ethnic restaurants and Tijuana.
Nobody cares about Tijuana! Why don’t you tell your writers that if they like Tijuana so much, to go eat there and live there all day. But I’m not going to get a passport to go get a hamburger.
- Gary
- Carlsbad
Here's something you might be interested in.
Letter-writer garners fan base
Vote Amberger
Letter-writer garners fan base
Vote Amberger
Go Team, Go
A great letter by Mr. Amberger in your latest edition (February 18), with which I agree 100 percent. Count me as one among the “tens of thousands of people in San Diego who don’t care one lick about the Chargers.” Boss Spanos got screwed by the NFL and now wants to screw the taxpayers of San Diego. Does anyone believe that if the Carson stadium had been approved, he wouldn’t have left? He would have been gone like a shot.
- Name withheld
- via voicemail
Vote Amberger
Hey, letter writer Ronald Amberger (“Take Back the City,” Feburary 18). Would you run for mayor? You mirror my feelings exactly about the rich, useless, pro sports teams like the Chargers and the Padres who want the public to build them a new stadium.
I have always thought if people really love football, baseball, and other team sports, the community would be far better off if they supported their local high school teams. Show up at those games and donate your time and money to them. College sports are also corrupt, with coaches earning millions of dollars.
Vote Amberger! Impeach Faulconer!
- Phyllis
- Normal Heights
On Their Own Nickel
Re: “Can Bruce Henderson Be Detained at Guantanamo until This Is All Over?”
Why Matt Potter chose to go back and dig up the sickening old news about the bad old San Diego city politicians, the meddling San Diego Union-Tribune, and the greedy, lying San Diego Chargers defies understanding. It’s old news. By now, anyone who watches TV, listens to the radio, or reads the San Diego Reader knows that Bruce Henderson was right all along about what a lopsided deal the city council signed with the Chargers “almost 20 years ago.”
But that was then, this is now. Why didn’t Mr. Potter devote more of his article to the facts of the latest round of the little people of San Diego versus the big money and downtown power interests (aka taxpayer monies given to billionaires)?
In September 2015, the Taxpayers Alliance (Headquartered in Washington, D.C.) published a report entitled “How NFL Stadium Subsidies Waste Money and Fall Short on Their Promises of Economic Development.” TPA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.
The Spanos family has already accepted money from the San Diego taxpayers under false pretenses and now they’re getting ready to do it again. Wake up, San Diego. We need our taxpayer funds for roads, infrastructure, better education for the poor, incentives for businesses to move here and train, educate, and employ the unemployed — and to create new jobs for the underemployed.
If the Spanos family wants to build a new stadium, let them do it with their own billions and their own borrowing power. If they do it well, the value of their franchise will increase geometrically as it should in a market-driven American society. And if the people of L.A. are stupid enough to want to donate their taxpayer funds to the Spanos family, let them.
But the people of San Diego should go to school about their past mistakes — a la the Bruce Henderson saga so well documented by Mr. Potter — and tell the billionaire Spanos family they can put their new stadium anywhere they like as long as it’s on their own nickel, just like most other American business men and women have been doing since 1776!
- Mike MacCarthy
- Clairemont
Hillcrest Is the Solution
Great article on Hillcrest. You did a good job in presenting both sides of the issue.
Hillcrest won an award from the American Planners Association a few years ago for being one of the top ten neighborhoods in the United States. It was praised for its balance of housing density, walkability, green space, and amenities. But for some strange reason, outsiders are constantly demanding that Hillcrest change. The reasons they give are that it is not dense enough, not sustainable, etc. This is nonsense.
What is really going on is that we have some property owners who think they are entitled to downtown prices for uptown land. And since they can’t sell their property for that amount of money, they pressure the city to rezone Hillcrest for higher densities — which means high-rise buildings — and then try to convince the gullible that this will result in more affordable housing.
News flash: High-rises are not affordable housing. They are expensive housing, and are only profitable for developers if they provide luxury units.
We who live in Hillcrest value the beauty of our community. That beauty depends on front and back yards with landscaping. All of that would disappear with dense in-fill development where buildings took up the whole lot. If that happened, Hillcrest would no longer be walkable and beautiful, and people would no longer want to live here.
It is also a fact that Hillcrest has very few “through” streets because we are surrounded by canyons. So, increasing the population of Hillcrest by almost 50% would result in traffic gridlock — which is already bad right now. Developers are not going to build high-rises without parking. So, “building up” will not mean that people get out of their cars and take public transit.
It is not Hillcrest that is the problem when it comes to “smart growth” and climate change. Hillcrest is the solution — a solution that other communities should emulate by increasing their own density to Hillcrest levels.
San Diego is full of sprawling, low-density development. Environmentalists should concentrate in those areas and leave Hillcrest alone.
Last, the city has not maintained its infrastructure for the current population of Hillcrest. Our streets are full of pot holes, and the city has not taken care of its water pipes, etc. Until it does that, not even one more unit of housing should be built. If businesses can’t make it here, let them go elsewhere. No one forces them to stay. And if outsiders can’t afford to live here, let them live where they can afford to live.
A lot of them sneer at Hillcrest and say — falsely — that it is undesirable. Fine. Then stay out. We don’t want you here.
- Andrew Towne
- Hillcrest
Nobody Cares about Tijuana
You’ve got 12 pages of ads for medical marijuana dispensaries. That’s ridiculous. You’ve got more pages of ads for dispensaries than any other paper in the county.
You guys should cut down your ads and add more editorial. Expand the food section, or the movie section, or stories, or something else — not just 12 pages of ads for dispensaries. Last I heard, there were only five approved dispensaries in the city of San Diego.
Also, why do your food writers and editors continually advertise restaurants in Tijuana that nobody cares to go to? They also stick to the South Bay and the central parts of the city — City Heights and Barrio Logan. They never cover the coast or North County at all — or any place in the east. They always stick to the ethnic restaurants and Tijuana.
Nobody cares about Tijuana! Why don’t you tell your writers that if they like Tijuana so much, to go eat there and live there all day. But I’m not going to get a passport to go get a hamburger.
- Gary
- Carlsbad