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Reader writer fends off attacks on Encinitas cliff story
Says each letter writer takes on only part of the article
The project's two-bedroom units would rent for less than $2,000.
No-brainer
How are the city and those responsible for obtaining living sites, not seriously looking at the former FRY’S property? (“Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments”, Neighborhood News, Nov. 14, 2024) The building is probably several thousand square feet with utilities to support sanitary facilities. Seems like a no-brainer. Trees are dying which could supply shade and a sense of nature. The property is a solution waiting for a plan and funding.
Clay C Bomberger
La Mesa
Response to Letters on “Blockfall & Blame,” 12/09/24
Thomas Larson responds:
Three letters were published in the Reader on December 5, 2024 (“Reader readers sound off about Encinitas cliffs”, Letters, December 4, 2024), and each one made untrue statements about my two-part series on the deaths of three women at Grandview Beach, 2019, in Encinitas. These sorts of responses are common today: each seems not to have read the actual article; each selects some portion of it, misstates or makes up facts counter to the work itself, and suggests that the journalist (me) has failed to do what they think I should have done. According to them, my role should have been to point out how Pat Davis and family are gold-diggers motivated only by money. Read the piece and you’ll see Davis denies that accusation. For him it was and is about beach safety.
M. Featherby falsely construes SANDAG and the Del Mar cliff problem with the Grandview tragedy. I mention that ongoing mess, but it’s off point. I’m not sure what $300 million has been misspent. Erroneous statements pack the letter: there are no recent efforts to stabilize any cliffs along the coast (except trying to save the train tracks); the Coastal Commission has a hands-off approach called, “managed retreat,” which I detail in the article. There’s no evidence for “chemical and mechanical ways to consolidate the bluffs without changing their appearance.” What in the world is “dewatering”? And the insinuation that this lawsuit was brought by “drunks, Democrats, or two-year-olds” shows how idiotically uninformed MF is.
Anonymous of Encinitas accuses me of having “failed completely.” Was it that I somehow failed to tell the plaintiffs that they should have used their common sense? Had Anon read the piece, he/she would have noted that the lifeguard told them to set up where they did, that the family, despite going to the beach a “thousand times” never picnicked at Grandview under the bluff, and that decades of erosion made the cliff extremely unstable, facts that are documented over decades; only a few beachgoers knew the threat of collapse, though there is ample proof the City and the State and the Condo Association knew of it for years.
“Tough Love” also accused me of failing to note that no one can sue any aspect of the natural world, citing death by random lightning as similar to the bluff collapse. Lightning is an act of nature; bluffs are ruined by people. Of course, I covered immunity. And, yes, of course, there are frivolous lawsuits, rarely ever won; most get thrown out. But the fact that city and state paid millions for its negligence (a trial would have meant three times the award) proves the four defendants were negligent. If Tough Love can’t see the suffering this blockfall caused and thinks the Davises should just lick their wounds and admit it was their fault, I conclude neither reason nor compassion can get through to this cliché-quoting person.
I believe we should print letters from responsible readers. Free press, yes! But it’s clear to me that these letter writers did not recognize what they read, or if they did, they used their opinions to spread untruths. If such false letters are printed, then I and others have the right to counter them.
This article’s two parts, 8000 words, took more than 100 hours to research, report, write, and revise, dozens of emails and phone calls (messages left and unreturned), and hours of in-person interviews. All of it is on tape, transcribed, and filed.
Thomas Larson
Here's something you might be interested in.
Reader writer fends off attacks on Encinitas cliff story
Says each letter writer takes on only part of the article
Reader writer fends off attacks on Encinitas cliff story
Says each letter writer takes on only part of the article
The project's two-bedroom units would rent for less than $2,000.
No-brainer
How are the city and those responsible for obtaining living sites, not seriously looking at the former FRY’S property? (“Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments”, Neighborhood News, Nov. 14, 2024) The building is probably several thousand square feet with utilities to support sanitary facilities. Seems like a no-brainer. Trees are dying which could supply shade and a sense of nature. The property is a solution waiting for a plan and funding.
Clay C Bomberger
La Mesa
Response to Letters on “Blockfall & Blame,” 12/09/24
Thomas Larson responds:
Three letters were published in the Reader on December 5, 2024 (“Reader readers sound off about Encinitas cliffs”, Letters, December 4, 2024), and each one made untrue statements about my two-part series on the deaths of three women at Grandview Beach, 2019, in Encinitas. These sorts of responses are common today: each seems not to have read the actual article; each selects some portion of it, misstates or makes up facts counter to the work itself, and suggests that the journalist (me) has failed to do what they think I should have done. According to them, my role should have been to point out how Pat Davis and family are gold-diggers motivated only by money. Read the piece and you’ll see Davis denies that accusation. For him it was and is about beach safety.
M. Featherby falsely construes SANDAG and the Del Mar cliff problem with the Grandview tragedy. I mention that ongoing mess, but it’s off point. I’m not sure what $300 million has been misspent. Erroneous statements pack the letter: there are no recent efforts to stabilize any cliffs along the coast (except trying to save the train tracks); the Coastal Commission has a hands-off approach called, “managed retreat,” which I detail in the article. There’s no evidence for “chemical and mechanical ways to consolidate the bluffs without changing their appearance.” What in the world is “dewatering”? And the insinuation that this lawsuit was brought by “drunks, Democrats, or two-year-olds” shows how idiotically uninformed MF is.
Anonymous of Encinitas accuses me of having “failed completely.” Was it that I somehow failed to tell the plaintiffs that they should have used their common sense? Had Anon read the piece, he/she would have noted that the lifeguard told them to set up where they did, that the family, despite going to the beach a “thousand times” never picnicked at Grandview under the bluff, and that decades of erosion made the cliff extremely unstable, facts that are documented over decades; only a few beachgoers knew the threat of collapse, though there is ample proof the City and the State and the Condo Association knew of it for years.
“Tough Love” also accused me of failing to note that no one can sue any aspect of the natural world, citing death by random lightning as similar to the bluff collapse. Lightning is an act of nature; bluffs are ruined by people. Of course, I covered immunity. And, yes, of course, there are frivolous lawsuits, rarely ever won; most get thrown out. But the fact that city and state paid millions for its negligence (a trial would have meant three times the award) proves the four defendants were negligent. If Tough Love can’t see the suffering this blockfall caused and thinks the Davises should just lick their wounds and admit it was their fault, I conclude neither reason nor compassion can get through to this cliché-quoting person.
I believe we should print letters from responsible readers. Free press, yes! But it’s clear to me that these letter writers did not recognize what they read, or if they did, they used their opinions to spread untruths. If such false letters are printed, then I and others have the right to counter them.
This article’s two parts, 8000 words, took more than 100 hours to research, report, write, and revise, dozens of emails and phone calls (messages left and unreturned), and hours of in-person interviews. All of it is on tape, transcribed, and filed.
Thomas Larson
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