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San Diego’s poor pay 95% of family income for rent
OK. You are right, I cannot fathom it. But you don't explain how you make it work.— September 8, 2018 12:08 p.m.
Cate's craft beer, cocktailing, and private jets
This whole web of gifts and behested funding stinks. What has Cate done for his constituents while in office? Oh, yes, he did manage to get one hundred Christmas trees donated. That's out of probably ten thousand eligible households. My take is that he wants higher political office and is busy making friends who can/will help him realize his ambitions. The residents of that council district should bring that to a halt in the upcoming election.— September 8, 2018 11:51 a.m.
San Diego’s poor pay 95% of family income for rent
This claim, even if it seems to be borne out by income measures, doesn't apply to real people. There's no way that a poor person could pay 95% of his or her income for rent and still survive. That is, unless he or she steals or begs enough to eat, and can get some clothes somehow or somewhere. And if there is another source used to survive, it has a value and is actually part of the family income. Yes, housing rents are far too high here, and everyone seems to pay a higher-than-normal percentage of income for housing. But that has been true for a very long time, and we have seen no downward adjustment in those percentages. They just seem to go up as the years go by. Is there an upper limit? Well, there has to be, although I have no idea of what that might be. But it's not 95%.— September 8, 2018 11:45 a.m.
DMV building doesn't fit the neighborhood
Maybe not. But they have used visual systems indoors to control people coming up to the windows or stations for attention. I'd think they could offer texting, phone, or visual signals and ditch the PA system. Those are nasty, intrusive, and just generally outmoded.— September 7, 2018 2:05 p.m.
U-T paperboy blues
Most of the employers that run their operations with "independent contractors" are MISusing the concept. The many criteria for qualifying as an independent contractor require true independence, self-supervision, and a degree of flexibility in when/where/how the work is accomplished. This system allows little or any of those things. But the incentive to misuse is great. No requirement to pay workers comp or to pay into the unemployment system means a significant cost saving. And, of course, if they aren't employees, they get no fringe benefits or vacation/holiday pay. It's a real racket.— September 3, 2018 7:18 a.m.
U-T paperboy blues
I had long suspected that newspaper delivery was a sweatshop sort of operation, and you have laid it all out. When subscriptions were popular, a route was short and compact, but now that the circulation is 'way down, they have to require miles of driving that takes time, gasoline, and wear and tear on the vehicle. But don't look back too nostalgically to the time when kids had the paper routes. The turnover was high, and too many of the kids just were not careful or really up to the daily demands of the route. For a long time, the weak link in home-delivered papers has been actually getting them delivered. And the U-T did not take pains to make sure it was done consistently or well.— September 1, 2018 7:59 a.m.
Chargers hater back
Could that contempt for Deano and sons result in the sale of the team? It seems to me that having a landlord--who is also a competitor--who doesn't like you would be a sure formula for failure. Another owner might do far better in sharing the new stadium. Then there's the claim that the move to LA doubled the value of the team, although I can't follow that reasoning. IMHO, Deano should have stayed put, enjoying his stupidly sweet deal for the existing stadium. He could have kept playing on that unreasoning "Charger Mania" and kept raking in the lucre.— September 1, 2018 7:52 a.m.
Chargers hater back
Where was this guy when he was needed in San Diego? The Chargers paid no rent at all for years. So does this mean they're getting a freebie stadium in LA now? That's what it suggests to me. Maybe they'll prefer to stay at StubHub and freeload, rather than pay, pay, pay for the use of the new for-profit palacio being built for/by the Rams.— August 31, 2018 5:09 p.m.
swell: anonymous author ?...
The final quote says it all. Universities would like to have the public believe they are nothing but altruistic and engaged in the purest of science. Hah! They run on money, copious amounts of money, from any number of sources. Some, such as the UC campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles and here, are always crying poor-mouth even as they pull in massive gifts and bequests in the billions. Money corrupts, sometimes even in small amounts. Big money is a huge temptation to lie, cheat, and misrepresent.— August 29, 2018 5:13 p.m.
An unassuming cemetery in Mission Hills
Not to quibble too much, but West Point didn't graduate Couts, Grant, Sherman and Lee the same year. Yes, Couts and Grant were members of the class of 1843, but Lee was far older, having completed his studies there in 1829, and Sherman was of the class of 1840. Once these bits of misinformation get circulating, they can be persistent.— August 29, 2018 4:58 p.m.