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Toronto real estate giant is funder behind killing height limit
Just in time, we hope, for Reader-readers to VOTE NO on Proposition E and to spread the word. Prop E is not about affordable housing for San Diegans or shiny new sports venues. .Prop E is about politicians doing the bidding of big Canadian developers. and everybody who's in on the deal making a killing.. Why are we still surprised? Matt Potter tells us Canadian developer Brookfield is behind the Prop E campaign to gut our long-standing coastal zone height-limit, enacted 48 years ago as a people's initiative, to protect San Diego beaches from becoming walled-off enclaves, as in Santa Monica or Honolulu. But ambitious officeholders at City Hall, always looking for deep corporate pockets to finance their political next-steps, personally voted to put Prop E on the November 2020 ballot, along with an exemption from the city-wide 30-foot coastal height-limit law. Councilmember Jen Campbell led the pack, knowing her Midway/Sports Arena strip-mall snarl would become dramatically densified and much taller, if it were exempt from the coastal height-limit. But if Prop E should pass, legal precedent will have been eroded and the coastal height-limit law, which has protected beach areas from the Del Mar border to Laurel Street since 1972, will be washed away in a torrent of profit-taking and overbuilding everywhere. Fight back, San Diegans. Protect our height-limit in the coastal zone that protects our beaches. Vote No on Proposition E.— October 27, 2020 2:05 p.m.
Jeff Light's dead predecessor and the Kennedy-Nixon debates
I remember that first "debate" in 1960 with its televised novelty and calculus about "winners" and "losers" and new questions about makeup or going bare and, above all, the sex appeal of handsome, young, witty JFK compared to somber, studious, swarthy Republican Dick Nixon. Even 60 years ago those "debates" were never about an exchange of ideas or educating the public. They were about telegenic veneer and showmanship, selling the candidate. Our two most recent contests delivered national humiliation for this country with everyone a "loser," and not even an authoritative moderator capable of reining in crazed combatant Donald Trump or slickly elusive Mike Pence who turned every question to his own purpose at blovisting length. Let's scrap that old live "debate" format and and devise something new for this 21st century. ZOOM's awkward distances, muting capacity and tech imperfections might provide the perfect congruent solution for our present dark moment.— October 9, 2020 8:55 p.m.
State auditor knocks San Diego suicide program
Worrying that his Labor and Developer cash and insider endorsements won't do the trick to get him elected Mayor over classy smart opponent and fellow Democrat, Barbara Bry., Todd Gloria surrogates today put out a 14x9-inch propaganda placard that wouldn't even fit in the mail slot. A ridiculous stretch, one side linked mild-mannered Democrat Bry with Donald Trump and paired outrageous Trump tweets with sober Bry votes, under a banner proclaiming "Make San Diego Great Again!" The other side showed companion lawn signs, one for Bry and one for Trump/pence from 2016. It was paid for by "Neighbors for Housing Solutions Supporting Todd Gloria for San Diego Mayor," San Diego Municipal Employees, Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters and LGBT Caucus Leadership Fund.— October 7, 2020 11:07 p.m.
San Diego watersheds trashed by street sweeping negligence
Thanks for that comment, swell. The drawing is also unintelligible, though the Zambonis are cute. In addition, the report does not indicate the location of the rare street-sweeper when logging its alleged miles. Driving down the center of a street that's fully parked-up along its curbs does not harvest much debris. Does the report say anywhere that street-sweeping in San Diego is a joke?— September 24, 2020 7:21 p.m.
Audit hits lack of athletic admissions integrity at UC San Diego
A depressing set of facts found by the UC Auditor about skewed admissions. Maybe the entire house will be cleaned up by new UC President Drake. Janet Napolitano had rehabilitated her reputation before retiring, but in fact her record was weak -- too many foreign students; too many tuition hikes for the natives; a poor response to unionizing graduate student assistants; vacillation on use of standardized tests for admission; bowing out with support for a return of race-based "affirmative action." You would think after a year like this one, no one would ever again call for race-based anything. Also, I want to know if UC donor Gary Jacobs, Irwinsson, is going to get a special reserved free parking spot up on the congested campus, just like his mom and dad's. (That has to be one of the 21st century's most obnoxious perks for "giving back.")— September 22, 2020 9:23 p.m.
More sex harassment history behind Todd Gloria’s Capitol campaign cash
Campaign contributions from groin-thrusting huggers are not as bad as campaign contributions from developers who are thanking you for voting to put Proposition E on the ballot to get rid of the longstanding 30-foot coastal height limit law in the Sports Arena/Midway area. Well, that's my opinion. Vote No on E and prevent San Diego beaches from getting walled off by high-rise towers.— September 15, 2020 10:12 p.m.
Faulconer figure barred from six-figure Community Power gig
Nice going, San Diego Reader! Connecting dots invisible to ordinary mortals by a Reader FOIA demand prevents a City insider who clandestinely arranged for controversial spy streetlights from "arrranging" her own promotion to permanent head of the new Community Power agency. Thanks also to Fair Political Practices Commission for making this timely ruling.— September 11, 2020 6:04 p.m.
Border Patrol's ear-blasting faulted by audit
I haven't heard a thing for almost two years and let me tell you, it's been muy bueno. No Muller Report, no Impeachment Hearings, no Trump lies at rallies, no Democratic debates, no Conventions with Kimberley Guilfoyle rants, no COVID-19 Task Force reports, nothing but video, including that endless funeral for Congressman John Lewis. It took some getting used to, but being stone deaf has advantages.— September 1, 2020 8:32 p.m.
High rises around the Midway area's Sports Arena?
So much to be outraged about in San Diego City government. So little attention paid to routine public land-giveaways and private profiteering.instigated by a sold-out City Council and sanctioned by the silent daily newspaper. The struggling San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper loses good will when it fails to report the literal thick-as-thieves connection between newly-interested Sports Arena/Midway redeveloper Erik Judson and sports complex profiteerJohn Moores. This Sports Arena area gambit is even more terrible than the land giveaway John Moores scored for building the baseball stadium in East Village at public expense.. In this instance, an ugly hodgepodge of commercial urban sprawl amidst heavily-trafficked confusing streets is proposed to be razed and replaced with densely-populated high-rise towers --crucially accomplished by suspending San Diego's hard-won 30-foot coastal zone height-limit, passed as a citizens' initiative in 1972. Voters should recognize the camels' nose under the tent here. VOTE NO when this measure appears on your November ballot. It was brought to you by our City Council which is beholden to developers for political campaign finance money. If the longstanding 30-foot coastal zone height-limit law is suspended in the blighted Sports Arena/Midway area, it surely will open up the Marine Corps Reserve Depot and all San Diego beachfront lands to subsequent high-rise redevelopment.— August 19, 2020 6:41 p.m.
Cop defunding advocate gets $10,000 in Tony Atkins campaign cash
Didn't former state legislator now-Congressman Juan Vargas also feed at the insurance industry campaign contribution trough? Maybe that's a trait common to Democrats, or maybe just Larry Remer-connected Democrats, as Vargas has been for many years.. Tony Atkins is funneling her own insurance haul to the County Supervisor campaign of Democrat Terra Lawson-Remer whose father is longtime Dem political consultant Larry Remer. Maybe Atkins is sowing goodwill while hoping to become Gavin Newsom's pick for the U.S. Senate seat that will become vacant should the Biden/Harris presidential ticket prevail in November. That would be okay: California needs two working Senators and Tony Atkins has more serious legislative chops than bright and shiny Kamala Harris could ever muster.— August 14, 2020 6:58 p.m.