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“Look, business is business”

Readers chime in on their homeless neighbors and how a pit bull attacked (again)

The Rite Aid parking lot (Robinson and Fifth) is the proposed location for a multistoried parking garage.
The Rite Aid parking lot (Robinson and Fifth) is the proposed location for a multistoried parking garage.

Kick Your Homeless Neighbor?

Re: “Hillcrest parking structure 10 years overdue,” Neighborhood News.

Thank you to Julie Stalmer for getting this info to us. As a former candidate for District 3 SD City Council nearly 20 years ago, we see business and bully organizations using our funds/fees/taxes for their own benefit.

Look, business is business — meaning you must provide for the needs of your company. If you need parking, if your local chamber organization believes need for parking, then develop with your own funds! Not with double taxation fees and funds; we already pay for streets with previous taxes. Charging for meters is double taxation. Also parking structures/parking lots should be private business, not government responsibility.

Before I ran for City Council I helped to rehab the old North Park Fox Theatre. When then Bud Fischer suggested he’d fund the project he forced the council district and city to build a parking structure. For nearly a decade it sat almost totally empty. And the street-level retail in the garage is finally, after the North Park mega popularity, almost full. It cost I believe $10 million in bonds, which means add another 20% financial costs for implementation.

North Park had very few in no parking meters at the time...no real need. And when more and more people are opting not to have personal vehicles, the powers-that-be are looking to grow parking structures rather than just have people walk a bit for parking. Or ride-sharing — really sharing, not paying, as in “Hey neighbor, can I help you? And/or transit expansion that runs all night and weekend. This is the 21st Century, right?

No meter funding should be used for high per square foot structures such as parking garages. With the terrible homeless predicament, we need to get basic needs first: affordable housing (lower per square foot costs without regulation giveaways). These behind-the-scenes special interest deals and quid pro quo projects need to end. We need all humans housed. Heck, pets are, having shelters and no euthanizing. Yet we are okay with hundreds to thousands sickened from not having basic sanitation and dozens of deaths for just trying to survive.

So remember: kick your homeless neighbor as hard as you can, make sure to try to kill them, also take anything of value and sales taxes from them, if not just directly steal from them: cash, dignity, few assets, decency, home, survival, cleanliness, and hope. We are Americas Finest City!

  • Daniel Beeman
  • Clairemont

Prone to Biting

Re: “County pound hit for dangerous dogs and faulty euthanasia,” News Ticker.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Dear Editor:

Adopting out dogs with known histories of aggression — as San Diego County’s Department of Animal Services is accused of doing — is just one of the ways that shelters fail animals and the community when they bow to pressure to increase their “save rates” at any cost.

Last year a pit bull who was adopted from the San Diego Humane Society reportedly attacked and killed his guardians’ three-day-old infant son after being triggered when the baby’s mother coughed. We can expect tragedies like this to increase as shelters are pressured to boost their adoption rates by abandoning common-sense policies such as conducting thorough temperament testing and never releasing aggressive dogs to the public or other groups.

Animals suffer, too, when shelters succumb to this misguided mindset. Dogs with aggressive tendencies are often repeatedly returned, isolated, and shuffled around, a traumatic and confusing experience that can make them even more prone to biting. It also harms adoption efforts by making the public leery of adopting any dogs from shelters, the vast majority of whom are gentle and friendly.

The humane and responsible way to reduce animal homelessness and the need for euthanasia is by stopping the problem at its source through spaying and neutering. That is where shelters should place their focus.

  • Sincerely,
  • Teresa Chagrin
  • [No neighborhood]

Why “Can’t”?

Re: “City grabs Park and Rec funds,” Neighborhood News.

I keep hearing and seeing this word “can’t.” We can’t do anything about the recommendation of the City Attorney regarding Recreation Council funds because…. In some cases, it’s just that it is the right thing to do. In others it’s because “that’s the law.” Personally, I don’t understand “can’t.”

First, there is one fact that stands out above all others: the current system of handling funds for recreation in San Diego is working perfectly and at very little cost to the taxpayers.

The second fact that is very important for everyone to consider is that the changes recommended by the City Attorney will not improve recreational resources or the ability to use them for anyone. In fact, there is an excellent argument that the effect will be exactly the opposite.

Third, the changes will be, according to the estimates I have seen, very expensive for taxpayers. For the City to take over the management and accounting responsibilities currently borne by recreation councils has been estimated to cost many millions of dollars per year.

So, why “can’t?” It just seems to me that when the application of a law or charter provision will have a deleterious result. Rather than proceeding with its implementation, it would be most wise to simply change the provisions to maintain the status quo. Why is this not blatantly obvious to everyone — why can’t we fix this problem in the most obvious and inexpensive way possible? Change the law!

Implementing the City Attorney’s recommendation is akin to cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face. Aren’t we, as a city, smarter than this?

  • Ted Brengel
  • Mira Mesa

Jen Campbell Is a Nice Lady

Re: “Jen Campbell joining District 2 race for San Diego City Council,” News Ticker.

The voters in District 2 are deserving of the truth in how this nice lady suddenly appeared from nowhere in declaring her candidacy for San Diego City Council. I am also a candidate for the same seat except began my campaign over one year earlier.

It seems that the local elites in the local Democratic Party just plain don’t like me despite my qualifications, vision, and over 50 years as a local resident. Folks, local Dems slipped me another mickey! Sad!

Now here is the kicker, and this will make you think how all politics ought to be fought locally without prejudice. I am a straight man, politically incorrect to many in my own party of 50 years. Jen Campbell is a nice lesbian lady, and quite frankly I don’t care except this untold fact limits my prospects as a candidate.

Finally, Madame Campbell’s cousin is a very famous man named David Axelrod who will be in town next month on her behalf to raise serious campaign funds. Isn’t life in politics just beautiful?

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Events March 29-March 30, 2024
The Rite Aid parking lot (Robinson and Fifth) is the proposed location for a multistoried parking garage.
The Rite Aid parking lot (Robinson and Fifth) is the proposed location for a multistoried parking garage.

Kick Your Homeless Neighbor?

Re: “Hillcrest parking structure 10 years overdue,” Neighborhood News.

Thank you to Julie Stalmer for getting this info to us. As a former candidate for District 3 SD City Council nearly 20 years ago, we see business and bully organizations using our funds/fees/taxes for their own benefit.

Look, business is business — meaning you must provide for the needs of your company. If you need parking, if your local chamber organization believes need for parking, then develop with your own funds! Not with double taxation fees and funds; we already pay for streets with previous taxes. Charging for meters is double taxation. Also parking structures/parking lots should be private business, not government responsibility.

Before I ran for City Council I helped to rehab the old North Park Fox Theatre. When then Bud Fischer suggested he’d fund the project he forced the council district and city to build a parking structure. For nearly a decade it sat almost totally empty. And the street-level retail in the garage is finally, after the North Park mega popularity, almost full. It cost I believe $10 million in bonds, which means add another 20% financial costs for implementation.

North Park had very few in no parking meters at the time...no real need. And when more and more people are opting not to have personal vehicles, the powers-that-be are looking to grow parking structures rather than just have people walk a bit for parking. Or ride-sharing — really sharing, not paying, as in “Hey neighbor, can I help you? And/or transit expansion that runs all night and weekend. This is the 21st Century, right?

No meter funding should be used for high per square foot structures such as parking garages. With the terrible homeless predicament, we need to get basic needs first: affordable housing (lower per square foot costs without regulation giveaways). These behind-the-scenes special interest deals and quid pro quo projects need to end. We need all humans housed. Heck, pets are, having shelters and no euthanizing. Yet we are okay with hundreds to thousands sickened from not having basic sanitation and dozens of deaths for just trying to survive.

So remember: kick your homeless neighbor as hard as you can, make sure to try to kill them, also take anything of value and sales taxes from them, if not just directly steal from them: cash, dignity, few assets, decency, home, survival, cleanliness, and hope. We are Americas Finest City!

  • Daniel Beeman
  • Clairemont

Prone to Biting

Re: “County pound hit for dangerous dogs and faulty euthanasia,” News Ticker.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Dear Editor:

Adopting out dogs with known histories of aggression — as San Diego County’s Department of Animal Services is accused of doing — is just one of the ways that shelters fail animals and the community when they bow to pressure to increase their “save rates” at any cost.

Last year a pit bull who was adopted from the San Diego Humane Society reportedly attacked and killed his guardians’ three-day-old infant son after being triggered when the baby’s mother coughed. We can expect tragedies like this to increase as shelters are pressured to boost their adoption rates by abandoning common-sense policies such as conducting thorough temperament testing and never releasing aggressive dogs to the public or other groups.

Animals suffer, too, when shelters succumb to this misguided mindset. Dogs with aggressive tendencies are often repeatedly returned, isolated, and shuffled around, a traumatic and confusing experience that can make them even more prone to biting. It also harms adoption efforts by making the public leery of adopting any dogs from shelters, the vast majority of whom are gentle and friendly.

The humane and responsible way to reduce animal homelessness and the need for euthanasia is by stopping the problem at its source through spaying and neutering. That is where shelters should place their focus.

  • Sincerely,
  • Teresa Chagrin
  • [No neighborhood]

Why “Can’t”?

Re: “City grabs Park and Rec funds,” Neighborhood News.

I keep hearing and seeing this word “can’t.” We can’t do anything about the recommendation of the City Attorney regarding Recreation Council funds because…. In some cases, it’s just that it is the right thing to do. In others it’s because “that’s the law.” Personally, I don’t understand “can’t.”

First, there is one fact that stands out above all others: the current system of handling funds for recreation in San Diego is working perfectly and at very little cost to the taxpayers.

The second fact that is very important for everyone to consider is that the changes recommended by the City Attorney will not improve recreational resources or the ability to use them for anyone. In fact, there is an excellent argument that the effect will be exactly the opposite.

Third, the changes will be, according to the estimates I have seen, very expensive for taxpayers. For the City to take over the management and accounting responsibilities currently borne by recreation councils has been estimated to cost many millions of dollars per year.

So, why “can’t?” It just seems to me that when the application of a law or charter provision will have a deleterious result. Rather than proceeding with its implementation, it would be most wise to simply change the provisions to maintain the status quo. Why is this not blatantly obvious to everyone — why can’t we fix this problem in the most obvious and inexpensive way possible? Change the law!

Implementing the City Attorney’s recommendation is akin to cutting one’s nose off to spite one’s face. Aren’t we, as a city, smarter than this?

  • Ted Brengel
  • Mira Mesa

Jen Campbell Is a Nice Lady

Re: “Jen Campbell joining District 2 race for San Diego City Council,” News Ticker.

The voters in District 2 are deserving of the truth in how this nice lady suddenly appeared from nowhere in declaring her candidacy for San Diego City Council. I am also a candidate for the same seat except began my campaign over one year earlier.

It seems that the local elites in the local Democratic Party just plain don’t like me despite my qualifications, vision, and over 50 years as a local resident. Folks, local Dems slipped me another mickey! Sad!

Now here is the kicker, and this will make you think how all politics ought to be fought locally without prejudice. I am a straight man, politically incorrect to many in my own party of 50 years. Jen Campbell is a nice lesbian lady, and quite frankly I don’t care except this untold fact limits my prospects as a candidate.

Finally, Madame Campbell’s cousin is a very famous man named David Axelrod who will be in town next month on her behalf to raise serious campaign funds. Isn’t life in politics just beautiful?

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