Paragraph Slam Night
Support from an ‘old fart’
I’m a fan of the alternative press. When I worked in San Francisco, I discovered that there were three publications there, about the same volume as the San Diego Reader. I don’t know how long CityBeat’s been around, but I find it more liberating than the Reader. The Reader is more up-tight and, though not totally conservative, still rather tight. I always get it, though, because I get turned on by the crossword puzzle.
I’m writing to let you know that you [specifically Kinsee Morlan] have a supporter. It’s all I have, being an old fart on a fixed income, but I suppose it’s better to communicate good things than to be an habitual, forever lurker.
Peace and joy in your growing success as an enterprise in a “small market” city.
Paul Dion, Linda Vista
Get rid of eyesores
Regarding your April 11 editorial on the city’s proposed Property Value Protection Ordinance: This is an issue that has concerned me for years. Here’s my proposal:
There isn’t a town or city in the nation—perhaps in the world—that doesn’t have the problem. The problem is buildings that have been abandoned, fallen into disrepair and end up as eyesores. I’ve seen them everywhere, from abandoned tenements in ghetto neighborhoods of rust-belt cities to the magnificent old New York Central train station in Buffalo N.Y. to the Red Rest & Red Roost in downtown La Jolla to any old dilapidated house that attracts transients, squatters and vagrants. Some turn into drug houses. Some are surrounded by ugly chain-link fencing. Some are merely overrun with weeds and grass.
Every city and town—almost every neighborhood—has them. Some, like a former tire dealership in downtown San Diego, get cleaned up in only a year or so. Others sit neglected and decaying for years. They become an issue for police and other authorities that are forced to deal with someone else’s trash. Recently, even the Catskill Mountains of New York’s Sullivan County has become famous (infamous?) for the wreckage of Borscht Belt hotels like Grossinger’s and The Pines.
Let it be decreed and supported by law that anyone, be it an individual or— especially!—a company that erects or owns a structure must be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of that structure, even (especially) after they no longer use it. This responsibility should be transferred along with ownership so that the last owner of a property would be the responsible party.
The rallying cry for this campaign shall be “No more eyesores!”
Michael-Leonard Creditor, La Jolla
Questions for Republicans
Nice piece on the Buffett Rule [“Editorial,” April 18]. You mentioned the staggering 72 percent of Americans who favored passing the Buffet Rule, which Republican senators then killed with their continued abuse of the filibuster. In that same CNN/ORC poll, 53 percent of Republican voters also favored passing the Buffett Rule, which means the Republican senators who voted against it don’t even have a real interest in listening to the people who vote for them. Why people (Republican voters) continually vote against their own economic interests is beyond me—and probably beyond themselves.
Also, why are Republican legislators beholden to Grover Norquist and some idiotic pledge he’s made up for them to abide by in not raising taxes under any circumstances? I mean, who is he? Why should Republicans care if some dolt ideologue from the right makes up a pledge? I don’t get it. Just pile this on the huge heap of reasons why we need to continually push to get money out of political races and legislative influence.
Aaron Buckley, Ocean Beach
What do you think? Email us at editor@sdcitybeat.com.
