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Whitburn’s better

I was shocked and disappointed by your endorsement for City Council District 3. You state that Stephen Whitburn is right on all the issues and “We like Stephen Whitburn a lot” followed by “He’s a classic liberal, and we heart classic liberals.”

Then you go on to endorse Todd Gloria? What?!?! Is this a joke, like the cover photos?

The article expressed that you’re “concerned about his contributions from developers.” You say that even though he is being bankrolled by developers, some anonymous person told you that “he can say no to developers.”

Yeah, and another anonymous person told me “Mission accomplished.” Should I believe them, too? Not!

While Gloria was on the Housing Commission, he said nothing to developers who were gobbling up affordable apartments to build conversions and make millions.

Tons of affordable apartments were taken off the market by these developers—Gloria and the Housing Commission did nothing.

Whitburn is endorsed by the San Diego Renters Union, who need someone to stand up to developers taking affordable apartments off the market.

You are right, Stephen is right on all the issues and I “like him a lot,” too.

Kevin Beiser,
North Park

Wrong choice

I am shocked and angered at your bizarre endorsement of Todd Gloria over Stephen Whitburn for the District 3 seat on the San Diego City Council. In one blow, you have totally discredited yourselves and all your pretensions of offering San Diego readers a progressive alternative to the Union-Tribune and the Reader.

I know Whitburn and Gloria well from having been active with the San Diego Democratic Club. I’ve known Whitburn first as the media-relations director of the club and then as its president—unlike all previous presidents, he reliably conducted the club’s business so its meetings ended on time, certainly a relevant skill for a City Councilmember—whereas I’ve known Gloria mostly as the glib-tongued apologist for Congressmember Susan Davis. His task as Davis’s delegate to the club meetings seems to be mainly making excuses for her having such a center-right voting record when she represents a center-left district.

One thing about your editorial rings true: You put aside your initial view of him as an “‘establishment’ Democrat who might too often cave in to the wishes of people with money and influence” when you met with him personally and he charmed you. That’s what he’s good at. Even I, who can’t stand his politics, like him personally. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that he is an establishment Democrat, one with absolutely no track record of community service or genuine activism.

In Latin American politics there’s a term called “imposición,” which occurs when a politician is about to be forced out of office by term limits and picks someone to run in his or her place who will do their bidding and allow them to continue in office vicariously. While current District 3 Councilmember Toni Atkins was part of her predecessor’s staff when she ran, at least she had an impressive record as a community activist—including as director of the Womancare family planning clinic at a time when it was regularly picketed by anti-choice activists trying to shut it down—whereas Gloria has no leadership credentials whatsoever.

Just as Gloria has faithfully followed Davis’ orders in his eight years on her staff, so he will faithfully follow the orders of whichever right-wing Republican gets elected mayor and the Downtown business and development interests that mayor will represent. The only issue on which he’ll dissent is that he’ll faithfully align himself with the public employee unions to protect their bloated, illegal, corruptly given pensions no matter how many potholes will be left unfilled, how many libraries will have to close and how much the salaries and benefits of current city employees will have to be slashed to pay for them. If this weren’t true, the police and firefighters’ unions wouldn’t have given him the endorsements he’s so proudly ballyhooing everywhere.

My knowledge of Whitburn and Gloria convinces me that Whitburn is a leader and Gloria is a follower. Whitburn will align himself with Donna Frye and the other progressives in and around city government; Gloria will align himself with San Diego’s corrupt establishment. Don’t be deceived by the surface charm Gloria has so carefully cultivated; change your mind in the general election and endorse Whitburn, the only progressive candidate in this race.

Mark Gabrish Conlan,
North Park

Interesting juxtaposition

I find your editorial in the May 7 issue so ironic. You talk about how this 50-year-old mother should be forgiven for her past crimes since she has lived a law-abiding life. However, turn the pages and read your “Spin Cycle” column by John Lamb. He mocks and sort of persecutes Tony Krvaric, the San Diego Republican Party chairman, for trading Commodore 64 games 20 years ago. He was copying games off of 5.25-inch floppy disks, which, if you’re under 30, you have no clue as to what those are.

Yes, maybe it can be considered piracy, but it’s not selling drugs. In addition, hasn’t he turned his life around also? He chairs a political party representing the views and lifestyles of half the American people.

People make mistakes. People do bad things, and our justice system is supposed to rehabilitate them. However, the system has never and still doesn’t act like that. It works as a punishment system. Until that changes, people must pay for the crimes they do, no matter the crime or how different their lives are from the time the crime was committed. This is why there is no statutory time limit on murder.

I do agree with your editorial. I do feel that since the local papers and TV newscasts feel it is more important to spend a total of an hour (10 minutes of their broadcast on this minor story for five days in a row) instead of spending time reporting what is happening in Africa or the Middle East or China, that this will happen again and again. Until more local reporting agencies start covering true newsworthy stories, like your publication, stories like this mother will be blown up into such a big deal that politicians and government agencies will be forced to address them. This is the only reason why this mother was extradited.

Michael Rubin,
Point Loma