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- E-mail letters@sduniontribune.com
- Mail: Andrew Kleske, Reader Outreach Editor
San Diego Union-Tribune
P.O. Box 120191
San Diego, CA 92112-0191.
It was appalling to read about the Escondido public safety building’s leaks. For $61 million, the city should get a building that won’t leak for 100 years. If14 major leaks were seen during recent rainstorms, we can only guess how many smaller leaks into wall, roof and HVAC systems were not seen and will not be fixed.
This is very likely to be a “sick building” with this many leaks. Apportioning blame is hard in these cases; it is usually a combined problem of design details, materials and craftsmanship. Ultimately, it is up to the project manager to get it right, not to simply note that it is common for all new buildings to leak.
DAVID BAINBRIDGE
Scripps Ranch
Lemon Grove and taxes
A few weeks ago, some Lemon Grove residents received a phone call about a proposed half-cent sales tax increase. It was a survey to see if residents would vote for the increase. Just a week ago, residents received a colorful brochure addressing the same issue with a return survey and question card to be sent back to the city.
So here are my comments: The council members, mayor and city manager need to take a 20 percent pay cut. Lemon Grove should do away with fixed car allowances for all city employees.
WAYNE R. BUTTRON
Lemon Grove
Some fast renamings for Jimmie Johnson
Since Dr. Charles Johnson, for whom El Cajon’s Johnson Avenue was named, still has descendants in the area, how about renaming Parkway Plaza to Jimmie Johnson Plaza? I don’t think whatever “parkway” the shopping center was named after would mind. Or pull the old Jack Murphy Stadium trick – Jimmie Johnson Airport at Gillespie Field – which also is the old site of Cajon Speedway, where he once raced.
Or how about the Jimmie Johnson Freeway on State Route 67, or the soon-to-be completed section of State Route 52? Or a section of Interstate 8 – better than its current “Border Friendship Route”? We’d then have a good excuse for speeding, to pay tribute to the four-time NASCAR champ.
El Cajon needs to honor its hometown boy. It shouldn’t be that difficult.
KEN HARRISON
Oceanside
I.B. wasting money on redevelopment
Regarding your Feb. 20 editorial, “The two faces of Pacifica”:
You state that Imperial Beach, backed into a corner, has offered Pacifica $6.7 million in redevelopment funds, “the maximum it feels it can sink into any one venture.”
Actually, the Imperial Beach Redevelopment Agency recently acquired the Miracle Mile Shopping Center and the North Island Credit Union properties along Palm Avenue for about $11 million. It also is on the hook for relocation benefits to existing tenants.
If Imperial Beach and its redevelopment agency are willing to waste $12 million or so just to lure another drugstore and a 14,000 -square-foot mini-market to I.B., imagine how much money they would be willing to pay Pacifica for a first-rate beachfront hotel with far more compelling fiscal impacts.
JEFFREY C. RASAK
President & CEO
Sterling Development Corp.
La Jolla
Dogs, not alcohol, plague Sessions park
I must strongly object to your editorial “Kudos – and complaints” on Feb. 20 concerning drinking alcohol in Kate Sessions Park.
As a longtime resident of Pacific Beach, my family and I have spent many hours in the park. My children played games there, my family and friends have had picnics on the slopes overlooking the city, and I walk or jog there. Never have I witnessed drunken behavior.
The problem is not with those who drink in the park, it is with those who bring their dogs, let them run loose and don’t clean up after them. Kate Sessions has a leash law, which is being violated.
WALTER LADWIG JR.
Pacific Beach
Supes out of touch on teen curfews
When Supervisors Ron Roberts, Greg Cox and Bill Horn voted against a uniform curfew in the county of San Diego, I found myself whimsically asking, “Is one of the teen gangs in my neighborhood supplying them with cash and drugs?”
Spring Valley is a magnet for late-night miscreants. Our weekend curfew is 11 p.m. The curfew in surrounding cities is 10 p.m. When San Diego closes, kids come to Spring Valley.
Their vote was in clear opposition to the unanimous desire of residents, law enforcement, the district attorney, Supervisor Dianne Jacob and community groups such as mine that work hard to divert at-risk teens. In fact, not one soul present at the meeting spoke in opposition to the measure.
In a moment of bizarre nostalgia, Supervisor Ron Roberts recalled his teen arrest for violating curfew (presumably in the 1950s). He apparently didn’t want teenagers subject to that sort of accountability today. Apparently Roberts is not acquainted with the teen sex trade and gangs that have appeared since his teen years. Roberts’ children probably don’t go to sleep to gunshots like mine do.
Of course Roberts, Cox and Horn aren’t on the gang take. But they are incredibly out of touch with our lives.
Rev. STEVE BABBITT
Pastor, Spring Valley Community Church
Hosted parties and teen drinking
This is in response to the Feb. 18 article about the Fallbrook woman who was sentenced to three years’ probation and a fine of $300 for hosting an underage drinking party for her teenage kids. No parent should be punished for attempting to provide a safe partying environment for their otherwise irresponsible children and their friends. By allowing these kids to celebrate the end of their school year by partying at her house, she was able to avert what could have resulted in a tragedy.
I can say from personal experience that underage drinking at a house with a responsible parent is a much safer venue than anywhere else. Simply telling kids not to drive drunk obviously hasn’t been working. Teens have a lesser chance of harming themselves or others if a responsible adult is around to take keys away and monitor their general safety.
JULIAN ROSADO
Poway
The fog of mock war on Silver Strand
By way of a postscript, zero live fire training takes place on the Silver Strand Beach. Six days a year, the Naval Special Warfare Training Command conducts mock demolitions during Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL “Hell Week” at an oceanside, fenced-in pit across from the Navy Sailing Center. Maybe a dozen staged explosions are set off to rattle trainees.
Any impacted residents are Navy personnel with no civilian housing anywhere near. As for Imperial Beach, no demolitions training is practiced anywhere near civilian housing although many helicopters operate from Ream Field.
The buffer between BUD/S training and Imperial Beach includes Silver Strand State Beach parking lots and the old Navy communications facility. It is hard to imagine anyone hearing a “pop” that far away.
Someday, when we achieve “Peace in our time,” the Silver Strand can be turned into another Miami or San Juan with high rises and casinos dotting the strip. The Hiltons and Sheratons will still have to deal with the least terns.
G.R. WORTHINGTON
Retired Navy
Chula Vista
Keep funding alive for river park
In response to “Slim hope held for park funds,” (Feb. 27):
With San Diego City facing many tough decisions about budget cuts, whichever cause or project that gets cut is sure to protest. One of the decision factors surely must be what long-term effects an individual cut will cause. That factor should strongly suggest the importance of the city retaining funding to keep the San Dieguito River Park alive.
Since it began over two decades ago, the Park’s Joint Powers Agency has been the vital force for making this hugely beneficial project a reality. With its nature preserves, recreational areas and trails stretching 55 miles from the Del Mar coast up to the mountains near Julian, the River Park is a valuable asset now and for the future. One example of its success: the agency has been a key player, working with the nonprofit Nature Conservancy in the recent addition of nearly 7,000 acres of new preserves along the Santa Ysabel River.
If we let this project slip away, as it will if the city drops its funding, we likely will bring this most worthy preservation activity to a halt. Keep funding alive for the San Dieguito River Park.
TOM LEECH
San Diego
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