Public Comment

REDEVELOPMENT FORUM: A View from San Diego

By Richard Thompson
Tuesday January 10, 2012 - 11:20:00 PM

Laud Governor Brown's initiative in dissolving The Centre City Development Board, among others, which was but the San Diego City Council Writ Large. 

Attack board members who were in on the deal to build the bridge across Harbor Drive to Petco Park which took 10 years, and cost $30 million. That pedestrian meant so much graft to insiders for such a very long while. 

Consider the Broadway Pier which isn't used because 1) the so-called Mexico Riviera cruise ship business has fallen off because of violent crime, and 2) it costs twice as much— $100,000 per night — to rent the new bridge (while it still costs $50,000 to rent the old bridge overnight). 

San Diego City Council seeks to avoid controversy in the first place, and indictment by State of California AG Kamala Harris in the second place, as its members troll for campaign contributions. If parks are good for cities, why is planning so contentious? Westfield Group is making money at other malls in San Diego, but it is losing money at Horton Plaza Mall — there is no cheap nearby parking — so it wants out from under the lease. The way to do that is to present a design plan for a Horton Plaza Park. But why has the historic Horton fountain been a rat-infested ruin for several years already if the Council / Agency is so terrific? 

Governor Jerry Brown is right to want to abolish the city development districts throughout the state. Former Governor Pete Wilson — who always kept his word — now represents the fat cats' interests as shown by his support for the Mayor-headed San Diego City Council's over-hasty approval of such development projects as the Horton Plaza "Park." 

Conrad Prebys has joined a small cadre of San Diego philanthropists making substantial donations to local San Diego organizations. His largest gifts have supported the arts, San Diego Zoo, medical research and Scripps Health. I think he is a wonderful man. Prebys is truly to be compared with my distant relative Ellen Browning Scripps. Presbys is the least selfish person I know, and I thank him for the UC San Diego Concert Hall, plus the polar bear exhibit, and the proposed three big cat exhibits at the Zoo, with all my heart. 

A day doesn't dawn when California's Senior Senator Dianne Feinstein and her multi-billionnaire husband Dick Blum don't take additional millions of dollars from the public trough (Blum's investment company owns $700,000,000 in for-profit college shares — while he serves on the UC Regents). . Marty Block, even though he was chair of the House Higher Education Committe — he's now running for state senate — didn't mention skyrocketing tuition at the county Democratic convention which I attended — nor the trillion dollars in debt carried by college students nationwide. The reason was that Ashford University was a sponsor of the county Democratic convention (the CEO of Ashford took $9,000,000,000 in stock options in 2009). UC San Diego Chancellor Fox recently joined the board of Ashford's parent company. 

Many other people in the state are corrupt, too. 

The state convention of the Democratic Party will be held February 10 through 12, 2012 at the San Diego Convention Center. Development Boards are corrupt. Everyone attending the convention should echo that message. 

More and more independents will abandon both Republicans and Democratics by the time of the General Election. Governor Brown should abandon his attempt to put the excise tax on the ballot. Read Eugene Burdick's Ninth Wave, a novel about surfing and politics.