Widows and washed-up politicians can’t cost too much;
economist Connie Jamison coins what’s golden

    Q: How do they chose the speakers for Insights? What kind of a speaker's fee do they receive? -K.B., Downtown

    A: Insights is a day-long hoedown with global big wigs, organized by the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Now in its third year, the conference has a dual objective: Bringing global attention to San Diego business and industries, and providing San Diegans information about global opportunity. The list of speakers has been stunning - Mario Cuomo, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Ann Richards, to name a few.

    Last year and the year before, conference organizers passed out questionnaires to Insights attendees requesting speaker suggestions for the subsequent year. The Insights committee then pooled those names, worked up a theme (this year it’s "Visions of a Global Community") and got busy issuing invitations. The speakers' rostrum for this Oct. 5 includes: Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, Jimmy Carter, Yitzhak's widow Lea Rabin, Anwar's widow Jehan Sadat, and Republican Vice Presidential candidate, former Charger Jack Kemp.

    The Chamber baited these "who's whos" with promises of fine weather, Shamu, our big zoo and some unknown amount of remuneration. Joe Lipper, Insights' press guy, says he can’t divulge the speakers' fees. Local companies sponsor some of the speakers those for whom this is not a political gaff. Others are paid directly.

    Expected attendance is around 5,000. Tickets, at $200 to $400, include lunch.

    Q: Where did the term "the Golden Triangle" come from? - E.S., University City

    A: Looking for this term has been like looking for any kind of gold - real prospecting. The ever-resourceful California Room at the Public Library found a quote dated Aug. 23, 1963 from Conrad Jamison, then financial expert and vice president of Security First National Bank in Los Angeles. He made the earliest reference to east La Jolla as "the Golden Triangle" in the library's database. However, that is reaching back a ways.

    When developers finally got hopping in the late '70s, Jim Britton, former architecture critic for the then San Diego Union, broadcasted the panache of the isosceles defined by Interstate 5, and the 805 and 52 freeways by calling it the "Golden Triangle." This information came from Jan Percival whose company Scribe Communications has done public relations for the Golden Triangle Marketing Consortium.

    The freewayed perimeters make it a triangle, rather than something more offbeat like a trapezoid or a rhombus. But why "golden?" It was a place for Midases to park their Mercedes, strut their Armanis and do long chardonnay lunches. Whereas buildings (and lifestyles) in the '90s have been more cost-conscious, competition then was based on good architecture, Golden Triangle property owner George Lattimer comments. "Golden defined a sense of the class and type of development that was taking place," Lattimer first-rate offices, housing, shopping and recreation."

    Jan Percival attributes a lot of the Golden Triangle's superlative look to Harry Summers, a long-time San Diego developer. "He went to great pains to do the original land planning in a sensitive way and to demand high quality buildings that would last," she says. "His own projects included public art as did several others in the area." The inclusion of public art has long been an expression of both opulence and vision.

    By the way, Pittsburgh has its own Golden Triangle, as do other regions.

    Q: What happens to the money collected from trolley fines? Does it go to maintenance or the city budget? - Paula Wilson, Downtown

    A: Ninety-nine percent of the fee, currently $66, goes to the state and county court system to pay for the legal cost of processing the infractor's dereliction. In other words, insubordination really only greases bureaucracy's wheels. The remaining 30 cents goes back to the San Diego Trolley to offset fare inspection expenses.

    Here's what you can do to be levied a trolley fine. Be loud, abusive, and obstreperous on board. Vault from seat to seat. Swing from the poles. Eat, drink or bury the car in smoke. Or just try getting on a trolley without paying a fare or the correct fare. Since enforcement is random, you might even get away with it. .