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Privacy Equals Position
A response to the article "Say Goodbye to Your Private Office" (December 1998).
Personally, I'd rather not.
Saying goodbye to a private office means loss of productivity, privacy, concentration, effectiveness and manageability. The trend to private offices vs. cubicles being more team oriented, I feel, is a myth. There needs to be a higher hierarchy. People have worked all their lives to build a career and get the private office, parking space, credit card. Otherwise, why work so hard if all you want to be is part of the team and not the leader?
Don't get me wrong. The team is a great thing but a team is nothing without a leader. There needs to be the carrot, the benefit, the rainbow, the perk, and placing managers amongst workers gives the appearance we are all pals. It’s like a parent who wants to be friends with his/her child. Parents, as well as bosses, need the authority to manage and noticeable distinctions in which to do so. Leadership, good or bad, doesn’t necessarily come out of a glass cubicle.
L.P. Flanders
Oceanside
Business As Usual
The publicity surrounding the personnel changes at the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce has overshadowed the fact that we continue to be the pre-eminent business organization in San Diego. Your recent article accurately portrays the hard work of the Chamber and its dedicated staff.
Despite the recent changes, the Chamber's focus remains the same. We continue to represent, advocate, and fight for the best interests of San Diego businesses, just like we have for nearly 130 years.
While the San Diego economy is currently thriving, there are many things that could affect it — continued Asian flu, predatory business actions in Sacramento, or local events. That is why the work of the Chamber is especially important this year. If we do not work to keep San Diego’s advantage, we could easily lose our jobs to hungry competitors.
The commitment of Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce has never wavered. We’ve been there for the business community in the past, and we will continue to be there for them.
Ron Low
Director of Public Relations
Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce
Columnist Responds
It’s flattering that William Bradshaw (Darts and Letters, January 1999) spent the time to respond so thoroughly to my November 1998 piece on the Unified Port District. Too bad he's wrong. In the interest of brevity I’ll only challenge Mr. Bradshaw on three points:
1. Seattle's hinterland goes eastward far beyond Spokane. It extends to the entire northern Midwest. Seattle is the terminus of major rail lines stretching all the way to Minneapolis and Chicago. Portland, for that matter, is at the end of the Union Pacific's northwestern transcontinental route.
2. Building expensive port facilities to handle business lost to the Port of Los Angeles because of rare strikes seems the height of folly. Strikes which close down Los Angeles once in a while don’t seem to justify the huge capital expenditures needed to build commercial port facilities, particularly when they'll sit idle if there's no L.A. strike, which is most of the time.
3. If you think geography, namely the great circle routes, doesn’t play heavily in the minds of ship owners, ask them. Time is of the essence in the operation of that business.
Finally, I don’t quarrel with Mr. Bradshaw's contention that restoration of the San Diego & Arizona Eastern rail link to the Imperial Valley and beyond would help. However, you don’t see either the Union Pacific or the Burlington Santa Fe rushing off to restore it.
By the way, I use Interstate 8 a lot and can compare its use by 18-wheelers with Interstate 10 and other transcontinental highways. There's no real comparison.
John W. Witt
San Diego Metropolitan
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