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Hispanic Pride
Congratulations. I just finished reading (the Publisher's Column) in the August issue and how you managed to survive the bleak years of red ink.
It is only within the past year that we have been receiving your magazine and I have enjoyed some of the featured articles. I especially enjoyed Patrick osio's article several months back about "Mexico Pays Attention."
Being one of two Mexican-Americans in our own Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, I felt a sense of pride to know that the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce is finally coming into its own. I firmly believe that all of us can benefit greatly by working together. I have approached our Community Economic Enhancement Committee chairman with the request that he invite the San Diego chapter of the Hispanic Chamber to come and meet with us and share ideas. Your article on Linda Bejarano Stepp was also interesting, naturally because I can relate. She sounds like a real go-getter, interested in bettering the lot of her Hispanic business associates.
Ofelia E. Escobedo
Carlsbad
Outside City Hall
What’s wrong with this picture?
On Aug. 6, a "draft negotiating" meeting was held with five community members, all lay people, in one corner, and in the other corner, a ball club executive, two consultants, the Padres' legal counsel on the ballpark and a deputy city attorney. (According to the Padres, the Padres were allowed to hand-pick this deputy attorney.)
This was a "draft" meeting arranged by some concerned residents in their quest to protect their respective communities from the impact of the proposed Downtown ballpark.
Whose side is the city on? Why the need for the Padres' legal counsel attendance? Why the need for the deputy city attorney's attendance? If the Padres were allowed to handpick their own city deputy attorney, will that deputy attorney represent the rights of the community or the special interests of the ball club?
The answer is simple. The Padres and the city administration are applying divide and conquer tactics with the communities adjacent to the proposed ballpark and ancillary development. Under the guise of "community negotiations," the Padres are using a "draft" meeting to protect the upcoming Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Could the fear be that the upcoming EIR will be just as irresponsible, inadequate and incomplete as its draft?
It is obvious that the Centre City Development Corp., the Padres and the city are trying to slam-dunk this highly irresponsible, insensitive, faulty EIR down the throats of those communities that will eventually carry the brunt of the impact of the proposed ballpark. Please note that we are not opposed to the ballpark. What we are saying is "Do it Right!" The CCDC and city should fund an independent, supplementary EIR addressing impact to, and mitigation measures for, the neighboring communities.
There is one mayor and eight councilmembers and each one of them has a vote. Where will the balance of fairness and equality lean to, if no councilmember is at these "draft" negotiating meetings in which the Padres bring in their heavy artillery (attorneys) to talk with five residents?
Remigia Bermudez
Sherman Heights
Downtown Housing
Dean Yancheck (Darts and Letters, August 1999) is exactly right. I, too, would love to find Downtown housing; however, nothing is available for middle-class people.
Natasha Greene
Escondido
No To Strong Mayor
You are so right. "Strong Mayor? No Thanks!" (Wit & Wisdom, August 1999). Surely no one wants a weak mayor, but the current system is working. And to continue "putting the cart before the horse," as you stated, and "then finding the facts," is a problem that we have too often in the council and leadership of our local government as it is. Having ideas to bring the City forward is commendable, unless they are just pipe dreams that can interfere with other progress or the delivery of basic services.
Just because "some" people want the project or idea doesn’t mean it is sound or of benefit to the citizen, constituent or the majority. The city needs to stick to the services mentioned, "police, fire, streets, water (sewer), sanitation."
But we also need to define what these services mean. Police and fire means safety, streets mean access, water means life (human, plants and animals), and sanitation means cleanliness. But these factors sometimes blend. Streets need good lighting and sidewalks safe for travel. Police need to be fair and just to encourage public trust. Fire services need to be quick and responsive — via good streets. Water needs to be reliable, efficient and safe. Cleanliness means less chance for fire or low self-esteem, which both breed crime.
What we continually see in our city is a lack of proper priority-setting for the basics. Just drive the whole length of University Ave. You will see that sometimes it is smooth and in good repair. But mostly, generally in poorer neighborhoods, you will see it pot-holed, ill-lighted, with bulging and cracked sidewalks. In these neighborhoods many distrust the police also.
They have been abused for victimless crimes. The sewers break. And fire spreads through the canyons. Instead of a "strong mayor," we need a more civil and accountable city and council. We are all in this together; let's start working on our problems that way.
Daniel Beeman
San Diego
P.S. Also note that I, like Mr. Yancheck (Darts and Letters, August 1999), want more affordable homes Downtown. I invite (him) to come explore North Park as we do have a little of what he is looking for at very good prices.
Another View
What Caltrans District 11 Director Gary Gallegos wrote in the August edition about the completion of the Interstate 15 freeway through my community, City Heights, is correct as far as it goes, but he slants it like it wasn’t. Reading his piece, one sees Caltrans as willing, even eager, to seek a partnership with the citizens in an effort to be cooperative. Not the case; not at all.
Caltrans was dragged kicking and screaming under threat of lawsuit into amicable, fruitful work with the I-15 Oversight Committee and the community at large. To its credit, Caltrans has given the community's views and preferences proper consideration, which we appreciate, but it didn’t beat a path to good community relations. We did that here in City Heights and dragooned Caltrans into a relationship it didn’t want.
"Can a community and engineers work together to build a freeway?" Gallegos asks, and he correctly answers, "Absolutely. The I-15/40th Street project is proof." Caltrans should adopt the model City Heights forced on it (intense, interested citizen guidance gladly accepted by engineers) as its regular policy for working with communities.
James Varnadore
City Heights
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