Last week’s Beacon contained an editorial opinion piece promoting the new City Hall proposal still being pursued despite the city’s finances.  Inside the piece were descriptions of the current city spaces stating that “The existing buildings contain a great deal of asbestos (a known carcinogen),” “dysfunctional and redundant work space environments,” and “Moreover, they don’t meet many current fire and safety codes.”  Wow.  I immediately began to wonder who Sandra Simmons was and if she had alerted the city to these facts.  Although dysfunctional and redundant work space environments didn’t sound serious, the asbestos and the fire and safety code violations did sound bad.  So, I went to the Internet.  A little research on the Internet revealed that Ms. Simmons has resided in downtown San Diego for 17 years and she has a downtown-based business, VivaCity.  Naturally, any enhancements to downtown San Diego will benefit her business, so she had no qualms making serious claims about the safety of the City’s workers, claims that were not backed up with actual facts, in order to scare people into thinking we have to build this expensive venture that we can’t afford.  The Internet will expose a person’s true interest very quickly.    Recently, the Beacon ran a story about the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) sponsoring a Town Hall meeting to discuss the airport.  The meeting was held at the Corky McMillin Cos. Events Center.  Because one member of the PCPB works for McMillin — although not admitting so publicly — several PCPB meetings have been held at the former NTC, courtesy of McMillin, even in the McMillin corporate headquarters conference room.  So, I went to the Internet again and found out it costs about $3,000 to rent the McMillin Events Center. And, knowing the PCPB has no money, I asked a few questions.  I attended the Town Hall meeting and the first speaker was a gentleman from the NTC Foundation who gave what sounded like a commercial for the NTC Promenade that surprised me.  My questions led me to Alan Ziter, who is  the executive director of the NTC Foundation.  Mr. Ziter explained to me that they had “donated” the hall and that it really didn’t cost them anything because they had staff on duty anyway.  This was disingenuous at best because the IRS would have looked at it as a $3,000 gift, regardless of what it cost that night. The value of the donation is what mattered.  Who is the major supporter of all this? McMillin, of course.  So the point of my story is to realize that influence is everywhere and it is disguised, but the Internet can quickly unmask it.  Don’t take anything for face value, question why things happen as they do.  When you understand the real story behind comments like these of Ms. Simmons, or propaganda disguised as public “Town Hall” meetings, you will be better able to make reasoned decisions.  Here’s one last Internet fact for Ms. Simmons:  the city of San Diego encompasses 72.7 square miles.  A generous estimate of the downtown is 4 square miles or about 6 percent of the whole city.  Perhaps Ms. Simmons would better understand why the remaining 94 percent of the city might not see things as she does but do see why she sees things the way she does, thanks to the Internet.   — Geoff Page is a resident of Point Loma and former chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board.