For a few dollars more
The sleepy people of La Jolla are in danger of waking up to paid parking at their beaches and recreation centers. The reason is not to solve any parking problems. The reason is to provide a few more dollars to the Promote La Jolla Organization. When the City Council divided the city into so-called “Parking Districts,” it was simply a “divide and conquer” strategy to get paid beach parking and additional revenue. Paid beach parking is an elitist concept that could not win in a citywide referendum. If La Jolla goes forward with paid beach parking, the other beach areas will soon follow.
I do not believe the merchants in Bird Rock would actually vote to install meters along La Jolla Boulevard and I do not believe that the residents on adjacent streets in Bird Rock want to be required to buy a permit to park in front of their own residences. People cannot be expected to attend the seemingly endless forums and parking board meetings. Why not have a referendum on the “parking plan”? The referendum could be held under similar rules and procedures used to conduct the last trustee election for the Community Planning Association. Advocates of paid parking have stated that if we do not make our own plan, the city will dictate one to us. Maybe so, but that is not the way democracies are supposed to work.
Unless the citizens awaken, our quality of life is about to be eroded once again for a few more dollars ” much of which will disappear from public control.

David Little, Bird Rock

Ridiculous rationalization
Thanks to Bill Bradshaw for his indictment of the Beach Alcohol Task Force, which has failed to come to grips with an intolerable situation ” too many drunks and too much trash and disorder on the beaches and streets of Pacific Beach/Mission Beach (Guest commentary, “Long on lists, short on solutions,” Village News, June 14, page 8). What’s best for a community is shoved aside; bars and clubs prosper; public officials pretend to wring their hands but do nothing.
Following the cockamamie reasoning of that friend-of-business-everywhere Police Chief Bill Lansdowne, who seems to oppose a beach alcohol ban, should one believe the recent surfer murder “inland” in La Jolla involving some belligerent underage drinkers was caused by the alcohol ban on La Jolla beaches? I have never heard such a ridiculous rationalization for maintaining a status quo that glorifies profits as usual at 44 bars jammed into eight blocks, plus license to drink as much as you want on the sand.
Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, La Jolla

Seal cesspool
Here we go again! Seals and dim-witted humans reign! Once again, in hopes of making everyone forget, the seal huggers have renamed the Children’s Pool and calling it Casa Beach. Why not call it the Seal Cesspool? That’s what it is.
The Children’s Pool was created by man (actually a woman, Ellen Browning Scripps) for the use of the children of San Diego, not the seals of San Diego.
Way back when, long before there was a Children’s Pool, where oh where did the poor seals “haul out”? Answer: on the 72 miles of local beaches Ms. Gates noted in her letter to the editor (“Donkeys support the seals,” Village News, June 14, page 8). She forgot to mention the additional thousands of miles of beach available to the seal from Tierra del Fuego to the Aleutian Islands.
Seals are very smart and very adaptable animals. If you keep them off the beach at the Children’s Pool, they will simply move to other more isolated areas not accessible to humans.
Thus, if they were no longer there, they would no longer be harassed. Correct?
I, for one, am sick and tired of reading every Sunday’s Beach Report in the Union-Tribune and seeing, “Polluted waters to avoid: La Jolla: Children’s Pool.”
Larry Rasmussen, Pacific Beach
” Ed. note: Ellen Browning Scripps paid for the seawall to be constructed at Children’s Pool beach.

Just the unbiased facts, ma’am
The repetitious publishing of letters that wrongly support the status quo of the polluted Children’s Pool misleads the public.
To gain the unbiased facts of the controversy, I urge your readers to review the recent court decision that explains the history, problems and solutions pertaining to the Children’s Pool.
That decision can be directly accessed on the Internet at http://divebums.com/Childrens.

Carl Lind, La Jolla