Regarding last week’s letter by Tom Griswold, (“Letter writer off base about Town Council, OB,” Jan. 17 edition, page 6), I wonder if Mr. Griswold missed the point of Todd Strong’s letter (“OB Town Council does not speak for all residents,” Jan. 10 edition, page 6).
In his letter, Strong was clearly critical that the Ocean Beach Town Council publicly declared that, based on an “informal poll” of its members, it opposed an alcohol ban, thereby creating the inference that the Ocean Beach community was also opposed. While Griswold highlighted the length of his tenancy in Ocean Beach and informed Strong that he should leave Ocean Beach, he did not address the questions raised by Strong.
Personally, I would like answers to the questions posed in Strong’s letter: Is it true that a resident has to pay money to be a member of the Town Council? How many members are there in this council? Most important, what is an “informal poll?”
I was also interested in Griswold’s attempt to contradict Strong’s assertions that the Town Council did not “protest” the introduction of the Starbucks or Wings into the community. Griswold seems to ignore the fact that the OBTC publicly declared its opposition to these entities ” presumably after conducing more “informal polls.”
Having grown up with Todd Strong here in Point Loma/Ocean Beach, I appreciate his willingness to stand up and fight for what he believes in ” which is his intense desire to eradicate any and all criminal element that exists in OB, in order to make the safest possible environment for the kids of our community. What I suspect that Mr. Griswold lacks is the perspective that Mr. Strong carries, that is, what Ocean Beach looks like through the eyes of a little kid.
I wonder if Mr. Griswold knows what it’s like to be 10 years old and repeatedly offered drugs by the transients on the seawall and in the Dog Beach parking lot. I grew up with Todd Strong, and this was a reality for us ” a reality that destroyed many of our friends’ lives. If Mr. Griswold had grown up here I doubt he would be so quick to claim that “Ocean Beach as it [is] and has been for the past 40 years” is just fine and that people like Strong should just get over it or move somewhere else.
Personally, I appreciate the fact that Strong views any drug sale at the seawall as a complete and despicable failure of our community to provide for our children. I, too, am interested to see if taking away the drug dealers’ booze for a year takes away the transient drug dealers. As my wife and I have two little girls, it’s worth it for us to try.
I really wonder why it isn’t worth a try for the OBTC. I, too, wonder whose side they’re on. So I say thank you Todd ” maybe if people had stood up and fought for us when we were the little kids on the beach a lot more of us would have made it through.