Local businesses are huge school supporters As a parent with two children in the PB public schools for 11 years now, I would like to recognize the local businesses and restaurants that have offered unwavering support of our public schools throughout the years. From countless donations to all our silent auctions to hosting “Family Nights” where a portion of the evening’s proceeds are donated back to the school our local businesses have been there for our schools helping to bridge the funding gap when we were faced with drastic budget cuts. Their support has allowed us to offer art, music, PE, field trips, teacher aids, librarians, technology upgrades and campus beautification, to name just a few. The best way we can really thank our local businesses for their contributions to our flourishing schools is by offering them our business in return. In this economy, our discretionary spending will make a decided difference in the viability of our local businesses. Before driving to the mall, shopping online or booking a holiday party downtown please consider keeping your business in PB. Our local businesses have made a decided difference for our schools. Now is our opportunity to show true appreciation for the vital role they have played in building a brighter future for our children and our community. Pam Deitz Friends of Pacific Beach Secondary Schools Gee, ‘thanks,’ Faulconer for all the favors In response to the two letters thanking Kevin Faulconer in the Nov. 13 edition of the Beach & Bay Press issue, I too would like to offer my congratulations to Kevin Faulconer. Kevin Faulconer, thank you for creating Proposition C and diverting much-needed money away from needed pubic services to “improve” Mission Bay. Thankfully now we will have well-paved parking lots to put all of the empty Northern Division police cruisers and a place to park the fire trucks during their “off week.” The good news is that Mission Bay may not smell like rotting algae but the bad news is that my house could burn down. Kevin, I also wanted to thank you for calling in some favors to raise more than $400,000 from land developers to pass Proposition D. I was interested to see a Mission Valley hotel that has no vested interest in the beach donate a significant amount to the cause. Strikingly, the same hotel donated to your $1 million campaign to get elected for a $70,000-a-year job. We can all take solace in the fact that it is now illegal to drink on the beach, but unfortunately there’s no cops to enforce the law, so aren’t we really back where we started? I look forward to seeing how much money you raise for your re-election campaign. I wonder if you will raise more money than the amount of money that was cut from the police and fire budgets this year. Joshua Brown Pacific Beach Prop D hands citizens’ rights over to the gov’t As a common theme with laws in this country over the last few decades, Americans have grown ignorant and complacent about throwing away their rights instead of really fixing problems. They have decided that we should hand our rights over to the government and have someone else deal with any aspect of life that causes the least amount of discomfort. It’s is a shame that people in the USA have become so myopic. Prop D is the perfect example. It has been a rally cry for the lazy and ignorant, championed by those who choose to define their world by a single publicized holiday incident and convince themselves that this is how it must be all the time, at a beach they are rarely at. They convince themselves that the world outside is so terrible and dangerous that they would gladly throw their basic privileges away and scream that the government must make more laws to protect them. Rather than being more active in the community, they would rather someone else take care of their problems. Ironically these are the same people who, with a stroke of the same pen, would down propositions allowing more funding to the very law enforcement they are screaming for! Yes, it wasn’t too long ago when people would ask a neighbor at the beach to show some respect to others enjoying the beach with their family and get a perfectly good response. The sad thing is these same people will now, by some miracle, have the courage to knock on the door of someone’s private residence to ask that they have their partiers keep the noise down and stop urinating on the bushes. Or maybe they will just expect to rely on a police department they have decided to underfund. Someone said that voting yes on Prop D was “common sense.” No, common sense is knowing that on a few holidays during the year certain beach areas will be full of young people partying and for the other 360 days of the year you can sit back and have a cold beer while you watch your children play in the sand. Jason Haelewyn Pacific Beach No on D campaign used deceptive tactics Re: “No on D crowd fought the good fight,” (Beach & Bay Press, Nov. 13) Quite the contrary. The fight the No on D crowd fought was riddled with deceptive practices from hiding their real sponsors to using a similar-looking name and website image of the Yes on D crowd. I am one of the Pro D gentlemen downtown in the picture that Mr. Lillehammer refers to in his letter on Nov. 13, and I was indeed dressed for the activity I was attending, which was at election central. Had I been doing one of my many activities at the beach such as riding my bike, blades, walking on the sand at sunset or having a nice meal at one of the many great eateries in the area, I would have been dressed a little differently. In short, the beach can and will now be enjoyed by people of all ages without fear of alcohol-induced rude and obnoxious behavior. And no, Mr. Lillehammer, I have never set foot on a golf course, preferring the sand between my toes at the beach. Andy Chotiner Pacific Beach