Cartas al editor
Neighborhood concerns
I have been reading your letters to the editor in Uptown News. Below is a short list of some of what happens or does not happen in our neighborhoods, without our involvement. It seems that our councilmember is uninformed and/or does not care or is unable to do something about these things.
- The Talmadge left turn at 47th Street [“Trying times in Talmadge,” Volume 7, Issue 15].
- Removal of the calming (interference) islands on Madison at Utah comes forward. About 2008, six or seven people signed a petition to have traffic slowed along Madison. No canvassing of neighbors about what to be done and I am told at least five of these people no longer live there. About 2011, someone in the city decided to spend about $50,000 to put these huge cement obstructions in the street (nowhere else in the city) instead of stop signs or a 25 mph speed bump. For this neighborhood, it removed 14 much needed parking spaces and does NOTHING to slow traffic. Requests to have these removed have been submitted by community groups, planning committee and many citizens. They still remain!
- Union-Tribune systematic littering with items weekly thrown from passing vehicles all over the place. I have background showing letters, articles in the paper, and the attempt of La Mesa to request $500 littering fine for each. The littering continues.
- Despite all the grandstanding by politicians about repairing our bad streets, the 4600 block of 34th Street has been in deplorable condition since well before 2012. Requests to the city and councilmember by the Adams Avenue Business Association, the St. Didacus School parents and staff, and average citizens have been ignored — even though this block is known to be in poor condition and marked RED. The city moves on.
- There seems to be no way to stop the placement of those awful, ugly electric boxes placed along our sidewalks (from Texas Street east to 30th Street — 69 of them have been counted but no undergrounding of our utilities). For years, every new permit given has had the requirement to underground that was deleted by the city. Years ago at a University Heights community meeting when he was first running for office, Todd Gloria was presented with a very powerful alternative that was to charge each of these developers with the cost of doing undergrounding to be put in a trust fund so the city would have the funds to defray the cost of something I understand is a future requirement. His response was that it is an excellent idea that he will seriously consider for the future. It died there.
- Our walking community now finds “No Pedestrian Crossing” signs and chains at every street crossing El Cajon Boulevard from Florida to Texas. Who decided we could not cross to the Lafayette Hotel or other businesses on the south side of the street? The council rep did not know anything about it and neither did her boss, Todd Gloria. Does this mean that no one can see the well-marked crosswalks on Park Boulevard and other busy streets and do the same here? (Your paper has this mentioned in your letters.)
- Just recently the Traffic Department marked out the red curbing on one side of our open space island at Florida/Monroe/Mission Avenue with no acknowledgement that it was thoroughly designed, evaluated and approved by our community association, a committee of the North Park Planning Committee, the city with approved funds, and has been an open island with no parking where three streets intersect for over 15 years.
I am sorry this sounds so disgusted, but it is demoralizing for neighbors to try to keep their areas as nice and positive as possible only to have some city department step in and take charge and also while we watch the city politicians spend millions on a football team. Thanks for listening to these few items. I know there are additional ones that others would bring up such as a commercial box truck stored on our streets for over six years and moved periodically to circumvent ticketing. I guess it was measured three inches too short to be removed from overnight parking.
—Mary Lou Ruane, University Heights
Don’t help the homeless
Re: “What to do about the homeless?” [Volume 7, Issue 16]
Ask the city to put lids on all of the trashcans that lock down so they can’t dig through them for cans. People have no idea how much money these homeless people are making out of recycling! UNTAXED!
Also keep the dumpsters locked down with the bar that swings over the doors that can be locked with a padlock. If left open, it should be fineable because they are supporting homeless people maintaining their drug and alcohol adventures while littering all over.
San Diego is an absolute mess with homeless and their stealing and disgusting attitudes are so destructive. I have seen a group of homeless people poop behind the ampm on Sports Arena Boulevard, while I was pumping gas, after they dug through the trash for bottles. It would be as simple as making trash and recycling inaccessible to people who do not want to contribute in making San Diego a nicer place.
I’m sorry, the article just made me so upset that people are supporting the homeless out here and don’t even see all of the harm they are doing to the city.
Have a great day.
Sam Bonner via email
Predicting the future
Re: “Saying ‘no’ to Uptown ‘density bonus’” [Volume 7, Issue 16]
I predict that the city will ignore the community and go ahead with its plans to add 20,000 new residents to Uptown.
A lawsuit will then be filed based on CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) and the failure of the city’s plan to upgrade infrastructure and provide the needed amenities for a 55 percent increase in population.
From an environmental standpoint, the gridlocked traffic and heavily impacted parking will make the plan a bust. San Diego is too spread out for people living and working outside of downtown to give up their cars.
Planning by lawsuit. This is what happens when politicians are owned by special interests.
Developers and business owners who want high-intensity development should go where such development is appropriate — Downtown.
—Andrew Towne via Facebook
Uptown is still cutting off its nose to spite its face, I see.
—Walter Chambers via Facebook
Where I want to live
Re: Ben Nicholls letter to the editor [Volume 7, Issue 13]
Hillcrest’s urban street grid, central location and proximity to Balboa Park make it among the most ideally situated neighborhoods in the city. Yet the neighborhood is slowly dying because it seems to be stuck in an auto-centric, 1980s way of thinking. I applaud Ben Nicholls’ letter and agree that Hillcrest needs to focus on making itself more attractive to residents if it is to return to its glory days.
Millennials are moving to the city in droves, but they’re largely bypassing Hillcrest as a place to live. Why? Young people today want bike lanes (a network, not just block-by-block), walkable streets, parklets — things that will encourage them to linger. The local business community has resisted some of these things because of parking fears, but they’re missing the forest for the trees. We’re all out of pavement here, so there can never be more available surface parking than there is right now. That fight can never be won.
Ben Nicholls is spot on when he says the way to sustain business here is to focus on building the residential population of the neighborhood. Yes, such development brings more density — but the business infrastructure exists to allow these residents to walk to almost everything they’d need, which means no net parking loss.
New development would also bring with it underground parking, returning the surface level to pedestrians.
Now that’s a neighborhood I’d want to call home.
—Richard Greene via Facebook
The Pernicano’s property
Re: “Buyer of Pernicano’s property to speak to Uptown Planners” [Volume 7, Issue 16]
Hillcrest is in desperate need of a hotel. After nearly 30 years of darkness in the heart of Hillcrest, I would love to see more activity in the vicinity of this property.
Can you just imagine what a boutique hotel could do for the area? And while I would love to see housing go in here, I feel that we could benefit more greatly from a hotel here. Specially one that markets to the LGBT community. With Hillcrest being the LGBT mecca of San Diego, a hotel could compliment our businesses tremendously and fill a market niche that is lacking.
And perhaps the new owners might be interested in providing a community space for an LGBT Visitors Center?
—Eddie Reynoso via Facebook
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