{"id":251572,"date":"2017-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/letters-to-the-editor-may-5-2017\/"},"modified":"2017-05-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T07:00:00","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-may-5-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/letters-to-the-editor-may-5-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the editor \u2013 May 5, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillcrest residents deserve some respect<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lately, we Hillcrest residents have been getting a pretty raw deal from the city, and in general.<\/p>\n

Our rents climb ever higher as our neighborhood deteriorates into a filthy playground for ill-behaved street people.\u00a0A simple walk to the store (which many will no longer do after dark) often involves dodging human feces and walking over the bodies of passed out homeless as we navigate through their fields of garbage.\u00a0Often, we neighbors are subjected to angry and abusive rants.<\/p>\n

We endure all this and yet,\u00a0the good things planned for Hillcrest never materialize.<\/p>\n

The site of our \u201cmythical\u201d library remains just\u00a0another spot for the homeless to trash.\u00a0We\u00a0remain without a local park or dog park.<\/p>\n

Our fancier western neighbor [Mission Hills] has two city parks within blocks of the main business district.<\/p>\n

Residents in this\u00a0\u201chospitals\u201d area shouldn\u2019t have to drive to Balboa Park to see some greenery or have a quiet walk with their kids or dogs.\u00a0Many\u00a0here are older (or their dogs are) and don\u2019t drive, or don\u2019t want to have to \u201cdrive to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give us a park\/dog park!\u00a0Give us a pretty\u00a0spot to decompress.<\/p>\n

Two possibilities come to mind.\u00a0The first is the large canyon side green space area on the north end of Third Avenue as you go toward the Scripps facility. Although it might be a narrow park, there is space beyond the last apartment building for benches, meandering, and observing the pretty view.\u00a0An improved path could lead to the official green\u00a0space trail.<\/p>\n

Another spot (in my fantasy) is the gorgeous property across from the UCSD\u00a0emergency room.\u00a0The property was the former\u00a0residence\u00a0of an amazing artist whose beautiful stone work graces the property in the form of stone arches, fireplaces, walls, walkways, etc.\u00a0It probably is not a very buildable property\u00a0but would make a heck of a park, even if the park was more of a walkway above it.<\/p>\n

Hillcrest needs some love!\u00a0 It is not the positive, happy place it used to be.\u00a0Give us SOMETHING so that we feel,\u00a0once more, glad to be living here.<\/p>\n

\u2014Marilyn Mangion of Hillcrest, via email to ken@sdcnn.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: Your comment about the library prompted me to check out the progress of the construction project for the Mission Hills-Hillcrest library, which will be built on the southwest corner of Washington and Front streets. District 3 Councilmember Chris Ward told me last week that construction crews are removing salvageable items from the old IBEW building and that demolition is likely to occur this month, followed by a ceremonial ground-breaking ceremony. The 14,350-square-foot library will be formally named the Mission Hills-Hillcrest Harley and Bessie Knox Branch Library.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Letters
On April 26, workers were salvaging items from the IBEW building at the corner of Front and Washington streets. The structure will soon be demolished to make room for the future Hillcrest-Mission Hills library. (Foto por Ken Williams)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Glad about MAD<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Re: \u201cMAD expansion proposed for east side of Hillcrest,\u201d Volume 9, Issue 8<\/a> or online at <\/em>bit.ly\/2pyiMkB<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Another well-written article, thank you Ken Williams.<\/p>\n

I would welcome the East Hillcrest MAD with open arms. One does not need to peek too far in to the future to see the changes coming. We need to be prepared and this is a very big step in the right direction. Thank you HBA.<\/p>\n

\u2014Luke Terpstra of Hillcrest, via our website, sduptownnews.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[SANDAG, the regional transportation authority, proposes to modify the medians to create enough space for the protected bike lanes] \u201cbut will not maintain the lanes or medians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city of San Diego will maintain the lanes but not any landscape or associated improvements. [That means SANDAG and the HBA will have to sign an agreement to maintain the improvements.] Beware of the HBA spin.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jeff K. via our sitio web<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Was it libel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Re: Letters to the editor, Volume 9, Issue 8<\/a> or online at <\/em>bit.ly\/2p1wj2W<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m more than a bit disappointed that SDUN decided to print the web posting by \u201cCalvin Van Winkle.\u201d His comment was nothing more than personal attacks badly disguised with illogical arguments.<\/p>\n

First off, difference of opinion (against developer depredation of our community or any other topic) isn\u2019t \u201cinfighting,\u201d it\u2019s democracy. Which I guess is why \u201cCalvin\u201d then goes on to argue that because community planning groups are \u201cadvisory\u201d and irrelevant, young people should get involved to join in the author\u2019s age discrimination.<\/p>\n

But even this could be forgiven as an honest viewpoint, if SDUN hadn\u2019t allowed the real author to hide behind a clearly fake name and snipe at those he has a grudge against anonymously. Some might say that\u2019s not just bad journalism; it\u2019s an invitation to libel.<\/p>\n

\u2014Mat Wahlstrom, member of Uptown Planners and a Hillcrest resident<\/em><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: Libel is defined as a published false statement that is damaging to a person\u2019s reputation. San Diego Uptown News did not see anything libelous in the letter from Mr. Van Winkle, who was criticizing the decision-making of certain members of the Uptown Planners. Mr. Wahlstrom is a publicly elected member of the Uptown Planners and one of those who was criticized by the letter writer.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Send letters to the editor to ken@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hillcrest residents deserve some respect Lately, we Hillcrest residents have been getting a pretty raw deal from the city, and in general. Our rents climb ever higher as our neighborhood deteriorates into a filthy playground for ill-behaved street people.\u00a0A simple walk to the store (which many will no longer do after dark) often involves dodging […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":251573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Letters to the editor \u2013 May 5, 2017","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11552,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-opinion","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}