Shoup’s traffic solution: If not working, charge for it
Pity the UCLA students who have to sit through Donald Shoup’s traffic “lectures.” Not being a captive audience, we San Diegans are fortunately not required to subject ourselves his “wisdom.” Shoup, a self-promoter, came to us via Promote La Jolla, the same folks who, for reasons of self-aggrandizement, deprived La Jolla of our most outstanding annual Arts Festival. Now they are at it again. Are we going to be fooled this time?
Don’t you love the title “The High Cost of Free Parking”? Trying to frighten us with loss of revenue, they pick our pockets while laughing all the way to the bank. Just wave the flag of patriotism, the threat of pollution, of unwanted multitudes and the threat of using “foreign” oil in cruising cars, and all bets are off. Will we fall for another absurdity in the name of “fiscal management”?
When something isn’t working, “charge for it” is the mantra. The fact is that charging just discriminates against low-income people. It also involves installing ugly wasteful meters, maintenance, collecting money and all the other hidden costs of privatizing, or charging for our public spaces. None of it reduces the real culprit, our addiction to cars.
It’s time we provided some new ideas. Let’s find a way to make our public spaces more hospitable and accessible.
The ultimate idiocy is the promotion of charging for beach parking. The beaches are owned by the public and should not be for sale. The time that many families take to spend at the beach should be enhanced and hassle-free. It is their beach, after all.
With his mumbo jumbo arithmetic, Shoup has sold his bill of goods to some members of the traffic committee. His arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny. He represents the faulty and very dangerous idea that people with credit cards and power should have more access than others. They would, if they could, make La Jolla a gated community. Their philosophy has had a devastating effect around the globe when people with money and power create laws and determine who benefits and who loses. It is anathema to democracy.
We need more advocates for the public good, for real reform and greater respect for urban beauty and access to public spaces. We need to listen to people like the brilliant Fred Kent and his Project for Public Spaces. You can read more at www.pps.org or hear the talk he gave in San Diego on UCSD-TV archives.
Tanja Winter, La Jolla

Sonar gives whales the bends
Let’s hope the lawsuit recently filed in California over the Navy’s sonar tests convinces the Navy to take animals’ welfare into consideration (AP story).
Mounting evidence links sonar tests to many whale strandings around the world. Recently, a 15-foot beaked whale beached herself and was reportedly found dead with bleeding around both ears, likely a result of Navy sonar testing done off the coast of North Carolina. In January 2005, 37 whales beached themselves and died on the Outer Banks following a similar Navy sonar exercise.
A study published in the journal Nature in 2003 suggested that high-powered sonar from Navy ships appears to give whales and other marine mammals a version of the bends, causing them to develop dangerous gas bubbles in some tissues and blood vessels as well as beach themselves and die. Researchers found a condition similar to decompression sickness in 10 of 14 dead beached whales who were stranded in the Canary Islands soon after an international Navy exercise in 2002.
We’ve put people on the moon ” certainly, we can develop a sonar system that doesn’t harm innocent animals. To learn more, visit www.HelpingWildlife.com.
Stephanie Boyles, M.S., Wildlife Biologist
Domestic Animal and Wildlife Rescue & Information Department People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Norfolk, VA

Domestic pinniped park in La Jolla
A marine mammal research blog has compiled a list of what are called domestic pinniped parks. These are public areas in communities such as public beaches and docks where wild pinnipeds have lost their fear of humans and are now cohabitating these public areas with people. Such locations are found on the coast of California in San Francisco, Monterey and Newport Beach. La Jolla is also on this list with the Children’s Pool given as the location.
Most of the pinnipeds involved with these domestic pinniped parks are California sea lions. In the case of the Children’s Pool, the domestic pinnipeds are harbor seals. The conclusion here is that communities are using these domestic pinniped parks to encourage tourism at the expense of wildlife. Pinniped park animals are no longer wild primarily staying at these public areas. These pinniped parks do not represent true wild populations and are on the level of zoo or ocean theme park attractions.
Kent Trego, La Jolla