Shoup’s traffic solution: 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

In loving memory
The past week has seen the passing of the Jewel’s loveliest lady, Deane Lindquist. As many who were privileged to know her personally are aware, her beauty and charm, not to mention her inexhaustible kindness and compassion, were legendary.
She will be sorely missed, but now she is with the Lord.
Alfonso de Bourbon, La Jolla

An odd idea?
Are you for or against the beach booze ban? Well, some of us are kinda for it and kinda against it. Actually, I really wish it were legal to drink alcohol on all beaches in California. Then, we wouldn’t have everyone in the world coming to Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach to drink! Well, good luck getting those other beaches to change back.
For some people, an all-out alcohol ban on the beaches has been difficult to swallow. So, we have gone through a series of “compromises” in an attempt to minimize the alcohol-related problems.
To clear the beach of drunks late at night and prevent them from living on the beach, we have limited the hours of drinking. I guess that’s been OK, but sometimes it seems silly when you see an officer writing a ticket for drinking a beer on a hot summer day at 11:45 a.m. when we’re sweating bullets, or at 8:15 p.m. when we’re sipping shiraz at sunset.
During the same political era, the city imposed the alcohol ban on the boardwalk. Well, that sure did clear up a lot of drunken encounters. But, I have to admit that I used to enjoy telling my friends from Orange County how we can ride a bike down the boardwalk with a beer in hand.
Since then, the proposed compromises have been total failures. What were the politicians thinking when they drafted a ballot measure to ban alcohol on Mission Beach and parts of PB, but not in north PB or on the bay?
Nobody wanted to further shrink the drinking zone, thereby packing the drinkers tighter together, in the more laid-back areas of PB. The next great idea was the keg ban. Well, at least the can collectors made more money. The trash collectors suffered though.
Some of you are saying these compromises all represent successive losses of freedom for the alcohol-drinking public. Well, wake up to the sobering reality of our crowded community.
If you want to live in the middle of the barren desert, you can have all the freedom you want. Yes, it’s sad, but if we keep putting more and more people into our nonexpanding beach area, we can’t let everyone do whatever they want and expect everyone to get along without incident.
Now, here is my wild idea for the next compromise: We can alternate days of drinking on the beach with days of no alcohol on the beach based upon the calendar day of the month. Naturally, the “odd days” will be drinking days. We might even expand the hours a bit. Then, on “even days” the teetotalers and other like-minded individuals can go to the beach without the worry of alcohol-related disturbances. With this plan, the Fourth of July will always be “dry” on the beach, thereby saving San Diego taxpayers a kegful of money.
Alcohol on the beach has been a hot political topic for a long time. Good politics is all about compromise. Let’s bring the community together and toast to a compromise, “Alternating Alcohol Days” on the beach! What do ya think?
Chris Olson, Pacific Beach