Citizens shine a light
Many have explained the substance of why the public opposes paid street parking, but as citizens we must also shine light on the anti-democratic manner and tactics used against us.
The first tactic of paid street parking proponents (PSPPs) is to proclaim that they represent the majority view without taking into account the thousands of petitions against paid street parking and without taking a vote of the people who would be affected.
The second PSPP tactic is to create a Byzantine structure that creates an appearance of listening to the public while the majority remains disenfranchised from a democratic vote on parking issues.
Promote La Jolla Inc.’s board is elected by businesses in a small geographical area of La Jolla, but its parking board committee makes parking plans for a far larger geographical area of the Parking District, which extends from La Jolla’s border with Pacific Beach all the way to UCSD.
The third PSPP tactic is to ignore the businesses in La Jolla that oppose paid street parking.
Not only have PSPPs failed to perform an unbiased survey of La Jolla businesses, but Promote La Jolla Inc. would not even seat on its board of directors two elected board members who oppose paid street parking until those elected board members obtained a written court order.
The fourth PSPP tactic (which can be seen in Pacific Beach as well as La Jolla) is copied from Professor Donald Shoup, who says at page 439 of his recent book “… because drivers oppose paying for curb parking, we need a countervailing interest that benefits from the revenue.
Earmarking the revenue to pay for neighborhood improvements will create this countervailing interest.”
The fifth PSPP tactic following public outrage at the “comprehensive integrated plan that involves almost the entire area of La Jolla” is to offer an opt-in opt-out approach, knowing from Shoup’s book at pages 399-400 that parking meter use spreads from the first single meter.
Beware that not everything with a propensity to spread is worth having.
John Berol, La Jolla

Proposed solution to La Jolla parking dilemma
On the Promote La Jolla Web site, the stated objectives concerning parking in La Jolla are:
“We need to:”¨”¢ Make it easier for residents to park and shop in the Village”¨”¢ Prevent employees from parking in front of homes”¨”¢ Stop the city from putting diagonal parking on residential streets”¨”¢ Prevent the installation of conventional parking meters by the city
We also need to: “¨”¢ Encourage office workers to use their spaces in parking garages”¨”¢ Provide enough parking for visitors, so they don’t overcrowd our streets”¨”¢ Determine if we can solve our problems without paid on-street parking “I agree with all of them. Unfortunately the Parking Board has not done due diligence with regard to the last item.
Better enforcement of our existing parking regulations can provide a solution that meets the stated objectives of the Parking Board and will satisfy those who oppose paid on-street parking.
The solution is high-tech; has a modest cost; and is effective. All the necessary hardware to implement this solution exist.
Install an automatic license plate scanner (ALPS), a GPS receiver, and a computer in the current parking enforcement vehicles. As the enforcement vehicle drives up and down the village streets, the system records the date and time, the location within 30 feet, and the vehicle license plate. The system compares the license plate number with its database to determine if that vehicle has been parked in the same location for more than the allowed time. If so, a tone sounds, a ticket is produced automatically, and the enforcement officer puts it on the windshield of the offending vehicle.
This is not pie-in-the-sky. All these products exist.
The increased fines collected through better enforcement will allow the system to pay for itself.
The enforcement vehicle can make more frequent passes through the village creating an environment that discourages parking longer than the limit.
I understand why this technology hasn’t been considered by the Parking Board. It’s not a traditional approach. But I believe it should be the first thing tried to ease parking in the village.
Richard Wolf, La Jolla

Who keeps an eye on the spies?
It seems that members of La Jolla Shores Assoc. recently voted to install surveillance cameras everywhere to snoop on the public (“Shores wants cameras at park,” Village News, Feb. 28, page 1). I’m the public, I was never consulted.
Let face the fact. Fear Tactics Work! Yes, creeping tide of Big Brother is here! Electronic surveillance on La Jolla parks and beaches? They must be kidding!
I have lived in La Jolla Shores for 22 years, walk everywhere and have encountered no threats or dangers. Some people who live near the beach resent the fact that the public has access. They would love to privatize the beach!
Fear has become a national epidemic. Promoting fear and suspicion of strangers is profitable if you are in the business of making electronic surveillance gadgets. It’s also the beginning of a police state.
According to the Feb. 27 Newsweek, “An aggressive campaign by the White House and its allies to win approval of a new electronic spying bill is escalating partisan tensions on Capitol Hill “¦ “
The article describes the latest tactic employed by administration supporters involving a $2 million television advertising campaign featuring sinister images of Osama bin Laden. They started running this week in the home districts of targeted members of Congress. The ads, funded by a newly formed conservative advocacy group called defenseofdemocracies.org, charge that House Democrats have allowed “surveillance against terrorists” to be “crippled” because they failed to approve a version of the spying bill supported by the Bush administration. The ads call on voters to contact specific members of Congress and demand that they vote “to keep us all safe.”
Who benefits, who loses? Who will keep an eye on the spies? Make no mistake. This is no harmless attempt at protecting the public. They are not after the “bad guys.” The public is the target! They want total control. No dissent, no questioning policies or motives. If we acquiesce, there may be no turning back.

Tanja Winter, La Jolla

Buried pool the other half of story
I read the article in the Feb. 21 edition of the La Jolla Village News (“Fractious groups clash again at Children’s Pool,” page 11). A couple things need to be cleared up.
The Friends of the Children’s Pool is not mostly divers or much of an activist group. FoCP is almost all local beach goers and swimmers who came together over Children’s Pool as a civil rights issue (WWW.FriendsoftheChildrensPool.com)
They do not picket, yell, put up signs, bully or harass anybody, unlike a real “activist group.”
Among them are the few who have the courage to continue to use Children’s Pool, as is legal, and endure catcalls and lies and attempts to intimidate them, to show the rest of the citizenry you don’t have to be shoved around. FoCP did put up the funding that first retained Mr. Kennerson to take on the court battle to enforce the trust and restore Children’s Pool for the public. It was civic action through legal means, staying within the legal system. The divers’ group in San Diego is the Council of Divers (which has taken no action at Children’s Pool, ever).
The court did not rule against seals, nor was there ever any animosity toward them. Divers and swimmers know them to be friendly, easily startled, opportunistic, smart, adaptable and peaceable.
It was the intransigence of people devoted to driving humans off a beach that had been easily shared for many years that took the matter through the appeals courts and ended up incidentally requiring the seals to be repatriated to the wild, for water quality restoration.
The restoration of water quality is only half the judgment ” the more important part was the requirement to remove the 9-foot-deep sand dune that now buries the real Children’s Pool.
Hardly anybody alive today has actually seen Children’s Pool.
There is no safer animal in the world than a seal at Children’s Pool, and APRL is not ensuring the safety of any seals from anything. We resent the seals being exploited to make a tourist attraction and we being forced off public land for the purpose.
Should you happen to visit Children’s Pool when someone goes on the beach, you will be encouraged to yell at them “It is illegal to go on the beach.” You will be repeating a lie.
John Leek, La Jolla