An epitaph for Albertsons
It’s a sad thing to see the closing of Albertsons “” or as the old timers call it, Lucky “” or as the real old timers still call it, Food Basket.
On a recent farewell visit, I almost cried as I walked up and down the empty aisles and viewed the stripped shelves. For 50 years, this place ” whatever you called it ” was so much more than a store. It was a community center, a place to meet and greet your friends, and catch up on their news. In a neighborhood like the Wooded Area, you were more likely to run into your neighbor at Albertsons than over the back fence. Now only the Point Loma Post Office will fill that social function.
The store has been a lifeline for older people, who might be intimidated by Rosecrans traffic, but felt safe driving down the street to Albertsons. This store was comfortable for them, human-scaled, its layout predictable.
Longtime customers and longtime employees could greet each other by name and ask after children and grandchildren.
The students at Point Loma Nazarene University, who mostly don’t have cars, now have no place within walking distance to buy milk and cookies, shampoo and toothpaste, a birthday card or a house plant. The children and teenagers of Point Loma will have to find another location to sell their fund-raising cookies, candy bars, hot dogs and sodas. They are unlikely to find any new group of customers as supportive as the regulars at Albertsons.
Recently there has been debate in these pages about where people will now go to buy their groceries. Those arguments are practical, but they miss the point.
For many Point Lomans, no other site can replace the convenience and comfort level of Albertsons. We can only hope that a new grocery store tenant is found quickly and that the replacement retains some of the community feel of the store we have now lost.
Melanie Nickel, Point Loma

Many blind to Miramar dangers
I’ve read a couple articles lately about how MCAS Miramar would be a great co-use airport for San Diego. It won’t work and it’s way past time to move on.
There are a few military/commercial airports that exist; Alberuerque International Sunport and Honolulu Airports come to mind. But, I don’t know of a single active tactical Navy or Marine Corps base that co-exists with airliners on a daily basis. If anyone knows of even one in the USA, please let me know. And there are reasons that that is the case.
It’s been said that the only problem with Miramar being one of these airports is that “touch and go” landings might be compromised, but they could be flown at San Clemente. Yes, that’s true, but for a few reasons San Clemente wouldn’t be much help. It could work, but it would be very expensive. (Getting landing signal officers out to the island, the gas and time for transiting, and terrain are not condusive to a left handed day pattern for flight carrier landing practices, which it needs to be.) El Centro would work better, but not much.
I’m not sure on the helo aspect of the base, but I’d have serious second thoughts about flying tactical helo ops at the same time with airliners in CAT I or II weather.
For these reasons, an active tactical base can’t co-exist with commercial aviation:
1. Fighters (especially USN/USMC) need to fly a visual overhead pattern similar to the one flown around an aircraft carrier whenever they are able. That, in itself, doesn’t blend in with a commercial airports’ normal instrument approaches. Way too often, a commercial airplane (MD-10/11, or whatever else) needs to practice a full instrument coupled approach to landing to verify its equipment. An equipment check needs to be flown in protected airspace. Would you have the tower ask a division of F-18’s to hold for a few more minutes so the MD-10 could do an equipment check? Most fighters fly until they’re about out of gas to maximize training. Would we suggest that the fighters routinely recover with extra gas for an airliners’ contingency? I don’t think so.
2. Most tactical airports maintain E-28 arresting gear on the runways for fighters (and long field chain gear, but that one wouldn’t matter). Not that difficult to get around, but not good. I don’t think many airliners want to run over that stuff every time they come and go ” it’s pretty tough on the equipment.
3. How are you going to integrate live-fire exercises? How would you integrate range times, launch and recovery, arming and de-arming with Southwest coming in from Pheonix? Would you enjoy sitting in an airliner watching a division of Hornets opposite you in the hold short with live munitions, such as AMRAAM’s, JDAM’s and LGB’s? Not even to mention some others. Don’t forget that’s the reason we have these type aircraft and pilots ” they like to blow things up and they get to carry and practice with the ordnance to learn how to do it.
4. Integrating ops with a B-767 and a C-141 is easy ” they’re both doing the same thing. An F-18 and MD-10 aren’t even close.
I’m beginning to see a reason Miramar keeps coming up; there apparently is no expertise to back up these positions. And let’s eliminate North Island while we’re at it, for much of the same reasons and a bunch of others.
Normally, I’m spring-loaded to the “make it happen” position and I’m not trying to be a NIMBY or whatever else, but this is simply not doable, which is much more difficult than the “WAY TOO HARD” category. But, if the Marine Corps ever decided to leave Miramar ” for whatever reason ” I think that place would be near perfect. Until then, let’s look elsewhere.
Norman C. Walker, Point Loma
10 years flying F-14s at MCAS Miramar and 10 years flying MD-10/11s for FedEx Express