About affordable housing
Re: “Affordable housing: Is the city about to get serious about the problem?” [Volume 8, Issue 2 or bit.ly/236SRhU]
Thank you for publishing this piece on affordable housing, and highlighting the efforts of the North Park Planning Committee to address the problem. Adding density along the El Cajon Boulevard transit corridor makes sense, considering SANDAG’s Rapid Bus (and future trolley line) investments there.
What a contrast between the planning chairs of the North Park and KenTal community planning groups. As a resident of Kensington, I was embarrassed to read why our planning chair opposes new housing. Mr. Moty mentions a lack of “infrastructure” four times, yet never explains what that means. Do the huge public transit infrastructure investments in the El Cajon Boulevard and SR-15 Rapid Buses not count?
I’m afraid that for Mr. Moty, only widening and adding more roads count as infrastructure. This just creates more traffic, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, which contradict the city’s Climate Action Plan. And how do we widen roads without tearing down existing housing?
—Paul Jamason via our website, sduptownnews.com
Rent control is the only practical solution, there is no way in our region to build our way out of this crisis. Demand will always exceed supply in our little slice of paradise.
—Bruce Coons via our website
Thank you for the article about San Diego’s high housing costs. Why, however, is there no mention at City Hall/City Council about rent control?
I lived in Los Angeles 1979-1988. If it hadn’t been for rent control, I would have been even hungrier than I already was, since jobs in the entertainment field were sporadic.
With rent control, landlords can raise the rent periodically, using a certain percentage rate. After the tenant moves out they can raise the base rent.
Rent control has the benefit of encouraging long-term tenants, which saves landlords from expensive turnovers. Plus, we got to know our neighbors! People stayed long enough to get acquainted and feel a sense of community — a big plus in a huge city.
—C. L. Morgan ?of San Diego, via email
I find Ms. Granowitz’s comments disingenuous. At its meeting on Jan. 19, the North Park Planning Committee “approved in concept” the city’s proposal for increasing the base density along El Cajon and Park boulevards to 109 dwellings per acre with a density bonus of up 145 dwellings per acre. The proposal does not include any requirements for affordable housing. For more information, visit bit.ly/1SIzyrC.
—Kristin Harms via our website
Doing this just right
My name is Tom Barb. I am a 19-year resident of Talmadge, living on Adams Avenue. I just wanted to give you some personal feedback.
I truly enjoy seeing the Uptown News when it gets delivered to our front yard. I like the paper and its contents everything from the local news, opinion, politics, dining, classifieds, fitness, and community voices.
It is nice to see truly local neighborhood news in a format that is easy to follow and interesting to many different readers here in the “uptown” area of San Diego. It’s not too much and it’s not too little. Just right in my opinion.
Keep up the great work!
—Tom Barb, chair of Talmadge Community Council, via email
Reaction to opinion column
Re: “Buy small, build big, hold for the return” [Volume 8, Issue 2, bit.ly/1T9imuK]
Uptown News is always full of useful information and we look forward to reading the news of local politics and the neighborhoods.
In the January 15-28 edition, I was surprised to read an editorial brazenly titled “Buy small, build big, hold for the return” calling on investors to buy and demolish single family homes in City Heights for replacement with apartment buildings.
Accompanying the article was a photo of a charming, smallish Craftsman house, perhaps needing paint, but certainly with a century of beloved use by San Diego families in its past, remaining a handsome, character-filled and desirable house today. Such houses and neighborhoods have served San Diegans well for nearly a century. Older housing and walkable commercial districts make our neighborhoods beautiful, historic, unique and increasingly desirable.
Author Eric Domeier says such older housing stock represents an “opportunity” for the small investor to cash in by taking advantage of zoning to put four units on a lot currently occupied by a single older house. The consequences of such greed and shortsighted opportunism are familiar and on display already in neighborhoods throughout the city. Investors cash in but future blight beckons.
San Diego’s mid-city neighborhoods have been down this road before in the 1970s and 1980s when thousands of perfectly livable houses were demolished to make way for the ubiquitous, ugly box apartment buildings with parking on what had once been front yards. These buildings replaced modest Craftsman and Spanish-style houses that, had they survived, would now sell for upwards of $500,000 in North Park, Normal Heights and Talmadge. Instead, the neighborhoods are permanently blighted by ugly apartment buildings that are widely recognized to have been disastrous for the livability, beauty and long-term value of our neighborhoods.
Architectural critics have derided these structures as “Huffman six-packs.” If developers want to build infill, why not replace the ugly apartment buildings of the 1970s, instead of destroying the original houses of the 1920s?
San Diegans should stand together to preserve and protect the long-term public value of our vulnerable neighborhoods from the blight and greed of short-term private opportunism. Once our charming neighborhoods are gone, they are gone for good.
—Michael Provence of South Park, via email to [email protected]
[Editor’s note: The final draft of the North Park Community Plan update specifically encourages developers to target the “Huffman six-packs” in North Park, many of which were built between University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard. Read the cover story about the update plan for more details on the incentive program called Pedestrian-Oriented Infill Development Density Bonus.]
Excellent article and a true motivator to the small developer. Thank you I look forward to reading more from Eric.
—Ed Badrak via our website
These properties may be zoned for more density than they are currently utilizing. But, that doesn’t make them necessarily good candidates for residential makeovers. Isn’t there a need for a critical mass of commercial services and goods? Not to mention public areas for recreation and open spaces for relaxation? Just building up without partnering in these other requirements for habitation is the equivalent of building rows and rows of suburban tract homes that have no civic center. Potential needs to be aligned with reality.
Some of what you might consider denser housing has been done before in the form of “Huffman six-packs.” Obviously, these are a scourge and just look ugly. Developers took the small lots and went for the greatest gross square footage possible.
This kind of blight might not happen again, but I sincerely doubt the selflessness of the newest form of developer and devotee of the pro forma model of housing. Just because something looks good on paper doesn’t mean that it will be realized in the third dimension as quality construction. We live in a capitalist society that sees dollar signs in just about every human endeavor including the built environment.
—reisubrocel via our website
Spreading the love
Re: “Behind the imperial façade” [Volume 9, Issue 2 or bit.ly/1TdtE0Z]
Love this restaurant [Chop Suey | Peking Restaurant in North Park]. I have friends that have gone there for lunch every Friday for more than 30 years.
—Char-Lou Benedict via our website
Against massive project
Re: “Hillcrest Town Council opposes televangelist’s project” [Volume 8, Issue 2 or bit.ly/1OLLaUz]
This project [Morris Cerullo International Legacy Center] will have a detrimental impact on Mission Valley! Also, this type of ministry that does not believe in equality for all people is not welcome in San Diego!
—Benny Cartwright via our website
Against North Park store
Re: “Smart & Final Extra! concept explained” [Volume 7, Issue 26, or at bit.ly/1QX2R9b]
If they aren’t going to offer a bakery, deli or meat department what good will it be to the neighborhood? Too many grocery stores have been closed recently. This deal should be squashed.
—Mark Dahl via our website
Comments on bicycling
Re: Comments made on “Metro San Diego CDC supports separated bicycle lanes” [Volume 7, Issue 22 or bit.ly/1P3rzSK]
Great comments W.D. Snell!
I’ve commuted by bicycle to work daily for the past eight years.
I fully agree with all your four suggestions.
I moved here from Washington and at first I was surprised at the number of cyclist flagrantly breaking laws. I’ve almost had two collisions with cyclists that failed to stop at four-way stop signs. It’s time to start aggressively citing dangerous cyclists.
Likewise, there is a non-trivial percentage of aggressive drivers that endanger cyclists — trying to “beat cyclists” when making right turns; turning left in front of oncoming cyclists, bike lane violations; failure to provide 3 feet when passing — that I experience daily. I would add a fifth suggestion — issuing citations to drivers needlessly endangering cyclists.
—J. Cherry via our website
Missing a piece of history
Re: “Hip and historic North Park” [Volume 6, Issue 20 or bit.ly/1VejxYd]
A well-known and historically significant business that seems to be missing from the recent history books is Zumwalt’s North Park Cyclery. The bicycle shop operated in the heart of North Park for 66 years at 2811 University Ave., across from the old Palisade Skating Rink.
It originally opened in 1930 as a small lawn mower and bicycle repair shop a few blocks to the west. My dad Bob Zumwalt Sr. and his father Leslie Zumwalt relocated to the much larger permanent location on Sept. 1, 1931 — just one day before my father’s 18th birthday. In the late 1940s, my Dad bought my grandfather’s share of the business and renamed it Zumwalt’s North Park Bicycle Co.
From that day forward, our entire family worked in the shop — my mother, my uncle Bob Haynes, my brother Bob Jr., my sister Donna, and myself (Shirlee). As children, we literally grew up in that shop. We all have great memories of Zumwalt’s, the location, the schools and all of the other businesses in that area.
In 1982, my brother Bob and I bought the business from my father. We ran it together until 1989, when I bought my brother’s share of the store. My brother and his wife moved to Oregon, where they still live. I ran the shop, mostly with the help of my sons Todd and Brian. In 1995, Todd opened his own shop, Zumwalt’s College Cyclery on the 6400 block of El Cajon Blvd. He is still in business there — doing very well. My other son, Brian, is also still in the bicycle business working at Haro Bicycle Co. in Vista, California. I closed the North Park store in 1996.
There is so much history surrounding the shop and the family. My Dad was a prime mover in constructing San Diego’s first velodrome in Balboa Park. He sponsored many bicycle riders and events for many years. My brother Bob was a national junior racing champion. His memorabilia is still in the San Diego Hall of Champions. At 78 years old, he still rides centuries and competes in races. He can still outride a lot of younger men.
My question is: Why is Zumwalt’s missing from then current history books and articles about North Park? It is such a well-known name to many thousands of San Diegoans. Many generations remember Zumwalt’s as where they got their first bicycle. Very few family businesses have a longer local history — 86 years old in September. And yet, I don’t see it mentioned in past or current North Park history books. Yes, that hurts, a tad. Nevertheless, I am proud to say that through my family and my son Todd, Zumwalt’s is in their fourth generation of bicycling and serving San Diego and plan to continue to for years to come. Thank you for your time and interest.
—Shirlee (Zumwalt) Geiger via our website
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