Tuesday, March 27, 2007 | San Diego is once again about to waste hundreds of millions of dollars for an inside deal with drooling developers and ignorant or very uninformed city representatives making a decision on Fiesta Island’s future.
I went to a meeting, assuming it was to be a give and take information session on Fiesta Island, to find out that what the public wants and thinks is once again unimportant.
The bureaucrats have $200 million to spend and are going to plant lawns, develop parking spaces, put in concession stands, which no doubt will go to one of their non biding business friends, all the time stressing that junk food and rubber Tommyhawks are good for the family values.
Fiesta Island is a real jewel in a city that has all but forgotten its past and history.
It is a place that everyone is welcome, you can walk your dogs without leases, fish, jet ski, water ski, wind surf, picnic with the family, and OMBAC over the line yearly.
Maintenance is very low now, but the city will make sure that it will cost all of us many more millions of dollars to maintain for the years to come.
These city overseer’s of what to do with the island hang on to nonsense poor information and complete disregard for what the people of San Diego want.
I heard stories about it being a dumping ground for used refrigerators and the like. Not so! I go to Fiesta Island often and have for the last 35 years. Not once have I seen anything more than extra wood pallets used to make a fire in one of the many fire pits.
Fiesta Island has been a dump for sewer sludge for many years; the water has been extremely polluted, so much so that the neighboring facility that uses fish for its shows must filter its water.
Let the people have their island. It is truly a special place that everyone feels they can get away from the new city craziness and have their own Tom Sawyer Island, with very few rules.
Put the money were it will do more good! We have many other parks that desperately need help.
Leave Fiesta Island alone as it is.
Put it up to vote and let the people decide the future, not some uninformed bureaucrat that is helping his friends out for future votes.