A few things:
- Next week, we’re going to do a whole week of commentary, blogging and thinking about Proposition B, the proposal to overhaul the port’s planning power and completely change what we think of as the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal — perhaps the most valuable corner of bay-front land in San Diego.
What do you think about Proposition B? Should we try to combine maritime hard-hat jobs with football stadiums and hotels? Is it even possible to put a deck on top of a cargo terminal and still bring in cargo? Is it the only hope for a new Chargers stadium in San Diego? If you would like to write something up with your thoughts about what should happen to San Diego’s bay front and Tenth Avenue send it to me at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org.
I’m particularly looking for people who are against the proposal. The campaign against it is not very impressively organized so far.
- Once you start quoting these people, you can’t stop. Here’s San Diego-area Rep. Brian Bilbray on his reasons for opposing the bailout:
“The American taxpayers are being asked to assume a $700 billion burden to bailout Wall Street with little more than a promise and a congressional report that this is just a one time deal,” Rep. Bilbray said. “It is not the responsibility of the American taxpayers to foot the bill or the capital for the irresponsible actions of Wall Street and borrowers. I am not opposed to appropriate government action, but socializing the capital market at the expense of the taxpayer is wrong and saddles future generations with potentially billions of dollars of debt. There is no promise that there will not be more, nor even any real certainty that this Hail Mary proposal will even work.”
Better call Nick Leibham now …
- Leibham, you know, briefly worked for City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Aguirre got a bit of a boost recently from La Prensa, the newspaper that serves the city’s Latino and Spanish-language communities. La Prensa endorsed Aguirre.
But what’s interesting is what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t apologize for him. It’s a rather proud declaration, in fact, that he has nothing to apologize for.
Even Aguirre, in his first television commercial of the season, begins with a sort of apology: Sure I could’ve done some things differently. Probably should have.
This is how most arguments for Aguirre go these days: Yeah, he’s out of control. He’s a loose cannon. He’s reckless and he’s made serious mistakes. But he’s on our side. And his cannon is firing at the right targets.
This implies that the only path to reform is through recklessness so you just have to deal with it.
La Prensa, didn’t go there. Keep firing, the paper tells the city attorney.
Probably good political advice. I’ve never heard of a person winning an election on the platform theme of “I’m sorry.”