He didn’t refer to naysayers as “nattering nabobs of negativism,” but that was the general idea as Mayor Jerry Sanders gave a major speech about fiscal policy yesterday.
The city needs to boldly move ahead and literally build its future, Sanders declared. On his agenda: A new City Hall, new downtown library and an expanded convention center.
“We cannot allow our judgment to be clouded by the defeatists who think the only response to a weak economy is to abandon our aspirations,” he said. And, in words his critics are sure to find estranged from reality, he said “we don’t run from hard work, or from tough decisions.”
Sanders did fumble the word “election,” but it seemed appropriate. After all, he wants to the city to flex its power and rise.
But columnist Scott Lewis, who’s against spending money that doesn’t exist, is deflated. He writes that this was “the most divisive, most insulting, most unenlightened speech I’ve ever heard [Sanders] give.”
In other news:
- While SDG&E is 0-for-1 in its bid to convince state utility officials to let it cut the power to rural areas when wildfires threaten, the company appears to have the right to turn off the lights anyway. But will it dare?
- Once again, the chairman of the local airport authority is having trouble with the full truth.
First, he misled us about whom he took to a Chargers game in London on the public dime. Now it turns out that his actual companion is the husband of his niece.
“I made some poor choices on answers,” Watkins says.
- The San Diego City Council sided with Tierresanta residents and blocked plans to build a large self-storage facility at the community’s entrance. And the county board of supervisors tackled its controversial slush fund, approving some new restrictions but weakening some provisions too.
- Point Loma parents are floating a startling idea: They’re thinking about seceding from the San Diego school district and forming individual charter schools at existing campuses in the community.
Also: San Diego schools aren’t keeping up with federal No Child Left Behind expectations, but there is some good news from the feds.
- A Border Patrol agent is suing the federal government, accusing it of invading his privacy by releasing a surveillance video of his encounter with an accused illegal border crosser. (CityBeat)
- “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” A TV show has the first two covered, and it may be destined for the San Diego market. “Cannabis Planet,” now seen in L.A., focuses on “medical, agricultural and industrial” uses of the hemp plant and is in negotiations to appear on the airwaves here. (NYT)
Wait. “Industrial” uses?
- A perennial Republican write-in candidate in San Diego and Orange counties is facing a jury trial over 15 fraud charges. She claimed to have raised more than $200,000 for her 2008 race for Duncan Hunter’s seat, but none of her 217 claimed contributions could be confirmed. (OC Register)
- Finally, you may have seen ads for the Body Worlds exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum, featuring preserved corpses in a variety of poses, such as hitting a baseball or dribbling a basketball. The show, which has long been controversial, manages to be creepily fascinating.
Now, Reuters reports that a planned Body Worlds exhibit in Europe is raising eyebrows because the cadavers are slated to appear in new poses that are, shall we say, for mature audiences.