In San Ysidro, the sides are being drawn as the community gets ready for a potential showdown over the city’s power to take property.
The San Diego City Council will make the final decision over whether it will once again have eminent-domain power in the community; the power expired last year. Now, San Ysidro leaders are trying to figure out what to recommend to the city.
To city officials, eminent domain allows the city to work for the benefit of San Ysidro through redevelopment. But some residents have long memories going back to when properties were snatched up to make room for two freeways.
The city has some work to do. For one, it hasn’t answered why it needs the power now if it has no plans to do anything with it.
In other news:
- The hundreds of bicyclists who gathered for last Friday’s anti-automobile Critical Mass protest did more than just pedal around town for hours. As our follow-up to this week’s story about the monthly event reveals, they also aggravated a foul-mouthed downtown Mercedes driver, crashed into each other and nearly got into fisticuffs.
In addition, they made a liquor store’s day and, in some cases, drove home when it was all done.
The Critical Mass riders also have a big fan in KPBS-FM reporter and former public-affairs show host Tom Fudge, who wrote us a letter in support of a “symbolic act” that ultimately supports public safety.
But another letter writer says Critical Mass is a dangerous joke and zings a bicyclist we quoted: “You participate in an unlawful event and willfully go about a route that is unknown to police, and then you complain that they are not doing enough to protect you? Get real.”
- What a deal! A North County condo that sold for $265,000 about a year ago was just bought for $46,000.
Did Keith Richards move in next door and ruin the neighborhood property values? Nope, it just happened to be involved in the massive real-estate swindle we uncovered last spring.
- Also on our site: We explain more about the dispute between the city of San Diego and labor over “managed competition”… The city will release its five-year financial forecast today. Clear skies are not ahead: San Diego education officials are debating how to limit teacher workloads without overly restricting the freedom of principals to push for change …
- There’s more: Real-estate columnist Rich Toscano examines the latest local home-price numbers with the help of — you guessed it — visual aids. Four of them. This is why we don’t pay him by the chart … Are you taking extra steps to conserve water? We’d like to talk to you for a story we’re working on. Drop us a line … And we’re looking for your suggested captions for our high-flying Photo of the Day. No cracks about your mother-in-law, please.
- Elsewhere: The U-T uncovers a “series of curious campaign financial transactions” involving East County Assemblyman Joel Anderson as he readies a possible bid for state senate — Republicans, meanwhile, are offering explanations … A post office on a Navy base in Coronado is history, and one in downtown (not the big one on E Street) and another in North Park are still on the chopping block (U-T).
Finally, the NCT reports that a woman convinced a Halloween store in Carlsbad to remove a dozen racy costumes from store shelves, including one of a “gravity-challenged Hooters waitress.”
Man alive. What am I going to wear now?