The Seahaus condo and townhome complex was to be, in the words of one homeowner, the “Beverly Hills of La Jolla.”
Translation: a step above the upscale in what’s perennially described as a wealthy seaside enclave.
Some homeowners paid more than a million dollars to move in back in 2005. Now, their home prices have plummeted, and that’s not all.
As our story reports, owners are “suing the builders of their homes, alleging their complex was poorly constructed, and developers concealed water damage on the inner beams. They’re demanding developers pay to fix it or else undo their entire purchases.”
On the other side, several of the companies named in the suit tell us they stand by their work.
In other news:
• As we told you earlier this week, none of the three finalists for superintendent of San Diego schools are “raring to blow up the school district.” They’re not touting themselves as game changers: they want to work with the district as it is, not completely overhaul it.
However, there are still plenty of differences between the two men and one woman who are vying for the district’s top job. We take a closer look at their backgrounds in a follow-up post.
We also check in with people who say the district didn’t work hard enough to find the best candidates. For one thing, a critic says, it didn’t go out and actively recruit. In fact, it didn’t even hire a headhunter.
• In City Hall news: “Just before the City Council is expected to make a key decision in the push to increase the maximum amount of money downtown’s redevelopment agency is allowed to raise, a new report says the decision to lift the current cap may have a positive impact on the city’s day-to-day budget.”
• OK everybody, hum it with me: Da-doot-da-doot-du-doooo-dut-dut-doo-dut-dut-doooo-dooo. . .
Sadly, the Morning Report doesn’t have audio. So you might not be able to tell that’s the theme from The Odd Couple.
Yes, we have a breezy story about a mismatched pair, both of whom have been abandoned by their former employers and recently shared the joys of being TV commentators.
They are a former city attorney and a former editorial page editor who used to be enemies. As our story puts it, Mike Aguirre and Bob Kittle “have apparently buried the hatchet, and this time not in each other’s backs.”
Which one is Felix and which one is Oscar? (Or to put it another way, which is Bert and which is Ernie?) Only time will tell.
• They say a broken clock is right twice a day (a slightly better record than my mother), but what about Councilman Carl DeMaio’s Managed Competition Clock? Fact Check TV recaps our verdict about its accuracy.
Elsewhere:
• U-T columnist Logan Jenkins takes a colorful look at the race between longtime County Supervisor Bill Horn (Jenkins calls him wide-bodied and big-ranched) and green-tea-drinking Vista City Councilman Steve Gronke.
The column includes plenty of revealing details, including this quote from Gronke: “I don’t think North County is extremely conservative. It’s conservative; I’m conservative; but people aren’t tea partyers here. People aren’t going to send out messages to their staff to go to prayer breakfasts.”
Gronke adds this about Horn: “Is he a big-time fat-cat politician? No. But nobody has any doubt whose side he’s on, who owns him.”
With a mouth like that, Gronke is destined to make this November race one to remember, although he may be underestimating how conservative North County voters actually are.
• CityBeat says the downtown redevelopment agency wants to spend $900,000 for a single restroom in Little Italy. That’s one pricey potty. Councilwoman Marti Emerald says you can get quite a few more toilets for that amount of money: something called the “Portland Loo” costs about $107,000 to buy and install.
• In the U-T: “Grieving parents would have the right to seal the autopsy reports of their murdered children under legislation stemming from the slayings of north San Diego County teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.” Dennis Hollingsworth, a state senator who represents some of North County, is pushing the bill, as is District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.
But critics, including an association of state newspapers, oppose it. Such a limit would put privacy rights above those of the public — through the press or citizen requests — to investigate whether authorities properly handled a murder case.
• The NCT says city sales tax revenue losses are slowing or even reversing in several North County cities, although not all of them.
• Why is a newborn puppy at the Escondido Humane Society named Drano? Because it fell down a drain and needed to be rescued by a plumber with a sledgehammer. Never mind all that: Just check the photo and join me in a round of “awwwwww.” (NCT)
• The San Diego County Fair — the event formerly known as the Del Mar Fair — is offering free admission to the unemployed today and June 29.
Also at the fair, Friday is the day when the undead will gather for a giant group performance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance. I went to a practice session at Balboa Park earlier this month and watched kids as young as five practice their night moves. (Yes, I took part. And no, nobody screamed “My eyes! My eyes!” Well, except for one of those five year olds. Little brat.)
When the dance begins, re-animated corpses rise from the ground and began shaking their moldy bones. Alas, some of the chronologically gifted participants at the practice session declined to lie on the grass because they feared not being able to get up.
There’s never a good zombie orthopedist around when you need one.