Hi VOSD,
A friend recommended I get your daily updates, they are great! Thanks for the great reporting.
I honestly believe the city of San Diego needs to declare bankruptcy. I actually support unions in some fashion and believe the U.S. wouldn’t be the great workplace it is today without them but … the pensions have gotten out of hand, not just in San Diego, but the nation.
The only way to corral pension and retirees’ healthcare costs is bankruptcy. You could then negotiate a fair benefit for those that did work hard and realign government costs. It wasn’t the rank and file that negotiated these high pensions, it was the leadership. Former Councilman Zucchet is certainly no friend of the city’s plight.
The building of the central library is also a joke. The city can’t even keep open the branches. Let’s give downtown a beautiful, big branch to serve those that live and work in downtown and put everything else in Miramar in a cheap building that can be accessed by the public in person or ordered and delivered to your local branch. The money donated to operate the downtown library can be used to reopen the branches on Sundays and Mondays.
Finally, the city should buy an existing building downtown on the cheap — as commercial real estate is at bargain basement prices — and consolidate its services there. Even with the cost to retrofit a building with a council chamber, they’d be ahead of the game.
Keep up the good reporting!
— PENNY CAMPBELL, Pacific Beach