Want to fiercely debate the future of San Diego? Our commenters do and you can register to comment here to join them.
Here are five sample comments from the week:
• Hank Pfeffer on “Purifying Sewage: Where the Mayoral Candidates Stand“:
San Diego is close to being a desert. Until it comes up with an energy (cost) effective method of desalination, it will not be attractive to the kind of new growth that creates ongoing jobs. The Carlsbad plant is nowhere near good enough. Wastewater isn’t good enough. Only the ocean can provide the cubic miles of water the county needs.
In the meantime, multiple approaches and incremental improvements are the best we can do. Grass lawns and other water intensive non-local plants should be heavily taxed.
• Mike Stevens on “How Much Dumanis’ Experience Matters“:
What a load of bull. A mayor, just like a councilman or assemblyman, has a staff. That staff will be chosen as needed by a new mayor to fill gaps in his/her competency. The things a SD mayor will need is knowledge of the city, its departments and their function and the issues surrounding them. As such each of these candidates is fully qualified.
• David Black on “Trip to Movies Ends with Curfew Arrests“:
It’s hard to jive the assertion of the department being understaffed (letter from president of the San Diego Police Officers Association) when resources are being wasted on these sweeps. SMH.
(Here’s the letter Black is referring to: ” Why We Need More Cops.“)
• Charles Anderson on “Fifty Kids to a Class: Fact Check“:
Clearly you haven’t been to a school lately. While it’s true that the AVERAGE class size is less, there are already classes with more than 40 students (including math, science, English, and history) at my school. Please don’t assume that all classes will be right at that average of 36.5 (for high school). Smaller schools especially have a harder time of balancing numbers to make all classes equal.
Personally I think his statement is an exaggeration, but his argument that class sizes will increase considerably is valid. The average class size will be approaching 40 next year if nothing is changed, and there will be many classes that are over 40 as well.
• John Gordon on “Cause of SDG&E Blackouts?“:
The reason you will not get a discount is that every charge on your SDG&E bill is authorized and/or directed by the CPUC, which is (technically speaking) an agent of the people. The CPUC is tasked with regulating utilities and implementing energy policy coming from the Legislature and Governor. And with CA’s energy costs already among the nation’s highest, it is the maintenance and investment in current electrical infrastructure that get neglected while the CPUC and utilities scramble to meet the state’s 30% renewable by 2020 policy. In effect, a good chunk of our SDG&E bill is a de facto tax to fund our state’s 30% renewable standard (which is on top of the increased generation costs of renewables). (Commenter) Grovian is 100% right in saying that consumers need to be active. But the right place to direct such activism is the CPUC and the Legislature.
Statements have been lightly edited to fix spelling errors and typos.
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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