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Bob Filner Delivered for Constituents in Congress: But he also saw his influence blunted by personality clashes. We posted a profile Monday of Filner’s time in Congress. He was a tireless advocate for Filipino veterans of World War II and he’d often go to bat for individuals having a hard time with the federal government.
“During 20 years in Washington D.C., Filner has built a reputation for being capable but brash, productive but isolated,” our Liam Dillon wrote. “He’s made a career by focusing on specific interest groups or even specific people.”
The Mayoral Candidates Have Changed a Lot Since June: Filner and Carl DeMaio emerged from the primary as brash partisans. But since then they’ve evolved. See our guide to how they’ve changed on education, the environment, the Convention Center, Balboa Park and more.
Dillon was on KPBS’ Roundtable Friday discussing the mayor’s race. He may or may not have said Filner “operates in a realm where facts and details don’t really matter to him.” (Here’s the transcript if you want the context.)
There’s a Lot The Candidates Aren’t Saying About the Chargers Stadium: I listed the five things neither candidate really wants to talk about with regard to the Chargers’ push for a new stadium. And here’s a great cautionary tale from Arizona on what can go wrong with a city’s expectations about sports arenas.
• KPBS says the mayoral candidates said some bold things at a debate Friday.
Balboa Park Almost Got a McDonald’s: As we’ve been tracking, the park’s history is full of tales of people wanting to use part of it for commercial uses in exchange for helping it in some way. Even the legendary patron of Balboa Park, Kate Sessions, found a way to make money off it. As our Kelly Bennett continues to try to understand how Balboa Park got the way it is, she stumbled across the tale of how McDonald’s almost got a spot in San Diego’s cultural hub.
The Fact Check Has a Long-Lost Cousin: And its name is Reality Check. Our effort to Fact Check past promises and big warnings – like that San Diego’s international airport would be congested by 2015 (nope) – ran into a hurdle. A statement made five years ago isn’t necessarily false today because circumstances changed. So we’ve turned to the Fact Check family relative, the Reality Check. First up? Those terrible warnings the mayor made a couple of years ago that San Diego would have to cut cops and firefighters if a sales tax hike didn’t pass.
San Diegans Got Themselves Some Ideas: We’ve posted the bulk of the ideas entered into our Idea Tournament. You can check them out here. If you’re a Voice of San Diego member, you’ll get to vote on them and the top finalists will present their ideas to the entire crowd gathered at Politifest.
Top Comments of the Week
Dagny Salas has compiled your top comments of the week, including one explaining why it would be much worse now for McDonald’s to try to get a location inside Balboa Park.
Quick News Hits
• The Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters says redevelopment may be dead and it may be a zombie back from the dead.
• It’s been a year since the big blackout last year. One of our Idea Tournament entries wants to do it every year.
• Residents in Chula Vista’s Eastlake are gearing up to fight a new housing development near the Olympic Training Center on land that had been set aside for commercial.
• Also from the U-T, Roger Hedgecock and other radio talk show hosts are upset that prominent Democrats would not talk to them on air at the recent Democratic National Convention. Cue sad face. 🙁
• Finally, why would you not go to this, Jess Durfee? I’d love to see what it entails. You get to see the U-T’s Auto Museum!! (L.A. Times take on the same invitation.)
Quote of the Week
“Bob walked up to me and said, ‘Brian what does it take to get invited to the party? And I said, ‘Well probably you’re going to have to dress up like a piñata and let (U.S. Rep. Duke) Cunningham hit you ‘til the candy falls out.’”
— U.S. Rep Brian Bilbray on his colleague Bob Filner, who was asking about a delegation meeting he wasn’t invited to.
I’m Scott Lewis, the CEO of Voice of San Diego. You can contact me directly at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0527 and follow me on Twitter (it’s a blast!): twitter.com/vosdscott.