There’s a cross-border lovefest, at least among the mayors of San Diego and Tijuana. But remains unclear whether they can get anyone else in power to smooth connections between two mammoth cities that are divided by a border and epic lines of cars.
Our new story examines the challenges (one study estimates that billions are lost due to border waits) and the hopes of the two men in charge. “There’s never been a problem between the cities,” Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante tells us. “It’s the politicians in Washington and Mexico City. They hear us but they don’t understand and they don’t listen.”
Next up: We’ll look at the non-border issues the cities can tackle together.
For Carmel Valley’s Big Project, Possible Resolution
We may finally be near a decision about the giant $650 million housing and commercial project planned for the Carmel Valley neighborhood. Our story recaps its history and the battle over whether it should be allowed.
The project has plenty of opponents. They’re worried about traffic, and no wonder: “the project would create a walkable neighborhood once you’re there, but chances are you’ll need a car to get there,” writes our Andrew Keatts.
Letters: Restrooms (Needed) and Critical Mass (a Mess)
In letters, we hear from readers who favor public restrooms along the trolley lines (“downtown San Diego has that ‘urine scent’ much like downtown L.A., and it just shouldn’t be!”) and don’t appreciate the lawless and dangerous Critical Mass bike rides.
Mayor vs. City Attorney on Medi-Pot
Mayor Bob Filner is talking tough on medical marijuana, CityBeat reports. He talked to medi-pot activists this week and “fired out promises more rapidly than the medical-marijuana patients could process them,” CityBeat reports. He also took aim at City Attorney Jan Goldsmith: “Filner began to suggest he could ‘intimidate’ Goldsmith, whom he described as a ‘little guy,’ before trailing off.”
The “little guy” responded to CityBeat by passing along a letter to the mayor that says Filner could stop prosecutions in “30 seconds.”
How Stadiums Cost Their Communities
We’ve been closely following the endless efforts of various people to build a new football stadium in San Diego with a big helping hand from you and me, the friendly neighborhood taxpayers.
Deadspin, the sports blog, points to a new story about how the renovations to a stadium in Vancouver blew up by five times from their original estimated cost.
Deadspin also notes what it describes as the fleecing of Buffalo by the Bills football team: “We and others have railed against the outrage of public financing for stadiums for years, but it’s still shocking to see in 2012 a textbook case of a community held for ransom, forced to give in to every last demand of a franchise threatening to move.”
• The U-T breaks down the dilemma facing San Diego State, which is figuring out which sports conference it wants to play in. The choices, it seems, are not ideal. (Wait, didn’t the university just change where it plays and move to the Big East for football? Yup. Then things got complicated.)
• The Chargers have a new general manager. (U-T)
Quick News Hits
• More flu news: This year’s flu season is shaping up to be the worst in years, perhaps reaching the level of the one a decade ago that killed 70,000 people in the U.S.
The flu has already killed two in the county.
It may get worse. Google’s Flu Trend map suggests that the flu wave hasn’t yet fully hit the West. The map also indicates that this is already the worst flu season of all the years (back to 2006) that Google’s been tracking searches for flu-related terms. San Diego’s Flu Trend map is here.
• The Del Mar fairgrounds won’t kick out gun shows. (U-T)
• A local man whose iPhone was stolen tracked down the alleged thief and got into a fight with him at the beach. The smackdown, of course, was caught on video and has gone national. (10News and NY Daily News)
• There are few local pleasures as awesome as traveling on one of San Diego’s little-used toll highways.
But it’ll cost you unless you have a friend along. Or will it? Up in the Bay Area, a man trying to make a point says he’s allowed to ride alone in car-pool lanes because he has corporation papers. And, according to the law, corporations are people, just like soylent green.
Fat chance that this will succeed in court. But if it doesn’t, you can bet on one thing: Never mind a horse. I’ll be seeing a man about an LLC.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.
Disclosure: Voice of San Diego members and supporters may be mentioned or have a stake in the stories we cover. For a complete list of our contributors, click here.