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This week we highlight comments about school suspensions over dancing, a new party for Nathan Fletcher, real estate, the rights of the homeless and the taxi industry.
• Janet Shelton on “The Twisted Logic Behind the Twerking Suspensions“:
Most dancing has a sexually suggestive element. Remember the separation rules with slow dancing? I can understand that schools have to draw a line somewhere, but it does become more fuzzy when the rules about dancing are specific to school dancing. Certainly many teenagers push limits and don’t think things through. I imagine not showing their faces was more about wrongly believing they were anonymous than about objectification. And I’m sure they also didn’t think a “school project” would become a YouTube video with clearly objectionable music. I accept that the school has to make decisions about these things and that I don’t have all the facts. What bothers me here is calling this sexual harassment. To me sexual harassment has victims and you don’t have to speculate who they are. They aren’t generalized “victims” who might view the video and be influenced. And there are perps. I can see whoever put the music to the video and posted it as being guilty of violating rules, but is it sexual harassment? I sure don’t see the dancers as being sexual harassers. I think it is wrong to take a serious issue and start making it a catch-all for this and similar behavior.
• Bill Bradshaw on “Fletcher Goes Dem; So Much for Independence and More Reactions“:
What Fletcher actually discovered is that he wanted to be a career politician. Why not?
The pay is pretty good, the benefits unmatched and the job security once you get settled in a job without term limits, very comfortable. Nathan did the smart thing, he went with the party that looks like it’ll have the most capacity to fund campaigns for some time to come, their whining about the Citizens United decision notwithstanding.
Perfect fit.
• Don Wood on “Last-Minute Deal Revives Future-of-City Hall Debate“:
It’s time to move City Hall back to the downtown waterfront. If the Navy gives the city back the existing Navy Broadway Complex property in the next round of the base relocation and closing process, the city could sell off the existing Civic Center space and use that money to build a new city hall on the Navy Broadway Complex site.
• Shawn Fox on “How a Statewide Homeless ‘Bill of Rights’ Might Trip Up SD“:
The idea of giving special rights to someone based on the fact that they are homeless is preposterous. Public restrooms seem like a great idea, but not just for the homeless. That sounds like a project to be funded by HOTs. More public restrooms would probably benefit tourists, and even local citizens. Most businesses don’t want anyone other than customers using the bathrooms. Even residents who have to go, need to hold it until they reach their destination or find a gas station.
• James Snook on “Taxi Industry Needs Your Help“:
Part of the process should be examining the number of taxi licenses granted and the ridership to ensure it is balanced. I see cabs sitting around a lot — on the surface it looks like there are way too many cabs, which would create the problem of lower utility and revenue per car/driver. Taking the airport, for example: There is a stark difference between apparent taxi utilization at the airport compared with other similar-sized airports. At the airport there is always an abundance of cabs and, in my experience, zero wait and a long lineup of cabs that look to have been sitting a while. There are always cabs sitting around uptown coffee shops and other locations waiting for a radio call to pick up a fare. In fact, it seems like the number of cabs/licenses out there assumes every day San Diego is hosting the Super Bowl.
Comments have been lightly edited for typos, spelling and style.
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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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