Signature-gatherers are fanning across the city, urging residents to support a bid to put the Barrio Logan neighborhood’s future up to a public vote. But hey, wait. Didn’t they do that already and get finished? Aren’t they, you know, done?
Yes. And no. We explain why that “Mission Accomplished” press conference was a bit misleading and how we ended up with two signature-gathering campaigns that seek to accomplish the same thing.
The Day in the Mayor’s Race
• Our latest mayoral race Reader’s Guide is all about candidate Kevin Faulconer.
• We take a look at what happens if one of the two councilmen in the race becomes mayor. The good news in this year of expensive electoral drama: We won’t have to pay for yet another election since a fill-in would be appointed (but couldn’t run to stick around).
Faulconer, by the way, will be off the Council due to term limits if he doesn’t win and become mayor.
Culture Report: Gluten-Free and Locally Sourced!
The Culture Report drops by the Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair (where the art’s so nice they named it “art” twice) and highlights local arts news about ink drawings, a “water-media exhibit,” the airport’s new public art, cactus design, raw dancing, the epidemic of neck beards, gluten-free local food, the best local breweries and much more.
Quick News Hits
• On Monday, we linked to a Reader story that said the city “will soon be shelling out tens of millions of dollars in claims” in connection to sewage leaks in downtown. The city attorney’s office yesterday issued a stern statement saying the story is wrong and that the city believes two insurers will be responsible for any judgement. (One insurer is suing another and the city.)
The Reader has revised the story but says the city still faces a $29 million suit.
• County home prices dipped a bit last month, the U-T reports. The median price — that’s median, not average — is still deeply below its height in November 2005.
• The City Heights Farmers Market, the first in the county to accept food stamps, could be a big loser thanks to the federal cuts in food stamps, KPBS reports. Families will have $36 less a month to spend. “The whole point of the market was to bring fresh fruits and vegetable into neighborhoods like City Heights to make healthy, organic food accessible,” the market’s manager says. Food stamps are “really what’s holding that all together.”
• The rural East County town of Ramona is best know for … Um… Let me get back to you on that. Maybe sooner rather than later: KPBS reports that “the hills around Ramona now comprise one of California’s fastest-growing wine regions; The area got a boost recently with the advent of tasting rooms, even some that cater to horseback riders.”
• Don’t adjust your calendar. It’s still 2013, even if I do have a few 1990s ties moldering in my closet. So how did yesterday’s Morning Report include a link to a six-year-old sdnews.com story about a police crackdown on noise at the beach?
Because an online feed that normally alerts me to new local news stories coughed up this one by mistake, and I didn’t notice the date. We won’t do the time warp again.
• Speaking of mistakes … Any, um, quesitons?
• Tired of those campaign mailers clogging up your mailbox? Here’s a handy pro-tip: They should stop coming once you mail in your vote. (The registrar keeps track of these things, and so do the campaign people.)
There may not be enough time to put a halt to the mailers before next Tuesday’s voting, but keep this tip in mind when the inevitable run-off election rolls around.
Of course, you could just vote the old-fashioned way — at the polls on Election Day — and force candidates and their allies to keep spending money to send you attack ads in the mail up until the last minute. That may be the best revenge.
Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego and vice president of the American Society of Journalists & Authors. Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.
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