By Norma Damashek / NumbersRunner
Let’s ease into this subject with a mindful autumn walk. Notice the days getting shorter…. morning air chillier… leaves turning gold on liquid amber trees.
Now notice a fact as unwavering as the seasons — the fact that sex plays a dominant role in San Diego public affairs. Hook it up with other San Diego mainstays (uninspired leadership, stunted civic aspirations, free-floating corruption, overinflated egos, corporate welfare, legal-establishment collusion, Republican Party strategy, dubious fidelity among leading Democrats, to name a few) and it wallops a punch potent enough to knock a new mayor out of the ring and force the city into a costly, rushed election to bring in a replacement.
Of course this is not how the Chamber of Commerce markets our city. It’s motto: Good for Business – Good for San Diego says it all. Same for our Tourism Authority, which promotes the city as a clean-cut, open-air paradise: …70 miles of beautiful beaches, countless parks and gardens, and endless opportunities for pampering at one of the areas many spas and resorts… an excellent destination for some quality R&R.
I’ve noticed that San Diego sells itself as a trophy town of moderation, rectitude, and civility. But scratch the surface and you’ll discover the other San Diego — a town constantly preoccupied with commercialized sexual indulgences (move over, Las Vegas).
- Aren’t we the fun-loving host of the over-the-line tournament, the frisky, sandy weekend of boosted beer, bouncy breasts, and bared behinds?
- Isn’t the weekend street scene in our redeveloped Gaslamp Quarter every bit as raunchy as the notorious pre-CCDC days of sailor bars, hookers, and peepshows?
- And you wouldn’t call our very own glistening rompers and exhibitionists at the summertime Pride Parade chopped liver, would you?
- How about San Diego’s collection of privately-catered swinging establishments, open to you, me, and the lamppost?
- And what would you say if there were Hugh Hefner-wannabe accommodations upstairs at the U-T?
- Have you taken the oral history tour of City Hall for a behind the scenes tale of who-did-what-with-whom (or who-was-doing-what-with-
himself)? It starts at the 12th-floor Council Chambers and works its way down. - And what about our ferociously fought-over 25-foot bayside statue immortalizing a sailor’s frontal assault on an unconsenting female – you know, the one with the woman in a headlock submitting to a forced, full-mouth kiss? Once named “Unconditional Surrender” nowadays it’s known as felony false imprisonment.
Not bad for an upstanding city like ours that goes ape over tales of a mayor’s clumsy kiss, posterior pat, and too-tight arm around the shoulder. Will we entertain similar hysteria over the next round of scandals that are bound to make headlines? (For a rare honest response from the U-T take a quick look at what Logan Jenkins has to say.)
By now most of us who entertained high hopes for what an experienced, old-time liberal mayor like Bob Filner could bring to the city of San Diego have resigned ourselves to the new reality – which looks oddly like the old reality called business as usual. Surely you’ve noticed what a busy beaver our interim mayor Todd Gloria has been in setting back the clock to pre-Filner time. In fact, a time warp engineered by downtown Republicans along with select Democrats has pretty much erased all traces of what almost was and might have been.
Which brings us to the current candidates running to replace Bob Filner.
Of the four front-running mayoral candidates, only one is being honest with the public about a core issue: the untenable financial state of the city. The other three have chosen to avoid the subject. They’re choosing to promote the homespun San Diego fable about having our cake and eating it too.
Mike Aguirre has taken every opportunity over the past couple of months of campaigning to make a simple but crucial point – that a big (and growing) chunk of the city’s general fund budget is set aside annually for payment into the employee pension fund. This results in a significant reduction in the cash available to pay for routine city services. This year’s required annual pension payment is $275 million — the bulk of which ($200 million) is eaten up as interest on the $2.3 billion pension deficit that drags the city down.
Notice this contrast: a mere $55 million is allocated for our roads. The decision to take from Peter (fire, police, roads, and neighborhoods) to pay off Paul (the City Employees Retirement System) was a choice made by former Mayor Jerry Sanders, abetted by the City Council, so he could fake a balanced budget and claim he had resolved the city’s fiscal crisis before leaving office.
You can hear plenty of campaign chatter about paved roads, upgraded libraries, recreation centers, parks, decent streets (smooth streets, in the words of Nathan Fletcher; sexy streets, per temporary-mayor Todd Gloria), homeless facilities, and other neighborhood needs. You’ll get a deafening silence from the others when Aguirre starts talking about the city’s crippling pension problem.
Aguirre is tackling the difficult financial issues head-on (despite sniping from candidate Fletcher). The other candidates won’t touch it. So far, neither has the U-T nor our other news and opinion providers. Neither have the economic analysts and political gurus who comment regularly on city business. (I noticed with dismay that then-mayor Filner also steered away from the same time bomb that’s already detonating in other U.S. cities. Detroit, anyone?)
David Alvarez has been denigrated as too young by Democrats who’ve been smitten by Nathan Fletcher. But notice that there’s a mere three-year age difference between them (Alvarez is 33, Fletcher is 36. Notice that interim-mayor Todd Gloria is only 35). Also notice that Alvarez has an upper hand in understanding how the city works and what makes it tick – an important qualification for anyone wanting to be mayor. (Yes, I also noticed that the lack of municipal government expertise was a fatal shortcoming in the Filner administration.)
Others question Alvarez’s independence from the Labor Council, his primary financial backers. It’s a fair question that should be asked of all candidates running for office: Will you be free and strong enough to balance the demands of your friends and major financial backers with the good of the city at large? While it seems to me that committed Democrats ought not to distance themselves from the union movement — the most important ally American working people have ever had — there’s a lot of work to do by Democrats as well as labor unions before they reemerge as comprehensive, progressive, visionary leaders of the future.
Kevin Faulconer blithely sails by without anyone questioning who his keepers are. He’s best described as San Diego’s retrograde candidate of the 20th century – a cordial, sunburned, amorphous kind of guy sporting the Chamber of Commerce logo on his sleeve. He may well have an underside (and who among us does not?) but so far his passive, follow-the-leader style has protected him from getting bitten where it hurts.
Here’s one good thing about Faulconer: you know exactly what you’ll get… exactly who’ll be whispering in his ear… exactly what his agenda will be… and exactly what you’ll be fighting against. He’s someone you can depend on to deliver what he and his financial backers know how to do best: the downtown fraternity two-step (one for you, one for me, more for you, more for me).
Nathan Fletcher is a cipher. He’s been described as a changeling, a switch hitter, a chameleon adept at overnight transformation. Other than a photogenic face and military boasts (what kind of person capitalizes on the business of interrogating prisoners of war?) you have no idea what you’re getting… who’s whispering in his ear… what his agenda will be. Trendy clichés spill effortlessly from his lips: innovation… creativity… we put a man on the moon. I’ve noticed many times that there’s no there there.
Keep in mind that Fletcher was adopted (metaphorically speaking) into the Qualcomm family and reaps the benefits of a well-paid corporate job and UCSD faux professorship. His wealthy and influential backers pave the way for him to scoop up high-profile Democratic endorsements like handfuls of Halloween candy. We’ve all noticed that money wields inordinate influence over the political fortunes of seated elected officials as well as most of those who’d like to be.
Fletcher’s political message boils down to this: I’m your man, San Diego! Forget my past voting record! Look into my eyes and trust me!
Sex and the city… the mayor race… what’s the connection? There’s no mystery to this one. Sex has great commercial and utilitarian value in our town. We either pretend not to notice it, or we use it as a political battering ram. Notice that sex was the weapon of choice for deposing former-mayor Bob Filner. It’s precisely what brings us here today as we contemplate the mayor’s race.
San Diego voters will be making a choice about who will be our next mayor (notice that not choosing is a choice that permits someone else to choose for you). My advice is to wait a while before turning in your vote. Keep listening — but not to the pollsters, not to political pundits, not to anyone’s subjective calculus predicting the odds and trying to manipulate the outcome.
What are we listening for? less talk about smooth and sexy streets and a whole new conversation about the unsexy time bomb ticking in our back yards — our multi-billion dollar municipal pension deficit.
Any candidate who pretends not to hear the sucking sound of the the city’ financial black hole is a bad choice for mayor because he will wreak havoc on us.
Any mayoral candidate who pretends he can fulfill his campaign promises of neighborhood improvements and safety protection by shutting his eyes to the way the city cooks the books guarantees bad consequences for all of us.
I’ve never been good at playing the numbers (neither was my father — though I named this blog in his honor, anyway). I know what I’ve already heard and I intend to keep listening before I confirm my choice for our next mayor.
bob dorn says
San Diego is a deep con job.
First, you get seduced by the weather,
then you get ensnared in the costs of
housing, food, entertainment. We’re
all of us, flies in that web, some of us
fatter than others.
Tourists in Blingtown, so long as we
try to be.
JPHN STUMP says
Norma
You are right the voters are in the main waiting and listening for that candidate’s voice that resonates true. Recent polls identify that more than a third of the voters have not and will not commit to a candidate. The more they hear the more Mike Aguirre sounds true and the “F” candidates sound false and flat
Election by less than a 1/3rd of voters by any candidate is no mandate. Governance will not be possible. This a lesson that the ill-fated Mayor Murphy learned all too well Election without a true majority will continue San Diego’s political upheavals into the next administration
The electorate of San Diego has not come together on a common civic vision and purpose for our future.. The Council seems to ony be able to offer up more tourism, hotels and stadium circuses. They think that more construction will build them out of the budget shortfalls. There is a different approach based on improving the quality of life and economic development with jobs that you can be proud your parents have and you want your children to have.
Seattle, Portland and San Francisco have managed to achieve that sweet spot. Schools are good , jobs are careers, and the quality of life is exemplary . We need to find leadership that helps us have more than big black fish, Zoo Exhibits, and
partiers at Comic Con. These amusements enrich the Duke Hoteliers ,but do little to provide a future for your children’s careers.
Dana Levy says
I see living in San Diego as more of a blessing than a curse. I am not taken in by the rhetoric or hype and always endeavor to make my own way, although somewhat feebly. The lifestyle is very appealing and the politics are dispiriting. But, I’ve been around (as Pacino says in Scent of a Woman), as the saying goes, and there is better weather, etc. elsewhere but the total package of little/big city and peaceful surroundings can’t be beat. The leadership and direction that we choose to follow aren’t always to my liking but there is still hope. The pension payments, promised but not funded by Jerry Sanders and his kind, will get straightened out too. The recession, starting a few years back, both then and continuing to and through now, have made a real negative impact on getting out of debt faster but as home prices return and work stays on the upswing we shall see progress. To think Aguirre can actually make a difference now is not factual. To think he can actually pay it down or eliminate it easily or quickly is foolhardy. It will take time and time alone, and the mayor, whomever it may be, will have nothing to do with it’s solution. The monies are already promised and to make any new hires a 401K recipient does nothing to change the facts. Simple answers and loud complaints will do nothing to fix the problem. I do agree that electing someone who will actually pay attention to subjects like this is important. We know how well Aquirre is when it comes to confrontations, thus his quick exit as City Attorney and giving it up to Goldsmith was the end result. I have seen enough of his demeanor as an elected official and he serves us best from on the outside. Now, where is all the sex the article alluded to? Ask Inzunza and Zuchette and others on the council for clues! Our politics may not be sexy but they are vitally important to our future direction and everyone needs to vote earnestly and informedly for our new leader to help kick start the policies that will better the lives of us all in the new era. I will close with the statement that for sure Faulconer is NOT the answer. And, Todd Gloria is a sorry temporary replacement for Filner.
JPHN STUMP says
Pick up a copy of this weeks READER Don Bauder confirms Mikes Right
San Diego Mayoral Debate Abruptly Canceled…Due to Pension Truth?