By Doug Porter
One of the most frequently told tall tales during the Filner administration had to do with the consequences of San Diego Tourism Authority’s reduction in advertising and promotional expenditures. Doom and gloom studded media accounts, like one just published in UT-San Diego on September 8th, warned that falling hotel occupancy would have widespread impacts on the local economy.
This most recent account had Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi ominously warning the number of room nights generated this fiscal year in San Diego will fall by as much as 350,000.
The latest reporting by industry analysts at Smith Travel Research indicates San Diego’s hotel occupancy rose by “only” 1% over July levels and is up year-to-date.
I have no doubt the local tourism tax dollar welfare recipients downtown will wail none-the-less by pointing out that tourism in other California coastal cities increased by a larger amount.
And it’s true: So far this year San Diego occupancy is up 0.8%, versus 3.3% for Orange County, 1.8% for L.A., and 3% for San Francisco. That doesn’t look like we’re losing hundreds of thousand of hotel rooms to me.
And this difference parallels the historical growth rate, with or without Tourism Authority funding. San Diego already trailed other cities from 2008 to 2012. There was no indication that the figures from 2013 to 2015 would be different.
Fact: for the 5-year temporary Tourism Marketing District trial period of 2008 to 2012, San Diego easily did worse than Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, and Anaheim.
When the biggest hotels refused to sign the waivers (protecting the taxpayers of San Diego from liability in case of adverse legal decisions) negotiated by Councilman David Alvarez last the spring , the amount of tax money going to the Tourism Authority went down.
They were forced to live within a budget pared down from about $30 million to $12 million. Staff was laid off and the blame was laid on the Filner administration. Stories warning of layoffs of hospitality employees (and even a recession) were pumped through the media. “Everybody knew” it was the truth.
What everybody should know is the Tourism Authority (formerly known.as the Convention and Visitors Bureau) and the San Diego Convention Center has a long and sad history of cooking their books when it comes to reporting hotel room nights generated by their marketing efforts.
For example, they have a history of promising inflated projections of visitor nights for upcoming events, and then failing to amend those projections when the number of actual nights proves lower than the original projections, as reflected in San Diego Reader investigative articles.
Nineteenth century retailer (and early advocate of print advertising) John Wannamaker was quoted as saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
In San Diego’s tourism marketing, we now have a big clue.
It’s Off to The (Mayoral) Races
It looks as though Nathan Fletcher’s campaign has received its posters back from the printer. My North Park neighborhood is covered, and then some. Also seen on the morning 7-11 run: a poster for gun rights advocate Lincoln Pickard’s mayoral campaign.
Of course the big news today is the 10News/U-T San Diego poll, showing Fletcher as front-runner in the race for San Diego mayor. I got the call from 10News the other night and passed on the opportunity—I was busy watching Star Trek Next Generation.
From KGTV/10News:
The poll asked 800 city of San Diego respondents, “If the special election for San Diego mayor were today, who would you vote for?”
Of those, 30 percent of respondents said Fletcher. Councilman Kevin Faulconer came in second with 22 percent, and Councilman David Alvarez came in third with 17 percent.
According to the poll, 9 percent said they would vote for former City Attorney Mike Aguirre. Bruce Coons, the head of the Save Our Heritage Organisation, received 2 percent.
Four percent said they would vote for another candidate and 15 percent said they were undecided.
If those rankings seem familiar, it’s because they strongly resemble earlier generic name recognition polling done by a variety of political organizations. Given the UT-San Diego’s intervention in this election as the “official” media provider for campaign debates, we can expect to see Kevin Faulconer’s numbers increase in future polls.
Asked about characteristics that would be important in influencing their choices for San Diego’s next mayor, the breakdown among those surveyed was: Integrity 30%, Leadership 26%, Fiscal responsibility 16%, Reach across party lines 13%.
Non News—Voice of San Diego has a story up about Katherine Faulconer (wife of Kevin) being (gasp) a little more than a week late in paying the city’s annual tax for her restaurant event planning business. Really? Raise your hand if you care?
Today’s the big day for the local Democratic Party. They may (or may not) endorse a mayoral candidate. David Alvarez and Nathan Fletcher are the only two candidates in contention. Oh, to be a fly on that wall!
This morning Alvarez rolled out endorsements from three former Chairs of the San Diego County Democratic Party: Maureen Steiner, Bob Jellison, and Kennan Kaeder. The city councilman was also endorsed by colleagues Mytle Cole and Marti Emerald on Monday.
The San Diego Port Tenants Association has obviously recovered from their disappointment that Carl DeMaio isn’t running. They endorsed Kevin Faulconer, calling him “a man of his word”.
Nathan Fletcher picked up another union endorsement of Sunday, getting the nod from Southern California’s largest nurses union, United Nurses Association/Union of Health Care Professionals.
Follow the Big Money (Total large donations as of 4pm Monday): Faulconer $196,000, Fletcher $105,000, Alvarez $13,000.
DeMaio’s on Troll Patrol
Former mayoral wannbe Carl DeMaio took to Twitter yesterday to gloat, urging VOSD’s Scott Lewis to turn his publication’s investigative energies into reporting on “the civil war within labor, right @lorenaSgonzalez?”
There was no word from the Congressional candidate on how he’d approach the pending Federal shutdown resulting from Republican House members’ dedication to killing Obamacare.
Meanwhile DeMaio was busy canvassing:
.@carldemaio is launching college & youth outreach in Rancho Santa Fe on a Thursday during rush hour… Is this a joke? #outoftouch #ca52
— Matt Corrales (@MattCorrales) September 23, 2013
From CityData.com:
Colleges/universities with over 2000 students nearest to Rancho Santa Fe:
- California State University-San Marcos (about 8 miles; San Marcos, CA; Full-time enrollment: 6,621)
- National University (about 9 miles; La Jolla, CA; FT enrollment: 8,504)
- Palomar College (about 9 miles; San Marcos, CA; FT enrollment: 9,170)
- Alliant International University (about 11 miles; San Diego, CA; FT enrollment: 2,472)
- University of California-San Diego (about 11 miles; La Jolla, CA; FT enrollment: 27,502)
- MiraCosta College (about 14 miles; Oceanside, CA; FT enrollment: 5,490)
- San Diego Mesa College (about 16 miles; San Diego, CA; FT enrollment: 5,178)
It’s Banned Book Week
Banned Books Week is the national book community’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. Hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2013 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held thru September 28th.
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982. For more information on Banned Books Week, click here. According to the American Library Association, there were 464 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2012, and many more go unreported.
The 10 most challenged titles of 2012 were:
- Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
- Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
- Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
- And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
- The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
- Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
- The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
- Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Here’s the latest effort from people with small minds, from Time.com:
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man has just been banned in school libraries in one North Carolina county. The 1952 novel about a man who seems to have fallen into a racial oblivion in America has remained firmly on countless school reading lists and many lists of best books, including TIME’s own Top 100. So it may seem surprising that the book was banned, and not for inappropriate content — as books often are — but rather for lack of literary merit, according to one Randolph County school board member.
This book wasn’t simply removed from reading lists, either. It was explicitly banned by a 5-2 vote, which took place after a 12-page complaint was placed by a parent who thought the story was inappropriate for her 11th grade child.
The board’s decision is scheduled for reconsideration later this week in light of the national publicity it’s received.
Have you read a banned book lately?
Today is National Voter Registration Day
For those of you who can be bothered:
Registration info for anywhere in the US: http://www.rockthevote.com/
Register to vote ONLINE in California:
San Diego residents can check their registration status:
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/
On This Day: 1960 – The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier was launched. The USS Enterprise set out from Newport News, VA. 1961 – “The Bullwinkle Show” premiered in prime time on NBC-TV. The show was originally on ABC in the afternoon as “Rocky and His Friends.” 1996 – The United States, represented by President Clinton, and the world’s other major nuclear powers signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons.
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Doug Porter
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Gawd, the free-market hypocrites who run San Diego at the moment! They want government to subsidize their private businesses ($700 million for a Charger Stadium alone), and they want the public to pay for national advertisements luring sunseekers to their already profitable, privately-held, hotels. These same freaks of finance will attack a national health plan as socialism, and support Congressional extremists who want to shut down the government when it tries to broaden the health net a little bit.
This kind of economics contains its own suicide pill; do away with the government that since Reagan has been guaranteeing the accumulation of staggering mountains of wealth by a psychopathic 1 to 5% of the nation. It’s a scenario that more and more Americans have begun to understand, and are voting against.
Really – Captain Underpants, the comic book for 3rd and 4th graders, is the most controversial book from last year? I must be a terrible parent, I let my kid read the whole series…
I know a former school librarian who had a parent decrying having Captain Underpants in the library. Then her son started reading it – he didn’t do much independent reading prior to Dav Pilkey. The next day she said to the librarian “God bless you, Captain Underpants”
I have to say, although from a liberal perspective, I do think David Alvarez is the better candidate on the Dem side, I am nonetheless intrigued by Nathan Fletcher. I think it’s entirely possible for someone to change their mind and realize the error of their ways. And just because he’s supported(?) by Irwin Jacobs doesn’t mean we should discard him as a candidate or a Democrat….Dems need wealthy donors/supporters, too. After all, the Republicans have the market cornered in that regard, so condemning Dr. Jacobs for being rich is completely asinine, his faulty (to say the least) Balboa Park plan notwithstanding.
The only thing at this point that is holding me back from a full fledged support of Alvarez is a lack of experience. He’s very young (33 yrs. old?), and has only been on the City Council for two years. Being the mayor of the 8th largest city in the United States, 2nd largest in California, is no small thing.
That said, Fletcher certainly does have some questions to answer about his current policy positions, and how and why he has come to those positions. His answers will go a long way toward putting a lot of Dem minds at ease in the next month and a half.
Being the mayor of the 8th largest city in the US and 2nd larges in California is indeed no small thing. Having extensive, factual information about a candidate’s political experience and policy positions is essential. Having extensive, factual information about a candidate’s political base and financial support is also essential. A vigorous application of this kind of analysis to the mayoral candidates rightfully reduces the “intrigue” factor to the cheap perfume that it is. We need more analysis and less Eau de Je Ne Sais Quoi
I have to ask: What exactly “intrigues” you about Fletcher Nathan, Andy?
There are people who grow up in Democratic households and, as they age and their life circumstances change, they may drift into a more Independent or Green or Libertarian frame of mind and they may or may not accordingly change their political registration.
Then there are people who are gung-ho Young Republicans who marry gung-ho Young Republicans; who get nifty jobs in powerful conservative Republican places like the Bush White House and running GOP Congressman Duke Cunningham’s office (until he goes to jail for bribery and then you pretend you never knew him;)
who talk up Christian fundamentalist ideas to conservative Christian constituents and tout being the first War on Terror Marine veteran in the CA Legislature and then — when it looks like lights out on your GOP political career because someone even more right-wing than you got the Party nod for a mayoral race — bingo! A conversion and registration as an Independent! No! Make that registration as a Democrat!
Then you are helped along by our town’s controlling Daddy Warbucks who gives you a job and a gig at the University and you are encouraged by other One Percenters and many other similarly ambitious, integrity-free politicians who happen to be registered “Democrats” themselves.
Hey, it’s a free country and this is just the latest of many in-your-face political capers for San Diego. But I want to know: what “intrigues” you about this charlatan?
Isn’t it a conflict of interest for Faulconer to run, considering he was involved in the resignation of Filner?
I can’t remember where I read it, maybe the 10News website, that something like *$250,000* was misappropriated by the staff, from the students at Mira Mesa High, for stupid things like a popcorn machine, sound system, office furniture, paid for some type of “coach training workshop,” etc. Where’s the outrage in this city about THAT?
To answer your questions…
1. It is not a legal conflict of interest for Faulconer to run.
2. The schools locally are NOT connected financially or politically with San Diego City Government. The Mayor and City Council, contrary to common belief have NO say over school operations.
The financial transgressions that you mention were caught by an internal audit:
It’s a jock town, so the foo’ball team at Snodgrass High can steal whatever the f**k they want.
If I ran this joint, people like that would be hanged off the Coronado Bay bridge….
For Banned Books week I’m reading Junky by William Burroughs, which would probably be banned by most.
http://www.tinyurl.com/20130417
See Pages 5 to 11 for excerpts from the Smith Travel Research (STR) presentation to the San Diego Tourism Authority (SDTA) Annual Meeting on February 14, 2013 that confirms San Diego stats of poor performance compared to other California and tourist cities.