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Faulconer Flunky Dukes It Out With Saldaña in UT Interview

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Today’s Union-Tribune interview with mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña read like a debate between the former Assemblywoman with Mayor Faulconer’s campaign manager Jason Roe. This was coverage reminiscent of the Copley era.

Rather than give Saldaña a clear shot at explaining her views and critiques (and she has plenty) of the present regime, the Union-Tribune tapped the mayoral pit bull to refute her point by point.

This reminds me very much of the old days around the paper, wherein any viewpoints counter to “everybody knows” were quickly smothered with officially blessed counterpoints.   [Read more…]

Hasta Luego, San Diego

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By Doug Porter

Forty-eight hours of discussion among National Football League team owners have begun, and the betting is this gathering in Houston, Texas will mark the end of the Chargers tenure in San Diego.

Commissioner Roger Goodell set the stage last week by sending a letter to the Chargers, Raiders and Rams organizations indicating they are all eligible for relocation consideration. It’s safe to say his view was that nothing offered by those teams’ current cities matched up with the possibilities for profit in La-La Land.

The six-owner Los Angeles Opportunities committee, according to various media reports, is expected to make an official recommendation putting both the Chargers and Rams in Inglewood. Momentum for the Rams/Chargers deal has been building in the wake a written proposal submitted by influential Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

UPDATE: Media reports were wrong, though I doubt this is the final answer. LA committee recommended Carson site 5-1. Lone exception: Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, who said it should be 1 team or none.   [Read more…]

Chargers Set to Lose Their Last Game in San Diego

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The Chargers are an apt metaphor for San Diego politics.

Both are led by a skilled and popular quarterback, yet unable to score when push comes to shove. Both suffer from a foundational rot, precluding the fixes the public is led to believe would address their obvious shortcomings.

One year ago, the football team announced it would be playing in San Diego through 2015. This year the only question seems to be what date the moving vans will be pulling out.

Sunday could well be their last appearance at Qualcomm stadium. However, our feckless mayor will have to wait a few years before moving on. It’s likely he’s also headed upstate.   [Read more…]

A Higher Calling for Downtown San Diego’s East Village

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By Bill Adams / UrbDeZine

I read an op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune that made me want to stand on top of a downtown high-rise and scream . . . YES!!!

The opinion piece was entitled “A higher and better use for downtown,” and was written by Wayne Raffesberger and co-authored by Rob Quigley, Jack Carpenter, Pete Garcia and David Malmuth – individuals who have exceptional knowledge of downtown San Diego’s East Village neighborhood and a promising vision for its future.*

I was compelled to write a lengthy comment to the piece and perhaps I should have just stopped there (in any case, I have regurgitated some of it in writing this piece). But this topic has been an issue that has been sticking in my craw for several years.   [Read more…]

A Renaissance Man in a Sports Hall of Fame

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By Ernie McCray

One of my most cherished honors is being among some pretty good Wildcat athletes in the “University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.”

I’m a member because I could snatch rebounds like a machine and get the ball in the hoop as a routine. But what does it really mean? For me, it hasn’t been something I’ve thought that much about day to day.

But a few months ago I got a little excited seeing a very familiar name on the list of super-jocks who were to join the club this year.

Dave Baldwin is the name. Pitching a baseball was his game. And I’m stoked that he and I are going to be in such a place of esteem together – because we go back before our college days, back to the Class of ’56 at Tucson High. Back to when I was stepping high, doing teenage boy things, testosteroned to the bone.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: A Halloween Horror Story

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By Matt Valenti

I trust, Dear Reader, that you will forgive me if the tale I am about to repeat frightens you more than it ought, but this is a tale that insists upon being told.

Though I had good reason to doubt the veracity of the story when first I heard it, nevertheless, it has left me with a sensation of nagging anxiety that, like a perverted old roommate from college who has overstayed his welcome on your sofa bed, simply won’t go away.

Therefore, I beg of you, by all means keep this story well hidden away from the eyes and ears of the more impressionable and naïve among us in this fair city of San Diego—including small children, foreign tourists, and members of the city council.   [Read more…]

Not-So-Presidential Politics and Football Fantasies Ruled the Night

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By Doug Porter

What a night.

Presidential candidate Ted Cruz was busy calling out Democrats as Bolsheviks and Mensheviks during the Republican debate, which was about as out of control as any debate, ever.

Chargers fans called out NFL executives on a listening tour of cities threatened with franchise relocation. Attorney Mark Fabiani, representing the team’s owners was roundly booed, hissed and even warned about walking around unaccompanied.

It was a two-fer evening of bullshit, featuring occasional factual-sounding words laced with hyperbole and ignorance. Metaphors counted. Reality didn’t. Let’s wander together through today’s punditry for selected insights on what transpired…   [Read more…]

Protests Planned as Police Explain Gaslamp Death

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By Doug Porter

As of this morning, police in the United States have killed 927 people this year. Number 925 on the Guardian’s list was Lamontez Jones, age 39, who died at Sixth and F Streets in San Diego’s Gaslamp District. He was, according to activists with United Against Police Terror (UAPTSD), the ninth person killed by law enforcement in San Diego this year.

Media reports say Jones was shot by two motorcycle officers when he pulled a gun replica on them as they chased him through downtown San Diego Tuesday afternoon. The body cams worn by the policemen were not activated before or during the encounter. Department procedure is to turn them on prior to arriving on the scene.

Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman defended the officers failure to activate the cameras at a press conference, saying officer- and public- safety concerns are more important than use of the devices.   [Read more…]

How Our Stadium Saved Hilton’s Ego & Other Chuckles To Cry Over

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As published by the original San Diego Free Press (circa 1968), we reprint the rundown on the Stadium in Mission Valley. Outside of the names and a few little details, you’ll be surprised how little has changed. Part Two & Three of Two…
Transcribed by John Lawrence / Original byline “Jim Knastick”

Hi sports fans. Big Jim, again.

Well, fans, last issue – – when we looked into that great muskmelon in Mission Valley – – we found a bill for $52 million addressed for the little taxpayer in San Diego and nothing but profits for local sports czars (your druggist knows them as merchants, financiers and industrialists).

Current vignette, fans: Taking Care of Barron.
  [Read more…]

Qualcomm Stadium: a Boondoggle from the Get-Go?

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As published by the original San Diego Free Press (circa 1968), we reprint the rundown on the Stadium in Mission Valley. Outside of the names and a few little details, you’ll be surprised how little has changed. Part One of Two…

Transcribed by John Lawrence / Original byline “Jim Knastic”

Hi, sports fans. Big Jim here.

Well, fans, there is a big spat brewing in major league San Diego and from this experienced observer’s view the losers in this main event are going to be the city’s middle- and lower-income taxpayers.

This whole new controversy is revolving around that great concrete muskmelon in Mission Valley, the San Diego Stadium.

As the Free Press goes to the printers, the news is out that the City of San Diego is suing the San Diego Chargers for one year’s back rent (more than $200,000). The Chargers apparently have decided that they don’t want to pay rent, at least not for the next seven years.

But that is just one of a long series of rubs – one of the first rubs in how that stadium got there in the first place.   [Read more…]

Standing Tall on the Football Field (of Life)

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By Richard Lawrence

Last week I sat and watched San Diego State’s football team beat USD 37-3.

In the second half, a freshman quarterback named Lawrence entered the game and lead the team down the field to its only score–a field goal.

I am tickled pink (a really difficult thing for an African-American to do) to testify to the thrill of watching my grandson face the much larger and mightier SDSU squad and stand tall. It was, however, a stand that he did not take alone. The entire USD team and coaching staff should be applauded for preparing the players to tackle (sorry) a nearly impossible challenge with such enormous pride and determination.   [Read more…]

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