Our Readers Write: Trash fee, Scripps Park sidewalk, Shores street closure

San Diego’s new trash fee is shameful

This letter originally was sent to San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla.

Shame on you, Mr. LaCava, for supporting the city’s new trash collection fee and for your tyrannical ideology surrounding this issue.

Let us revisit:

• Measure B, approved by the voters in San Diego by less than 1 percentage point, was grossly deceptive if not outright fraud in its presentation to voters … a shell game. Since when can you “bait and switch” costs for a program after voting has been completed? The final costs are two times the amount voters voted for! Don’t you think the true costs would have resulted in its defeat at the ballot box? This is not what your constituency voted for … not even close.

At the very least, the outcome of the election should be null and void and the measure should be revisited on the next ballot with correct information and figures.

Mr. LaCava, let us examine how your philosophy would extend to everyday life. You have been eyeing a new car and have saved for its eventual purchase. After coming to an agreement on cost, you sign a contract. But wait … the sales representative informs you they miscalculated the final price and the true cost would be twice as much. If you back out of the contract, they inform you, your credit score will be decimated.

Not fair? Really? This is what you have saddled your constituents with … only worse. The city has embedded the trash collection fee in our property tax bills. Don’t pay and you will receive a tax lien on your property.

• My wife and I are very fastidious recyclers and avoid packaging whenever possible. We do not put our black trash can out for service … we don’t need to. So we get to pay over $500 for a service not needed. Well, we’ll just opt out of this program. No, not an option.

Recycling pickup every week is another service not warranted (along with oversized-item pickup). Many residents do a horrible job at recycling, with a large portion of recyclables ending up in the black trash cans.

In addition, the transition to computer-coded receptacles sounds like an environmental and economic disaster. Please let the residents of San Diego know how many receptacles actually get recycled. I suspect the percentage will be abysmal.

• I have saved my favorite city tactic for last. We the residents had to submit protest forms to try to halt this trash fee implementation, and anyone who didn’t “vote” would be counted as a “yes” for the new fee. Wow! So much for democracy.

By extension, in future local elections, is the city going to “vote” for people who don’t exercise their right to vote in order to pass their agenda? In our upcoming midterms, can the majority party claim that any resident of voting age who does not vote will be counted as a “yes” vote for them? Tyranny in action.

These are tumultuous times, Mr. La Cava, and we certainly do not need more government overreach and the ramming down our throats of unfair and fraudulent practices. Voter apathy runs high and you have exacerbated the problem. How can I, or anyone, cast an informed vote when what we are voting on is suspect in definition or subject to possible manipulation?

Malfeasance and the lust for money waft through the air over our city. I have absolutely no respect for you, Mr. LaCava, or any of the other City Council members who passed this boondoggle. I hope voters remember and vote all of you out of office.

Leo Larson

Sidewalk plan may be wider, but is it wiser?

I enjoyed reading the opinion expressed in the “Our Readers Write” letter titled “Scripps Park sidewalk expansion is money misspent” (July 24, La Jolla Light).

Kudos to Neva Sullaway for raising public awareness, intelligently inviting us to take another look at how precious city funds could be used, reflecting the noble intention of the San Diego city initiative “Parks for All of Us.”

Yes, let’s maximize safety and preserve La Jolla’s natural beauty while offering recreation and relaxation. Spending $15.9 million for 19 park projects sounds like an exciting task but also a great deal of responsibility.

To balance freedom with duty, one must master discipline, detachment, intellect and insightful imagination. Ready to try? Take a breath and imagine being in a time machine and stopping it at the memorable moment when you were about to spend your first pocket money. Holding tightly to a silvery nickel, did you take awhile before deciding which of those sweet, colorful penny candies you’d get?

Times have changed and we are no longer talking pennies but thousands and thousands of dollars, shaping history. This is no small talk — La Jolla’s primary park will get a permanent mark!

One of the many ways to minimize concern about a crowded sidewalk could be adding a bunch of beautiful benches — a resting place for all: young, old, short and tall. Whether you are a local or a visitor, how would you enjoy resting your heart, sitting and softening your gaze, savoring the scenery, sunsets and serenity of stillness? Listening to the ocean waves, maybe even meditating?

But for almost 40 years I have been blessed to stroll through the scenic Scripps Park during the day and after dark. It gets heavily crowded only a few times a year, around major holidays or when the surf is high.

I am not saying a park’s sidewalk needs to be narrow. But it’s a bit puzzling that the widening is proposed along Coast Boulevard and not on the ocean side, where the majority of pedestrian traffic takes place.

Did anyone consider RPA (root protection area) for the palm trees adjacent to the sidewalk and the potential disruption caused by the planned construction hindering the trees’ ability to absorb water and nutrients? Are we risking losing that picture-perfect landmark view that makes La Jolla Cove postcards so original? That would be a hefty price to pay for a few more feet of concrete!

The opportunity to spend $750,000 wisely still exists! I hope other options will be considered and that the memory and values of the visionary founder of the park, Ellen Browning Scripps, will be honored.

Jaruska Solyova 

Shores needs Avenida de la Playa to be reopened

Avenida de la Playa has been closed for five years with a city event permit with attendance permitted at 3,000 people (“La Jolla Shores dining promenade gets permit to make it permanent,” Aug. 8 online, La Jolla Light).

La Jolla Shores residents want this street to be open with cafe dining, and therefore an end to the merchants’ giant delivery trucks strangling traffic and endangering pedestrians.

Greed and trash have taken over our street. We want our street back.

Tricia Riha

What’s on YOUR mind?

Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday for publication in the following Thursday’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period.