I urge everyone reading these Juice posts or watching Huell Howser’s “bought and paid” for TV coverage of redevelopment projects, to flood his mail box with complaints on his putting the almighty buck over his good reputation and engaging in a political issue when he assured me he is not political. That address is Huell@calgold.com
Sadly Huell is being used by the California Redevelopment Agency, CRA, to justify their bulldoze agenda to take our businesses, homes and farms when we have no desire to sell.
Following is an Aug 4th letter sent by Cynthia Conger to Huell Howser for which she gave me permission to publish same. Cynthia served as Prior Chair, Peninsula Community Planning Board, San Diego CA.
To: Huell Howser
RE: NTC ‘Redevelopment
Dear Huell,
I caught your ‘report’ on the NTC redevelopment ‘conversion’ in San Diego. I was very concerned that the majority of ‘issues’, especially the many public Health and Safety issues, have not been addressed by you or any ‘media.’ Any of several potential major catastrophes here will soon make you look as one with ‘egg on your face,’ for only reporting ‘good,’ as well as ‘condoning’ the state’s bureaucracies for avoiding the loss in property taxes for missing infrastructure and public and safety negligence. Please note, San Diego’s ‘losses in property taxes’ from its large percentage of ‘new unit redevelopment,’ thoroughly overtaxing its ability to ‘service’ the present and increased population density (17 large redevelopment areas, huge volume of empty condos and units) will soon plunge this city into bankruptcy! As former Chair of the local Planning Board for 5 of 6 yrs. here, we’ve asked to have addressed, ad nauseum- these issues, continuing in depth and scope as we speak, with NOTHING being done about them, I implore you, report the Whole Truth!
Your ‘report’ only accredits the developer for their greed in ‘maxing out’ every available ‘variance’ from local and state building codes – all to the General Public’s and the local community’s detriment. There is NO hospital closer than 30 minutes away from this site. Toxic ‘accidents’ and issues that were not addressed before -that killed military personnel during the ‘conversion’ process, still are being ‘glossed over.’ You won’t ‘find’ them in any papers, now..they’ve been ‘hushed up.’ More ‘toxic’ issues have recently been ‘added.’ The roads, now at standstill several times per day, weekends included, will this month see an increase of over 20% from an added huge 300,000 sf business site developed for an international corporation, with insufficient parking, traffic mitigation and, again, missing ‘mitigation’ to address these and emergency access problems. With a ’10 gate airport expansion’ construction soon to begin at the eastern border (on the toxic dump-which leaches into the water channel-hotels on the waterfront!) and increase in utility of operations (planes taking off & landing-a 25% increase in present gates), these same roads will be impacted further. With over 80,000 residents, business people, private/charter schools, university and military personnel (& tourists) to be affected on our ‘Peninsula,’ surrounded by water on three sides, (with only ONE RUNWAY for all of San Diego’s major commercial & cargo flights whose ‘takeoff” dead ends’ into NTC), one of three major feeder access roads ‘out’ already blocked with the local government (and Port of SD) planning to ‘reduce width’ of another for ‘short term profit,’ like NTC’s developers, this is NOT the ‘redevelopment’ to ‘glorify,’ please, make the Truth known so that other communities, cities and states do Not rely on this hap-hazard method of re-diverting property taxes to those who only ‘take gross advantage’. I’d hate to see Alexander Tyler’s, an 18th century Edinburough Scotland Professor of Civilizations ‘prediction’ become
first evident in California…because of Redevelopment gone wild:
“A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only Exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy Always Collapses over Loose Fiscal Policy, always Followed by Dictatorship.”
Cynthia Conger,
Prior Chair, Peninsula Community Planning Board
San Diego CA 92106
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