Eye on San Diego

It wasn’t a fire sale—more like an ugly winter clearance. But the Padres certainly aren’t going out of business. Not with a $400 million toy ballpark in their future.

Gone: the big bat of Greg Vaughn. The fleet feet of Steve Finley. The rocket arm of Kevin Brown. And the golden glove worn by Ken Caminiti, who, according to ladies in the stands, also had some darn fine pectorals.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Ours: It was time for the worn-out Cammy to go. Only Rupert Murdoch could afford Brown. Finley should have been accommodated. As for Vaughn—how do you trade away 50 home runs?

Country singer and Padres spring training non-roster invitee Garth Brooks croons about having friends in low places. Let’s hope he isn’t referring to this year’s Padres and the cellar of the National League West.

That NL basement is a room in which Tony Gwynn has spent too much time during his 17-year major league career. No one deserves a good 1999 season more than Gwynn. He’s hit .300 or better in 16 straight seasons—far too many of which saw his efforts go for naught.

Perhaps more so than ever, this year’s version of the Padres will look to Gwynn for help. If the team tanks early, public relations efforts will have to center on his quest for a seat at baseball’s table of immortality, saved for gods who collect 3,000 career hits.

1999 ought to be declared the Year of the Opposite-Field Single. Amid moans about how owner John Moores has betrayed the city after getting his new ballpark, the focus should shift to Gwynn’s Herculean quest. He needs just 72 hits to reach the celebrated 3,000 plateau. Last year Gwynn had 148. The last time he had fewer was 1983, when he had 94 hits in 86 games. Barring injury, he could conceivably get his 72nd before the midseason All-Star break.

This season also could be earmarked as Gwynn’s last. He hasn’t said as much, but he admits 3,000 hits is one of the last things left for him to accomplish (besides snagging a World Series ring). Gwynn will turn 39 on May 9 and has been nagged the past few seasons by a sore Achilles tendon and heel.

Bad legs, expanding waistline and downgraded batting order notwithstanding, Gwynn will be on the field to compete. That he’s spent his entire career competing for San Diego is something worth remembering here in the twilight of his career. One tale worth noting about Gwynn’s loyalty to San Diego is chronicled in his book.

Back in 1984, Gwynn signed a contract for what Major League Players Association head Gene Orza considered below-market value. Orza reportedly phoned Gwynn to say so. “Gene, how can you sit at a desk in New York and tell me what I should sign for?” Gwynn asked. Orza replied that he had the contracts of more than 700 players to look out for. The discussion deteriorated into unprintable name-calling. Finally, Gwynn none too politely asked Orza to “get the hell out of my business.”

Indeed, Gwynn is old school. Also from The Art of Hitting: “Players call the union to get information about who’s making what.

I can’t be bothered... All my ties are in San Diego. I’ve gladly taken less money to be where I’m happy.”

We’re happy, too.

Help for the Homeless
In January, a homeless and penniless Ed Lopez moved into the downtown St. Vincent de Paul Village, his four children in tow. They now have a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. But can a 34-year-old homeless single father get a job and get back on his feet?

There are no guarantees. Often, addictions and mental problems have to be conquered. But Lopez thinks his future could include employment if he takes advantage of services available at the downtown shelter at 15th Street and Imperial Avenue. A resource center—available to anyone staying at the shelter—offers free use of telephone, fax and copier. The center has typewriters, newspapers, reference books and résumé assistance. Even job-interview clothes are available.

“We provide the people here with all the necessary tools to succeed,” says Cheri Sellers, program manager at the Village. Homeless job-seekers not staying at the shelter can make use of the nearby Neil Good Day Center. Sponsored by United Way, the center accepts mail and telephone messages for people with no address or phone. Of the thousands of homeless men, women and children who go through the St. Vincent de Paul Village each year, about half succeed in staying off the streets, says Sellers.

Ed Lopez hopes he’s one of the lucky ones. “I’m content right now, but I want to move on,” he says. “But if it wasn’t for this place, I wouldn’t be able to move on. It’s incredible how helpful it is here if you take advantage of all that’s offered.”

Info: 230-0997.
—Carl Friedmann

Walk of Art

The 15th annual Sony ArtWalk, April 19-25, spotlights the diverse talents of the San Diego arts community. The focus of the downtown celebration is the 1.5-mile “trail” of paintings, sculptures, film/video and other visual art—an opportunity for local artists to show and sell their work directly to the public. Look for featured artist Dorothy Annette’s commissioned series of paintings, including Walking Shoes (pictured). Admission to ArtWalk is free (map and program: $5)—and good walking shoes of your own are suggested. Info: 232-9090.
—Carl Friedmann

Needed: More Homes on the Range

San Diego mirrors a statewide trend in new-home construction—the rate is up, but not nearly enough, according to a survey by the California Building Industry Association. From 1997 to ’98, San Diego experienced a 10 percent increase in single and multi-family building permits issued, says the CBIA. Statewide, the rate rose 12.7 percent.

“While we are optimistic about the renewed level of housing construction in California, the data needs to be put into perspective,” says Robert Rivinius, CBIA’s CEO. “Projections for 1999 show growth but indicate we still fall well behind need.”

During the late 1980s, one new house was built in the state for each 1.6 new workers. Since 1995, that rate has dropped to one for each 5.4 new workers. San Diego’s BIA says the current local rate is one house per every nine new residents.

Source: California Building Industry Association

Hip Hop
A Boy and His Pop

San Diego is home base to F&S, the only father-and-son hip-hop duo we’ve ever heard of. Since late last year, 29-year-old “Big Nick” Hanton and his 13-year-old son, “Paco,” have been onstage rapping partners.

They’ve released a single, “Wake-Up Call,” from their forthcoming album, F&S. The duo wants to promote family values with a modern-day consciousness. “In every song, we try to give out something positive,” says Big Nick. “We touch base on things and experiences people have gone through or are going through right now—relationships, drugs and everyday struggles.”

Big Nick says F&S (father and son—get it?) is getting positive local feedback and has appeared on local NBC 7/39 and KUSI-TV newscasts. Word up.

Info: 286-7059.
—Carl Friedmann

Things to do in San Diego on Earth Day (April 22) if you’re just visiting from another planet:
Probe a Sierra Club activist.
Vaporize a Balboa Park mime.
Rent The Coneheads from Kensington Video and discuss its prosaic exposition with Reader film critic Duncan Shepherd.
Recycle that dusty, radioactive stack of intergalactic periodicals.
Play the old pull-my-tentacle gag on dorky-looking humanoids.
Hang chilly with your homeys at the Hale-Bopp Comet Frequent
—Bill Owens

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Good 
Smokers’ Coffers: Local debate over appropriate uses for tobacco-settlement monies has been heated at times, but when the smoke settles, it’s all good. Rather than butt heads, county officials are meeting with area healthcare groups and anti-smoking advocates to pinpoint spending priorities for the $945 million projected to hit county coffers in installments over the next 25 years. At San Diego’s city hall, councilmembers adopted a plan to spend the city’s estimated $10 to $13-million annual tobacco payout on such diversified things as health-related college scholarships, the 6-to-6 childcare program at San Diego schools and a (controversial) backup funding source for the new downtown library.
Bad 
Percolation Inundation: The countywide cappuccino flood continues. Just when it seemed the fearsome Starbucks swell had subsided, Irvine-based Diedrich Coffee announced plans to expand into “San Diego suburban areas” over the next five years. Gourmet caffiends may welcome the Johnny-come-latté company’s proposed mocha-market ’burbs incursion, but others envision an upscale coffeehouse-and-kiosk glut. What ever happened to a simple cup of Joe?
Ugly 
The Stepford Hives: Stonecrest Village is scary. The tony cluster of condos and “apartment homes” lining a Murphy Canyon ridge in Mission Village south of Aero Drive is ugly if only for its Stepfordesque sameness and preplanned precision. Pseudo-swank names such as Westport, Stratford Place and Cambridge Park only add marketeering pretense to the enclaves on the west side of traffic-troubled I-15. The Stonecrest spread is one more developer’s dream with nightmarish overtones.
—Bill Owens

Dances with Computers

CyberStretch by Jazzercise is a software program designed to help reduce repetitive stress injuries among workers who use a computer all day. Barney & Barney gives out the software and recommends it to clients.

Barney & Barney operations manager Dennis Pearce is high on the concept. “This will really work,” he says. “If it will prevent even 10 percent of [repetitive stress] injuries, that’s a significant number to the insurance world and to employers.”

CyberStretchers needn’t worry about bringing gym clothes to work. The software offers instruction on low-impact stretches, all of which are done at the workstation. There’s the basic head tilt and 25 other stretches for muscles in the back, wrists, arms and shoulders.

Companies that install the software can even check up on whether employees are actually using it. A tracking module allows an employer to see how many staffers are doing which exercises, says Pearce (assuming employees are calling up programs and then not dogging it, of course).

Jazzercise is also getting philanthropic with the software. The CyberStretch School Giveaway Program donates software, posters and other classroom materials to schools in an effort to educate students about safe computer habits and demonstrate the ergonomically correct way to set up home computer space.

Info: 888-79-STRETCH.
—Kara Edwards