Letters

"I feel your article wrongfully cast our police force in a brutal light, when they are simply doing their job to protect us."

THE HOMELESS FRONT

I read “Down and Out in Balboa Park” [by s.d. liddick, May], and although I applaud the lengths your writer took to research the topic—two weeks as a homeless person; certainly not a comfortable assignment—I was troubled by his overall conclusion: Society bad; police officers bad (and their full names you were sure to include); homeless people helpless; Bush administration at fault.

I truly sympathize with the mentally ill patients who happen to be homeless —they indeed need our help. But as a resident of downtown San Diego with daily homeless activity outside my back door, I feel you have wrongly elevated them. Our local parks are quite frightening to take our children to, for fear of the homeless and obviously intoxicated/ drugged individuals perusing them. The veterans, I fear not. But the felons with potential sexual deviant rap sheets are a sharp reality.

I feel your article wrongfully cast our police force in a brutal light, when they are simply doing their job to protect us. Perhaps you should work to change the law that makes sleeping in a public place illegal. Until then, the police have a duty to enforce that law, regardless of the cost to society—and the homeless are lawbreakers.

Your article focuses on how society does little to help these downtrodden people, many of whom are homeless by choice or return to homelessness when they choose not to follow rules of employment and society. It also downplays (with only a few mentions) the drug addictions of this population and the risks to the public associated with that.

I cannot exit my downtown home through the designated main door, because there is a bench there frequented by up to four homeless people at a time, drinking beer, smoking and dancing to imaginary music as a result of their recent drug intakes. I hope your writer’s next article is about the steps he has taken to help their cause, and not about the failures of society and the brutality of our police force.

JENNIFER M. FRANKS
SAN DIEGO

COFFEE BREAKDOWN

Though Phyllis DeBlanche’s article is good for its choices [“Mo’ Joe in San Diego,” May], I can only wonder why you would limit space on a cover story to so few pages—considering that there are more than 360 independent coffeehouses in San Diego County. A broader but still far too short list would have included:

Bassam’s (think Casablanca, but with more Bergman—and cigars); Bean Bar (coffee culture conquers fast food); Blissful Bean (smallest coffeehouse in town); Café Chloe (where ’20s Paris meets East Village); Café Noir (upstairs); Caffé Italia (so Italian it makes Antonin Scalia break out into “O Sole Mio”); Café 1134 (Coronado); Ciao Bella (dance studio and café); Cosmos (La Mesa); Chicano Perk (take your pick; there are two); Eduard’s (best biscotti in SD); Espresso Mio (check the deck); Gelato Vero Caffé (where Henry Rabinowitz owns the art form); Hancock Street Café (Elvis and Marilyn, daily); 976; Red’s; The Turquoise (the only 21-and-up coffeehouse in San Diego); and Zanzibar.

San Diego’s indie houses are evolving into a unique form of the business that reflects the mix of cultures in San Diego, the artists, musicians and other creative people who gain a following through their egalitarian admittance policies, and literateurs and poets who are finding a voice in them. In no other American city does the coffee trade have the same overall nuance and Darwinian sense of experimentalism that San Diego’s does. It is a tribute to the courage and determination of those business owners who stake out new territories that give daring business models reality amid seas of brew so dominated by the Mighty Mermaid.

JOHN RIPPO
EDITOR & PUBLISHER, ESPRESSO
(SAN DIEGO'S COFFEEHOUSE & CAFE NEWSPAPER)
POINT LOMA

The author was assigned to do only a sampling of the many great choices San Diegans are blessed with—not a comprehensive list of all coffeehouses in San Diego County (space would never permit). That, apparently, is why we have a local newspaper called Espresso.—EDITOR

CULTURE BREWING
Thank you for the lovely article you did on local coffeehouses. It is truly a privilege to be included in this group.

When I handed the article to one of our regulars to read, he commented on how well you captured the essence of our place (especially the part about how time flies).

So often, I feel like no one cares about coffeehouse culture anymore, and that everyone is only interested in the impersonal service of a drive-thru. It warms my heart to think that, because of this article, people seeking out the community atmosphere of local coffeehouses may actually discover one of them in their own neighborhood.

TONYA M. BUCHANAN
OLD CALIFORNIA COFFEE HOUSE
SAN MARCOS

THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE

Oh, yes, I did love that conversation between William Brotherton, Lucy Killea, George Walker Smith and Lionel Van Deerlin [“When the Barons Were in Charge” by s.d. liddick, April].

Actually, Van Deerlin was incorrect about the number of candidates in the 1970 election; there were 13, not 10. Ed Butler was the finalist against Pete Wilson, and did fairly well.

Frank Curran, the incumbent mayor, ran fourth in the primary. He had billboards all over San Diego, and part of their contract included pasting a “Thank You, San Diego!” strip across the billboard the night of the election, so that commuters would see it the next day. Of course, he lost, but the strip was there. In some quaint way it made him more human and lovable.

In 1972, as a research associate at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, I did a “power structure analysis” of San Diego and compared it to a study done by some other group in 1968. The entire landscape had changed. The mayor of San Diego in 1972 (Wilson) wasn’t even among the top 40 leaders in 1968, but in 1972 he was No. 1.

LEE GRISSOM
SACRAMENTO

ROUND AND ROUND

Enjoyed immensely s.d. liddick’s roundtable discussion in “When the Barons Were in Charge.”

In those days, we had as councilmembers one of the town’s largest auto dealers (Ivor deKirby, Pearson Ford); the owner of a major produce and real estate investment company (Tom Hom); the retired owner of a major insurance agency (Sam Lofton, Farmers); and a former telephone executive developing low-cost housing (Jack Walsh). Many of them made millions, so they could afford to serve the city for peanuts.

Some of these kinds of people serve in major cities today, and donate their big paychecks to charity. I have always favored self-made businesspeople to run the business of government.

These folks are more likely to call the district attorney than they are to accept a tainted contribution. Thank heaven for a vigilant press and well-funded prosecutors, or else it would be a challenge to have faith in local governments anywhere.

I knew George Smith, George Scott, Bob Peterson, Andy Borthwick, Jim Copley and Dick Silberman. In their relationships with city government, they were very positive factors. And regardless of misjudgments in some personal business affairs by Smith and Silverman, they all changed the skyline for the better, and gave of their time and money to build our great city.

I have known interviewees William Brotherton and Lionel Van Deerlin, average age 92, for more than 40 years. I trade e-mails with former Congressman Van Deerlin regularly, and hosted a fund-raiser in my home for Reverend George Walker Smith. Lucy Killea succeeded me on the city council. What memories San Diego Magazine brings to today’s San Diego!

MIKE SCHAEFER
BALTIMORE
(CITY COUNCILMAN, CITY OF SAN DIEGO, 1965-71)

THE GOOD LIFE

Loved the “How San Diegan Are You?” quiz [by Ron Donoho, March]. I’ve been here forever and have done almost all on the list. What a good life it is! Here are my additions:

1. Watched the dancing on the green in front of the Old Globe Theatre before Shakespeare performances.

2. Went crawdad fishing in the San Diego River.

3. Watched the sunset from the top of Mount Helix.

4. Stopped to watch the cows in Mission Valley.

LOUISE CHANDLER
ROLANDO VILLAGE

MORE TO COME

You know you’re a true San Diegan when you:

1. Have finished a WHOLE carne asada burrito at Colimas in Oceanside.

2. Had the same kindergarten teacher as your child, at the same school, in the same classroom.

3. Knew—before the area code was split—what city you were in by the first three digits of your phone number (749 was Valley Center).

4. Know the pier in Oceanside is a quarter-mile long—making it the longest pier between here and somewhere.

5. Have lost your whole paycheck at the Barona casino. (And call your loss a “donation to the people we stole from.”)

6. Have had your picture taken on the rocks and in the cave at La Jolla (before the collapse).

TRACEY EASTER
ESCONDIDO

OKAY, WE GET IT

How San Diegan are you? Here are a few more thoughts from a native: I consider you a real San Diegan if you remember. . .

1. When people pronounced Poway to rhyme with Otay—and you accent the second word of Del Mar.

2. When people took streetcars (but not red trolleys).

3. When the San Diego Museum of Art was called the Fine Arts Gallery.

4. When ferryboats carried passengers and their cars to Coronado.

5. When San Diego High’s football team beat Hoover High 72-0.

6. When Horton Plaza (the plaza, not the shopping mall) was filled with joyous people celebrating the end of World War II on August 14, 1945.

JERRY JACKSON WILLIAMSON
POINT LOMA

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