Photo: Don Long, shot from Coronado
San Diego is clean as a whistle, easy to navigate, modern as all hell, and has the best weather in all of North America. Never too hot, never too cold, with few days that aren't sunny and bright, and never the oppressive humidity that strangles the shit out of people back East. Hurricanes? No. Tornados? No. Snowstorms? No. Just when a San Diegan gets bored of 75 and sunny, a solitary day of light rain arrives. It's hard not to smile.
Now, the bad.
A pension crisis threatened (and still does) to bankrupt the city last year, pitting politician against politician. One mayor hopeful for this Fall's election is promising to file bankrupty!
Also last year, Donna Frye easily beat incumbent Republican Mayor Dick Murphy as a write-in candidate, but her victory was not recognized by the election commission. Frye, a popular hippy liberal, lost in court due to a strict interpretation of election law. Many of her voters failed to check the box next to the line where they had written her name.
If the city's problems were limited to a financial crisis and a contested mayoral election, that would be par for the course in Big City America. No big deal. These things happen.
But wait, there's more!
San Diego Union-Tribune for Tuesday, July 19 (added to this post July 20)
Today two members of the San Diego City Council, one of whom is Acting Mayor, were found guilty of extortion in an embarassment known as "Strippergate". The jury agreed with federal prosecutors that the councilmen accepted bribes to ease the city's "no-touch" rules for strip clubs. (I support easing the rules. After all, titties were meant to be squeezed.)
The tale is straight from Hollywood. Hell, San Diego is only a two-hour drive from the world's biggest film industry cluster. The players include shady Las Vegas types who have an interest in a few of San Diego's strip clubs. One of the alleged thugs even wears silky suits and sports a little guido beard. The guy met the council members, shook hands, envelopes of cash were allegedly passed.
The two guilty councilmen, Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza, are icons down in Sandy Eggo. Inzunza made a statement to reporters this afternoon, saying that he will fight the verdict and plans to stay in San Diego. "Crook!" a few angry citizens yelled while he was speaking.
Rewind a bit... Just as the Strippergate trial began last year, one of the indicted councilmen, Charles Lewis, keeled over and died of a liver problem. He was in his early '30s. Lewis' family denied he was a lush, but the public knows better. Livers usually don't give out after 34 years. May he rest in peace, free from federal extortion charges.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the corruption trial, the pension crisis ambled along like a freight train sans engineer. Dick Murphy announced his resignation as Mayor just seven months into his second term as Mayor.
Today's news about Zucchet being found guilty on federal extortion charges is especially interesting because Murphy had chosen him as Deputy Mayor. When Murphy's resignation went into effect yesterday, Zuchet became Acting Mayor.
Remember that the drama is not unfolding in a mid-sized town in central Oklahoma. San Diego is one of the 10 largest cities in the U.S., is the second largest city in California, after Los Angeles, and is the only non-liberal stronghold in the state besides my beloved Orange County. Plus, I like going down there for the great beaches, perfect weather, and great downtown area. It's a great way to escape the 19 million Shaved Apes in the LA/Orange County area.
To recap the madcap madness, the city is enduring a huge pension crisis, which could easily result in a huge metro area going bankrupt, plus Strippergate, plus a dead councilman, and now two guilty councilmen -- one being the bloody Mayor. Dick Murphy probably dodged a bullet when he quit as Mayor. After this morning's guilty verdicts on the councilmen, he's probably filling his blender with ice, tequila, and some margarita mix.
The only thing left for San Diego is to hold the special election for the mayorship. Donna Frye, the blonde hippy married to a surfing legend, will probably win. What's the pool on a contested election? Correction, another contested election.
San Diego is indeed fucked. Those poor bastards.
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