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Hello, Uptown!
Greetings from your newest Uptown correspondent and general crone-about-town! I’m Brooke. I’ll be your weekly source for news, happenings and gossip from the mean streets of Normal Heights and surrounding areas.
For my inaugural newsletter, I want to talk about an issue that’s more irritating than serious, but it has antagonized plenty of people around here and I have the pictures to prove it. Like death and taxes, it will come for us all in the end: paid street parking.
My neighborhood is one of the latest to receive the dreaded meters — we got them put in about two months ago — and I think it’s safe to say that no one is adjusting very well. I know we’re not the first neighborhood to get it and it won’t be the last, but it doesn’t mean anybody has to be thrilled about it. (It looks like San Ysidro is likely to be next, so batten down your hatches.)
Although it might seem like it, the meters aren’t there to purposefully irritate residents. The city has stated the purpose of the meters — both in San Ysidro and our own Adams Avenue — is to increase turnover of available parking near businesses.
So Adams Avenue now has parking meters up and down Kensington and Normal Heights, and no one is happy about it. Not even the meters look happy; they’re covered with furious graffiti saying things like “DON’T PAY” and stickers that are quite unflattering to the mayor. Some of the graffiti has turned into a message board, with different handwritings offering commentaries and agreeing with one another.
I’ve never seen anything like it, but it’s really been bringing the community together.
Brooke Binkowski
Uptown News newsletter host
Uptown story spotlight
Which libraries and rec centers will be hit by council-approved budget cuts?
By Tessa Balc • Times of San Diego and Dorian Hargrove • Times of San Diego
The City Council’s final budget restored some cuts Mayor Gloria had sought. Here’s how the new budget affects you.
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