Last Monday, I was at the San Diego City Council, first time in two years, sitting where I always sit, up front and center and early.
I was settling in, waiting for the beginning when up the aisle comes a man, speaker slip in hand, on the ready. He wore silk very short shorts and a matching vividly patterned silk jacket.
He caused quite a stir in the heretofore relaxed state of those assembled. Turns out the outfit-wearing the man is one of San Diego’s most prominent gadflies.
You know the “gadfly” — the person you can count on to annoy, the one who speaks their truth quickly, loudly and often.
Wikipedia says a gadfly is “a person who interferes with the status quo of a community by posing novel, potentially upsetting questions, and usually to authority.”
That said, here’s my good idea of who some of our San Diego gadflies are and a sampling of their truths:
Daniel Smiechowski’s campaign slogan for his District 2 council race: “End the Idiocy” (Mr. Smiechowski was the one in the short shorts.)
Susan Baldwin in her opposition statement before the Santee City Council: “Placing over 8,000 new residents in a Cal Fire designated ‘Very High Fire Severity Zone’ is irresponsible. It would be negligent to approve a project knowing that the existing residents of Santee would rely on the same jammed roads for evacuation in case of fire.”
Geoff Hueter in support of Neighbors For A Better San Diego’s Petition for Moratorium on San Diego Zoning Changes in Transit Priority Areas: “We demand that the mayor and City Council place a moratorium on enforcement of the the municipal code that allows unlimited bonus Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in our neighborhoods.”
David Lundin on the Balboa Park Botanical Garden restoration project: “We must DEMAND no conversion of this semi-sacred space to a ‘Revenue-Generating Self-Sustaining’ event venue. Do we expect our streets, sidewalks and beaches to pay for themselves? But politicians and ‘Forever Balboa Park’ expect our park to do so. SHAME.”
Lisa Mortensen on the city’s newly built bike lanes on 30th Street in North Park: “Will the bicyclists patronize the businesses they are ruining with the loss of 450 parking spaces? … This is a failed experiment. The mayor is all smiles at ribbon cuttings, but the detrimental effect of these promotional gimmicks, that’s the real conversation we need to have.”
Mat Wahlstrom, founder of Project for Open Government, on deleting city emails after five years instead of 10 years: “What’s obscured in all this hand waving that this change is about transparency is how it will bleed out accountability. When there are no records of how decisions are made and who made them when schemes go south, there’ll be no way to know who to blame or who to shame.”
Kate Callen, newly elected North Park Planning Committee CPG: “Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.”
For decades, San Diegans unschooled in reading the fine print have lost hundreds of millions of dollars to painful experience — the public pension fiasco, the Chargers ticket guarantee fiasco and more recently, the 101 Ash Street and the inflated hotel purchase fiascos.”
And at the bottom of my enumeration is this one:
Amanda Nelson, self-identified voice of YIMBYs everywhere reacting to my winning and her losing a spot on the Uptown Planners Community Planning Group: “The worst one won.”
And in high-decibel non-agenda public comment, she wished me an early demise, followed up with her fervent prayer that I die sooner rather than later. She would dance on my grave.
It’s all good.
Helen Rowe Allen is a retired author, journalist, attorney and law professor. She volunteers in service by appointment or election.
