S.D. Growth Game No Fun

After a three-year absence, I recently returned to San Diego for a visit. It was a bittersweet experience. Looking around the beach area in the clear light of a Santa Ana day, I suddenly understood the game being played here: “How many buildings, people and cars can you fit on every block?”

The game isn’t much fun. In fact, it seems to hurt folks living here a lot. “It’s like losing your hometown in a disaster,” said a friend, “but piece by piece, instead of all at once.”

At Famosa Slough in Ocean Beach, I drew a sigh of relief, finding that magic window into another world still remains. With the newly arrived migrant pintail ducks and graceful egrets, I congratulated the slough for being a survivor.

But what’s going on here? Wasn’t the city going to buy the slough and preserve it? Instead of a proud sign announcing Famosa Natural Wetlands Park, I found an ugly half-demolished fence and new construction spilling debris into the edges of the wetland. What happened to all those campaign promises by City Council candidates and the mayor to rescue the slough?

There was time enough in three years to develop Belmont Park, but not enough to save one tiny wetland?

What are you doing, San Diego?

DEBRA PATLA

Victor, Ida.