Landowners’ Trespassers Are Not So Easily Forgiven as City’s

There’s a fundamental difference between a problem and a mess.

As my betters have long pointed out: A problem has a solution, a mess does not. Calling a mess a problem doesn’t make it so.

The closer you get, the more likely you are to say something is a mess--a sorry but unsolvable situation--and really, people should sympathize because you’re doing the best you can.

On the other hand, distance and lack of direct responsibility tend to encourage a clarity of moral judgment: It’s a problem and someone else should clean it up.

Take the squatter camps and transients along Black Mountain Road in North City. And those in Golden Hill Park and the Golden Hill portion of Balboa Park.

The city looks at Black Mountain Road and tells the property owner to clean up the camps or face legal action.

The city looks at city-owned Golden Hill Park and Balboa Park and says, “We’re doing what we can but you can’t expect us to solve homelessness brought on by Rust Beltism, Mexico’s gangrenous economy, and the collapse of the mental health system.”

The Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee is frustrated at the trash, drugs and human waste in the members’ neighborhood parks. And the fact that children are being warned to avoid certain areas.

Police make occasional sweeps. Within a few hours, things are the same.

“We just don’t have the resources to have someone there permanently,” said Councilman Bob Filner, who gets high marks from Golden Hill homeowners for listening to their complaints.

Bonnie Poppe, chairwoman of the planning committee, says there may be a lesson in the Black Mountain-Golden Hill split.

“Some of us think we’d have had the parks cleaned up faster,” she said, “if the city could just find a private property owner to blame for the problem.”

Some Running and Travel Plans

Here, there and everywhere.

* The Marine Corps has ordered that brig prisoners at Camp Pendleton and elsewhere will henceforth wear orange jumpsuits and orange baseball caps. Camouflage is out.

No, the Corps is not making a fashion statement.

The new ensembles are said to be more durable, cheaper ($16.75) and more easily spotted in case a prisoner decides to become a long-distance runner.

* Willie Blair, a staffer for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, is considering running this year against County Supervisor Leon Williams.

Blair, a former Navy officer and Vietnam veteran, is resigning as the mayor’s liaison to the minority community. His final day on staff is Friday.

* The mayor leaves Tuesday for a 10-day trip to Washington, London and Moscow.

In Washington, she’ll attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors and be interviewed Wednesday on the “Today” show and McNeil-Lehrer about big-city drug problems. On the latter, she’ll appear with Gov. George Deukmejian, who rejected her plea last year for more state aid to fight drugs.

Then she goes to London for a trade mission and Moscow for a Kremlin exhibit of Faberge eggs and the gala opening of the Soviet Union’s first McDonald’s.

Joan Kroc will be there, too: bringing her Faberge egg and the key to the McDonald’s on Pushkin Square off Gorky Street.

High-Tech Escape, Capture

From the world of electronics.

* It’s commonplace for drug dealers to carry beepers to answer their customers’ calls.

Now there’s the case of a San Diego dealer charged with attempted assault. Prosecutors say his victim was able to escape when the dealer became distracted by his beeper going off continually.

* On those celebrated FBI tapes, Richard Silberman is heard knocking America’s Finest City and the citizens therein.

Of the Convention Center, he says, “It sort of (expletive) up the waterfront.” Further, “Our rush hour is almost nonexistent. When people see five cars in the street, they get all excited.”