Demolition Hearing Turns Into Post-Mortem

Verdict first, trial later.

Property owners around 5010 Saratoga Ave. in Ocean Beach, which is just a Frisbee toss from the beach and the OB Fishing Pier, received notices in the mail last week from the San Diego Planning Department.

Said the friendly-as-you-please notices:

Come on down to a public hearing on Aug. 17. If you have any feelings about a request to demolish a small home at 5010 Saratoga and build a dense-pack of four condominiums, we’d love to hear them.

Owners were advised that they could appeal any decision made at the hearing to the Planning Commission.

Enlightened local government, you say. Seeking the consent of the governed, you say.

Not really.

The small home at 5010 Saratoga was reduced to rubble several months ago. The site was cleared and the condos are being built.

Don’t blame the property owner or contractor. They filled out the right applications and jumped through the right hoops.

Somehow, the bureaucracy goofed and never notified the adjacent property owners, as required by local ordinance. Hey, it’s a big city, stuff happens.

The Aug. 17 hearing is an attempt at post-facto due process, in case anyone wants to sue.

The adjacent owners are not amused. They’d have loved a chance to argue that eight parking spaces for four three-bedroom condos isn’t enough.

They worry that the condos will be rented to the beach-loving young, forcing some tenants and their lovers/buddies/surf instructors to park on the street, where parking is already scarce.

“I’m pretty upset,” said Cindy Salatino, an airline employee. “They’re putting the horse after the cart.”

“This whole thing stinks,” said Mike Berrill, a teacher. “It’s a done-deed. By the time of the hearing, they’ll be drywalling the condos.”

And you thought redistricting was the only snafu at City Hall.

The Art of Compromise

Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) is a continuing outrage to the anti-abortion forces.

She is arguably the Legislature’s strongest Republican supporter of keeping abortion legal. And a potential tie-breaking vote.

The latest outrage to her foes is that Hunter has hired Tony Russo, a recent candidate for Assembly in the San Gabriel Valley, as her chief of staff in Sacramento.

During his failed campaign, Russo had sought the endorsement of the California Pro-Life Council (which has Hunter on its hit list) and was outspoken in his anti-abortion views.

Russo has no trouble working for Hunter. He says no single issue should be a litmus test for staff.

Anti-abortion activists are not as charitable: “Russo is dead politically,” said one.

Operatives in the San Francisco Bay Area are combing through Hunter’s past (she arrived in San Diego County only a few years ago) for anything that might prove politically embarrassing.

Also, Poway nurse Connie Youngkin, narrowly defeated by Hunter in last month’s primary, is establishing herself as “assemblywoman-in-exile,” complete with newsletter.

A Style to Emulate

Past and future.

* Hat trick.

Organizers for this year’s La Jolla Library write-alike contest say the choice of Erle Stanley Gardner made it tough for imitators because Gardner did not have a distinctive prose style.

That shouldn’t be a problem if next year’s choice is the one now under consideration: La Jolla’s Dr. Seuss.

* South County bumper sticker: Future California Lottery Winner.

* North County bumper sticker: Buy Fur. Slip Into Something Dead.

* How important is high school football in Fallbrook?

Front-page headline in the Fallbrook Enterprise: 50 Days To Kickoff.

* Dr. Matthew R. Zetumer of Mesa Vista Hospital gives a public lecture on treating post-traumatic stress disorders with sodium amytal, including filming sessions.

Title of the lecture: “Stress, Lies and Violence.”