Councilman Has Had It Up to Here With ‘Southeast’

The surest way to get Councilman George Stevens on a roll of righteous rhetoric these days is to mention Southeast San Diego. He’ll launch into a mighty tear, condemning the media for referring to the area by that “disrespectful nickname,” accusing reporters of propagating the negative stereotypes that plague the individual neighborhoods that dot his district.

“I don’t think reporters would say West San Diego and have that include La Jolla, and I don’t think they would say West San Diego for Point Loma,” Stevens said in a boisterous interview last week. “We want reporters to respect our communities. We want them to stop using a nickname.”

Displaying his flair for the symbolic, a week ago Saturday, Stevens and other community leaders buried a coffin filled with gang and drug paraphernalia meant to symbolize Southeast. The television cameras rolled.

Beyond the flashy show, Stevens raised an intriguing point.

It’s not that he wants the area to be renamed Sunshineville. He simply doesn’t want every community in the area--Encanto, Skyline, Paradise Hills, et al--painted with the broad brush stroke of the stories about gangs, drugs and robberies that often originate from the area.

“La Jolla is not a city, it’s a community, the same as Emerald Hills, and they should give Emerald Hills the same respect,” Stevens said.

During last week’s interview, Stevens offered up an example of a recent incident in Sherman Heights. A nearby sign clearly labeled the area, but a television reporter still called it Southeast San Diego.

“If a Hispanic is shot at 24th and Imperial, it’s called Logan Heights, if an African-American is shot it’s called Southeast San Diego,” Stevens said. “Southeast is moved not only geographically, it’s moved by race.”

Wait a minute. That suggests that editors and reporters sit around their plush offices saying, “Shucks, that involved in an African-American, let’s call it Southeast San Diego.”

Implication or no, Stevens refused to elaborate.

“I don’t know why it is,” he said, clearly growing angry. “You tell me.”

I persisted. If the media moves the boundaries of Southeast by race, he must have some theory about reporters and editors making racist decisions.

“Listen to what I’m saying,” Stevens said, his voice raising an octave as he repeated the Sherman Heights story.

But he refused to address the question.

“All I know is what appears in the paper,” he said, practically shouting. “You want me to say editors are racist, and I’m not going to do that.”

Once he calmed down, Stevens got back on a roll.

“I want lazy reporters with insensitive attitudes to go out and find where the neighborhoods are,” he said.

Ah, lazy reporters. Now Stevens was talking about something concrete. Far too often reporters do take the easy way out. They look at a map, there is no designation, and they call it Southeast San Diego.

“We’re saying that’s wrong. Let the readers know that there are communities in the 4th District, just like in the 1st District,” Stevens said.

He’s right.

When he talked specifics, Stevens made some good points. Businesses may be wary of locating in Southeast San Diego because of all the stories, “but you don’t hear them say they don’t want to locate in Oak Park,” he said. Lumping all the communities into one overdrawn designation damages housing values, since violence and crime are associated with that designation.

It also makes people feel they are living in a war zone.

“People need hope,” he said.

Stevens said the response of the media to the coffin press conference has been “very positive,” but to call it mixed would be more accurate.

KNSD-TV (Channel 39) news director Irv Kass said Stevens “raised the station’s consciousness of this issue,” and the station plans to develop a “coherent policy” over the next two to three weeks.

KGTV (Channel 10) has decided to follow Stevens’ suggestions, according to Jeff Godlis, the assistant news director. Much like the station’s decision to stop referring to “illegal aliens,” they will stop using Southeast San Diego out of sensitivity to the negative connotations of the term.

“It almost doesn’t matter what I think or a guy in La Jolla thinks, it’s the way they think in that community that matters,” Godlis said.

The Times has no set policy, other than to use the designations offered by the police and other agencies, according to San Diego County Edition editor Dale Fetherling. San Diego Union-Tribune editor Gerald Warren didn’t return calls Friday.

On Tuesday, just three days after Stevens’ burial ceremony, both the Union-Tribune and The Times said Vice President Dan Quayle visited Southeast San Diego when he stopped at the Nu-Way Youth Center, which both stories labeled a “tough” area.

“That is blatant disrespect,” Stevens said. “That part Quayle was in is Lincoln Park.”

But Lincoln Park is one of the neighborhood names that is not well known; it is not identified in Thomas Brothers, which is the common resource for news reporters. And some reporters simply follow police reports, I suggested to Stevens.

“That’s a lie,” he shot back. He said the police no longer use Southeast, since the city manager sent out a memo a few months ago urging city agencies to stop using the term. It’s the media’s fault, pure and simple, Stevens said.

“Stop calling people by nicknames,” Stevens said. “No one wants to be called by a nickname. Just stop it.”

Hallelujah.

Mark your calendar: “Ted Leitner reveals his off-camera secrets: He’s sensitive, shy and happily married . . . finally,” reads a press release for this month’s edition of “Assignment San Diego,” scheduled to air Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Channel 8. “I never expected Ted to be so open about his life, and so modest about his success . . . he never expected to be so big,” gushed reporter Maria Velasquez in the release. . . .

Ken Kramer of KSDO-AM (1130) is producing a national version of his lyrical “About San Diego” pieces, which will be syndicated by the Mutual Network. Dubbed “About America,” the two- to three-minute segments will air during the “America in the Morning” show. . . .

San Diego veteran (Shotgun) Tom Kelly, the guy with the Smokey the Bear hat and shrill vocal signature, will take over afternoons on K-BEST (94.9) beginning July 6. Boy, San Diego radio sure is exciting.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: ‘ONE FALSE MOVE’ DESERVES A LOOK

Movie-goers able to make it through the first 10 minutes of “One False Move” will be rewarded with a entertaining, briskly paced, non-traditional cops-and-robbers yarn. But it won’t be easy to stay in your seat through the opening scenes, which are as brutal as anything depicted in “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” The rest of the picture isn’t exactly sunshine and cheer, but interesting characterizations and the never-ending tension that permeates the film elevate it above the violent genre. “One False Move” is screening at the Park Theatre.