By Celia Kiewit
The Coast News provides an excellent source of news, events, columns and advertising. No one throws it on your driveway without your permission, it is never wrapped in plastic, and no one answers the phone in Costa Rica when you call to object! Was it Tom Sawyer who said he put a nickel in the collection plate, and the sermon was worth it?Our local paper is free and of course online where you can leave a comment. What a deal!
Our personal politics are exemplified by how we live our lives, what we read; our values displayed by how we shop and spend our money, not just how we vote. If only we could depolarize this subject, but from garbage to corruption, it’s always about money. I’d like to stay out of it, and I usually do my best to avoid it in public, but when developers decide to cram inappropriate housing and 3 story shopping onto El Camino Real without our consent, yet our leaders can’t seem to build a park on vacant freeway land we purchased almost 12 years ago, or get an appraisal on another piece of property, what’s up with that?!
Then there’s the widening of Interstate 5. Let’s build a bigger parking lot! Can’t we make better use of the space we have? Have you driven to L.A. lately? Isn’t adding more lanes equivalent to having more closet space? The more I have, the more I find to fill it. Only shortsighted selfish people who do not live along this corridor approve of what is an unjust and wasteful spending spree. Did you see “The Lorax”?
Consider the mayoral rotation. Quit with the excuses and do what’s right. I guess we’re all focused on the national campaigns, or is it basketball? Are we overlooking the importance of the local scene while the foxes are busy raiding the henhouse? How embarrassing for our city!
I challenged Councilman Gerald Steel and others when Encinitas was a new city, in 1987? Privatizing Crest Drive at the expense of Lake Drive was a nasty battle with a questionable result. Wouldn’t we all like to have private streets in front of our homes? Just because some idiot hit a tree in the middle of the night did not create a need to install speed bumps to slow traffic to protect children. Unlike many other streets in the area, there are no schools on Crest Drive. At first, they even tried to make it one-way! Oh, and there’s a volleyball court in the middle of it at the south end. I won’t name all the crooks who promoted this elitist agenda, but now that we’re all grown up, shouldn’t there be a higher standard for running the affairs of our city?
There’s a stretch of Manchester Avenue east of El Camino that someone at the city thinks is in need of straightening due to a drunken teenager crashing a car. Again, they want to take private property to do this. What’s really going on?
Priorities. What’s more important than getting educated about protecting our community from waste, pollution, and corruption here in the greatest little city in the nation? You can stick your head in the sand, but Charlie Moore will tell you that sand is full of plastic. Don’t get me started. I prefer to address the epidemic of plastic crimes against the state, but let’s use some common sense and do what’s right for our community in all matters.
From The Lorax: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better, it’s not.” I would love to hear your opinions. Read all about it, and make my day!
Celia Kiewit is a freelance writer, board member with Algalita Marine Research Foundation, organic gardener, MA in psychology, and sells real estate. She is available to speak to groups of all sizes on solutions to plastic pollution. [email protected]
