Destiny Preston, District 2 candidate, recently warned residents that if the 1% sales tax increase (Measure K) fails to pass, there will be “trade-offs” that involve “investing less in public safety.”
The comments were posted on Preston’s and District 1 candidate Allison Blackwell’s BikeWalkEncinitas website in response to a questionnaire but have since been removed. This was done, in all likelihood, under pressure from a public that reacted negatively to such coercive language.
Preston has claimed that a BikeWalkEncinitas volunteer mistakenly copied Blackwell’s opinion onto her page and that she never made the public safety threat. Meanwhile, Blackwell made the same denial, writing in last week’s newsletter, “In no way did I suggest cutting law enforcement.”
The original words were clear and not subject to misinterpretation. The message of holding public safety hostage to the 1% sales tax passage was unmistakable. It’s also absurd, as clearly there are nonessential areas to cut without endangering the public.
Preston reported spending $1,500 on an AI (Artificial Intelligence) service to date. Her use of it to write her content reveals her ignorance of Encinitas issues. This dependence is especially problematic if used on matters as concerning to the public as a sales tax increase.
Both Preston and Blackwell’s willingness to be less than truthful about the sales tax increase and then deny what was posted is indicative of the behavior we can surely expect from them on the council.
We need candidates who do their own research and are accountable for the information they release. Vote for Shaffer in District 1 and O’Hara in District 2.
Linda Durham is a former Encinitas resident now living in San Marcos
4 comments
Blackwell is a Kranz appointee, Preston is an Emerge candidate mill graduate who Blakespear asked to run, even though she has lived in Encinitas only 2 years.
Encinitas is tired of Catherine Blakespear’s influencing our elections and her ties to developer puppets is showing. Fox Farms doesn’t have enough parking and the overflow is affecting the neighborhood, the same developer was just approved on ECR (just the beginning if Kranz, Blackwell and Preston get elected) and it only has around 100 parking spaces for over 80 apartments. It pays to be friends with Blakespear.
Enough.
Please vote for
Bruce Ehlers for Mayor
Luke Shaffer for D1
Jim O’Hara for D2
It’s time to bring sanity back to this City.
Blackwell and Kranz (And Preston’s mentor Hinze) just voted to eliminate our concrete benches downtown. Now handicapped and seniors can’t sit for a rest while downtown because these three failed to safeguard our city from vagrants and criminals.
Ms. Durham’s spun-from-whole-cloth opinion piece is a stunning display of the depths to which people will sink to discredit the “others.” There is not a scintilla of truth to her accusation that Preston used “artificial intelligence” to write her response.
How do I know this? Firstly, because the information Ms. Durham obtained from Preston’s Form 460 disclosure mentions one vendor, Numero, Inc. of Costa Mesa, to which the campaign has paid $1,500. Numero’s URL is numero.ai. Based solely on the business’s domain name, without bothering to even look at the website’s home page, Ms. Durham wrongly concluded that the AI in the domain meant that their business was generative AI – creating new works. In fact, as clearly explained on their website, Numero, Inc.’s sole business is operating a donor database that uses artificial intelligence to tailor the database to assist candidates in focusing their fundraising strategies. The “ai” domain name is not limited to generative AI, but covers the full spectrum of artificial intelligence.
Secondly, for those lacking technological or scientific sophistication, AI is thought to be a relatively new technology, primarily used to create things using a computer, which can include “fake” things. The truth is that “artificial intelligence” has been around since the 1950’s. AI exploded in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with new algorithms and applications being developed for data mining and knowledge discovery through improved efficiency in processing and sorting of huge amounts of data. Since the mid-1990’s, I have obtained well over a hundred patents for clients on various applications of artificial intelligence for use in industry, commerce, and medicine. None of them dealt with generative AI, yet they are still AI. AI has been widely used in these fields for decades.
Ms. Durham is clearly unsophisticated in her understanding of AI. For that she cannot be faulted — many people are similarly uninformed. However, it is her fault is that she would fail to confirm the facts about the alleged source and that she would fabricate, and publish, an accusation of false authorship to attack a candidate who is running against her friends’ chosen candidate (noting that she herself has no stake in the election.)
Preston earned a Bachelor of Science in Society and Environment with an emphasis in U.S. Environmental Policy and Resource Management from U.C. Berkeley. She earned her Master of Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Environmental Analysis and Policy from U.C.L.A. She is currently employed as Assistant Deputy Director of Transportation Planning for the CA Transportation Commission. To suggest that she is unable to answer simple questions falling well within her education and work experience without the help of some imagined computer algorithm is contemptible.
If you disagree with a candidate on policy, explain your position and challenge theirs. On the other hand, if all you can manage is ad hominem attacks and accusations with zero basis in fact, then you must not have a very strong argument for your own position.
I’m not going to tell you and your friends who to vote for, Ms. Durham, but you owe Preston an apology.
Linda Durham….I am a resident of District 2 in Encinitas and wonder what interest you have in our city politics since you are a resident of San Marcos? Second of all, how can you sleep at night after you spread endless lies about our progressive Encinitas candidates? The layers of disinformation in this commentary and all others that the Coast News has chosen to publish are numerous. If you you don’t have a problem with the truth, you may wish to fact check the claims of the authors of the Opinion pieces for whom you are acting as a surrogate. Your compulsion to submit political propaganda is pathetic and highlights the fear that your clan of exclusivity holds for both District 1 Council Member Allison Blackwell District and District 2 City Council candidate Destiny Preston. The depth of experience these two stellar candidates hold in proper governance, realistic solutions to complex problems and dedication to policies that are good for the majority of Encinitas residents is unmatched by their opponents. To the good people of Encinitas, who love our, vote for:
District 1 Allison Blackwell
District 2 Destiny Preston
Mayor Tony Kranz
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