Tsk, tsk…
In response to the writer of “Judge record, not the rhetoric” (The Coast News, Oct. 9, 2026).
Tch, tch. I find it amusing that rhetoric can be spewed about Encinitas’ current mayor, Ehlers, and Councilmember San Antonio, who have records of service and accomplishments, by those who have none! It is easy to toss out accusations while touting your three candidates: Lefkowitz and Golden have no record to stand on, and Viskanta offers a slim and short-lived one in a field foreign to city government.
Described as “forward-looking candidates,” why is their ordained puppet master, Catherine Blakespear, angling to regain control of our Encinitas council, pulling the strings of their campaigns?
Meanwhile, the writer accuses others of name-calling, yet splashes the term MAGA five times at the start of her column! That seems duplicitous.
The writer makes statements that tend to hedge the truth, so in response, here’s the truth and nothing but the truth.
True fact: The homeless population grew 10 times its size in our city and all the coastal cities because of Blakespear’s widely advertised deal with Jewish Family Services, so they could get a grant for a homeless overnight parking lot. A parking lot that no other North County city would accept. A parking lot that was never 100% filled. When the grant ran out, the city was asked to start funding the parking lot with your local taxpayers’ money. Our current council wisely said no.
True fact: Mayor Ehlers and the current council have reduced homelessness in our city by 30%.
Our council is working in partnership with the San Diego Rescue Mission. You wrote misleadingly about the partnership with Buena Vista Navigation Center in Vista. Vista decided it needed the additional 12 beds for its own growing homeless population. The $3 million grant is not lost. Another location is being considered.
True fact: Overdevelopment — Blakespear gave us 15 housing development projects, many at poor building sites, with low percentages of affordable housing. She gained financial support and votes of the development community. This council inherited those projects, is not responsible for them, but is doing the best it can to curb them.
True fact: The Santa Fe Drive “unsafe” safety construction concoctions were again inherited by our current mayor and council. Most citizens deem it unsafe and want change. It cannot safely accommodate emergency vehicles for first responders or hospital access, and it complicates parking and bicycle access next to the San Dieguito Academy.
True fact: State Sen. Blakespear tried to pass statewide Senate Bill 369, denying any city in the state the right to change currently installed road safety features. The California Senate committee stopped her dead. But always the resourceful manipulator, she inserted a bill “specifically” aimed at stopping any changes to Encinitas’ Santa Fe Drive into a proposed bill on another subject a day or two before the governor was to sign SB 114.
Again, a vengeful act, attempting to control decisions by our present, duly elected mayor and council. (See “Santa Fe redesign,” Oct. 9.)
As one person so aptly put it: Blakespear has been gone from our Encinitas council for four years now, but her tarnish remains — the steady removal of her mistakes continues unabated!
It is hard to believe that any voter who cares about Encinitas would want to step backward into experiencing Blakespear’s puppet control of our City Council again!
Sheila S. Cameron is a former mayor of Encinitas.
