Our Readers Write: Scripps pavilion, utility undergrounding, Via Capri, student performances, food recycling

Letters to the editor:

Scripps Park Pavilion is nice to look at but not to use

The new pavilion [at Scripps Park] is very nice to look at but fails to provide privacy for its users, and drainage from the showers is already a problem (“Drainage, privacy and supply concerns plague Scripps Park Pavilion’s opening weekend,” Feb. 3, La Jolla Light). Functionality is important in the design of a building, as well as beauty.

I swim with a group of women at The Cove three, sometimes four, times a week all year and we have waited a long time for this facility. But as soon as we had access we could clearly see the problems. From the women’s shower and dressing area you can clearly see the sidewalk and street, and when you look up you can see the top two stories with balconies of the hotel across the street, so really there is no privacy.

One day someone was there already to clear the drains of sand.

The new Scripps Park Pavilion is in the park area overlooking La Jolla Cove.

(Ashley Mackin-Solomon)

The building has only been open a very short time and usage is not nearly what it will be during the summer, so this will be an escalating problem.

I understand this building took over two years to build, so I find it remarkable that these basic functions weren’t adequately addressed in the design. It may be nice to look at, but it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. So now more money will have to go into it to make it function properly? Incredible!

Angela Holmes Shaw

— — —

Wait for utility undergrounding looks like it’s getting longer

I have lived by the [La Jolla] high school for 24 years. For as long as I can remember our neighborhood was scheduled to see the utility poles undergrounded in 2023.

Over the past 24 years we have had a massive sinkhole at the corner filled and fixed — twice. The street was opened to put in new sewer lateral lines. AT&T installed not one but two massive above-ground boxes. The gas line was recently replaced or repaired. The street corners were torn out to provide [disabled]-accessible ramps. Then some years later, those ramps were torn out and replaced with ones with yellow traction pads. The street was slurry-sealed once, then some years later repaved and not too long ago slurry-sealed again.

All the while, the utility poles are still there. And based on the latest from the La Jolla Light, they will be there for a long time (“La Jolla to see some utility undergrounding this year as ‘legacy projects’ resume,” Feb. 3). We are not in the next round of undergrounding.

Tony Pauker

— — —

San Diego needs to smarten up and repair Via Capri

I agree with [letter writers] Siegfried Reich and Richard Landres — Via Capri is a disaster.

We reported this street to our [City] Council member several years back during Kevin Faulconer’s first term [as San Diego mayor]. He had the bright idea that by counting up the miles of road repair, people would love him.

Unfortunately, this meant that they only repaired roads that did not need it. We were told (via our City Council member) from the street or development department that Via Capri is “too difficult to repair.” I keep hoping that the people in City Hall who are not smart enough to repair this dangerous road will get replaced with someone a bit smarter.

Imagine how much La Jolla residents have spent on automobile repair due to the city not being smart enough to repair Via Capri.

San Diego has a history of waiting until someone is seriously injured or killed and then gets sued before they take action. I am guessing that is what we have to wait for in order to see Via Capri made safe again.

David Haney

— — —

Double standard on COVID-19 for school sports and other activities is unacceptable

Recently, San Diego [Unified School District] schools suspended non-classroom indoor activities, including student performances (“‘West Side’ outside? La Jolla High School play ‘is being derailed’ by COVID-19 rule, upset backers say,” Feb. 3, La Jolla Light). The district needs to rescind this policy. The county’s data show that our Omicron [coronavirus] wave has peaked already.

The county permits indoor events that enforce customary common-sense precautions. Our schools’ COVID-19 protocols already exceed the county’s. “Just move your performance outdoors” is worthless advice when performances require expensive indoor equipment and facilities.

Currently, the district permits indoor sports. How could plays and recitals be so risky while wrestling and basketball are perfectly fine? This arbitrary double standard is discriminatory.

The arts are as important to student performers as sports are to student athletes. They fuel imaginations, teach determination and cooperation, and inspire the quest for excellence.

COVID-19 has already taken enough from our students. Must the district insist, needlessly, on taking even more?

Michael McCullough

This letter was originally published by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

— — —

Food-waste recycling system is a recipe for filth and stench

The reason for my letter is to relate a situation that has come up just recently here in California and La Jolla.

I am the resident manager of a small apartment building on Coast Boulevard South. Around October, we got a notice from our trash/recycling company that as of Jan. 1, we would be required to begin using a new small green food-waste bin at our building at a cost of $130 a month under California Senate Bill 1383 (“Get ready to recycle your kitchen scraps this year under new state law,” Jan. 13, La Jolla Light).

I had read about these bins and had information from the city of San Diego, and I could see some problems in the plan. One big thing is that they don’t take your old filthy and smelly food bin and give you a new one ... they empty it into a truck and give it back to you.

How do I know this is bad? On Jan 18, I was uptown off Prospect Street and had to go to a business on Herschel Avenue. Right next to where I parked was a green 35-gallon food-waste bin. I went to do my business in a place nearby and when I got back to the car, I gently kicked the bin to see how full it was. I could tell it was really full.

I decided to open it and it was a good thing I had my mask on — every flying and crawling insect that exists was in the bin, and it was packed full with meat, cheese, I don’t know what. And the smell.

I saw the manager of the restaurant that used the bin and said I had two questions for him: 1) When was your bin delivered? and 2) When was the last time they emptied it? He said they delivered it Jan.1 and they had never emptied it. That’s 18 days of stuff in there.

I then contacted the collection company as well as sent emails and pictures to our recycling specialist with the city. He told me collection companies for food waste, under the city franchise agreement, are required to empty food-waste bins weekly, or replace with new when necessary.

I went back the next day and it was still not emptied, nor the day after, but it finally did get emptied on Jan. 21. I figured I’d open it and look inside. Ick! Meat and other goodies stuck on the sides of the bin, it still smelled and some bugs were gone, but not all.

Why don’t they just give everyone a new bin? Better yet, scrap the whole program for health hazard reasons.

Mike Stalsby

— — —

What’s on YOUR mind?

Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. You also can submit a letter online at lajollalight.com/submit-a-letter-to-the-editor. The deadline is 10 a.m. Monday for publication in that week’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period. ◆