Should La Jolla become its own city? Here’s what other San Diegans have to say

The San Diego Union-Tribune has been publishing the La Jolla Light’s ongoing series of stories about a local group’s new proposal to make La Jolla a city independent of San Diego, and it asked its readers for their opinions.

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Story gallery: Leaving San Diego? A series on potential La Jolla cityhood

Here are some of the letters the U-T received:

Time to incorporate La Jolla has passed

My professor at San Diego State University, who served on a city of San Diego advisory committee, said he would routinely refer to “Northwest San Diego” until one day the representative from La Jolla asked him if he meant La Jolla, and if so, why didn’t he say La Jolla?

His response was, “You call my area Southeast San Diego, not Ocean View, so I call your area Northwest San Diego.”

La Jolla is reputedly the only community in the city that has its own U.S. Postal Service designation, mainly because of the wealth of its residents. That’s not enough reason to let it secede, now that the city has built its infrastructure.

The time for incorporation was 100 years ago, when La Jolla was a truly separate community.

Allen Edwards, Lakeside

La Jolla has had it better than most

The issue really is snob appeal.

After all, there is a city of Del Mar. Del Mar has four main things: a beach, a racetrack, a fair and over-the-top-expensive homes.

La Jolla already has a city: It’s part of San Diego.

The only big issue in La Jolla is that some sea lions have decided to make La Jolla home. People who live in La Jolla made the beach a little more comfortable for a family of sea lions. The problem is some La Jolla residents, the ones residing in the old La Jolla, find it beneath their dignity to allow sea lions to reside on their beach.

But is the beach the property of the residents of La Jolla? No. We all know that the beach belongs to the people of California and to the natural habitat of plants and animals.

Yes, of course, there is the issue of whether the city of San Diego, the real city of La Jolla, is doing its job as a city.

In many ways, the city of San Diego is doing its job to keep San Diego as glamorous as possible. In some ways, the city of San Diego continues to fail many named communities that do not have the automatic snob appeal of La Jolla. La Jolla and other communities north of Interstate 8 have had their way for more than 50 years. Those communities north of Interstate 8 did not have to deal with poverty. The city of San Diego decided that the people of the community of San Ysidro should take an uneven load of Section 8 housing around the late 1970s. The people of La Jolla just could not be bothered by low-income people. The community of Barrio Logan was split in half to make way for Interstate 5.

But the people of La Jolla can’t be concerned about those people when sea lions are bothering them. It is amazing how the communities of Nestor, Palm City, Otay Mesa and Egger Highlands have their own beauty. And yet the San Diego City Council has continually pulled the plug on helping to further beautify these communities.

Isn’t it enough that La Jolla has a famous public golf course? La Jolla has a very well-endowed public university. La Jolla has a new trolley. And best of all, La Jolla can retain its image from the glitz and glory of the Bing Crosby days. La Jolla, can you just leave the birds and the bees and the sea lions alone?

John Borja, Chula Vista

Some think La Jolla already is its own city

I am a retired San Diego police officer. Years ago, I stopped an older woman for running a stop sign in La Jolla. When I contacted her, she exclaimed: “You are a San Diego police officer. You can’t stop me because we are in La Jolla!”

While the idea of having that beautiful village being separate from San Diego is in the forefront of their minds today, the dream has lived in their hearts for decades.

A.W. DuBois, San Carlos

All communities feel the way La Jolla does

The problem here is that our leaders are not listening to the needs and wants of each community throughout the county.

So the city of San Diego decided to set up the Get It Done app to appease us. But it is nothing more than a screening tool to give us the impression that the city is listening. The locals refer to it as the “Don’t Get It Done” app.

The city ignores the fact that La Jolla is a jewel in our county and acts as if there is nothing special or unique about it and it requires no repairs.

The city just wants to be homogeneous — all the communities as one big happy family — and doesn’t want to repair anything that needs to be fixed. It’s called “fairness.” The city is scared to fix anything because it might offend someone’s feelings.

That is the problem that all of our communities are facing today.

Jeff Steinberg, Del Mar Heights

Debate is about as old as San Diego itself

During studies for the 1905 General Plan for San Diego, John Nolan, author of the plan, suggested that San Diego eliminate (de-annex) all city land north of the San Diego River. In his opinion, “it has little relationship to the city.”

And over the years since, many people on both sides of the San Diego River have agreed.

Joe Flynn, Talmadge ◆