My kids will tell you, all I ever want to do is sit around and talk old high school baseball stories.
In 1977, I was in the first graduating class of Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Because the school was brand new, the baseball field was still desert-like.
Every Saturday our baseball coach, William Hatcher, made us come down to the field at a very unreasonable hour. Our job? To pick up rocks out of our infield so we’d get better hops.
Every Saturday for three years.
You can take a barren piece of desert and make something of it – ask Curt Schilling, who became an all-state pitcher on the same field…..in a small way thanks to us.
Can something be done here?
Kids just want to play. I like the idea and I’d be the first to volunteer, but me things you just opened up a can of worms.
*insert lawyer joke here*
as freshman, we had to pick up rocks too, in fact we did that more than we played games at Servite HS in the early 80’s. Some great players quit over it.
Hey Jim,
My dad was a civil engineer, contractor and heavy equipment broker, so I know how to drive iron. Where did you learn?
Jim,
I grew up a few miles east of Shadow Mountain High School down Shea Blvd and you probably wouldn’t recognize the area with all the growth and change. The summers used to be a lot more tolerable 30 years ago too and nights cooled down, unlike today where night time temps are in the upper 80’s due to the heat island effect. Yes, it’s a dry heat, but 100+ degree temps often start as early as April and can continue into October. A house with north/south exposure, good insulation, a newer A/C unit, plenty of shade trees and sun screens is essential here. On the plus side, we have low property taxes, no Mello-Roos, an abundance of new construction and single level houses, and low HOA fees. It’s pretty hard to beat North San Diego County for climate and quality of life and it’s pretty evident that even in these tough economic times, people are ready and willing to pay a premium to live in North County.
Off Topice >>> From NBCSanDiego.com:(Updated 2 hours, 43 minutes ago) “Elderly Bank Bandit: I Robbed to Pay Off My Mortgage”.
Excerpts:
“I had to get us out of this,” the elderly man said from the other side of the glass at San Diego central jail. “I’ve never done a bad thing in my life. But when you get desperate, I guess you throw all that sh– out the window.”
Listening to how Michael Casey Wilson of Santee tells it, a 17 percent mortgage, the threat of homelessness and a terminal health condition will turn a man to crime.
Wilson, 69, is accused of walking into the Bank of America branch in the 4100 block of El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights and handing a bank manager a demand note, saying he had a bomb. Prosecutors said he made off with $107,000 before he was caught lying on a front porch near the bank.”
“I wrote them an apology. I am so sorry,” he said referring to the employees who rushed out of the bank. “It’s not my purpose in life to scare people. …
On Thursday he pleaded not guilty to three counts of robbery and one count of falsely reporting a bomb to a business. In an interview Friday, Wilson was very open about the plan he had hatched to save his home.
“I was hoping to get $50,000 to pay off my mortgage,” he said. “Just to get the money and get the hell out of there.”
When he hatched the bank robbery plan, he said that he had considered the consequences but thought, “It was 50-50. Well if I get caught, I get caught. I’m dying anyway so what different does it make.”
Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32921104/ns/local_news-san_diego_ca/?gt1=43001
Another article: “B of A Skips Deadline, Faces New SEC Threat”.
A few experts:
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America failed to meet a Monday deadline to hand lawmakers further details about its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and faces the possibility of new charges from U.S. securities regulators.
The standoff with the House oversight committee heightened the chances lawmakers may subpoena the bank and raised the stakes for a Tuesday meeting between a senior bank executive and the committee chairman.
Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it could pursue additional charges against Bank of America after a federal judge last week rejected a $33-million settlement between the bank and the regulator.
An aide with the House oversight panel said its chairman was disappointed Bank of America missed the Monday noon deadline, especially after it submitted reams of unhelpful documents such as an announcement of an annual nut sale featuring “This Year’s Crop of Mammoth Pecan Halves.”
And at the end:
In a September 18 letter to Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis, Towns said the bank has produced documents “clearly irrelevant” to an August request by the committee for all records from September 1, 2008 through January 16, 2009.
Those documents included an invitation to attend an East Asian investment conference, written in Chinese, emails from employees to Ken Lewis about his “‘awesome’ performance on 60 Minutes,” and emails to employees about company discounts at retailers.
Full article: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20090921&id=10410205
Not a fan of Bank of America as I went through a near 1-year nightmare with them). But what are they trying to hide?
Thoughts, Jim?
See, you’ve got the start of community activism.
Thanks for the offer to help Jim! Give me a call sometime. Would love to hear from you.
While your at it I’ll help you grade the many acres of weed lots across the street next to Canyon Crest High School. Residents were also promised a shopping center there. Seriously, those weeds are becoming a brush fire hazard. At least there is beautiful new fire station #47 on the south weed lot. The shopping center project is another casualty of the financial crisis. The CV moms are just barely making due driving the extra couple miles to Del Mar Highlands in their Escalades, Hummers, and Suburbans… 😉
My son attended Shadow Mountain High School for a year and then transferred to Pinnacle High School,one of the many newer schools serving the district as a result of the rapid population growth and development.
Pinnacle HS? Never heard of it!
We lived on 37th St. near Cactus, and the desert started at 40th and Cactus (no PV Mall yet). There was nothing between there and Pinnacle Peak!
Susie,
Nobody likes a smarty-pants, especially U.S. securities regulators. Sending garbage in to them will ramp up the intensity – bad move by B of A, and it was probably done by some clerk who thought it was funny. The arrogance!
Jim, I must say the “toughen up” language is kind of annoying. Its perfectly fine to have a political belief that people are too dependant on government service (although for a school, that’s hardly an unreasonable expectation), but in this instance remember that the residents pay special partial assessments to cover the building of the parks. I’m sure the residents would be more than willing to pool their resources and build a park themselves if the city wasn’t pocketing their tax dollars and not delivering on the commitment.
The little league field I played baseball on in Encinitas was all dirt. It was at Ecke park. I’m sure it’s been upgraded since, but at the time (late 80’s/early 90’s) it didn’t look much different than this. There’s a volunteer to grade it, so all you need is chain-linked fencing, chalk, 3 bases, and home plate.
Or you can leave it the way it is and continue to bitch and moan that you got screwed out of your park. Whether you’re sympathetic to the residents or not, those are the options. I like Jim’s solution. And really, that’s all it is: a solution (not some political statement.)
I grew up playing baseball in Maine and we had the opposite problem – too much rain. I remember before one summer game we poured gasoline into a huge puddle of water where the 2nd baseman stands and lit it on fire!
When I played in college we’d have doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. If rain was forecasted for Sunday we’d play 3 seven inning games on Saturday – 21 innings of ball in one day.
Those were the days.
Jim is going into community development if RE doesn’t pan out 😉 Regarding the BofA robber; bad move but we all know @%#! rolls down hill. I can’t believe Plaxico got 2 yrs (was he already on probation?), while bank and finance executives get exclusive worldwide resort packages for messing up the lives of thousands. Still, bad move by Plaxico.
Thanks Blur, and agreed, no political statement meant by the video. Anonymous commenters lecturing me is annoying.
But let’s get back to baseball!
We drove to Flagstaff to play a game that got snowed out after a couple of innings. We turned around and drove home, which was about two hours each way in those rickety old buses.
From the original article, the city claims the roadblock is the purchase of the land from the developer. Is the city trying to wait until the bank takes the land when the developer defaults on its loans?
But wait, then the city claims even if they bought and built the park (which they have the $ for), they don’t have the funds to operate it. The article says, to that point, that residents have even thought of raising the operational funds themselves, which is probably just talk.
I pretty much agree with JtR’s sentiment. Kids don’t really need a fancy jungle gym to play, although it’d be nice. They don’t need a minor league quality baseball diamond, although that’d be nice too. Heck, they have a pool!
The fact that these people think the only way kids can “safely” play is in a park is a reflection of how much childhood has changed. Playtimes are scheduled. Little kids can only climb around on equipment specifically designed for that purpose. Kids can’t just put down a few items in the street, and designate a lamp post or two as 1st and 3rd bases and play ball (heaven forbid they break a window). Like it doesn’t count unless kids are all issued uniforms and play with an umpire that parents scream profanities at. Same thing with any other sport, where the purpose is more to gain an athletic scholarship than the simple pleasure of playing the game. We’ve forgotten how much we learned about dealing with other people without adults mediating every interaction.
These residents, while we can mock them over this, aren’t alone. We are all like this now, whether we like it or not. Somewhere along the way, we’ve bought into this notion that children should be raised in a completely risk-free bubble, protected from all evils in the world. And that our kids should work towards a full athletic scholarship to save our retirement fund.
BTW, how does having or not having these amenities affect property values?
this site is starting to become another PerezHilton.com or AshtonCruz.com. Jim can you get back to your cynical posts about over-priced crappy houses
Jim,
what’s you take on the strong rumor that SAIC,one of San Diego’s (total of 3),Fortune 500 HQ based companies is moving out to the D.C.area ?
Another thousand or so higher end homes on the market when the execs have to pull up stakes ?
I think they’d have a tough time convincing people to go to the D.C. area.
There are SAIC readers here, any care to comment?
from their website:
“The company’s approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. We remain committed to the ethical performance and integrity that has marked SAIC since its founding in 1969.”
As a current resident of the DC area, I say come on out. Its great. The weather is better (if you grow tired of perfect weather 310 days a year), the food is better (as long as you don’t want Mexican or fresh produce) and the traffic is better – ok, that one’s a toss up.
But, with its faults, it certainly is a more urban area than San Diego, which depending on your point of view can either be a good thing or a bad thing.
For all of its faults though, the housing is more diverse, and as an added benefit: almost no stucco!
As for SAIC, it would probably be a good move. If you want to be a government contractor, you need to be here. A large DC office is a good start, but nothing says commitment (and DC insider) like being here.
RE SAIC possible move:
As a former DC area resident who also covered schools for the local paper, I will add that suburban Virginia and Maryland schools are generally better-funded and have smaller class sizes than those in Southern California. You can debate furiously over what makes a good school, but having smaller classes and less hassle about resources is a huge advantage.
As a current resident of the DC area, I say come on out. Its great. The weather is better (if you grow tired of perfect weather 310 days a year), the food is better (as long as you don’t want Mexican or fresh produce) and the traffic is better – ok, that one’s a toss up.
But, with its faults, it certainly is a more urban area than San Diego, which depending on your point of view can either be a good thing or a bad thing.
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Its definately a bad thing. Im a former northern VA resident, having lived there and owned a home there from 2004-2006. The traffic is terrible and I would be shocked to hear any resident argue that. The weather stinks – humid as hell in the summer, rain/snow mix in the winter. Its very pretty in spring and fall but thats why you visit a place like DC and dont live there. Food – agree lots of variety. One of the nicer mexican joints is Rosa Mexicana in downtown across from the Wizards Stadium.
DC is ghetto though. Turn on the news and its daily murder stories.
I wish all the SAIC migrants well. I was a gov-contractor living there and I would find placement elsewhere locally before going back (SPAWAR might be a good start as I think IBM is the prime on that and its in SD).
Back on topic of the thread – I heard that community center is very nice but why cry about a park when you have that?
YES. You make some great points in the vid. I was thinking some of the same things when I saw the original post.
It does appear the headquarters, not the contract operations or specific projects, are leaving San Diego.
http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2009/09/18/saic-expected-to-announce-headquarters-shift-from-san-diego-to-northern-virginia/
Also confirmed from a neighbor who is a board member of the company.
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A buddy of mine tried to get a tots outdoor play equipment to replace a broken down play tot area in Mission Bay Park. They raised the $25,000 for everything including installation to pay for it. City of San Diego said no way. It has to be approved and go thru the city.
I think the basic same equipment/installation final price was $85,000.