San Diego is My Home

22
Apr

News Wrap-Up

Author: HelenKay, Category: Military, News, People

I go out of town to a conference for a few days and miss all the fun.  The newlywed Marine couple who went missing, thus kicking off a nationwide search, is back at Camp Pendleton…and likely in some trouble.  She’s back at work and he’s in the brig.  No idea why only one of them is in trouble, but I’m sure we’ll get more information on that situation soon.

The Padres had a game that went something like 40 innings…okay, 22 but still.  That’s a loooong game.  I usually get the munchies and my mind starts to wander around the 5th inning.  I’d probably have to jump off the bleachers somewhere around the 15th.  

And Cindy Sommer, the military wife who was accused of killing her husband with arsenic has been released.  At the time of her conviction it seemed to many of us (except those on the jury) that Sommers only crime was one of bad judgment in sleeping around so soon after her husband died.  Since additional tests have shown zero arsenic in her deceased husband’s system, it appears that sleeping around was her only crime.  Good news is that it looks as if she won’t have to spend her life in prison paying for that.

15
Apr

Homes Facts

Author: HelenKay, Category: Housing, Neighborhoods, News

It’s a fabulous day to be a San Diego resident.  The sun is out.  Then weather is lovely, as usual.  It’s spring.  And…your house is worth almost nothing.  Well, that’s not true.  It’s worth a lot less than it was at this time last year.  There’s that’s better.  Uh-huh.

A new report says the County’s median home price has dropped below $400,000 for the first time since 2003.  That’s great news for buyers.  Really bad news for anyone who purchased a home in the County since 2003.   Yeah, that would be me.  The culprit is the foreclosure crisis. 

There are a whole bunch of horrifying statistics about how the median was $517,000 in November 2005.    In case you’re mathematically challenged, that’s a decrease of more than $100,000 in two years.  I will refrain from passing on any additional bad news.  But is anyone else feeling queasy?

11
Mar

Spelling Bee

Author: HelenKay, Category: Events & Happenings, News

In these days of scandals (thank you to the governor of NY), political wrangling (thank you Democrats) and lies (thank you to the authors who claimed to write memoirs but were really writing bad fiction), it’s good to know that some things are positive and wholesome.  I’m talking about the San Diego County Spelling Bee.  Seventy-one contestants met in Mission Valley yesterday to wow us all with their spelling abilities.  And so they did. 

Justin Song, an eighth-grader at Carmel Valley Middle School, won for the second year in a row.  The winning word was phylliform.  I had to look it up.  It means having the shape of a leaf…but you knew that, I’m sure.

Song now goes on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.  Congrats to Song. 

04
Jan

Booze in Balboa

Author: HelenKay, Category: Balboa Park, City Council, Neighborhoods, News

The first step is complete.  The Balboa Park Committee voted yesterday to support a partial alcohol ban for the Park.  Under the Board’s plan, the areas  and times in which people can drink in the Park will be restricted.  The Park and Recreation Board has to weigh in, then it’s up to the City Council to vote on the measure.  If the Council supports the Board, you’re going to have to start drinking in the Park at noon instead of 8:00 a.m. as you do now.  To paraphrase Board member Laurie Burgett’s comment on this issue:  this is not exactly a draconian measure.  After all, should you be getting drunk and stupid in the Park at 8:00 a.m.?  Uh, no.  Clearly that’s an afternoon activity.

14
Nov

San Diego Housing

Author: HelenKay, Category: Neighborhoods, News

Unless you’re living in a box and haven’t seen a newspaper, the television news or all of the “for sale” signs in your neighborhood during the last 12 months, you know something is happening in the housing market…something very bad.  There is a lot of talk of doom and foreclosure.  Houses are sitting on the market and not selling.  Lenders are in trouble due to some of the ridiculous loans made over the last few years.  People are losing their houses.  If you;re lucky enough to still have a home, you almost hate to leave it in the morning.

Local real estate agents are saying the end is not yet in sight.  Median prices for resale houses (ie, not new ones) dropped from$535,000 in Oct. ‘06 to $515,000 in Oct. ‘07.  Bad news, right?  Well, yeah, but we’re talking about half a million dollars for a 900 square foot box with a view of an alley.  One could argue the housing costs here still hover in the ridiculously insane range.    The median income in San Diego is something like $100,000.  Note how the housing costs are more than 5x that income level.  Unless people are going without water and have figured out a way to also eat their homes, it’s hard to imagine how that monthly mortgage could get paid.

So, what’s the upside?  Unless you’re a buyer with a crystal clean credit record and a wad of cash balled in your tight little fist there likely isn’t one.  At least not yet.  But, predictions are that things will turn around in 2009.  It’s part of the inevitable cycle.  At least we hope so.

01
Oct

Rough Weekend For All

Author: HelenKay, Category: Environment, News, Politics, Sports

The Chargers lost.  The Padres lost.  The Aztecs lost.  If not for the perfect weather, it would have been a hard weekend in San Diego.  

Sports teams were not the only ones struggling around here over the last few days.  Mayor Sanders and City Attorney Aguirre are bickering like 4th graders over every issue imaginable.  An appellate court sided with the plans to dredge the Children’s Pool in La Jolla and run the seals off the beach.

Too much sunshine?  Too much beach?  Yeah, something strange is happening.