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Instead of pouring more taxpayer money into the old Sempra building, the mayor and council members should just tear it down and either sell or rebuild. If they decide to rebuild, it could be designed and built to accommodate all the city departments that are spread out through Downtown so that they would be under one roof and closer to the civic center for more effective contact with needed assistance from other departments.
Not only would it save in rent but cut down on traffic to and from one office to the next, and to recover the costs of rebuilding, they could sell the surplus properties to a developer for low-income housing or replacement of older city facilities that need renovating.
Too many did not take crisis that seriously
The folk wisdom that it is darkest before dawn could characterize the situation we find ourselves in a year into the lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that there is daylight on the horizon as the number of infections trail off, but we have to be patient.
Former President Donald Trump sat on his hands well into the deadly onslaught, pooh-poohing the crisis as an inconvenience that would disappear when the weather warmed up. Well, it didn’t.
Individual states stepped into the breach. However, the dalliance resulting from human error, disparate responses and simply the logistics of confronting an unfamiliar menace has cost more than 530,000 lives nationally and as of this week, more than 3,400 deaths in San Diego County.
We can’t tax our way out of difficult times
San Diego, like all cities, is facing a large, unprecedented and unexpected budget deficit, this year and for several years to come, due to the pandemic.
Any budget must deal with this lost revenue (from hotel, tourist and business taxes) by making wise choices in maintaining our lives without instituting new major and questionable projects, such as investing any money in the proposed new $5 billion dollar water pipeline.
Most important is to maintain our level of essential services such as police, fire, lifeguard and emergency care along with critical infrastructure including water, sewer and road maintenance.