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C I T Y L I G H T S


C I T Y L I G H T S Quince Street pedestrian bridge


occur without any input from the community plan- ning group and without sub- stantial public comment. The clock is now tick-


ing for Uptown residents to voice their objections to


the planning department erred by placing the property on the list of potential open space. “The property is shown as public open space on the parks map, however, it is not mentioned anywhere in the


November 2015 meeting of the area’s planning group, Uptown Planners, the group placed a moratorium on the sale of any city-owned prop- erty. “We are up for a fight to get this parcel as part of Maple Canyon, because if we don’t we will have given up an opportunity that will matter for generations,” says Roy McMakin, presi- dent of the group Friends of Maple Canyon. “Our neighborhood is


very engaged and is always thinking long-term,” adds McMakin. “Given many folks are retired, they are often thinking beyond the time they will live here. There is a commitment to restor- ing the native habitat to the


C I T Y L I G H T S UNDER THE RADAR


Gynecological gifts Ex-Padres owner John Moores, who’s been enjoying a popular revival of sorts with his six-figure financial backing of an initiative campaign to boost hotel taxes and attempts to bring a profes- sional soccer team to town, is also making waves in the British press. In addition to his political and financial forays in San Diego, the software mogul from Houston now based in Ran- cho Santa Fe has been negoti- ating to take over the Everton Football Club of England’s Premier soccer league, and the team for which USA World Cup hero Tim Howard keeps goal. But the prospect of the wealthy Ameri- can owning one of the country’s oldest soccer enterprises, founded in 1878, has drawn scrutiny from some, including the Daily Post. “Chequered could be one word to describe the era when John Jay Moores was the owner of Major League Base- ball’s San Diego Padres franchise,” the paper pro- nounced in its Christmas-day coverage of the Moores move. “And, in the end, it all concluded in a rather unhappy divorce — literally.” The piece went on to chronicle Moores’s


Roy McMakin


the sale and give reasons why the city should turn the area into a small neighbor- hood park where visitors can access a trail into the unde- veloped canyon. Adding to the residents’


frustration is the fact that the parcel was identified as “public open space” on Uptown’s Draft Community Plan Update. If the parcel remains designated as such in the community plan update, the land would be made into a public park and residents could work toward forging a footpath from the plot of land into the canyon. But Katie Keach, deputy


chief of staff for council- member Todd Gloria, says


plan other than on the map,” writes Keach in a December 4 email. “Our office has been told that this was a mapping error which has since been corrected and removed. It will not be indicated as open space on the map for the next draft of the plan that goes out for public review. Keach says the parcel will


be designated “residential- medium high,” which allows for the land to be used to build 29 housing units. The impending decision


to sell the property in addi- tion to years of frustration caused by city officials’ previ- ous refusal to set aside park space in Uptown has angered residents. In response, at a


Mat Wahlstrom


canyon as well as making it a safer place for residents of all ages and abilities to enjoy.” But the city has a poor


track record when it comes to setting aside public land for parks and open space. As reported by the Reader, the city became embroiled in a long legal battle in 1981, when descendants of a family who granted a parcel of land on Olive Street in Bankers Hill to the city for use as a public park sued the city after officials allowed a neighbor- ing land owner to use the park as a parking lot for his medical building. Litigation is still ongoing in that case, despite the fact that the city continued on page 35


lengthy fight with first wife Becky over the spoils of their 40-year marriage. “As a San Diegan, and longtime Padres fan, I dread the consequences that could flow from a bitter, prolonged battle over the ownership and ultimate management of the franchise,” San Diego lawyer and season-ticket holder Judi Foley was quoted as saying at the time. Added the paper, “The 1998 National League pen- nant was now a distant memory while the Moores’ ugly divorce had cast a dark cloud over the usually sunny Southern Califor- nian weather.” Though the paper didn’t


mention it, Becky had demanded that John produce records of the gifts he had given to gynecologist Dianne Rosenberg, “a woman he [John] had an affair with during the marriage,” whom he would eventually wed in a cer- emony attended by ex-president Jimmy Carter. There was also the matter of John’s prior relationship with divorced Democratic city councilwoman Valerie Stallings, who quit the council in January 2001 rather than face crimi- nal charges that she had voted on Padres stadium issues while taking an array of gratuities and gifts from Moores. The final split with Becky, arrived at in 2010, eventually resulted in the $800 million 2012 sale of the baseball team by Moores to the current ownership group led by beer-distribution magnate Ron Fowler. Since then the team has not


fared well on the field, and the city’s general fund has been required to ante up $11 million a year in stadium debt service. But some Brits are hoping that


John Moores’s divorcing wife wanted the gifts he allegedly gave to gynecologist Dianne Rosenberg made public.


Moores’s stadium-building public money history can be rekindled for Everton. “As revealed at last month’s General Meeting, Everton still want to move to Walton Hall Park and hope to utilise potential regeneration funds to breathe new life into North Liverpool as part of the scheme, in partner- ship with Liverpool council,” reported the Daily Post. “It is, however, far from straight for- ward — and it seems Moores


has already made a similarly challenging and com- plex project happen. In fact, he was among the first to try it.” Meanwhile ex-wife Becky has been on her own spending binge, giving $1 million to PsychArmor, a nonprofit foundation for men- tally traumatized veterans. The charity has also given $500,000 to the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park and $100,000 to the La Jolla Playhouse. Becky also laid out $55.5 million in December of 2014 for a full-floor residential unit in Manhattan overlooking Central Park.


Pete Wilson statue in Horton Plaza


Cheap thrills Horton Plaza, the chronically neglected half-block park on Broadway next to the floundering shopping mall — itself a product of a costly redevelopment scheme engineered by ex–San Diego mayor Pete Wilson — is about to be re-launched yet again by an ever-hopeful city hall. This time around the refur- bished plot and historic foun- tain will be accompanied by new performance and exhibit space built on the site of what once was the old Robinson’s depart- ment store, a long-ago casualty of Wilson’s futile scheme to bring the suburbs downtown. With the grand opening just months away, shopping-center owner Westfield is advertising for an events manager to produce the 75 affairs scheduled for its first


year, ramping up to an estimated 208 by 2019. Some budget issues remain. Among prospective tasks for the new hire: “Work with the Director of Sales and Events to secure content partners for events at no or minimal cost.”


— Matt Potter (@sdmattpotter)


The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or fax your tip to 619-231-0489.


San Diego Reader January 7, 2016 3


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