6 San Diego Reader September 1, 2016


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NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS By Reader stringers MIRAMAR


Mountain bikers allowed on base? Affirmative “The decision has been made to open Stowe Trail.” Last year, mountain bikers who trespassed onto U.S. Marine Corps land at the east end of Miramar received $500 citations and saw their bikes (and in one case, a motorcycle) seized by military police. Next year, they’ll be allowed to ride


through as long as they have a base-issued permit if all goes according to plan. “The decision has been made to open


Stowe Trail to the public next year,” Lt. Casey Littesy wrote in an email. “We will be push- ing information out through press releases as the date nears.”


president Kevin Loomis said. At the height of last year’s bike seizures —


the verboten trail goes behind a live-ammu- nition target range, so training operations had to stop until the trail area was cleared, costing an estimated $10,000 per incident — Marines took the bikes as evidence. Mountain bikers hired an attorney to get their pricey bikes back.


MARTY GRAHAM A Marine and a trail made by base intruders The Marines were unable to provide a


date but said they should have one in the next few months. Opening the Stowe Trail to the public


and connecting the Santee end of Mission Trails Regional Park to the southwest corner of Poway is a project that county supervisor Dianne Jacob has worked on for more than a decade. More than once, since 2003, the county


has nearly closed the deal with the Marine Corps, only to have it fall apart — including a year that brought a change of command just as the departing commander was to sign off on opening the trail. During the last round of bike seizures,


the San Diego Mountain Bike Association worked to get the word out to the moun- tain-biking community that using the trail is trespassing — while pressing the Marines to open a discussion of how to create trail access that could be controlled. “The trouble with not allowing a connec-


tor trail is that people will create their own trails and that results in damage to sensitive habitat that could be avoided by having a designated trail,” mountain-bike association


CORONADO Go, Pokémon Go players, go “That horrible game needs to be banned in this perfect town.” “I’m sorry but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” wrote Coronado resident Stephanie Laurel Williams on Facebook August 23rd. “I am a 49 year old surgeon. I went to Vons to get food for school lunches at 11:30 pm. I left, Orange Ave side at 11:59. Not ONE car on Orange so I went to cross Orange about 3 car lengths from the cross walk and VERY LOUD POLICE MEGAPHONE (mind you 100% louder than any people playing Pokémon Go) tells me to go BACK and walk down the sidewalk to the crosswalk. The ridiculous part of this is I was already in the median, so I had to walk BACK across Orange again. Here’s my favorite part. As I was, law abid- ing, police respecting, waiting for the WALK sign to change, a ‘pimped’ little Honda goes TEARING down Orange at least 50-60 mph. The officer drove right on by, because appar- ently me walking across the street was far more dangerous to the community than someone driving double the speed limit. And don’t even talk about those rebel Pokémon Go players who were silently going about their business.” Citing reports of attacks on Pokémon


Go players, concerns for their safety, and violations of city laws, the Coronado Police Department has instituted a public educa- tion campaign using electronic signs and has also installed temporary cameras around the city. “We want everyone to have fun, we just


want them to do it safely,” said Lea Corbin of the Coronado Police Department. Passing drivers have been throwing things


from their cars at the hundreds of Pokémon Go players that have been gathering on the large grassy medians along Coronado’s main thoroughfare of Orange Avenue, according to calls to the police, Corbin said. This prompted the police to install cameras. “We only have them up temporarily for


the safety of the players, to see what’s going on,” Corbin said. She said the police have received calls about players “being hit by water balloons, soda cans,” thrown by “people in cars, people driving by.” The police aim to inform the players of


city municipal codes such as no smoking, tents, chairs, or littering on public property, no blocking the sidewalks, and of the clos-


A typical recent night on the Orange Avenue median in Coronado


ing time in public parks. The medians are counted as public parks, Corbin said, and police set up extra electronic signs along Orange Avenue in the past few days to remind the players of these laws. The signs flash messages such as, “No


chairs, canopies or tents” and “No remaining on median 11 p.m.–5 a.m.” There isn’t a curfew issue in general


because the Pokémon Go players tend not to be underage. “For the most part we are finding these are adults. These are not chil- dren,” Corbin said. For weeks, crowds of hundreds of players


have made Coronado a central place to play the game, which is a mobile phone app that leads the players to walk through their sur- roundings in order to try to capture a Poké- mon creature as it appears on their mobile phone screen superimposed over the real-life image of their surroundings. The Pokémon Go crowds have caused controversy and confusion in the community. “These kids keep on playing Pokémon


Go by my house, what should I do?” Jacob Luiken said via social media late at night on August 21st. One response, by Drew Hebert, was “Call the cops on their ass, that horrible game needs to be banned in this perfect town. Keep Coronado safe!”; Kati Eckert recom- mended “Go to sleep.”


VINCENT FARNSWORTH EMBARCADERO


Hunger strike for and against Trump “I need to talk to him.” On August 19, Jim Dillehay put the word out via his Facebook page and blog (Hun- gerStrike4DonaldTrump) that he was going on a hunger strike on August 22. Why? He’s hoping to get Trump’s attention long enough to get him thinking about the consequences of the Republicans losing this Novem- ber’s election. Dillehay is making his stand near the USS


Midway, in Tuna Harbor Park, in front of the gigantic sculpture of a sailor kissing a nurse after WWII. When I met him he was holding a large sign listing his demands. He also had a few smaller ones on a nearby park bench ready and waiting for others to join in his cause. As we were talking, a lady passing by


asked him, “Are you for or against Trump?” He replied, “Both.” She then asked about his


demands. “My main demand is that Donald Trump, or one of his associates, needs to convince me that he’s the best guy to beat Hillary Clinton. “If he loses, everyone is going to associate


the name Trump with being a loser. He likes to win — he can still be a kingmaker by giving it to [Mike] Pence or [John] Kasich. He needs to give it to someone that can win this thing and then campaign for them.” At this point, people started gathering


around. “And I want him to stop insulting people, that’s my third demand. He’s going to be the president, not the Sophomore-in- Chief, right?” His other demand is either an interview


with Fox’s Kimberly Guilfoyle (“because she’s hot”) or Jesse Watters. A former high school music teacher,


Dillehay next sang me a humorous little tune titled, “I met my wife in Tijuana, Mexico,” accompanied by nearby jackhammers.


“My wife convinced me that I have to be willing to die for this for people to show up and you know what? She’s right. Isn’t that stupid?”


When I asked him if he was really not


going to eat today, he said, “I’m actually not. I actually have a timer going here, so it’s been about an hour. My wife convinced me that I have to be willing to die for this for people to show up and you know what? She’s right. Isn’t that stupid?” He then asked, “How long can a person go without food, just drinking water? I’m going to have some repercussions from this.”


JULIE STALMER


NATIONAL CITY Korean War dogfighter recognized Retired Navy captain Royce Williams speaks On August 20, while walking around Sweet- water Harley Davidson with Marine veteran and salesman Bobby Bradshaw, we stopped by a poster depicting the cover of the January 2016 edition of Homeland Magazine, which shows a picture of then–Navy Lt. Royce Wil- liams pointing to a damaged aircraft. In 35 minutes of aerial combat during the Korean War, Williams’s aircraft was hit 263 times, Now–retired Navy Capt. Williams was


due presently to speak to a growing gathering of mainly veterans. He arrived on the back of retired Navy chief hospital corpsman Bill “Doc” Reid’s three-wheel motorcycle. After continued on page 8


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