A city of La Jolla would have options for services
Regarding La Jolla becoming a city (“La Jolla cityhood group ‘remains committed’ despite questions raised by San Diego officials,” La Jolla Light, Dec. 19), many cities contract services with larger districts and adjacent agencies. As an example, in San Diego County, the cities of Del Mar, Encinitas, Solana Beach and others do not have their own police departments and contract for those services.
A great number of cities contract services, and many have formed an organization called the California Contract Cities Association (contractcities.org).
Part of their mission statement reads, “The California Contract Cities Association has fiercely advocated for the rights of cities to practice the contracting model and to strengthen local control since 1957.”
Contract cities can offer advantages, particularly in of cost efficiency, flexibility and specialized services.
Overall, contract cities in California leverage these advantages to provide effective and efficient services to their residents while maintaining flexibility and controlling costs.
The city of San Diego can benefit from reduced costs and added contract revenue. The city of La Jolla will have choices for services — just like the 18 other cities in the county of San Diego. The LAFCO process is well-defined, and when successful, the city of La Jolla will be allowed to choose how to provide services, just like any other city.
Mike Cavanaugh
Coast Walk Trail landscape changes are doing great harm
We have lost more than we have gained with the recent destruction and removal of the natural vegetation along the Coast Walk Trail, and we are poised to lose much more.
To name a few of the pending losses: the blufftop soil, the cormorant roosts and perhaps the cormorants themselves below the cliff edge; the many small birds inhabiting the blufftop vegetation; the snails (including the fabled white snails), lizards and trapdoor spiders and all the other creatures large and small that make up the trailside ecosystem.
The Friends of Coast Walk Trail, without consideration for the beauty, naturalness and richness of the existing trailside ecosystem, have begun their “renovation” of Coast Walk Trail vegetation by stripping the existing vegetation in their attempt to return it to an earlier habitat form that existed before the little town of La Jolla was built.
“Native plants” advocates seem to be leading the charge, with the result being large barren patches of soil ripe for erosion right to the very edge of the cliff.
We who walk the trail on a daily basis miss the wildland habitat that we have appreciated for so many years. The beauty is gone and in its place are little botanical-garden-style plantings suited to a much earlier climate.
When the torrential rains come, as they eventually will, there will be habitat losses so great — including the erosion of the existing edge of the cliff itself, with mud pouring over the edge onto the cormorants and La Jolla’s great sculpted cliff face — that the trail habitat may never again be able to sustain the vegetation that once offered such beauty to trail walkers.
The question of the moment is: Can we stop the overreach of those who seem not to be able to cease their efforts to “redevelop” the Coast Walk Trail?
Jim Hudnall
Joe LaCava has betrayed his constituents
In reading the article regarding our District 1 councilman’s first term in office (“La Jolla’s Joe LaCava reflects on first S.D. council term while looking ahead to second,” La Jolla Light, Dec. 12), I noted he didn’t mention how he was the mayor’s stalking horse to destroy the 100-plus-year-old People’s Ordinance to keep trash collection for single-family residences in our property tax assessment under the sneaky guise of doing a study to determine what it would cost to now make it a billable service and having that ballot proposition [Measure B] need only 50%+1 [of votes] to be ed.
Joe LaCava is a traitor to his constituents! His cohort on the council, Sean Elo-Rivera, now wants it to be a “world-class” trash collection service (whatever that is), likely so he can cause the monthly fee to be much higher than what the city independent budget analyst opined could be $25-$29.
We’ve been had, folks!
Lou Cumming
UCSD’s claims about Scripps Coastal Reserve closure are baseless
Regarding the summary in the “Year in Review” (“Top La Jolla news stories from 2024,” Dec. 26) of the La Jolla Light’s extensive coverage of UC San Diego’s ongoing illegal closure of Scripps Coastal Reserve throughout 2024, I wish to add these points:
Regarding the university’s claim that “visitors’ misuse of the area is the reason for the continued closure of the reserve to the public,” the California Coastal Commission’s May 3 letter to UC San Diego states the university’s “biological report does not provide any evidence that such harm has occurred, or a justification as to how reduced access would lessen or avoid impacts to sensitive biological species” (“Coastal Commission wants more information before deciding on Scripps Coastal Reserve closure,” La Jolla Light, May 16, “Coastal Commission has many questions for UCSD about Scripps Coastal Reserve — and hopes for more access,” La Jolla Light, March 28).
It should also be noted that in the “back-and-forth correspondence between UC San Diego and staff of the California Coastal Commission,” the commission’s July 18 letter to the university (“Scripps Coastal Reserve hearing delayed further as Coastal Commission requests more information,” La Jolla Light, July 25) cited a significant amount of documentary evidence that contradicted UC San Diego’s previous filings about several key issues, including changes to public access, the blocking of beach access from the reserve and environmental damage at the reserve caused by UC San Diego itself.
Thankfully, the California Coastal Commission seems well aware of the facts of this case, demonstrated by actual evidence and not just baseless claims.
Frank Kunst
What’s on YOUR mind?
Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to [email protected]. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday for publication in the following Thursday’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period. ♦
