No bail-out

Letter (unpublished) to San Diego Union-Tribune:

No Bail-out! Why should we trust this "sky-is-falling" administration which previously duped America into a failed War on Terror while allowing little-to-no debate. Now we're to have a War on Falling Prices? Throwing more money at the "problem" is analogous to opening a new bar tab for a chronic drunk. Where does this $700 billion come from anyway? Each additional dollar created by the Fed devalues all existing dollars in circulation. What we really need is a War on Debt as government and citizens learn to live within their means.

Government to prop up housing

Letter (published) to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

I agree with what Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston said last week: “Taxpayers should not have to absorb preventable, foreseeable losses.” Lenders and borrowers deserve to reap what they've sown. No money down? Liar's loans? Revolving lines of credit? Banks should have known better.

Similarly, I have little sympathy for “naive” buyers who used nonstandard loans to borrow more than they could afford, assuming that rising values would allow them to refinance. Others used their homes as ATMs, pulling out equity to live beyond their means. All are learning property values don't go up forever.

Plenty of people sat on the sidelines waiting for the housing bubble to end. Why should government prop up housing prices? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Do we live in a socialist or capitalist nation? Let the free market reign.

BRENT McDONALD
San Diego

Union-Tribune link

homeowners bail-out?

Letter (published) to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Regarding “Help for Homeowners?” (Business, April 12):

So now the Senate is looking at ways to assist homeowners who were “sold mortgages they could not afford.” Ridiculous! Nobody forced these folks to buy anything. In many cases, borrowers with shaky credit lied about income to qualify for more expensive homes, driving prices ever higher. How does that merit a federal buyout?

Adjustable rate mortgages are inherently risky. People must take responsibility for their actions. There has never been a guarantee that home prices would rise forever. A predicted 2 percent to 3 percent decline is peanuts compared with the double-digit increases of the last five years.

I'm one American who balked at absurd home prices and instead worked diligently to build up a nest egg in anticipation of the eventual correction. The government should not be in the business of propping up inflated home prices.

BRENT McDONALD
San Diego

Union-Tribune link

housing affordability?

Letter (published) to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper:

During the current mayoral campaign, I've heard much discussion of the city of San Diego's pension deficit but scant mention of the region's ongoing housing affordability problem. Supposedly, San Diego has declared a housing "state of emergency" – shouldn't this issue therefore be debated by those who would take the reins of America's Finest City? 

I am an engineer with a master's degree and steady professional employment. However, I cannot begin to afford mortgage payments on "entry-level" property in this city. As a surfer, I was a Frye supporter until I heard her say the solution to the housing crisis was for people to "get better jobs." Sorry Donna, that doesn't cut it. The only real solution is to increase supply through upzoning and infill.
 

BRENT McDONALD
San Diego

Union-Tribune link

endless war

Letter to San Diego Union-Tribune (published):

President George Bush's slip of the tongue regarding "winning" the war on terror allowed a rare glimmer of truth to shine on the current administration's saber-rattling ways. The war on terror is analogous to the war on drugs: an endless campaign which accomplishes little except to line the pockets of the military-industrial complex.

The Department of Defense has usurped the State Department as the United States' primary foreign policy instrument. Does any Washington politician have the gumption to stand up to the Pentagon?

BRENT McDONALD
San Diego

Children's Pool solution

(Published) letter to the SD Union Tribune:

Ellen Browning Scripps granted Children's Pool to the City in 1931 exclusively for recreational use and children's swimming, and the breakwater was constructed that same year.  Due to relatively calm water behind the seawall, seals have taken over the beach and cannot be moved without violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 

The solution seems simple -- remove the man-made breakwater which protects the beach.  The seals will leave on their own volition, and people will be able to recreate there -- as intended by Scripps.  Who knows -- perhaps removal of the seawall will enhance surfing conditions, creating a long left pointbreak into the Cove.

BRENT MCDONALD
San Diego

Coastal Commission politics

"Letter to the Editor" published in the SD Union-Tribune Comments section:

As a former Coastal Commission staff member, I was saddened to read about Patricia McCoy's removal from the Commission after being raked over the coals by the Union-Tribune and other publications.  Her unforgivable sin -- to further scrutinize San Diego's secondary sewage treatment waiver -- was voting in favor of coastal protection.

The commonly held perception of the Commission being strongly environmentally slanted ("out of control") is far from the truth, and McCoy's dismissal is but one example of the undue influence that money, power, and politics play on this group.  According to the Sierra Club, McCoy's pro-coastal voting scores for the last two years were only 35% and 47%, and yet this was too much for Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson and his pro-development cronies.

In the late 1990s, when Democrats gained control of the State Governorship, House and Senate, coastal advocates were optimistic that new members on the Commission would finally balance out the environmentally-hostile appointments of the past.  Unfortunately, these hopes have been bitterly disappointed time and time again.  I applaud Patricia McCoy for a job well done, and I hope that Scott Peters can perform equally as well or better on behalf of protecting our beautiful coastal areas.

BRENT MCDONALD
San Diego