Econbrowser

Just to bring readers up to date on current San Diego politics, on July 15, San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy resigned in the midst of a pension fund scandal. His replacement, Acting Mayor Michael Zucchet, was convicted three days later of conspiracy, extortion, and fraud on a separate City Council scandal. His replacement, Mayor Pro Tem Toni Atkins, was selected deputy mayor by the City Council on July 25, to be replaced by the winner of a runoff election for a new regular mayor in November. All of which prompted me to ask, "isn't this the same crowd to whom the Supreme Court gave the power to kick me out of my home in order to hand it to some developer?", and recalled to Calicapia the old joke, "if the mayor calls, get his name."

Or her name, in this case, since both Atkins and Donna Frye are women. Frye received the most votes in the July 26 election that determined the two candidates on November's ballot. She has been an outspoken critic of the culture of secret meetings that may have contributed to some of San Diego's scandals, as well as quite emphatic in her condemnation of using eminent domain to benefit private developers.

Whether that will come in time to help Alsco Linen (hat tip: Three Bad Fingers) from falling victim to San Diego's eminent domain seizure on behalf of CLB Partners development corporation is not clear, and it's certainly of no help to Revelli Tires and Autohouse, two businesses that the city of Oakland, California, seized by eminent domain on July 1 to benefit developers.

If someone has a plan to put honest politicians in every city government in California, I'm all in favor of it. But just in case that doesn't work, surely California needs to follow the lead of Alabama, Delaware, and measures being considered in 14 other states, to pass legislation banning this outrageous practice outright. Fortunately, such a proposal to amend the California Constitution, SCA-15 has been introduced. I encourage Californians to support this measure.