Recently, we asked our readers what they thought about the major construction projects listed by Mayor Jerry Sanders in his State of the City address, and what their priorities would be.
In our poll, we gave respondents choices of “a new central library,” “convention center expansion”, “a new city hall”, “a Chargers football stadium downtown,” plus “none of the above,” and also allowed readers to write in their own ideas.
Someone wrote in that they wanted to see a permanent homeless shelter – and guess what? That won. A third of our respondents went for that. 32%.
Over one out of five polled wanted “none of the above” – completely rejecting all of Mayor Sander’s priorities. 22% said that.
And almost a fifth want to see a new Chargers stadium downtown – 19%.
16% voiced support for a new central library. Only 4% wanted the convention center expansion, and two voted for a new City Hall. Four made jokes – not uncommon on our open-ended polling (2 for a “just society” and 2 for “the death star”).
Nearly one hundred respondents took part in our poll which lasted for two weeks, starting January 25th. Here’s the poll the way it appeared:
Recently, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders listed several major construction projects that he wanted to see built. Which is your priority?
* A new Central Library
16–16% of all votes
* Convention Center expansion
4–4% of all votes
* A new City Hall
2–2% of all votes
* Chargers’ football stadium downtown
19–19% of all votes
* None of the above
22—22% of all votes
* A permanent shelter for the Homeless1
31–32% of all votes
* A new just society.1
2–2% of all votes
* The Death Star1
2–2% of all votes
Total Votes: 98 Started: January 25, 2010 ( 1 = Added by a guest)
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the Death Star would have received more votes but it was a late entry and people had already made their choices. It’s a shame, because a publicly funded death star would have taken care of the homeless problem lickity-split.
Uh – oh, Jon’s had too much coffee, again.
hahaha….what I really need is an Irish coffee!!
Nah, the Chargers would have taken it over for a stadium. Lots of parking.
I must admit, I was very tempted to vote Death Star myself, I have always wanted one. I always hated those smug peaceniks on Alderran anyway, so good riddance. We will never have “peace” until we kill ALL of the violent people.
I am leery of creating a permanent homeless shelter, as without lots of homeless people sleeping on the streets, what would Obecians have left to complain about?
Then OBRAG would go under, and I’d have to think of something else to do with my time, something more productive, like holding mock war crimes trials for my cats.
Hey ! quit being a comedian ! we already have plenty and some of them are even “professional” LOL
As a cat lover, I had to chuckle – we tend to run things by our cats before we inform the rest of the world. If only they could go after Bush and cronies … no one else seems to be doing it.
Mine was just convicted of heinous crimes against humanity tied to the use of chemical warfare – specifically unleashing noxious fumes that have rendered my apartment temporarily unlivable. Sentence: another trip to the kibble bowl to reload for a future assault.
laughing my ass off….
not surprising, considering san diegos probably the biggest city in the country without a permanent shelter. pretty sad, since we have more homeless folks than most
They only problem I see is would they use it if we had one? Many people feel that being on the street is preferable to going to a shelter for many reasons.
knowing that the drop in shelters downtown, like SD Rescue Mission and SVDP etc. are turning hundreds of people away each night, yeah, I think it would be full.
and thats not to say your point isnt valid, because as weve seen with many of the houseless in OB, there are plenty of people who do believe that. But there are also upwards of 10,000 homeless people in SD County….and id gather that at least 10% of them could use a mattress to sleep on once in awhile. We cant even accomodate that!
A lot of the street kids prefer to sleep on the street, but they are homeless by choice. There are many more homeless people that did not choose that path, and one of the kids I spoke to said they have noticed that number increasing substantially since the recession. The shelter would definitely be used.
How about we use the old sea pool by the pier as a temporary shelter for OB’s homeless population? They’re already there, so it’s not like they need to even move. All we need to do is clean out all the sand, put up a tent roof, and voila!
I wonder if the ones who voted for expansion of the Convention Center are Comic-Con goers.
I’d still like to see a new Chargers stadium, but not downtown because among other things, it would basically end all tailgating. I guess the thought is that before the games on Sundays, that all of the Chargers fans would start pumping money into the local eateries and drinkeries in the downtown area thus giving an upwards jolt to the downtown’s business econmy.
I can think of other drawbacks to the downtown stadium like the gridlock on the streets and freeways on days that the Padres and Chargers are playing at the same time. Personally I’d take the trolley to games but that’s more me and not “Joe & Janie Bolt fan” and their giant tailgating machines.
I still think that a new stadium would be the best investment to the community as far as pumping much needed tax and tourist dollars back into our city and county, especially when you consider that we could start hosting Super Bowls again. All of the other things listed that we’d need to fund could have a reasonable chance of succeeding if there’s money to spend…except for a death star, whatever the heck that is.
As far as people having nothing to complain about if the homeless problem was fixed, that will never happen. We live in a society where the majority of people bitch about what they don’t have, rather than being thankful for the things they do have.