Three cheers for Theodore Roosevelt.
Our former president died in 1919, but he garnered enthusiastic applause Tuesday during Supervisor Ron Roberts' State of the County address. Roberts was floating his own dream of creating a parklike setting around the County Administration Building and along San Diego's downtown waterfront.
In doing so he quoted Roosevelt's comments during a 1915 visit to the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park:
“I hope that you of San Diego . . . keep your waterfront and develop it so that it may add to the beauty of your city. Do not let a number of private individuals . . . make it hideous with buildings, and then force your children to pay an exorbitant sum to get rid of the ugliness they have created.”
Call to action
A first step is relocation of county parking, Roberts proposes. County employees now occupy 1,100 spaces flanking the County Administration Building. If a parking garage is built on county-owned land one block east in Little Italy, the two massive waterfront lots could be turned into a park.
Yesterday the Board of Supervisors took a step in that direction by voting to solicit mixed-use parking proposals in which the county puts up the land and a developer shoulders construction costs. It could be completed in less than two years, Roberts estimates.
A junior/senior moment
When Roberts' 5-year-old grandson, Nicholas Trimble, marched on cue onto the Shiley Theatre stage at the University of San Diego to lead the Pledge of Allegiance before Tuesday's State of the County, he did exactly what he had been told. Nicholas stood and waited for the ROTC color guard to appear.
In the ensuing silence, Greg Cox, vice chairman of the county board, realized he had forgotten to present the color guard.
Roberts later quipped that next time he'll reverse the order and have his grandson introduce the color guard and let Cox lead the pledge.
Street seen
The “VIP Scene” feature on Page 48 of the Feb. 12 Us Weekly has “Grey's Anatomy” actress Sandra Oh ordering a salad with blue cheese dressing on the side at the 101 Cafe in Oceanside. Owner John Daley says the cafe has fed folks of all ilk traveling up and down the coast for the past 79 years. Daley was surprised to hear about the magazine blurb from a friend in Louisiana. . .
Not mentioned in US Weekly, but noticed in La Jolla, was actress Hilary Duff. Fashionably dressed in high boots, she was lunching with a group of friends at Barbarella on Friday.
The Starbucks and Trader Joe's stores opening tomorrow in the old Naval Training Center had to create their ambience within the confines of the historic military buildings. It wasn't much of a reach for Starbucks, which is in an old Navy mess hall. Trader Joe's, however, once had a captive audience – it encompasses the former Navy brig.
Fencing at school
Local construction company owner Doug Barnhart, who testified before Congress last year about the costs of building a border fence, was invited to discuss the fence issue on the Fox News “Your World” show late last month.
Barnhart's daughter, Tami Barnhart-Reese, who directs the company's marketing from home, worked with Fox to prepare for her father's interview.
A few days after it aired, Barnhart-Reese picked up her son, Jake, from preschool. When she arrived she found his teachers laughing and taking photos of her son posing beside an elaborate structure of building blocks he had been working on all afternoon. When they had asked him what it was, he had informed them: “A border fence.”
Blue-light special
Announcement of the Feb. 19 demolition of the old El Cajon K-Mart store at Magnolia Avenue and Fletcher Parkway reminded Dian Black of her own experience there when her sons were toddlers.
“As we were going to the checkout counter, a blue-light special was announced and the blue light began flashing,” Black said.
Her son, David, pulled on his brother's T-shirt to direct his gaze up at the ceiling and said excitedly, “That's God talking to us.”
Nope, just 50 percent off on linens, she recalled.
Diane Bell's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Fax items to (619) 260-5009; call (619) 293-1518; or e-mail to diane.bell@uniontrib.com.
