11 minute read
Letters to The Editor
from April 13, 2023
FROM A NIMBY IN SAN CLEMENTE
TINA TAYLOR, San Clemente
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I read Sandra Weaver’s response to Victor Cabral and the committee on the homeless issue. She tells the NIMBYs to “count their blessings for the beautiful homes they own, good food, and all the amenities they enjoy.”
We NIMBYs did not get these things by a blessing from others. We got it from hard work, sacrifice, honing our skills and good planning. We certainly did not get all this by sitting around in a tent all persevering, it is no wonder that one of my “big bucket” list items will be met in October, when my son and I, and others, will climb Mt. Whitney and hoping to reach the summit. I have often wondered if “I am running for my life or running from my life.”
I come to you today, once again attempting to get through to so many of you, pleading with you not to wait until it is too late, and instead encouraging you to advocate for your health and shift your lifestyle choices today.
I have so many prospective clients that come to me after the bad news is given, with numbers out of range for cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, or test results indicating cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, or perhaps even cancer.
21 minutes. If you do this seven days weekly, you will meet the recommended 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise.
2. Try to eat more plants daily, including them at every meal and snack—fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts/seeds, and legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils).
3. Add lean animal protein (including nonfat/low-fat dairy) and/or plant-based proteins to every meal and snack.
4. Include healthy fats (liquid oils, nuts/ seeds, avocado) with all meals and snacks.
5. Limit sugar, salt and refined grains.
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GENERAL MANAGER
Though this initially sounds dismal, the good news can’t be denied, that with small shifts in your lifestyle/behaviors, starting with food choices (nothing punitive or restrictive, I promise) paired with a little exercise (a walking program), that you can attain a little weight loss and even more health gain. But, alas, the fear of failure prevents us from even trying.
6. And be sure to have an occasional treat/splurge that you love.
Alyssa Garrett • 949.388.7700, x100 agarrett@picketfencemedia.com
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BY GINA COUSINEAU
So, today, I ask you to help me celebrate my big Six-0, and that is to simply allow me to help you improve your health so that you can experience more joy in your lifetime, rather than giving in to the aging process.
Let’s try some small but mighty daily changes that can improve our health and try to commit to one of these suggestions each week:
1. Step outside daily and simply walk for day or doing drugs.
We did not get it by a handout from other people’s money. If any of the homeless truly want to get help, there are many programs, churches and charities to help them. People who want to donate to those causes can freely choose to.
Some of us choose to donate to different charities, and this is our freedom also. Los Angeles has proven that throwing more “free” stuff at the homeless is not helping them; it is enabling them to continue not getting help.
Tough love has been proven to work over the years, not continued freebies. We NIMBYs are kind and compassionate by insisting that the homeless get off drugs and out of their tent, get mental help if needed, get a job and lend a hand in society by pulling their own weight, just like we are doing.
Lastly, along with working with individuals of all ages and circumstances, in both private and group settings, we offer nutritious and delicious recipes, cooking sessions, and webinars every single month for free. Register at mamagslifestyle.com for our weekly newsletter. SC
Gina Cousineau, aka Mama G, is your local nutrition expert, chef, and fitness professional, with her BS in Nutrition and MS in functional and integrative nutrition. She uses a food-as-medicine approach for weight loss to health gain, and everything in between. Follow her on social media @mamagslifestyle, and check out her website mamagslifestyle. com to learn more about her programs and freebies offered throughout the year.
PLEASE NOTE: In an effort to provide our readers with a wide variety of opinions from our community, the SC Times provides Guest Opinion opportunities in which selected columnists’ opinions are shared. The opinions expressed in these columns are entirely those of the columnist alone and do not reflect those of the SC Times or Picket Fence Media. If you would like to respond to this column, please email us at editorial@sanclementetimes.com.
City Council Agenda Item Ab 1078
JOE & KATHY OWENS, San Clemente
Here we go once again with city councilmember campaign promises that they break.
Councilmember Victor Cabral, who lost two bids to become mayor pro tem, and hopefully will never become mayor, is now playing political footsies by seconding an agenda item with Councilmember Steve Knoblock, who has a bad habit of agendizing social agenda items such as abortion and gun control that have deeply divided our community.
Cabral promised repeatedly during the November election to focus only on city issues including homelessness and our disappearing ocean sand and not become involved in social issues.
The latest is State Resolution AB 1078,
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Megan Bianco, Jake Howard which involves sexual orientation, gender identity and transgender issues, which need to be dealt with by school boards, PTAs, parents, and teachers and not on our City Council dais, taking time away with local issues such as solving homelessness, sand replenishment, and coastal landslides.
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No matter what your position is on AB 1078, it does not belong on City Council agendas.
No wonder San Clemente has such a large homeless problem, when City Council takes time away from solving our local issues and instead focuses on state issues.
And Councilmember Cabral even wrote a recent SC Times column stating that his main priorities were homeless and coastal issues but did not even have the courtesy of appearing at the recent North Beach homeless meeting.
It is high time both Cabral and Knoblock put their noses to the grindstone and focus on local issues for which they were elected to serve.
Nothing To See Here
DEBBIE FLOWERS, San Clemente, & LAURA FERGUSON, former councilmember
Is it better to ask for forgiveness than permission? Mayor Duncan seems to think so.
He misused City Council letterhead to lend weight to his political statement without seeking council approval. When asked by then Councilmember Ferguson to reissue his statement on his own stationery, he would not.
Instead, he continued publishing the improper letter (with the councilmembers’ names) to help his State Assembly campaign.
He had staff issue an official city press release declaring City Council support and membership with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, without seeking council approval.
He spent $2,500 to register for the U.S. Conference of Mayors membership, which resulted in a White House visit where the President spoke, and he spent city funds for related airfare/ hotel expenses without seeking council approval.
A public-records request revealed staff conveying to Duncan that the interim city manager “did not see this as critical to attend and that State was a better value/use of time.” Duncan spent $4,600 on this trip that was of no benefit to San Clemente. Upon his return, he announced his third bid for State Assembly.
We are of the opinion that Duncan thinks if “that thing” turns out to upset certain people, it’s easier for him to ask them to forgive his actions, rather than get permission in the first place. Duncan has been a councilmember for over two years; why has he gone rogue?
Resident Debbie Flowers spoke at the March 7, 2023 council meeting: “It would appear that San Clemente is merely a stepping stone for Duncan to seek higher office. Your trip to D.C., in my opinion, was to gain support from outside sources to only further your Assembly run. With that said, you should reimburse the taxpayers of this city.” Further, “Mayor Duncan, I hope that you can provide an update on your D.C. trip very soon, maybe even in tonight’s council comments.”
Mayor Duncan offered no comments. Mayor Duncan, repay the $4,600 you spent on your unauthorized trip to D.C. Or will you again play naive and seek forgiveness when this matter (was scheduled to come) before council on April 4, 2023?
NASHVILLE SHOOTING
JENIFER “JIFFY” MASSEY, San Clemente
Once we get the homeless housed, San Clemente needs to work on gun control. How many guns does a family need? Multiple-firing guns are designed for wars, not for households, and so we as a city need to pass rules regarding the number of guns per household; they need to be registered and licensed to those deemed sane and show how they are stored.
I’m sure none of you City Councilmembers want a shooting here in San Clemente.
RESPONSE TO COUNCIL’S CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION OPPOSING AB 1078
MICHAEL WEINBAUM, San Clemente
Why should anyone have expected anything different?
The Moe and Larry of the City Council—Knoblock and James, for the uninitiated—have attracted a Curly— Cabral—and the three of them are proposing a resolution, which has no legal force at all, expressing their opposition to a proposed state law relating to educational curriculum.
I have my own views about the substance of the state law, views which anyone who knows me can easily guess.
But I also served as an elected school board member many years ago in a land far, far away—Oak Park, Illinois—so I have some sympathy for the view that our educational systems are premised on a local control philosophy.
But I also am getting sick and tired of local yokels who are full of themselves wasting City Council time promoting their own personal philosophies of life, politics, religion, etc., rather than doing their elected jobs.
The Three Stooges are private citizens. They can express themselves as such on this potential state law. They can actually express these views to the elected school board members who actually have been elected to focus on educational policy issues.
They can stand on a corner of Del Mar and El Camino Real and howl at the moon if they want to. But they should not be using their positions as City Councilmembers to inject themselves and the council into issues as to which they, and it, have no standing.
So, please, Moe, Larry, Curly: work on your comedy routine and stop wasting everyone’s time.
ANOTHER RESPONSE TO COUNCIL’S CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION OPPOSING AB 1078
MIKE VAIL, San Clemente
Councilmember Steve Knoblock doesn’t seem to understand that education issues are the purview of the Board of Education of our local school district, Capistrano Unified.
The City Council already has plenty of pressing issues to deal with. Knoblock needs to stick to the job he was elected to do.
Either that, or resign from the council and run for a seat on the school board.
ADDITIONAL RESPONSE TO COUNCIL’S CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION OPPOSING AB 1078
R.C. Price, San Clemente
Oh, come on.
After last year’s failed attempt at anti-abortion commentary, our City Council is now taking a stab at another resolution, this time parroting the current Fox News talking points surrounding public education?
From now until the next election, are we going to have to suffer such endless “resolutions” in opposition to anything our evil government proposes that the right wing media deems unworthy?
Let’s see, so far, we’ve seen our esteemed representatives weigh in on guns and abortion, and now education; maybe we’ll get to see future “resolutions” condemning the woke, Dominion voting machines, and Donald Trump’s horrible “persecution.”
Keep in mind, folks, that the current council’s rightward tilt was the result of only 23 votes. Hardly a thundering mandate, gentlemen.
Let’s take care of local business, folks, and leave the culture war to those who opt to waste their time waging it.
SECURITY AT NORTH BEACH CORD BAUER, San Clemente
There was an emergency City Council meeting last month about hiring a security firm for a two-month test run in San Clemente. The firm has been spectacularly successful in Oceanside, with reduced crime, reduced calls for the sheriff, vandalism, vagrant loitering, etc. They do what the sheriffs don’t have time to execute.
With council chambers as full as I’ve seen it, Councilmembers Victor Cabral and Gene James stuck their necks out and pushed for this service. Councilmembers Enmeier and Knoblock were against it because—despite their words—safety seemed secondary to expense.
Mayor Duncan said we can’t spend money in North Beach until we “invest” in North Beach. Doesn’t he understand that we all know that “invest” and “spend money” mean the same thing? And “investing” in a security company for North Beach is the best thing we can do right now.
Everyone in the room heard the same speeches and testimony, and yet three councilmembers chose to wait rather than act. Here’s part of what they heard.
First, Human Affairs Chairwoman Lisa Edone said that she and a friend counted almost 100 cars and RVs camping illegally in San Clemente over the course of one night.
Next, Public Safety committee Chairman (and ex-cop) Rick Loeffler said he went to Oceanside to watch this security firm in action, and came away impressed. In fact, he was so impressed that he endorsed their use in San Clemente.
These three councilmembers also ignored Gene James, with his extensive background in law enforcement. Needless to say, the sentiment of most of the speakers was ignored as well, while the meeting dragged into the night.
If safety in town is a concern to you, I hope you’ll add your voices to others by contacting our City Council at their email addresses below, and let them know how you feel. duncanc@san-clemente.org; enmeierm@san-clemente.org; knoblocks@san-clemente.org; cabralv@san-clemente.org; and jamesg@san-clemente.org.
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