Wedging in more homes is no solution

Regarding “New San Diego housing construction laws a strong start” (July 25): Now that we’ve solved our water crisis with the federally financed Pure Water project, I guess there’s no reason why we shouldn’t bulldoze every vernal pool, canyon and mesa in San Diego to solve our affordable housing crisis.

Perhaps our City Council members got the idea from watching the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and seeing favelas stacked like cord wood in Rio de Janeiro. If it works for Brazil, why not give it a go right here?


But it’s only a fool’s dream that we can satisfy everyone’s desire to live in California by building more homes and making them affordable. I do regret that my sons probably won’t be able to afford a home in San Diego. But every city in the world has a finite carrying capacity that must be protected for the greater good.

To paraphrase Dirty Harry, a community’s got to know its limitations.

Doug Bell

Rancho Peñasquitos


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Logan Jenkins (“Are bulldozers the answer to soaring local home prices?” July 28) uses the typical argument, blame the people who came earlier and struggled to purchase a home in San Diego.

It was just as difficult then as it is now for us to pay for our home. We were always paycheck to paycheck and are now on fixed income. Would he prefer to have us living in a tent downtown?

We are not nimbys. We are still scraping by and hoping to have something to leave to our children. The fact that our home is worth many times more than we paid for it is not our fault. It is our reward for staying with our home in a neighborhood that was considered “not so hot”, while others moved on to their Poway palaces.


Gentrification has made our neighborhood very desirable to folks making high salaries, also not out fault. If prop 13 were refunded most of us would lose our homes. Would that please Mr. Jenkins or for that matter, improve our housing crisis?

Linda White

South Park


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