Here is her recent piece that made me sarcastically roll my eyes so far back in my head that I went temporarily blind. link
Bianca seems like a nice enough person but her delicate yuppie sensibilities are hilarious. I get the impression that she would like all of north county to look like the Carlsbad outlet mall, probably the most sanitized environment in these parts.
She is okay with declaring the Ponto area "blighted" not understanding that she is endorsing the government seizing private property and selling it to corporate interest.
Sure, the big wood pile is unsightly and the "wood not for sale" spraypainted sign is a cryptic message to passing motorist.
(The wood is not for sale because it is drying out. Eventually it will be sold as firewood to tourist in the local campgrounds, duh).
For the love of god Firewood Man, build a giant fence or plant some trees or shrubs! Don't you see that the yuppies just can't deal with the big pile of wood? You are scaring the hell out of poor Bianca. She can't see past the big pile of wood and notice the really cool hotrods you are restoring this month. She can't possibly look the other way or keep her eyes on the road. Your big pile of wood is just too distracting. She and others are happy to strip you of your basic human rights just so the 3 seconds they spend driving past your property will be more pleasant.
quote from article: Greenhouses, like Mick Jagger and pit bulls, are not, by nature, pleasant to look at. But the products of greenhouses (and Jagger, some would argue) are so beautiful that we tolerate them. It's a perfect example of the end justifying the means. But when greenhouses, like those on Saxony, are abandoned and left in despair, they become unsightly and end up targets for vandalism and graffiti.
Bianca like many others are getting hoodwinked here. It is just like the recent situation in Leucadia. The city purposely let Leucadia get rundown while focusing all the tax money into the heart of Encinitas. Then, when it was shabby enough they tried to declare it blighted and seize it.
It didn't work.
So by her logic, instead of letting the Eckes develope the farm land the city should declare it blighted and seize it for themselves.
The Ecke camp don't like that idea so much eh?
Bianca says she grew up in the 60's and 70's. Her current attitude is similar to Union Tribune columnist Logan Jenkins. They both have this "I'm really tired and worn out and can no longer fight city hall because I smoked way too much dope back in college so yeah this sucks but what are ya gunna do about it so you might as well let the fat cats win. *shrug*" kind of demeanor.
People like Bianca Kalpanek need to be careful when they speak out publicly about what is unsightly and what is not. These are vapid times we live in. It is hard to tell from that postage stamp photo of her in the paper but those teeth look a little crooked to me.
Now, I think a slightly crooked smile can add character and charm to a person. But most folks in new millennium Encinitas might declare Bianca's mouth blighted and slap some braces on her grill.
Ty Paddington, know any good dentist?
ha ha ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wondered about that column, too. In fact, with the publisher gone on vacation, suddenly the Coast News seems to be changing its stripes, like NCT. OHHHHH NOOOOO!
It looked like every single letter to the editor on the topic was Pro A. What? What happened to all those others?? Why did the numbers suddenly change? Is is just because the ad sales people don't want to lose all the real estate biz? Is it just that political moola, might makes right.
Sad thing is, this is the last Coast News before the election. We sure hope people will go and vote no, so our quality of life won't go bye bye.
She says she was driving past the wood pile bi-weekly. That hardly seems worth crying about it.
ReplyDeleteI won't get involved in a discussion about Bianca's column, but to answer "don't be jerked around":
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, we had way too many letters on Prop. A this week. We dedicated a lot of space to them, but we had pages more. Normally we try to run every single letter we get but this time it could not happen.
So Tom Chambers (our editor in chief) simply decided to run as many as he could. He gave priority to the ones that came first, and those happened to be pro-A letters.
-- Stephen Keller, Encinitas reporter for The Coast news
I think "first come, first served" should be reserved for camping spots and Big Macs.
ReplyDeleteNext time, how about trying to provide an accurate representation of what was sent in, as a whole. For example, if you were sent 60 "pro" letters, and 40 "con" letters, but could only run a total of 10, why not choose 6 from the "pro" stack and 4 from the "con" stack.
(and yes, the preceding 2 paragraphs should be read using your favorite robot voice)
I would like to note that I personally have absolutely nothing to do with which letters run -- I write news stories, not the op/ed pages. I was just trying to clear up the misconception that there was any kind of deliberate bias toward the pro-A camp in this last letters page.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants to harrass our editor, his e-mail is editor@coastnewsgroup.com
I love the Coast News, it is a great asset to our community.
ReplyDeleteI would't harsh on those guys about the letters, the editorials have been mostly against A.
can't fault the coast news. no kydding. they have been there for most of the bumpy ride. the letter writing campaign mounted by the t shepard camp the last few days is impressive but hopefully transparent to the voters. same with the nct. interesting that a lot of the writers are from outside of area not local. the chamber newsletter is another piece of impressive shepard work. went from business community info printed on low grade fishwrap to slick 4 color ecke mailer(ecke paid for 17000 xta issues, setting and design, postage above 2500 units. interesting that no on a poll of downtown merchants only had two for development intensification, rest were no on a'ers. oh well, now it's high-grade fishwrap. as to bianca's column AND PHOTO. she says she knows funky having grown up in funky and leucadia ain't it. guessing from her photo shes 39 or so. during the sixties and seventies that would make her more apt to be wondering what to dress her barbie in than what was fun-ky. i got back from saving vietnam-moved to the haight for three years-then moved to oakland/ berkeley. i think i know fun-ky and leucadia and ponto fit the bill.
ReplyDeleteI truly do appreciate Coast News. Yes, the letters were not balanced this past issue. We noticed, too, that lots of the Pro A letters were from people outside of this City, many Ecke employees.
ReplyDeleteHopefully people didn't just look at this one issue. For those people, we hope they can make it even quicker, just read the No on A signs posted lots of places. As for the Encinitas First bogus tripe, we believe most people will see through that rag. Another good alternative, line the bottom of your birdcage with it. So many trees cut down to fuel the paper bloat of A proponents big last minute slam. But people are smarter than these hucksters think.
We are crossing our fingers, and everything else.
No on A will save the Day!
This is fun… I love the speculation. Please, harass me.
ReplyDeleteI allow anyone who wants to write a letter to the editor and I’ll publish it. We strive to get EVERY letter written into the paper, regardless of the author’s point of view (same goes with my columnists).
During elections, the number of letters always balloons --- hence the three pages of letters in the Nov. 4 issue --- and it’s not possible to run all of them. Generally, I do limit the number of times a certain letter writer appears, so they don’t dominate the “free speech zone,” meaning, you won’t get a letter in consecutive issues.
For the record, we received a total of 31 letters regarding Prop. A before our print deadline (many more came in later). Twenty-eight of those were in favor; three were against. We were able to run 22 of the letters, including two of the three written against the proposition (and actually, we were going to run more of all of the letters, but had to bump some to make room for news).
So, we ran 64 percent of the letters received in favor of the proposition, and 67 percent of the letters against. Pretty close proportions.
Now, NOTE, The Coast News is the only paper to come against this measure --- and has done so with 5 consecutive editorials. Our publisher has also spent more than anyone else to stop Prop. A. Not to mention the number of columns by Bob Nanninga.
There you go, harass away.
Tom Chambers
Editor, The Coast News
I'll be honest here, I was the one who wrote the "harassing" comment listed above. In my defense, the "letter printing selection protocol" came across a bit different than how you describe. Hence, I wrote my suggestion. Perhaps it came off a bit harsh, that was not my intention. (I'll admit that there was some assuming on my part).
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, your work (and the CN) have a lot of fans here. I am one of them. Keep it up.
This is Phil Connors, signing off.
The Coast News has been publishing my angry letters for years, ha-ha.
ReplyDelete"just a plumber", there is no such thing! Plumbers are the glue of a civilized soceity. What keeps the population healthy and thriving? Clean water and sanitation. When you have plumbing problems do you care about free speech, the war in Iraq, Prop A? No! You care about the plumber coming over and saving your ass.
God bless America and God bless the plumbers!!!
sorry folks but i'm a tom chambers fan. week after week i marvel at the creative layout of the paper, his sense for visual and literary impact. never meet the guy but i think he does a terrific job. No on A'ers didn't drive the nail in the coffin the last week,should have been sixty No on A letters on Tom's desk. we shall see if the shepard factor succeeds or if truth, justice and the american way prevail. polls close in 45 minutes, hope u aren't reading this dribble instead of voting. can't bitch if u don't vote.
ReplyDelete