Let’s ease into this subject with a mindful autumn walk. Notice the days getting shorter... morning air chillier... leaves turning gold on liquidamber trees.
Now notice another fact as unwavering as the seasons -- the fact that sex plays a dominant role in San Diego public affairs.
Hook it up with other San Diego mainstays (uninspired leadership, stunted civic aspirations, free-floating corruption, corporate welfare, Republican Party stronghold, dubious fidelity among leading Democrats, to name a few) and it wallops a punch potent enough to knock a newly-elected mayor out of the ring... and force the city into a costly, rushed election to bring in a replacement.
Of course this is not how the Chamber of Commerce markets our city. It’s motto: Good for Business - Good for San Diego says it all. Same for our Tourism Authority, which promotes the city as a clean-cut, open-air paradise: …70 miles of beautiful beaches, countless parks and gardens, and endless opportunities for pampering at one of the areas many spas and resorts… an excellent destination for some quality R+R.
San Diego sells itself as a trophy town of moderation, rectitude, and civility. But scratch the surface and you’ll discover the other San Diego -- a town constantly preoccupied with commercialized sexual indulgences (move over, Las Vegas).
- Aren’t we the fun-loving host of the over-the-line tournament, the frisky, sandy weekend of boosted beer, bouncy breasts, and bared behinds?
- Isn’t the weekend street scene in our redeveloped Gaslamp Quarter every bit as raunchy as the notorious pre-CCDC days of sailor bars, hookers, and peepshows?
- And you wouldn't call our very own glistening rompers and exhibitionists at the summertime Pride Parade chopped liver, would you?
- How about San Diego’s collection of privately-catered swinging establishments, open to you, me, and the lamppost?
- And what would you say to hugh-hefner-wannabe accommodations upstairs at the U-T?
- Have you taken the oral history tour of City Hall, a behind the scenes tale of who-did-what-with-whom (or who-was-doing-what-with-himself)? It starts at the 12th-floor Council Chambers and works its way down.
- And what about our ferociously fought-over 25-foot bayside statue immortalizing a sailor’s frontal assault on an unconsenting female – you know, the one with the woman in a headlock submitting to a forced, full-mouth kiss? Once named “Unconditional Surrender” nowadays it’s known as felony false imprisonment.
By now most of us who entertained high hopes for what an experienced, old-time liberal mayor like Bob Filner could bring to the city of San Diego have resigned ourselves to the new reality – which looks oddly like the old reality called business as usual.
Surely you've noticed what a busy beaver our interim mayor Todd Gloria has been in setting the clock back to pre-Filner time. In fact, a time warp engineered by downtown Republicans along with select Democrats has pretty much erased all traces of what might have been.
Which brings us to the current candidates running to replace Bob Filner. Of the four front-running mayoral candidates, only one is being honest with the public... We'll take a look at the candidates running for mayor in Part II of Sex in the City. Stay tuned.
