Look for our special salute to this week’s San Diego Sunroad Boat Show, page 7
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 25, Number 3
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010
San Diego Community Newspaper Group
Fink makes bid for Davis’ House seat Point Loman says policy changes overdue BY ANTHONY GENTILE | THE BEACON In this fall’s House of Representatives races, incumbent Susan Davis will have competition locally in California’s 53rd District. Republican Mari Hamlin Fink, a lifelong Point Loma resident, announced earlier this month she will run for Congress. “I’m in this for the long run and I would like to bring some real change,” Fink said. Fink said she decided to run for Congress because she simply felt that it was time for a change. In her four elections as incumbent, Davis had been elected by an average of two-thirds of the vote. “We have an incumbent who has been seated for 10 years now and I think it’s time for a little challenge,” said Fink. “I feel confident that I can challenge her and bring some change to the policies in Washington that I think are frustrating our citizenry right now.” One of the issues Fink is most concerned about is healthcare. Her wish is that the issue be taken back to the drawing board by both conservatives and liberals to come up with a solution both transparent and beneficial to the public. “There are so many parts of the current bill that are not what people want to see – the rationing and the limits,” Fink said. “Those aren’t portions of the reform that should be in there and it’s not what represents the people well.” In a struggling economy, Fink said she also would like to see spending limits because she believes the government currently funds too many special-interest groups.
MARI HAMLIN FINK “There’s so much waste and inefficiency in our current government and there’s so much spending that does not need to be there,” Fink said. “We need to analyze spending before we go forward with it and limit spending. The runaway spending has got to be reined in. This affects the whole 53rd and it affects Point Loma.” Fink is a ninth-generation San Diegan. She earned a B.A. in business administration from San Diego State University after graduating from Point Loma High School. For the last three decades, Fink has been involved in philanthropic efforts of numerous organizations, including Rady Children’s Hospital and the American Red Cross. “I bring a broad knowledge of our San Diego district, having lived here my whole life,” Fink said. “I bring a strong ethic of working for my community.” For more information on Fink’s campaign, visit www.finkforcongress.com.
Alice Hewitt, a junior at Point Loma High School and a former student at WarrenWalker School, has begun the experience of a lifetime in Washington, D.C., where she will serve as a page for local Congresswoman Susan Davis. Hewitt will work at the Capitol Building and take a normal high school course load in classes held in the Library of Congress. COURTESY PHOTO
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Public access to a floating dock at Liberty Station remains a bone of contention between residents and the company that conCOURTESY PHOTO trols the dock, which believes the structure should be rebuilt elsewhere along the channel by the city.
Liberty Station dock access divisive BY SEBASTIAN RUIZ | THE BEACON As some Liberty Station community residents push for access to the only floating dock on the boat channel in the former Naval Training Center, a private company that currently controls the dock says it’s not fit for public use and that the city should build one somewhere else along the channel. A public spat over access to the boat dock has community members and District 2 City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer urging the city and the Navy to allow residents to use the dock along the north end of Liberty
Station. In recent years, the city has been working with the Navy and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board to clean the channel’s sediment before transferring the property from the Navy to the city — with progress moving at a sludge-like pace. “The Shoreline Plaza boat dock is currently locked and closed to the public,” Faulconer said in a letter to the San Diego City Attorney’s Office and Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone. “I have asked the Navy and city to look for ways for the city to take control of the dock to allow public access.” Faulconer sent the letter to city offi-
GET INVOLVED If you’d like to express your views to District 2 City Councilmember Kevin Faulconer’s office, visit www.sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd2. cials in December, asking that the Navy enter into a deal with the city to keep the dock and a footbridge along North Harbor Drive open to the public. Navy public information officer Melanie Ault responded to e-mail inquiries on behalf of Tony Megliola, SEE DOCK, Page 11
Getting a taste of the Washington scene BY ANTHONY GENTILE | THE BEACON Point Loma High School (PLHS) junior Alice Hewitt is currently representing the Peninsula in the nation’s capitol. From now until June, the Ocean Beach native is taking part in the House of Representatives Page Program. Hewitt left to begin her Washington experience Jan. 21. “It’s an amazing opportunity and I’m really excited,” Hewitt said. “It’s something that most people won’t get the opportunity to do and I just feel so lucky that I was offered this opportunity.” As part of the program, Hewitt will spend the next five months living, learn-
ing and working in Washington, D.C. She will live in a residence hall two blocks from the Capitol Building, where she will work and take a normal high school course load in classes held in the Library of Congress. “This is such a growing opportunity that I can’t even imagine all the things I am going to learn about myself,” Hewitt said. While in Washington, D.C., Hewitt will also get the chance to be a part of a number of unique experiences. That started on Jan. 27, when she attended the State of the Union address. Hewitt beat out a number of national and local applicants for the honor and
was appointed under the sponsorship of local Congresswoman Susan Davis. As part of the application process, Hewitt had to write to essays, get three letters of recommendation and complete a number of other forms. “It was pretty difficult. I spent a really long time getting my wording of the essays right and filling out the application form and getting the right teachers to do the letters of recommendation,” Hewitt said. “I couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support.” Hewitt has been to Washington, D.C. once before as part of a school trip in SEE PAGE, Page 8
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