The Donna Frye rebellion in our chaotic city election earns its own chapter in history.
It was outrage at the same old bungling of public affairs by self-obsessed career politicians. It was a resounding no vote against San Diego's two most prominent public officials.
Our system works when lazy voters become watchdogs and bite back.
The frye rebellion confirms the rising power of labor and the decline of this city's old guard. And our skepticism about advice from our own media.
It makes downtown more interesting for north county San Diegans who seldom bother to go South of Eight.
Andy Rooney said it was his first inkling that we could come in off the beach and gripe like city people.
This is no longer the old San Diego.....that overlooked greed and paybacks for city hall favorites.
The new 2005 model of San Diego is more inclusive. It has a wider view.
We must demand that the mayor and council partner with the community....helping to recruit minds and money to reform a city that has lost its reputation....and its credit line.
The image of San Diego as beach resort has merged now with that of a university city.... rich in science, adventurous research and knowledge.....men and women who have come from around the world.....drawn at first by the climate, and then by each other.
Mayor Murphy and other entrenched politicians have shrugged off offers from UCSD and others to help create neighborhood discussion groups....and offer modern technical and engineering support for the city.
Murphy is a college graduate,...... and a taxpayer. He understands the magic of such campus resources.
Yet city hall says, "No". The threat of outsiders looking over their shoulders gives politicians the willies.
With such bad habits, our enfeebled old guard and our stigmatic media don't understand that the new San Diego is growing away from them.
Their comfortable San Diego is gone.
Are they capable of serving our younger and far more worldly city?
Toward such a breakthrough goal, the Donna Frye rebellion is a warning to present leaders.....and to those of us who elect them.
We can bring them down if we realize they are serving themselves rather than us. It's not them and us. It's all of us as a city, rising or falling.
They need watchdogs....and they will remember that we can blow Donna Frye's whistle again.
Two watchdogs are about to arrive at city hall...intending to restore order. Mike Aguirre, the aggressive new city attorney will be sworn in December 6. His aide will be another outspoken critic of city management, the attorney Pat Shea. You may remember Shea's wife Dianne Shippione, the whistleblower who forced the city to face it's financial nightmare.
These two men will land on city hall like a posse. The old cry will ring out again, "Remember Donna Frye!".
