Dear Editor:

As a long time and frequent visitor to the GLBT community in San Diego, I am amazed that the city officials have decided to try to close the gay bathhouses at this time. Thirty years ago when the city had five gay bathhouses the politics were much more conservative and the police department had the reputation of being homophobic. Now the politics have changed completely with members of the LGBT community serving as state senator, district attorney, recently acting mayor, city councilmember and mayor of the neighboring city of Chula Vista.

San Diego has also recognized the benefits of being gay friendly with the biggest annual spectator event being the Greater San Diego Pride Festival and Parade drawing over 150,000 spectators to the city each year. Now huge exclusively LGBT cruise ships sail in and out San Diego’s harbor. An attraction not to be overlooked is the three gay bathhouses of San Diego that draw thousands of tourists each year who spend their vacations in the city. All three bathhouses are private membership clubs that have operated at the same location for over twenty years, are gay owned and are inspected every three months by the San Diego Department of Environmental Health and must follow their strict guidelines.

Why would the city want to give up this well regulated drawing card? It would be interesting to know how many thousands and thousands of dollars these three clubs spend on advertising promoting GLBT tourism and also how much is donated to charities each year.

Unlike bars and restaurants bathhouses tend to advertise outside the area drawing tourists into the city. Each of the owners have well earned respect in San Diego. It really does not make much sense in trying to close these businesses. They have supported our GLBT community and our charities and we should support them. You do not have to be a bathhouse patron to enjoy the benefits of having these bathhouses in San Diego.

Howard Greenberg

Dear Editor:

In response to your editorial of January 25th 2007, since the 1970’s there have been almost a half dozen attempts to organize a “GLBT tavern guild” in san diego………and sadly what has resulted is almost every time after the first meetings and great attendance, the tavern guilds have not continued because of a lack of attendance. We both wanted to try again to form a GLBT tavern guild because we felt and still believe it could be a very productive organization and benefit our service industry. Once again, the first meetings were very successful and with the help of City Commissioner Nicole Murray-Ramirez, for the first time in the history of any Tavern Guilds we had guest speakers such as our city’s chief of police as well as our fire chief. We put a lot of time and effort into reorganizing a GLBT tavern guild, but we are not “miracle workers”, and we agree that there continues to be a need for a Tavern Guild and thus will try again. Our next meeting date will be announced soon.

“Big Mike” Phillips and Leo Moore

GLBT Tavern Guild co-founders

Dear Editor:

Thank you, Russell. Your editorial in Issue 999 dtd 2.15.07 was brilliant and to the correct point, Bravo. Also thank you for publishing my letter on the related subject’s matter.

Everyone I showed it to at the bath houses and to my friends had nothing but praises. Perhaps some people, namely our public servants, will re-discover their common sense and do what is right for the community. (ha ha)

Ted Tichenor

Dear Editor:

Thanks for your article on the Hillcrest Town Council. As a steering committee member, I want to make a small clarification. The article said that anyone is welcome to participate on the steering committee and on the Town Council. This is only partly true. Anyone may participate, but voting on council matters will be limited to residents of Hillcrest. We want the people who make decisions on the Council to have to live with the impact of those decisions 24 hours a day.

This group is about empowering residents. There was considerable debate about including non-residents as decision-makers. But the steering committee recommended that decision-making power be limited to residents, and the general meeting voted in favor of that recommendation. “Residents” in this context means renters and homeowners.

This raises the question, What are the boundaries of Hillcrest? The exact boundaries are yet to be determined for the purposes of the Town Council. We have a rough approximation — the boundaries given in the Uptown Community Plan, plus a quarter-to-half-mile “buffer zone” that will extend those boundaries to include people who live on the edges of what is traditionally defined as “Hillcrest”.

The steering committee will make a recommendation on exact boundaries at the next general meeting. Then it will be up to the members at that meeting to accept, reject or modify those boundaries.

Andrew Towne

Dear Editor:

Need a cop: call the doughnut shop! No, now it is “Need a cop; call the bathhouse.” If only off duty police officer Aaron Mansker would have known to call a bathhouse when he was desperately looking for a police patrol car to assist him while he was chasing Charger linebacker Steve Foley through the city streets. If only he had known that police officers are now working their shifts at taxpayers expense at the gay bathhouses then a serious shooting incident might have been avoided. We have to ask City Attorney Mike Aguirre about his priorities. Are our citizens better served by police officers sitting in bathhouses, two at a time, with towels wrapped around their bare butts hoping to catch someone masturbating or should they be patrolling our city streets? Is sex by consenting adults at private membership clubs a priority over street crime? Will the Mansker/Foley shooting end up costing the taxpayers millions of dollars in a settlement, a settlement that could have been avoided if a uniformed officer and a marked patrol car had been available.

Please Mr. Aguirre use a little common sense. Don’t tarnish the reputation of “America’s Finest,” the San Diego Police Department, and waste our tax dollars with your political agendas. Both our police officers and citizens deserve better.

Juan Gonzalez