San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Part of the problem

Is that the excess dead and dying brush and trees are not cleared out on a regular basis. With dry weather it creates a serious fire hazard and tinder box environment.

With a city and county that is already dealing with significant budget problems, this would require an additional tax. This city and county are falling apart as it is. To fix all the problems, they would have to raise taxes by about two cents for every dollar spent. Good luck with that. Unfortunately, white house fiscal reform doesn't work and unless you tax, you can't pay for things.

A low tech method with no taxation would be for people to keep goats and sheep as pets. You get both vegetation control and milk/wool if you choose to "harvest". Their manure is better organic fertilizer than dog nuisance. No bites and barking too! In Portland, Oregon, the city uses this technique for vegetation control of hill sides to prevent fires. They call a farmer who throws up a temporary fence and the shrubbery is gone in a few days. The animals can trim pretty steep hillsides where no human or machine can reach.

mandatory volunteer fire fighting and prevention reserves. drafting men and women ages 18 - 45. train them, send them out on prevention detail such as clearing brush and inspecting fire hazards. in case of fire, send them out to do the trenching, observation, whatever it's called when you go out and smother smoldering remains.

use school busses, mtd busses, community service vans, etc for transportation. call in reserves on a random basis like for jury duty.

have the insurance companies foot the bill.

Why would a person living downtown go clear brush in Ramona? Let the Ramona people clear they own brush if they want to live there. What a hair brained idea.

I like the goat idea.

Personally, I think that people who live in the unsafe areas should pay for their own fire prevention. The cost of living in far flung areas is more than simply the cost of land and building. Extending services to those corners is costly. That should be reflected in yearly property taxes.

Third vote for goats and sheep

My parents have goats and never had problem with brush or fire on their land up north. Plus think of the excellent feta cheese and goat milk they can sell?

Yeah, I don't think the idea of drafting people to clear brush around huge homes in the mountains owned by rich people is going to fly. We are already going to have to pay to rebuild those homes with our tax dollars -- not something I'm looking forward to or think should be done. Feel free to volunteer yourself to go clear brush for free though.

Any idea that involves goats gets my vote.

I'll add that fires are a natural part of the environment here, so maybe we should learn to live with them. Like stop building tinderbox McMansions. Simply create a minimum standard for fire-resistant property and require it for all new construction. Eventually the problem will work itself out.

I like the goat idea and I also feel that remote residents should pay higher taxes for fire prevention is an acceptable strategy.

i wouldn't call rb or penasquitos far flung. besides, the last fire butted up to kearny mesa...

where's the sense of civic duty? the shitty air quality alone, which affects everyone, should be reason enough...

edit:

note, not all of us live in the ghetto, yet we all contribute to the police. we live in a desert and yet people up north share their water. not all of us have kids and yet we all pay for public education. etc etc..

I'm not sure that clearing brush/creating fire breaks would be the answer in any event. All an arsonist would have to do is light the fire on both sides of the break. I heard that the main problem in this case was either lack of water planes in the air or inability to get planes in the air due to the wind. Hopefully the magnitude of this fire will spur the county/state/federal government to buy more planes.

If clearing brush is an answer, I say raise property taxes so that the county can pay people who want to do it. My job pays better than what I could make as a brush clearer and I'm sure a single skilled dozer operator could do the job much better than 10 people with skills similar to mine.

But again though, feel free to get started on the job yourself. I have much more respect for people who lead by example than those who volunteer others to do something they want done.

"But again though, feel free to get started on the job yourself. I have much more respect for people who lead by example than those who volunteer others to do something they want done."

not that online respect means anything (just as online bravado, self promotion, etc mean anything), but the alternative suggestions of raising taxes, herding goats, etc aren't exactly self sacrificing either.

just thought that was funny.

In the LA foothills you are required to irrigate or clear all of your property. About 1 month before the projected start of fire season the fire department surveys high risk regions and issues orders for clearing out areas that are in violation. About two weeks later they come back, and if it isn't cleared, they clear it for you--and bill the land owner. I've seen the bills, these guys charge more per hour than a plastic surgeon.

It's a great fund raiser, better than the pancake breakfast.

-one muggle

If clearing brush is an answer, I say raise property taxes so that the county can pay people who want to do it.

Huh? How about cutting somewhere else and finding the money to do what needs to be done?  The job of government is to best allocate and prioritize the money we send them, not spend and raise taxes when something new pops up.  Any idiot can do that.   

I think goats and sheep is a good idea! The biggest expense will be fencing but it sounds great

I think we should seriously

consider tipping you on your side and pouring cement in your ear to fill up all the dry weedy space in there...

Am not sure goats and sheep feed greedily on scraggly chaparral...

People cannot fight the fire once it is started. Prevention is the only way to deal with these fires. Maybe instead of paying fire fighters to sleep we should set up 12 hour shifts like many rural areas do. Rural areas that pay far less than the $100k that 40% of San Diego fire fighters make. Instead of sleeping and watching TV, they can work inspecting properties and doing other prevention jobs that are neglected under their 24hr shifts.

Good luck fighting the fire fighters union on this.

Instead of sleeping and watching TV, they can work inspecting properties and doing other prevention jobs that are neglected under their 24hr shifts.

Not to mention getting rid of the frat house atomsphere and subsequent lawsuits. I too vote for the fire fighters to work regular shifts.

I also agree. Let's get back to basics.

Fire isn't just a danger in the outlying communties in San Diego. This could happen anywhere in SD, just look around you. San Diego is composed mostly of mesas and brush filled canyons and it's all nice and dry, ready to burn. All it takes is the spark from a bulldozer or a carelessly tossed cigarette and you got a raging brush fire. The Normal Heights fire started in Mission Valley and raged up the brush filled hills and burned a 150 homes in the mid city.

In my former neighborhood ( in City Heights), Allstate refused to insure my neighbor's home because of the brush and trees next to their property. CalTrans refused to clear the brush and the fire department said it was not a problem and not unsafe.

Many firefighters say this is just the begining. For the last 10 years, the western U.S. has been drier, the winds stronger, and the temperatures higher than the past.

Global warming is begining to work its will and change much of SoCal into a desert again.

How about we stop building houses out of tarpaper and cardboard?

Filling up all the dry weedy areas with cement is certainly impossible to do, but at least we should do that to areas that are close to residential areas. Studies need to be done. In some other countries, slopes that are close to the freeways are cemented. Even in LA, most of the open areas are irrigated well. In additional to the cosmetic issue, irrigated vegetation tend not to get burnt so easily. When you look at similar areas in SD, they are covered with brown and long weeds. They look like semi-drought areas in Africa. It catches fires so easily.

Kewp....

said it before,
will say it again...

adobe dome homes

Brown/Green Free living!

Japan is preceeding the US in covering everything with cement...

are you turning Japonese, DDmoore?