Roses & raspberries

By: North County Times Opinion staff - | Sunday, January 21, 2007 8:20 PM PST ∞

The 'Firebreakers' award - A rose to the quick-thinking firefighters who saved Chin's Szechwan Restaurant on Thursday afternoon as the biggest structure fire in Escondido history ravaged an under-construction condo complex. The stunningly fast fire consumed a series of unfinished four-story buildings in moments, with flames stretching skyward and smoke sniffing into Escondido homes and offices, including our own.

Embers blown aloft by the 15 mph winds briefly ignited the tar paper roof of the beloved Chinese eatery, but great firefighting doused those flames before Chin's suffered serious damage. In the midst of such a blow to Escondido's downtown revival, such heroism deserves special mention.

The 'Wake-Up Call' award

A raspberry to American Emergency Notification, the contractor for the Carlsbad Police Department who rang up 36,311 Carlsbad residents between 11:47 p.m. Tuesday night and 1:55 a.m. Wednesday morning to alert them that some city streets would be temporarily closed on Sunday for the Carlsbad Marathon.

The original idea was nice; in the past, many residents have complained that they weren't notified in time to avoid the marathon's traffic. But the terrible timing for this non-emergency alert doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a system we're supposed to rely on in a real emergency.

And we're mystified by a Carlsbad police lieutenant's explanation of how the mix-up happened: Lt. Don Rawson said that the calls were supposed to stop, not start, at 11:45 p.m. Would you want automated, nonemergency calls from the Carlsbad police at a quarter to midnight?

The 'First-Ballot Heart' award

We're rather late on the bandwagon, but we couldn't let San Diego Padres greatest hitter and classiest man, Tony Gwynn, enter the Hall of Fame without adding our congratulations in the form of this rose. Little more needs to be said in his direction; anyone who has paid any attention to baseball knows the measure of this man. We're glad that baseball sportswriters honored Gwynn with the seventh-highest vote total of all-time.

Thanks for the memories, Tony, and may the San Diego State Aztecs baseball players you coach cleanly field your wisdom in baseball and in life.

The 'Ganging Up on Gangs' award

A rose to the Oceansiders attending the many community meetings concentrating on the city's festering gang problem. As the recent shooting death of Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant reminded everyone, gangs continue to plague the neighborhood near Camp Pendleton's back gate. But Oceanside's Libby Lake neighborhood provides a great model for how a community can rally together and take back their streets.

The good people who attended Thursday's City Hall discussion organized by Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, for instance, or the members of the city's advisory Community Relations Commission, which discussed similar topics the same day, are taking necessary steps toward developing solutions to this vexing problem.

Talk isn't enough, of course, but it's an often necessary starting point. The key will be not letting the momentum slip away.

The 'On the Same Page' award

A rose to the Escondido residents who read "The House on Mango Street" by author Sandra Cisneros before March 23, so they can participate in a citywide literary conversation. And kudos to the Escondido Public Library for encouraging this fine chapter in civic engagement and community building.