As you may or may not know, my dad is a retired L.A. County Fire Captain, and I am very proud of him. More proud than if he was the richest man in the world. It, therefore, made me ill to read in the Coast News (thecoastnews.com) that our own Encinitas City Council made a political appointment to replace the beloved Maggie Houlihan, lately passed away after a long struggle with cancer. The council appointed Fire Chief Mark Muir to the vacant council seat. While I have nothing against fire chiefs as a whole, Maggie Houlihan was a true representative of the slow-growth environmental stewardship brand of Encinitan who elected her to multiple terms. Mark Muir is not replacing her representation. Sadly, the other faction of the council, Stocks and Bond, are development-friendly and they have been elected to multiple terms by what could be considered the 1%-ers in Encinitas. Houlihan had been holding back the dyke, as it were, against over-development and with the council seat finally in their grasp, Stocks and Bond were able to appoint a like-minded individual to fill it. Mark Muir is not who Maggie Houlihan had in mind to fill her seat. Her dying wish was that UCSD Lecturer Lisa Shaffer fill the empty council seat. In an unbelievably crass and ugly power grab, the 1%-ers acted like their class and simply stole the representation of the voting bloc to give themselves a majority that will give them unfettered access to Encinitas's precious environment.
Where are the 99%-ers I have seen at the Occupy Encinitas actions? Are we going to sit by and watch this happen? This is 1% ugliness at its best. They just TOOK OVER ENCINITAS! Are we really going to let this happen? How about some 99%-ers getting serious about this? They're bringing it to us!