Panamah
12-05-2005, 03:48 PM
My home town is looking for a new slogan... "Sunny place for Shady people" is a good one.
America's Finest City? Not any more.
One of its congressmen admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes, the
FBI has investigated City Hall, the mayor resigned, a $1.37 billion pension shortfall damaged the city's credit rating and fueled talk of bankruptcy, and two councilmen were convicted of taking bribes from a strip club owner.
Faced with all that ill repute, the city has quietly dethroned itself and dropped the self-proclaimed title "America's Finest City" from its website.
"We couldn't stake that claim anymore," said Gina Lew, the city's director of public and media affairs. "We were taking too many hits."
The San Diego Union-Tribune recently asked readers to come up with a new slogan, saying "America's Finest" had turned "creaky." Among the nearly 500 responses: "Scandalicious," "An Eruption of Corruption," "All Major Unmarked Bills Accepted Here" and "Bunglers by the Bay."
Lew said the title was erased from the website in August - leaving a blank blue space next to a photo of the downtown skyline - in response to the federal investigation of the city's finances.
The investigation led to the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy in April, followed by the councilmen's conviction for taking bribes in exchange for efforts to allow touching at nude bars.
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., resigned last month from Congress after pleading guilty to pocketing bribes that helped pay for a Rolls-Royce and a yacht named the "Duke-Stir."
San Diego dubbed itself "America's Finest City" in 1972 - ironically, to get through another rough patch.
The Republican Party had moved its national convention from San Diego to Miami Beach with less than three months' notice. Then-mayor Pete Wilson ordered an "America's Finest City" week of festivals during the Miami convention. The festival lasted several years and the slogan even longer.
"One scandal gave rise to the slogan and another, even deeper scandal has erased it," said Carl Luna, a political scientist at San Diego's Mesa College.
America's Finest City? Not any more.
One of its congressmen admitted taking $2.4 million in bribes, the
FBI has investigated City Hall, the mayor resigned, a $1.37 billion pension shortfall damaged the city's credit rating and fueled talk of bankruptcy, and two councilmen were convicted of taking bribes from a strip club owner.
Faced with all that ill repute, the city has quietly dethroned itself and dropped the self-proclaimed title "America's Finest City" from its website.
"We couldn't stake that claim anymore," said Gina Lew, the city's director of public and media affairs. "We were taking too many hits."
The San Diego Union-Tribune recently asked readers to come up with a new slogan, saying "America's Finest" had turned "creaky." Among the nearly 500 responses: "Scandalicious," "An Eruption of Corruption," "All Major Unmarked Bills Accepted Here" and "Bunglers by the Bay."
Lew said the title was erased from the website in August - leaving a blank blue space next to a photo of the downtown skyline - in response to the federal investigation of the city's finances.
The investigation led to the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy in April, followed by the councilmen's conviction for taking bribes in exchange for efforts to allow touching at nude bars.
Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., resigned last month from Congress after pleading guilty to pocketing bribes that helped pay for a Rolls-Royce and a yacht named the "Duke-Stir."
San Diego dubbed itself "America's Finest City" in 1972 - ironically, to get through another rough patch.
The Republican Party had moved its national convention from San Diego to Miami Beach with less than three months' notice. Then-mayor Pete Wilson ordered an "America's Finest City" week of festivals during the Miami convention. The festival lasted several years and the slogan even longer.
"One scandal gave rise to the slogan and another, even deeper scandal has erased it," said Carl Luna, a political scientist at San Diego's Mesa College.