Good and bad are relative.
Punching someone in the face: bad. Punching someone who is attacking you or a loved one: good.
Notable and annoying also posses a hint of duality (what is notable could be annoying given the right circumstances, and vice versa) but they do not carry the same value and baggage as good and bad.
All this preamble to say there are some things about 2013 that were notable, others annoying. Good and bad, I’ll leave to someone else to decide.
Notable: Chula Vista’s power plant was destroyed. Kaboom! Pow! went the eyesore that at one time provided 100 jobs and energy to the region. Its destruction clears the way for continued development and will, we’re promised, create thousands of temporary and permanent jobs in the region.
Annoying: The selling and belief of the notion that once Chula Vista’s bayfront is built out with a convention center, hotel and accompanying condos and restaurants, the county’s second largest municipality will be a world-class city.
Class, worldly or not, does not hinge entirely on a city’s size or its bling, especially when it’s concentrated on one side of the freeway. It’s also about people. And art. And culture. And values. Elements that are often overlooked or undervalued.
Notable: Sweetwater Union High School District board member John McCann was in a terrible car accident, one in which he suffered brain trauma. He survived and eventually went back to work at the district, with no perceptible difference in behavior.
Annoying: John McCann —the man who in years past videotaped parents, teachers and spectators during a public school board meeting; who sought a temporary restraining order against a critic who refused to shake his hand and claimed he would knock McCann out; who had attorneys draft and send a cease and desist order to another critic who wrote a letter to the editor that McCann did not like; who called police to report that a $5 campaign sign had been stolen — can boast moral and legal superiority by stating he is the only sitting Sweetwater Union High School District board member not under indictment.
Notable: Jerry Rindone, Mary Salas and Steve Padilla are running for seats on the Chula Vista City Council.
Annoying: Jerry Rindone, Mary Salas and Steve Padilla are running for seats on the Chula Vista City Council after they were just termed out of their respective offices within the last nine years.
Notable: Eyecandy Showgirls nude cabaret is still open for business long after public officials got their knickers twisted and vowed to move the location from its bayfront address.
Annoying: Having public knickers get twisted and knowing taxpayers will ultimately pay the price.
