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Belmont Park’s New Night Life Raises Philanthropist’s...

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Belmont Park’s New Night Life Raises Philanthropist’s Memory

Hello.

May I speak to John D. Spreckels, please? Yes, of course I know he died in 1926 at age 73.

Still, I think he deserves to know what’s become of those 17 seaside acres in Mission Beach where he built such a nifty amusement park.

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After all, his family willed the site to the city in the late 1930s to be kept for the general good.

John, you old sugar-newspaper-land-railroad baron, is that you?

I was out at the new Belmont Park on Saturday. The place was hopping late into the night. That hasn’t happened in nearly a generation.

The city may have bumbled into something fun.

A place where teens and young adults can buy a slice of pizza or a chocolate cookie, maybe dance at the Club Red Onion, maybe ride the renovated roller coaster.

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Is it the highest and best use for the site? Who knows? That’s yesterday’s question. It’s here now, let’s enjoy it.

It’s not Disneyland, John. There is a certain gaminess.

A college student from Clairemont named Jim Wegeforth told me, “It’s a hangout place, man. The malls don’t want us.”

The crowd is eclectic: fully integrated, football lettermen, upscale teen-agers from Tijuana, arm-in-arm couples, sailors in mid-boot camp, guys on unicycles.

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Also, the beach can be weird, John. A fellow came roller-skating through wearing only a lavender G-string.

A radio station was having a dog contest. A golden retriever won the best costume category. I asked if he always dresses like this.

“Only for formal occasions,” a guy named Wayne Borin told me. His nephew, Tommy Taylor, who is 9 and lives in Oceanside, owns the dog.

Owner and dog drifted away. Nobody noticed a dog wearing a pink tutu.

It’s that kind of crowd these days (and nights) at Belmont Park.

You might like it, John. Then again, you’ve been gone a long time.

Blowing in the Wind

There’s meaning here somewhere.

* North County bumper sticker: Isn’t it time to pull over and check the air in your head?

* San Diego attorney David Mulliken will represent San Diego City Councilman Bruce Henderson in his 11th-hour fight against the billion-dollar sewer plan. Pro bono.

Mulliken last year forced the council to reverse its denial of a proposed hazardous-waste incinerator for La Jolla and won a $1.25-million judgment from the city.

Picketing, Politicking, Pontificating

In the trenches.

* A Boston judge has delayed for two months a decision on a lawsuit to keep an aquarium from sending the male dolphin Rainbow to the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego.

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Dolphin lovers picketed the courthouse.

One pro-Rainbow sign: “Hell No, He Won’t Go.”

* The recall movement against Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt heated up over the weekend.

Petition passers combed neighborhoods. They claim to have more than a third of the signatures needed to force an election.

Meanwhile, the anti-recall effort, “Together for Linda Bernhardt,” sent out mailers urging people not to sign the petitions, saying the recall is a pro-growth backlash and that an election would cost taxpayers $100,000.

Aurie Kryzuda, Bernhardt’s chief of staff, has taken an unpaid leave of absence to work with the anti-recall group. Petition deadline is Oct. 10.

* Roger Hedgecock’s parting off-camera shot to three questioners (me included) after a feisty interview on television: “Admit it, you guys miss me.”

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