Coral Tree Plaza Weekly Update

Happy Friday Coral Tree Plaza

Neighborhood Reminder: Peaceful Protest in Hillcrest

Over the past week, San Diego has seen several different protests and marches come through the city. Just yesterday the march to North Park came up on 6th avenue by Coral Tree Plaza. Tomorrow, Saturday, June 5th another protest will begin at 10:00 am in front of the County Administration Building and will march up to Hillcrest, ending at the Hillcrest Pride Flag at 1:00 pm. The protest comes up on 6th Avenue and is expected to be a large crowd. Please note that the garage entrance and exit may have limited access during the march. 

Garage Elevator East Building:

The garage elevator in the East building has been making a lot of loud creaking noises lately when it’s moving up from the garage to the lobby. Steve from 24 Hour Elevator cleared out the oil feed line last week, dog hair had gotten stuck in the line. This week, the same thing happened and caused the loud creaking noise. Steve has replaced the size of the oil feed so that the blockages stop and it will not make a loud noise anymore. Thank you to all who reported this to me so that we could quickly make repairs and adjustments. 

Pool Furniture Makeover:

At the last meeting, the Board approved a proposal from Quality Interior to refurbish the pool furniture. This process is comprised of cleaning and powder coating the frame of the furniture, and installing a new sling on the furniture. Typically this process takes about 4-5 weeks. Because of the lengthy refurbishment, only half of the pool furniture will be done at a time. 

Additionally, the Governor has approved California to move further into the reopening Phase 3. I am working with legal counsel to ensure that the association may open the pool as soon as possible. Further updates about this will be sent out to the community as they unravel.  

Maintenance Update:

This week Justin power washed the East building entrance, reviewed multiple timer stations throughout the property and adjusted the light timers, and completed testing on all of the exit signs at the buildings. 

CTP READER’S CORNER: BOOK REVIEW #4

Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs. Peter Andreas (Oxford University Press NYC, 2020), $29.95). Pages: 267 (reading); 338 (total).

Andreas is an International Studies professor at Brown University, whose CSPAN Books presentation was compelling. Killer High addresses the contemporary alarm about drugs empowering local and international terrorists, militias, and gangs. It also does a masterful job of vividly illustrating the centuries-old connection between drugs and war−via discrete chapters on alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamines, and cocaine.  

 I was pleasantly surprised to read a book, chock-full of statistics and scholarly authority, that was not a laborious read. The author’s nimble organization and apt examples will fill many gaps for most history buffs. He objectively demonstrates how drugs and war have become addicted to one another. Andreas illustrates the connections between war while on drugs; war through drugs; war for drugs; war against drugs; and drugs after war.    

 In a minimalist book review, one can only highlight some of the more striking plots. The alcohol chapter touches upon the military beer rations of the Mesopotamian army 5,500 years ago. Fast forwarding to the Vietnam War, the American soldier beer ration was two cans per person per day. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia’s Indian Queen Tavern. Taxing alcohol (and tea) had funded Britain’s emergence as the world’s leading military power. Hamilton’s alcohol tax helped pay off Revolutionary War debts. Many US military engagements also triggered a spike in such taxes.  

 Tobacco originated in the Andean region about 4,000 years ago. In the early seventeenth century, it moved from the New World to the Old World. Subsequent wars spread tobacco use across the globe. General George Washington told civilians that if they could not send money, send tobacco. Cigarettes made tobacco an especially war-ready drug in later wars. Numerous US soldiers returned from WWI addicted to tobacco. The post-WWII Marshall Plan delivered 200 million cigarettes to Germany. The CIA planned to assassinate Castro with poisoned cigars.

Regarding caffeine, tea−often used as a currency−became a common Chinese drink round 200 BC. The American colonies rejected English tea as a symbol of oppression, exemplified by the Boston Tea Party. Coffee was added to US soldiers’ rations in 1832. In WWII, Coca Cola bottling plants were established around the world, funded mostly by the US military. Red Bull has been one of the most popular drinks during the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.  

 Great Britain introduced Indian opium into China, ultimately leading to the two nineteenth century Opium Wars. During WWII, France encouraged the tribes in Laos, and the Tonkin people of northwest China, to boost opium poppy cultivation to augment its war revenue. US Army medical officers estimated that by 1971, 10 to 15 percent of the troops in Viet Nam were heroin addicts. In 1973, the Pentagon estimated that one-third of American servicemen in Viet Nam had used heroin. By 2007, the UN estimated that Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the global heroin supply. Methamphetamine (aka crystal meth) was used by Nazi, Japanese, British, and American soldiers and airmen during WWII; then in the Korean and Viet Nam wars; and by ISIS in the Middle East conflicts. This drug, unlike others, is not about escapist pleasure. The Nazi Blitzkrieg’s speedy takeover of so many countries classically illustrated meth’s military value: soldiers and pilots were more alert, and less risk averse. A San Diego naval base thus housed the factories supplying the drug to troops deployed to the South Pacific.     

Cocaine was first deemed a threat to US national security in 1986. The cocoa leaf was an integral part of Andean life, well before the 1532 Spanish conquest. It was widely used by WWI combatants. President Reagan’s War on Drugs opened the door to military assistance. The CIA contracted private companies to fly war supplies to Nicaragua’s Contras, resulting in the covert transportation of cocaine (depicted in the movie Air America). Military escalation of the War on Drugs (and later Terror) surfaced after the Cold War. In 1989, the US military was authorized to arrest drug traffickers and fugitives on foreign soil−without the approval of the host country. Panama’s Noriega, for example, had been on the CIA payroll for some time. By the late 1980s, the drug war shifted focus on Andean cocaine from the Caribbean and South Florida to the US Southwest and Mexico.

Anon           

“I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I am somebody.”

-Unknown

Stay safe. 

Tyler Boelts

General Manager – Coral Tree Plaza

Action Property Management (800) 400-2284