San Diego Unified Port District

The director of the San Diego Unified Port District levied a $1,000 fine against USAir on Tuesday for "willfully violating" a curfew aimed at giving residents near Lindbergh Field relief from the roar of late-night and early-morning flights. USAir, which last year took over the San Diego-based operations of Pacific Southwest Airlines, becomes the first airline reprimanded by the Port District since stiff anti-noise regulations were enacted in April. The 11:30 p.m.-6:30 a.m.

San Diego Bay is a key economic and environmental feature of the region. But the bay's reputation as a polluted waterway attests to decades of exploitation. An opportunity is now at hand to see that environmental protection of the bay and its special natural resources are better represented and its potential to serve all the people of San Diego is more fully realized.

It was made clearer than ever Tuesday that the Port District, caught in the chaos surrounding the America's Cup, will spend as little money as possible on a waterfront site for the yacht-racing syndicates until it is certain San Diego will be host to a 1991 regatta. The commissioners' quandary is such that they may hire a New York lawyer familiar with the arcane intricacies of America's Cup rules and regulations.

Almost anyone who lives or works in the urban areas of San Diego County is used to hearing airplane noise. With the North Island and Miramar Naval air stations and all the civilian airports, including busy Palomar and Montgomery Field, the skies above us are constantly dotted with aircraft, some of which can be disruptive, depending on weather conditions and our proximity to them. But living near Lindbergh Field under the flight pattern of departing jets is an experience in a class by itself.

Breaking the all-white, all-male lock on the San Diego Unified Port District, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday appointed a black investment-firm executive and a woman attorney to the wealthy and influential agency that controls state tidelands around San Diego Bay.

Gov. Pete Wilson and legislators want to tap the deep pockets of major port districts in California, including San Diego, to raise at least $75 million to help balance the state's budget. A joint Assembly-Senate budget conference committee Tuesday agreed to funnel half the ports' net revenues, which are traditionally used to build piers, terminals and generally upgrade the waterfront, into the state's general fund.

A stubborn cadre of live-aboard boat owners in Emory Cove lost a key round in their battle to retain their anchorages Monday when a state appellate court concluded that the San Diego Unified Port District has the authority to evict the floating residents. In a 19-page opinion written by retired Justice Robert O. Staniforth, the 4th District Court of Appeal said that restricting where boats may anchor "in a limited area (of San Diego Bay) is a proper exercise" of the Port District's powers.

After years of debating what kind of art belongs alongside San Diego Bay, Louis Wolfsheimer wonders if the answer might be right under the port commissioners' seven noses. Wolfsheimer, the San Diego Unified Port District board chairman, isn't sure how to put a price on the two Volkswagen-sized boulders that were recently extracted from the damaged hull of the Exxon Valdez. But pound for pound or ton for ton, he said Monday, the district would likely pay Exxon Shipping Co.

By the narrowest of margins, the Board of Port Commissioners on Tuesday selected a local development firm over three others to build a luxury Stouffer hotel on the last hotel site on picturesque Harbor Island. The selection of Boulder Creek Co., a subsidiary of San Diego-based R. B. McComic Inc., was made in the first round of an unusual paper vote. Commissioners, who heard no arguments for or against any of the proposals, marked ballots, which were tabulated by a Port District clerk.

More fallout on the aborted Ellsworth Kelly sculpture: A claim has been filed against the San Diego Unified Port District by the local Combined Organizations of Visual Artists. The action sets the stage for a civil suit even though, in the wake of Kelly's refusal to proceed with the project, the issue is moot.