Resident Asks, City, Where Is Thy Sting?

When Virgil Beyersdorf spotted an abnormal number of bees in his Pacific Beach back yard, he became concerned.

When the bees started scaring his wife, he got annoyed. When they frightened away his grandchildren, he got mad.

And when painters refused to paint his house because of the risk of being stung, he vowed that something had to be done. Beyersdorf suspects the bees come from hives kept by his Beryl Street neighbors.

“They’re everywhere, buzzing and swarming. They sound like a bunch of rockets from World War II,” said Beyersdorf, a retired camera store owner in his mid-70s. However, swearing at bees and eradicating them are two different things.

The Fire Department does not do bee removal. The vector control division of the county Department of Health Services does not spray for bees. The county Agriculture Department only regulates bees that are part of a commercial honey-producing operation.

The city has a beekeeping ordinance that was passed in 1977, but, to placate the pro-bee faction, the City Council exempted existing hives from regulations that prohibit a hive within 100 feet of a residential structure or 25 feet of a property line.

The hive in the back yard of one of Beyersdorf’s neighbors dates from her son’s high school science project 20 years ago.

“How can Mr. Beyersdorf be sure those are Rory’s bees?” asks Lorraine Trupp. “We have no trouble with the bees here; they’re all very mild-mannered.”

At the direction of Councilman Bruce Henderson, the Department of Citizens’ Assistance and Information sent letters to Trupp and another neighbor. Exemption or no, the city attorney could intervene if the bees are a nuisance, although bee prosecutions are rare.

As he waits for the buzzing to stop, Beyersdorf ponders his apiary aggravation: “Bees seem to have more rights than people.”

For Women Bigots

Theatergoers and late-night diners returning to their cars Sunday night in the Horton Plaza parking garage were shocked to find two white-supremacist leaflets tucked beneath their windshield wipers.

One leaflet was titled “Attention White Women” and announced that women now have their own racist movement, separate from the males.

The other was a curious attempt to equate the preservation of the “Aryan race” with the preservation of wildlife, such as timber wolves, and the ethical treatment of animals.

Fallbrook’s Tom Metzger says the leaflets (also distributed near San Diego State University) were from the Aryan Women’s League, the distaff side of his White Aryan Resistance. And he predicts more leafletting in San Diego.

Horton Plaza officials were quick to disavow any connection and say that their rules prohibit passing out any leaflets or flyers in the parking garage. Security guards are under orders to block any further attempts.

Nothing to Snooze At

When you’ve got a lemon, make lemonade.

Time magazine this week tagged Gov. Deukmejian part of a “wave of certifiably boring, aggressively bland politicians” swamping California. But the governor seems adjusted to his image as a dullard.

At a San Diego Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday, Deukmejian said he is eager to test the lucrative lecture circuit after he leaves office. He said he told his wife that the $50,000 fee of former President Reagan is probably too high but that $25,000 might be possible.

To which she (allegedly) replied, “George, do you really think we can afford to pay people that much just to listen to you talk?”

Judge Is in Trouble, NOW

U. S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam hit a clunker Tuesday as he shifted from law to humor. He is au courant on the law but somewhat dated on discourse between the sexes.

As he canceled the day’s session of the Nancy Hoover Hunter trial, Gilliam warned the eight-woman, four-man jury: “Be careful, ladies, Horton Plaza’s right over there, and you don’t want your husbands on you about spending too much money.”

There was polite laughter.