What Happened In The South Bay This Week?
By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
- This Saturday, the South Bay Pride event takes place at the Chula Vista Bayfront.
- The Union Tribune wrote an excellent piece on border activist Oscar Romo and Jennifer Hazard who have worked to address the trash flowing from Tijuana down into Imperial Beach for several decades.
- Paving of 14 dirt alleys in the City of Imperial Beach began Tuesday, September 8th. The cost is $1,275,000 and construction is being paid from the remaining money in the bond of the old Redevelopment District (RDA) program. Paving includes repairs to damaged sewer mains in 7 of the 14 alleys and each alley paving includes a storm water infiltration element of permeable concrete to reduce pollutants discharged to the Tijuana Estuary.
- School bullying and safety was a concern among parents at Loma Verde Elementary school.
- Substitute teachers at the Sweetwater Union High School District had their salaries cut without advance notice.
- Crossroads II, a local Chula Vista community activist group, reported that: “Something called the San Diego Regional Task Force went out and counted the number of homeless people they found. Not surprisingly, downtown San Diego had the most, 676. But downtown Chula Vista came in second with 90 homeless people counted in downtown Chula Vista. Oceanside was third with 51 downtown.”
- Steve Miesen held a Coffee with the Councilman in council chambers on Wednesday, September 9th to discuss the economic growth and prosperity of Chula Vista. As the Millenia project comes on-line in East Chula Vista, with more than 17,000 residences and a university is also planned, the talk about Chula Vista’s economic development work plan is particularly timely.
- Meanwhile, Chula Vista was ranked as the worse U.S. city to take a staycation.
- The iconic decades old FUN 4 ALL at 950 Industrial Blvd in Chula Vista will close its doors permanently on October 7th.
- Borderland Beat reported on Friday, September 4th that a new banner signed by the Tijuana Cartel New Generation and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel was hung on a bridge in TJ. By Wednesday, September 9th more banners had been hung in strategic places of the city, probably by the Arellano Cartel, saying things like “We will keep killing intruders.”
- Borderland Beat also described what it’s like to be a 19-year-old drug dealer in Tijuana.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Otay Mesa port of entry discovered an undocumented woman concealed under the rear seat of a vehicle. At the bottom of the article, they reported that in 2014 CBP officers at the border crossings between California and Mexico apprehended more than 33,000 people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. Sound like a lot? It might be, until you compare it to the number of people who pass through legally each year. At the San Ysidro Port of Entry alone, it’s 50 million. Get out your calculator, because that means illegals constitute less than .06% of border crossers, and yet how many federal dollars are spent on efficient infrastructure at border crossings vs. federal dollars spent on security?
- Border Patrol will begin testing facial recognition and iris scans at Otay Mesa also.
- And this week, my favorite Mojave Desert Blog explains how the utility companies would rather destroy desert land to create solar fields than provide rooftop solar throughout cities in Southern California. Rooftop solar would mean the utility companies have to give their consumers money for generating electricity. Destroying the desert with solar fields means they get to pocket the money themselves, while destroying vast acres of desert land that has been left untouched and pristine for millenia.
Barbara Zaragoza is a freelance writer who covers the South Bay, San Diego. She recently published a photographic history of San Ysidro and the Tijuana River Valley and also writes about arts, culture & activism at SouthBayCompass.com. Barbara is a multiple award winner of the Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego chapter, 2016 Journalism Awards.
