Balboa Park

Thumbnail image for Bicycle Weekend – A Summary of Great Cycling Activities for this weekend

Bicycle Weekend – A Summary of Great Cycling Activities for this weekend

by John P. Anderson 05.17.2013 Activism

By John P. Anderson

Today, Friday May 17, is Bike to Work Day and there are pit stops all over the county for cyclists to stop, enjoy a bite to eat, meet some fellow riders, and generally start the day on a good foot.  I enjoyed the morning at the 30th Street & Upas Street corner with fresh coffee and pastries and some conversation with neighbors.

If you weren’t able to join the festivities today (or did but want to keep the party going) there are a number of great cycling activities going on this weekend.

Sunday, May 19

Bike Local Sundays - South Park – All Day

The second edition of this program from the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition rolls into action on Sunday in South Park.  The Bike Local Sundays program is held in a different neighborhood every third Sunday of the month and South Park follows the Hillcrest debut in April.  Per the SDCBC:

“Bike Local Sundays started with a goal to get more people riding bikes to support business in San Diego. Trends show that more people riding bikes versus driving improves community health, air quality and traffic congestion, as well as boosts business by relieving residents of the costs of owning and operating a vehicle, transferring those savings to the local economy.”

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – A Real Scandal! Activists Around the World to Protest Monsanto May 25th

The Starting Line – A Real Scandal! Activists Around the World to Protest Monsanto May 25th

by Doug Porter 05.15.2013 Activism

Balboa Park March & Rally, Mission Bay Overpass Light Brigade Events Expected to Draw Thousands

By Doug Porter 

While the oldstream media is obsessing on the current crop of Washington’s politi-dramas, an international protest movement is gathering steam. Activists in on six continents, in 36 countries, and in 47 U.S. states — totaling events in over 250 cities — are coordinating demonstrations to occur simultaneously at 11am Pacific time on Saturday May 25th under the general theme “March Against Monsanto”.

The St Louis-based biotech behemoth Monsanto has come under increasing attack from environmentalists, agriculturalists and average consumers in response to the company’s conduct in the realm of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically-engineered foods.

Efforts aimed at forcing the company to engage in transparent business practices, like providing consumer information about products incorporating GMOs, have exposed a corporate culture willing to use raw power and virtually unlimited amounts of cash to protect their interests.

San Diego protest info here and here.  More details later on in story

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Thumbnail image for Pershing Drive Bicycling: Let’s Make It Safe

Pershing Drive Bicycling: Let’s Make It Safe

by John P. Anderson 04.30.2013 Culture

By John P. Anderson

Pershing Drive is one of the best examples in urban San Diego of what well planned and executed bicycle infrastructure can be.  The road has few stops (basically just one, at Florida Drive), goes through an enjoyable area of Balboa Park with many nice views, and has full-width bicycle lanes on both sides of the road.

Additionally, Pershing connects North Park and other neighborhoods like City Heights and Normal Heights with Downtown – an ideal route for those commuting to work Downtown or headed there for entertainment or other purposes.  It is also a great example of how an ideal situation can be squandered.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – California Education Issues Come Front and Center

The Starting Line – California Education Issues Come Front and Center

by Doug Porter 04.25.2013 Columns

By Doug Porter

There’s a lull between big electoral periods right now (except for Los Angeles) and, fortunately this means there’s space available for bytes or ink with articles discussing education without the overlay of various campaigns.

The Big Issue in education since the “A Nation at Risk” study released during the Reagan administration has been reform. The changing needs of the nation’s workplaces, spurred by the revolution in technology, ran smack dab into the rising credo that argued for a smaller role for the public sector.

The word ‘reform’ has become tainted, laden with expectations or fears that private enterprise would alter the educational landscape. Three decades of interventions (and, yes, the ‘reformers’ have had many opportunities to try out their ideas) have left us only incrementally better off than we were when this entire hubbub started.

Along the way, programs not central to the theology of ‘teach to the test’ have been downgraded or discarded. Playing clarinet will not enhance your abilities to fill in bubbles on test sheets.  And earlier attempts at ‘scientifically’ updating instructional methods were conveniently forgotten. (Anybody remember the ‘New Math’?)

So it’s interesting that so many angles on the quest for a better education are in the news this week.

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Thumbnail image for Springtime and the Art of Wisteria Hunting in San Diego

Springtime and the Art of Wisteria Hunting in San Diego

by Anna Daniels 03.27.2013 City Heights: Up Close & Personal

People in the eastern part of the country tend to think that Southern California is the land of no seasons and perpetual sunshine. Those of us who live here can produce rubber rain boots and hefty heating bills as proof otherwise.

This is my twenty-sixth spring in our little house on 45th Street in City Heights. Every February I start sniffing the air like a winter crazed creature until one day I can smell….It! “It” is an almost imperceptible whiff of a delicate green freshness rising from the moist cold earth and carried on the wind. I can hear Colette’s words– “To sing of spring would never do for me; I must go to meet it when it first strikes out through the long shadows, feeling its way…”

By mid- February the immense jasmine vine outside my window is filled with slender claret colored buds. It will burst into a cloud of fragrant shooting stars within a few weeks if the weather is warm. Spring, like all of the other seasons, is unpinned from calendar reckoning.

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Thumbnail image for San Diego For Free: Japanese Friendship Garden – 3rd Tuesday of Each Month

San Diego For Free: Japanese Friendship Garden – 3rd Tuesday of Each Month

by John P. Anderson 02.14.2013 Culture

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Location: 2215 Pan American Road East, San Diego, CA 92101 (Balboa Park)

Free Hours: 3rd Tuesday each month, from 10 AM – 4 PM (free admission for San Diego County residents only)

Best For: Contemplation, relaxation, plant admiration, walking, breathing deeply

Website

Just south of the Plaza of the Neverending Debate (aka Plaza de Panama) in Balboa Park you can find the Japanese Friendship Garden (JFG).

From street level the entrance to the garden can be found by looking for the tea pavilion, just north of and next to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The garden is currently undergoing a large expansion (adding 9 acres to the existing 2.5 acres of walking paths and botanical beauty). It is also the start of cherry blossom season and a great time for a visit. I would guess that the weather will ideal regardless of when you may visit. This is San Diego after all.

The JFG is a symbol of friendship between San Diego and Japanese sister city Yokohama and was established in 1990.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – Obamacare in California = $100 a Month Family Premiums

The Starting Line – Obamacare in California = $100 a Month Family Premiums

by Doug Porter 02.14.2013 Columns

On Wednesday Covered California, our state’s healthcare exchange program created as a result of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), announced standardized benefits and costs for health insurance plans it will begin selling next year.

This is huge. One of the most difficult parts of buying any health insurance plan is trying to winnow out exactly what you get for what you pay. It’s a shell game run by insurance companies, with rules that change annually.

INSIDE: One Billion Rising on Valentines Day, All Those in Favor of Violence Against Women Please Stand, A Really Tasteless Tea Party Video, ‘Biggest Climate Rally’ Ever Slated for Sunday

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – A Slow Death for the Post Office, Courtesy of the US Congress

The Starting Line – A Slow Death for the Post Office, Courtesy of the US Congress

by Doug Porter 02.06.2013 Columns

It won’t be long now.  CBS News reported this morning that the United States Post Office is ending Saturday delivery of first-class and will phase out the practice by the end of this summer. Effective August 1st, all first-class mail—which includes pretty much all letters, bills, cards, and catalogs—will only be delivered on weekdays.

Packages, express, and Priority Mail will still get delivered on the weekend. The change will mark the end of weekend deliveries for the first time in 150 years.

It didn’t have to be this way. Yes, the times have changed. The days of mail as the primary means of long distance communication and sending money are over. And the Post Office knows that. They’re just not allowed to do anything about it.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – Judge’s Ruling Against Balboa Park Remake Raises Lots of Questions

The Starting Line – Judge’s Ruling Against Balboa Park Remake Raises Lots of Questions

by Doug Porter 02.05.2013 Columns

Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor made good yesterday on his earlier suggestions that the City of San Diego’s case for renovating the Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park wouldn’t pass a legal challenge.

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith appeared in court for oral arguments last Friday, arguing that the City was free to reject protections offered by the area’s historic status because of the additional benefits construction of a by-pass and parking lot would provide.

Taylor’s 15 page ruling rejected that argument saying, “Respectfully, this strikes the court as re-writing the Municipal Code. The City Council did not enact language permitting alteration if it determined that the proposed alteration would result in a more reasonable beneficial use; rather, it required that there be no reasonable beneficial use absent the alteration.”

UPDATE: Via KPBS MidDay Report- ”I’ve told the committee that the project is over,” (Irwin) Jacobs says. They’re not taking part in additional plans, activities.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – ‘Future Facts’ Fail to Sway Judge in Balboa Park Plaza de Panama Ruling

The Starting Line – ‘Future Facts’ Fail to Sway Judge in Balboa Park Plaza de Panama Ruling

by Doug Porter 01.29.2013 Columns

A San Diego judge has issued a tentative ruling that could halt city plans for building a parking garage in Balboa Park and associated renovations of the Plaza de Panama. Oral arguments will be heard in front of Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor on Friday, whose preliminary written decision reflected a clear reluctance to derail the project.

At issue is the legal interpretation of a single phrase, “reasonable beneficial use.” Since the plans included removal of a section of the historic Cabrillo Bridge, the Save Our Heritage Organisation sued, citing (among other things) San Diego’s municipal code, which says the city cannot touch an historic structure unless it’s ruled to have no reasonable beneficial use. In approving the project, the City Council said this was the case as part of the approval process.

INSIDE: The Battle Against Generic Biologics, Sick Stuff About Gun Nuts, and the Death of Football?

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – California Tobacco Taxes on the Agenda for 2014

The Starting Line – California Tobacco Taxes on the Agenda for 2014

by Doug Porter 01.23.2013 Columns

A group that includes Ca. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is backing an initiative for the mid-term elections to add $1 per pack to the state tobacco tax, and use the money for college scholarships and financial aid.

An early version of the initiative filed last month indicates revenues with be directed exclusively through the California Student Aid Commission. Monies, as much a $750 in its first year, would be kept separate from the state’s general fund.

Supporters of the tax are optimistic about their chances, pointing out the relatively low level of the existing tax, the narrow margin of the vote on Proposition 29 in 2012, and the fact this measure will avoid a fight not over bureaucracy and research by channeling the proceeds to college tuitions.

Inside: More Gunnutia, Earth Day Update, Corruption on Wall Street….

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Thumbnail image for San Diego for Free: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

San Diego for Free: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

by John P. Anderson 01.10.2013 Arts

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Locations: 700 Prospect Street, San Diego, CA 92037 (La Jolla), and 1100 Kettner Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101 (Downtown)

Free Hours: 3rd Thursday of each month from 5 to 7 PM. The museum is always free to those 25 and younger and to military and their families.

Best For: The curious, the bold, the beautiful, the pensive, the happy

Website – click here.

With a building on the coast in La Jolla and downtown San Diego the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) has prime locations to display their collection. The museum has a mission of serving “diverse audiences through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of art created since 1950″.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – Pushback on Gun Control Proposals Reveals Sad Truths About the U.S.

The Starting Line – Pushback on Gun Control Proposals Reveals Sad Truths About the U.S.

by Doug Porter 01.08.2013 Columns

Like many Americans, news of children being killed at an elementary school, was overwhelming for retired teacher Roseanne Holliday a resident of Del Mar. She wanted to do something, anything, to make sure a tragedy like the Sandy Hook shootings never happened again.

After several days of thinking it over, she posted a sign on her property with the message “Stop Del Mar Gun Show and Sale”, and included her email address. Feedback from that sign led to a meeting with over 50 people and launching of a petition urging the Del Mar Fairgrounds to drop its involvement with the Crossroads of the West Gun Show.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line— San Diego Non-Profit Organizations Under the Gun; Police Seeking Payoffs for Permits

The Starting Line— San Diego Non-Profit Organizations Under the Gun; Police Seeking Payoffs for Permits

by Doug Porter 12.07.2012 Columns

A move by the San Diego Police Department to eliminate an exemption allowing non-profit organizations to throw fundraisers and other entertainment events without having to pay for city permits is drawing fire from charitable groups. They say the local law enforcement agency is trying to balance their budget off local fundraisers.

The cops are hoping to make the case that the fee exemptions provided to non-profits are in violation of Proposition 26, which requires a legislative supermajority to change fees charged for licenses. They claim businesses paying for permit fees are subsidizing non-profit organizations because of the need to provide police protection at events.

The Worldbeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park, non-profit dedicated to African African-American arts and culture has posted an online petition at signon.org looking for public help.

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Thumbnail image for San Diego For Free: December Nights at Balboa Park – The Biggest Celebration in Town

San Diego For Free: December Nights at Balboa Park – The Biggest Celebration in Town

by John P. Anderson 12.06.2012 Culture

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

December Nights – The Biggest Celebration in Town

Location: Balboa Park

Best For: Revelers, families, holiday cheer, San Diegans both native and adopted

Date & Time: Friday, December 7 (5 – 10 PM), Saturday, December 8 (Noon – 10 PM)

Website

This Friday and Saturday mark the 35th annual December Nights celebration in Balboa Park. The event is expected to draw more than 300,000 people over the two-day stretch and is a great time to visit Balboa Park since most of the museums and other sights are free to visit. Additionally, there are is wide assortment of food and drink to enjoy and presentations of song and dance to take in.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – This is What Winning Looks Like

The Starting Line – This is What Winning Looks Like

by Doug Porter 12.04.2012 Columns

Yesterday was the day that the seeds planted by a majority of voters just a month ago began to show signs of bearing fruit.  Here in San Diego we saw a changing of the guard at City Hall. In Washington DC, although newly elected representatives have yet to be sworn in, there were significant moves in terms of influential committee assignments that could well portend a less fractious 114th Congress.

Speaking at yesterday’s inauguration, incoming Mayor Bob Filner gave the overflow crowd at the Balboa Club a couple of clear signals that perhaps things will be different in City Hall.

“The day of vilification of city workers is over.”

“Neighborhoods are the heart and soul of the city,” he said. “They define its character.”

Much more inside!

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Thumbnail image for Spreckels Organ Concerts – Outdoor Auditory Enjoyment in Balboa Park

Spreckels Organ Concerts – Outdoor Auditory Enjoyment in Balboa Park

by John P. Anderson 11.15.2012 Encore

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Spreckels Organ Concerts – Outdoor Auditory Enjoyment in Balboa Park

Best For: Music players, music listeners, picnickers, people watchers

Free concert times: Sundays at 2pm, see Website for additional special performances

2215 Pan American Road San Diego, CA 92101, Balboa Park

Every Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park is the site of a free organ concert, performed by Dr. Carol Williams, the San Diego Civic Organist since 2001.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line – Hundreds of Thousands Sign Up to Dump the Trump

The Starting Line – Hundreds of Thousands Sign Up to Dump the Trump

by Doug Porter 11.13.2012 Business

An online appeal aimed at getting Macy’s Department stores to fire Donald Trump as an advertising spokesman is expected to pass the half million signature mark today.  Citing the celebrity millionaire’s ‘unpleasant, nasty and despicable behavior’, the signon.org petition statement says:

Macy’s: Donald Trump does not reflect the “magic of Macy’s.” We urge you to sever ties with him. Macy’s says it has a strong obligation to be “socially responsible” and that “actions speak louder than words.” Indeed. It’s time to act.

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Thumbnail image for San Diego For Free: Balboa Park Trails – Beauty and Exercise in the Heart of San Diego

San Diego For Free: Balboa Park Trails – Beauty and Exercise in the Heart of San Diego

by John P. Anderson 10.25.2012 Culture

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

Website: See here.
Neighborhood: Balboa Park
Best For: Runners, walkers, hikers, bicyclists, nature lovers
Hours: All day, every day, always free

In, through, and around Balboa Park are a multitude of trails and pathways for biking, running, and walking. The trails offer a wide range of sights and levels of difficulty and are a great way to feel out of the city without having to travel.

There are officially 65 miles of trails in the park, which are outlined in this detailed pdf map. If you haven’t been on the Balboa Park trails before I recommend taking a look at the map before you head out since some of the trails and turns are not clearly marked. You probably won’t get lost if you don’t have your entire route memorized but you may end up going further than you intended.

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Thumbnail image for The Starting Line— Weekend Wingnut Gathering Slated for Balboa Park

The Starting Line— Weekend Wingnut Gathering Slated for Balboa Park

by Doug Porter 10.19.2012 Activism

Come Stand in Defense of Your Church!” is the rallying cry for the San Diego Tea Party’s event at the intersection of Park Boulevard and President’s Way Saturday morning, October 20th.

More than a dozen speakers, representing a variety of groups with theocratic agendas, will take the stage to rail against the Obama administration’s so-called assaults on religious freedom. Speakers include radio host Gina Loudon, whose claims to fame include comparing gay marriage to people marrying animals and suggesting people who wanted to build an Islamic Community Center in New York City were Nazis; local gay basher Charles LiMandri; Dr. Jim Garlow, Senior pastor at Skyline Church; Anti-Abortion activist Timmerie Millington, and President Steven Pynes of the Mormons.

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