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Archives for September 2012

San Diego for Free: Coronado Central Beach – America’s Best Beach

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San Diego has many beautiful beaches where you can enjoy the sound of waves while sunbathing, the thrill of catching waves while surfing, or take children for fun in the sun. Only one beach in San Diego can lay claim to the title of America’s Best Beach for 2012, however, and that is the Coronado Central Beach.

Compiled annually since 1991, the Dr. Beach Top 10 list is curated by Dr. Stephen Leatherman, Professor of Coastal Research at Florida International University. Dr. Leatherman uses a set of 50 criteria to evaluate beaches all over the nation and 2012 is the first year that a California beach has taken the top spot on his list.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line —Hey San Diego! Don’t Miss Out on an Opportunity Called Politifest

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Those of us who are active in politics rarely acknowledge the reality that, regardless of our views, we are a distinct minority. It is all too easy to make the jump from, say, knowing that the quality of life is an important consideration for San Diegans, to the assumption that everybody actually has an opinion or gives enough of a damn to think about the issue.

So when an event occurs whose purpose is to raise consciousness about getting out and actually doing something, I think it’s a Big Deal. Voice of San Diego’s Politifest, at Liberty Station (Point Loma) this Saturday starting at about 10 am, is a one stop no risk opportunity for anybody that grasps the importance of citizenship to get involved. There will be eighty plus organizations with people willing to expound about their cause, give you a brochure or two and, if you’re willing, sign you up for future activities.   [Read more…]

Making Peace by Learning the Skills to Practice Nonviolence

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As a teacher, vice-principal and school principal I more often than not had to sit with students of all ages, kindergarten to senior high, to help them get along with each other, to make peace.

I loved that aspect of my work, the nitty gritty of it, the getting to the bottom of why they felt they had to hit back or resort to name calling and ridiculing. I’d often ask them to think of what they could have done differently if the same troublesome situation that got them in each other’s face happened again.

It’s essential training since we live in a very violent society, one wherein: children kill children; children are abused in their homes; husbands batter wives and vice versa; metal detectors are used in our schools.   [Read more…]

SEMPRA Energy Wants Ratepayers to Pay for Their Negligence

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It’s standard operating procedure for San Diego based SEMPRA Energy, parent corporation of San Diego Gas and Electric, to delay costly maintenance and then, when there is a breakdown in the system such as the 2007 Witch Creek Fire which burned 198,000 acres, killed two people, injured 40 firefighters and destroyed more than 1,100 homes, to go to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and get a ruling that would allow them to charge the ratepayers for costs associated with that disaster.

So SEMPRA’s strategy is very simple. Don’t spend the money on maintenance and then, when a disaster happens, go to the CPUC whose members it has wined and dined, and ask for a rate increase so that the ratepayers, not SEMPRA, pays for the costs associated with the disaster such as paying off homeowners whose homes have been burned down in the fire. Hey, it’s cheaper than doing routine maintenance.   [Read more…]

Sex In San Diego: The Failure of Dating Websites

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As I contemplate the composition of this article, I am struck by a couple of things: One, as of Sept. 21 I have been a widow for three years. Time goes by fast, even if you are not having fun. Secondly, I joined my first dating service in January. During that time I have met a total of 12 men, even though I contacted over 200. (That’s the truth. I have all of their names on a grid so that I didn’t contact them more than once.) For the most part, those I met were nice enough, but the spark I was looking for never materialized and, even though I renewed my subscriptions to three sites, I will not do so when they expire at the end of the month.

  [Read more…]

General Strike in Athens! “The Plutocrats Should Pay for the Crisis, Not the People”

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By Jim Bliesner, SDFP contributor, reporting from Athens, Greece

The tear gas was now filtering into the restaurants, casual diners coughing, rubbing their eyes, rushing inside or running down the street from the police. Pitched battles continued on the side streets. The outer edges were covered with motorcycle police pincering the crowds toward Omonoia Square. When they isolated a lone demonstrator dressed in black they would beat him. Time after time chasing one or two stragglers down the street, diners watching like it was theater. The battle spread throughout the city center on all the streets.   [Read more…]

San Diego Theater: “Juanita Hits the Jackpot!”

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Twenty three years ago Teresa Gunn was performing on stage in DC with her rock and roll band when a song came into her head “just like that.” The band had no idea what Teresa was doing when she launched into a spontaneous a capella rendition of “Trailer Park Money.” Teresa didn’t know much more about that moment than the band did. The song/message entered her head, she delivered it and the show went on.

Teresa never forgot that particular message. In the intervening years, that song became more fully realized as “Trailer Park Queen” and then continued to evolve as a series of one woman performances about Juanita, a mysterious unseen presence who cannot be abandoned, only temporarily ignored.   [Read more…]

Carl DeMaio in City Heights

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Many of us living in the inner city communities and south of Route 8 will remember Mayor Sanders as the leader who performed triage with a hatchet upon a flat-lined city budget. He destroyed the villages writ small while saving the only village that really counts–powerful business interests and an entrenched downtown establishment.

Mayor Sanders’ recent endorsement of Carl DeMaio raises the obvious question–Will Carl DeMaio, if elected, embrace the same governance policies and attitudes? The corollary of course is–Does City Heights want more of the same?   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Poll Shows Filner Gaining in Mayoral Race as The City Goes to Hell

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Mayoral candidate DeMaio continues to consolidate his support among the downtown business types that he campaigned against during the primary. The ‘reformer’ who was going to take on the ‘entrenched interests’ in San Diego is now actively courting the Chamber of Commerce types. So it came as no big surprise yesterday when current Mayor Jerry Sanders swallowed his pride and appeared before the press to bless DeMaio’s candidacy.
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Meanwhile, in the only good news I have to report today, a Survey USA poll released yesterday by TV 10News indicates Congressman Bob Filner is widening his lead over City Councilman Carl DeMaio in the race for San Diego’s top spot.  Voters reached by telephone for the survey favored Filner over DeMaio by a 12 point margin, 50 to 38%, with the Congressman showing significant gains among women, Hispanic and white voters over the past month.  The poll says that 12 percent of voters remain undecided and that those who formerly supported candidate Nathan Fletcher now support Filner by a 2 to 1 margin..   [Read more…]

The Fed’s Quantitative Easing Policy: What’s In It For You?

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Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, has been in the business of printing money. His program is euphemistically called “Quantitative Easing (QE).” In September 2012 Bernanke announced QE3 in which the Fed would purchase $40 billion of mortgage backed securities per month indefinitely.

There had been QE1 and QE2 previously, which were one time injections of capital into the nations’ money supply. All theses QEs have resulted in one thing: interest rates have been brought down to practically zero. This may be great for people wanting to buy a car or a house, but for savers, like senior citizens, they have been robbed from gaining any interest on their savings accounts.

They might as well have put their money in their mattresses.   [Read more…]

Athens in Turmoil Over European Union Sanctions: An Eyewitness Report on the Eve of the General Strike

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by Jim Bliesner, SDFP Correspondent from Greece

On Sept. 26, 2012, the people of Greece will go on general strike against austerity measures being imposed by the European Union Central Bank. As one person told me, “The measures call for all government workers to receive wage and benefits reductions.” I asked her how they could do that to her since she worked for a private company. “Well I don’t know exactly how but they will. You know how business is- they cut wages whenever they think they can get away with it.”

Athens, the capital of Greece and its largest city, seems to be in turmoil. On Sunday Omonia Square, the central commercial intersection of five large boulevards, was surrounded by at least three different police forces. Each of the five main streets was yellow taped or blocked by large black buses with metal grated windows. Behind the buses were phalanges of police with clear plastic shields.   [Read more…]

San Diego City Council Unanimously Denies Quail Brush Power Plant

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by Nadin Abbott/East County Magazine

September 24, 2012 (San Diego)–The mood was tense as people from multiple walks of life and political views filed into San Diego City Chambers. Among them was Republican Santee Councilman Jack Dale and Democrat David Secor, candidate for U.S. Congress for the 50th district. Both Dale and Secor came to oppose the Quail Brush gas-fired power plant.

So did Massada Disenhouse, activist for the Sierra Club and Martha Sullivan, a former California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) employee, and many others.

There were supporters of the plant as well, including Gary Salas, a member of the electrical trades. Also supporting the project was John Gibson, of Hamman Construction in El Cajon.

  [Read more…]

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