Activists, Artists and Residents Meet to Discuss Actions
By Brent E. Beltrán
This is the first of a series of articles I plan on writing over the next few months on The Battle for Barrio Logan and the residents’ resistance to maritime industry’s hateful referendums.
On a beautiful Tuesday evening a dozen individuals involved with the Barrio Logan community gathered at Bread & Salt in Logan Heights to plot out a strategy to take on polluting maritime industry’s anti-resident referendums.
Olympia Beltrán and her mom Glo Andrade listen in on the anti-referendum discussion.
Having not gotten their way during a five year Barrio Logan community plan update process maritime industry and their suppliers and surrogates have decided to take this local neighborhood issue out of the hands of Barrio Logan and put it to a citywide vote even though the San Diego City Council twice voted 5-4 to approve the community plan.
The Port of San Diego Ship Repair Association, which includes NASSCO, Continental Maritime, and BAE Systems — which was ordered to pay a massive $400 million criminal fine by the Department of Justice — among others, has been gathering signatures for the two referendums in opposition to the Barrio Logan community plan.
During the entire process maritime industry has been lying about the impact of the updated community plan on their businesses. Signature gatherers have also been lying to get people to sign. Those gathering signatures have been telling people that the Navy will go away if the plan is implemented, that the shipyards will close down and condos will be put up in their place and that thousands upon thousands of jobs will be lost if they are not allowed to continue polluting the residents of Barrio Logan.
Meeting attendees Javier, Cesar and Victor focused on the discussion.
All of these are blatant lies and distortions so that maritime industry can control the land in Barrio Logan. Not only is the toxic maritime industry fighting the residents of Barrio Logan they are also lying to the people of San Diego to get signatures and pass their referendums (there are two: one repeals the new Barrio Logan community plan and the other does away with zoning they do not like).
San Diego’s maritime industry has historically been bad neighbors in Barrio Logan. They’ve been polluting this community and the San Diego Bay for decades.
They also have been parking hogs since many of these waterfront corporations don’t have much onsite parking for their employees. Stop by Cesar Chavez Park during the day and you will see Continental Maritime workers illegally parked in two hour parking zones preventing residents from driving there and finding parking. They also take up spots on residential streets forcing some residents to park blocks from their homes.
Irma Aguayo and Art Pulse’s April Game listen to artist Mario Torero.
Maritime has always acted in bad faith toward the residents of Barrio Logan as well as throughout the community plan update process, they’ve lied at city council meetings and to the press, and they are lying to the entire city of San Diego about the reasons behind their greedy land grab.
For all of these reasons and more the residents of Barrio Logan and those in solidarity with this little historic neighborhood have decided to fight back on a variety of fronts. This meeting was the start of that process.
Between now and the June election dozens of actions will be organized at the local level. Actions such as leafleting the community to picketing the homes and offices of maritime executives — as well as supporters like city councilman Kevin Faulconer and wannabe congressman Carl DeMaio — and even acts of civil disobedience are all on the table. These are but a few of the dozens of ideas for anti-referendum actions.
There are also plans to take this struggle nationally and internationally. We will fight them in the courts, at city hall, in Sacramento, in England — where BAE Systems is from — and we will take them on in the streets of Barrio Logan.
San Diego’s maritime industry is headed by billion dollar out of state corporations — and in the case of BAE Systems out of country — that want to dictate how a community plans. We are but poor brown people fighting for our survival. It is a true David versus Goliath battle. They may have the funds to derail democracy but we have heart, soul and social justice on our side.
This won’t be an easy struggle but nothing that the residents of Barrio Logan have struggled for has been easy. We have Chicano Park because people put themselves on the line. We have bay access because people fought for that. The Chicano Park murals were saved from CalTrans’ retrofit because we demanded it. All of these were tough battles. Yet we were victorious. This battle against the referendum is no different.
Maritime industry declared war on the residents of Barrio Logan and we are prepared to battle it out not only in this community but all over. We have no choice. Our community, our culture, our history and our very existence are at stake. We have truth and righteousness on our side and battle hardened residents and activists who are willing stand tall for Barrio Logan. We are all Davids fighting the maritime Goliath and together we will win! ¡Juntos venceremos!
Brent E. Beltrán
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I hope SDFP readers don’t consider this only as a Barrio Logan issue. None of us, no matter where we live in the city, should feel that we are unaffected by what is happening there.
The building industry/developers are making noises that they too will launch a referendum if the affordable housing linkage fee increases are passed by the City Council. If wealthy politically connected interests don’t like a community plan or council action, they will pour money and lots of it, into efforts to undo the efforts and will of the people.
This ain’t about jobs, folks. It’s about pure naked power and the single minded efforts to remove any obstacles to that power.
We are all Barrio Logan. Somos Barrio Logan.
In order to win this battle we need to unite forces . I hope we can get a speaker on this topic for the Binational Conference on Border issues ASAP for our panel next month in City College. Historic preservation can become an important tool if used wisely. Anyone interested let me know at marucurry@yahoo.com ASAP. I am still waiting for someone (does not need to be expert in historic preservation), just someone who can share information on the issues expressed in this article in Spanish or English. The conference is on December 5th.
People, click on that link, “$400 million criminal fine” in the third paragraph of Beltran’s story. These super ethical people, BAE Systems, who want you to know they sure hope to save 45,000 jobs, and keep the Navy from being driven from Logan, actually had to pay “one of the largest criminal fines ever levied in the United States against a company for business related violations,” according to a deputy Attorney General of the U.S. three years ago.
The Justice Department was able to prove — and remember, this is a criminal case, where the evidence must be compelling — that BAE established cutoff men to whom the company gave bribe money for delivery to Saudi princes or officials so that they’d buy warplanes and other arms, all the while lying to U.S. officials in order to appear to conform with American limits on certain arms sales.
The DoJ statement also says, “BAE Systems impeded U.S. efforts to ensure international trade is free of corruption and to maintain control over sensitive U.S. technology,” the latter phrase appearing to be a charge BAE sold secrets abroad.
Can we trust this sort of poblano and neighbor to tell the truth about anything?
I feel awful because I was hoodwinked into signing this petition. They said that “Developers” wanted to build high-rise condos or something – I thought that it was a shipyard worker initiative because it was going to hurt the community. After I signed it I asked some questions and the answers made my neck hairs stand up – especially the fact that the canvassers were paid by an employer in L.A., and also that they had no idea what they were talking about. So take it from me – ask BEFORE you sign these things! I want to know what I can do to keep this from happening. I work with these guys in my job; these defense companies are raping the government for taxpayer money on their ship repair contracts; I don’t give a rat’s ass how much money they lose on anything because they can afford it. Thank you Brent Beltrán and SDFP for staying on top of this. El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!
A lot of people who signed were fooled by the lies of signature gatherers who were schooled by the Port Tenants Association. The best thing to do is vote no on the referendum and tell all your friends, family, acquaintances, people you meet, your barber, everybody to do the same. The shipyards aren’t going anywhere. The Navy is not going anywhere. Condos are not being built. This referendum is all about maritime industry wanting to control Barrio Logan for themselves to the detriment of us residents. We will not let that happen.