By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
Chula Vista’s Seven Mile Casino continued to be in the news this week. Wendy Fry reported that the Card Room tried to open their doors again, citing that they had over 300 employees who were out of work and out of paychecks right before the holiday season.
Borderland Beat continued to unravel the web of illegal activity that spanned much further than Chula Vista. A San Diego indictment named 25 conspirators who were involved in sex trafficking, bookmaking, and money laundering. Jeffery Broadt (not of Seven Mile Casino) was a primary defendant in the case.
More Building Development in Chula Vista
- To accommodate the 17,000 new residents anticipated to move into Eastlake, the Chula Vista Elementary School is set to construct an elementary school in Otay Ranch that will accommodate 800 students. Bids for construction will be union-friendly.
- The southwestern part of Chula Vista will get an 87-unit multifamily residential project.
- The Chula Vista City Council voted to require RVs parked on city streets to have permits.
- An Eastlake Navy wife has created Helping Hands, a community group dedicated to raising awareness of homelessness.
National City Council & “Vice” Businesses
The South Bay has a colorful “gangster history” associated with the days of Prohibition when places like Cafe La Maze and El Toreador hosted celebrities on their way down to the Tijuana race tracks and other “vice” industries that were available across the border. Today, the South Bay seems to shy away from vices.
In National City, the Council delayed a vote on whether or not a Hooters being built at the Westfield Plaza Bonita could sell alcohol. The Council has run quite conservative on “vice” businesses, placing tight regulations on a Vape shop about a year ago and currently considering whether A Green Alternative can grow medicinal marijuana in their city.
Tijuana & The Border
- Eight new manufacturing facilities may be established in Tijuana in the next year. These companies represent investments of over $58 million and the creation of over 3,400 new jobs. Five of the eight companies are medical-industry related.
- The U.S. Customs and Border Protection will start capturing facial and eye scans from foreigners entering the country from Mexico. The new technology is anticipated to begin in February and will require facial and eye scans from individuals traveling on foot through San Diego’s Otay Mesa checkpoint.
- The Times of San Diego reported that “a former U.S. Border Patrol supervisor was sentenced on Monday to 21 months in federal prison for secretly placing a camera in a floor drain of a women’s restroom at a Chula Vista Border Patrol facility to videotape co-workers in various stages of undress.”
Las Posadas
Posadas are taking place in private homes and at public events throughout Tijuana and San Diego. Friendship Park is hosting its posada this Saturday, December 19th from 1:30pm to 4pm.
The tradition dates back more than 400 years and is a nine-day celebration representing the nine months of pregnancy when Mary carried Jesus. The word means “inn” or “shelter” in Spanish and the celebration includes re-enactments of Mary and Joseph searching for a place to stay in Bethlehem.
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North of the Fence will be off for the holidays. See you all again on Friday, January 15, 2016. Happy New Year!
