San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for At Large

Parkland Survivors Talk Gun Safety in San Diego

by

“What if” we cut gun deaths in half by 2025?

By Mary S. Johnson / San Diegans For Gun Violence Prevention

What if we could create a bipartisan coalition to prevent another mass shooting in the United States?

Four student survivors of the Parkland, Florida shooting climbed onto buses, boarded airplanes, and juggled study time after traveling to California to work on preventing another mass shooting from taking place in the United States. On September 20 they brought their urgent activism to San Diego.   [Read more…]

My Meeting with Escondido Mayor Sam Abed Was Worse Than Expected

by

By Wendy Wilson / Alianza North County

Most people in Escondido are not required to meet with the mayor. I had to and was outraged. The following account is all from one meeting with Sam Abed. It gives you a good idea of who he is and what drives his policies.

As the local arts agency representative, my task was to present data about cultural tourism in Escondido and North County.

At the start of my meeting with Mayor Abed, he told me right off…My first priority as mayor is my personal finances.   [Read more…]

Donna Frye Makes the Case for Vivian Moreno as D8 Councilmember

by

By Donna Frye

Last week I officially endorsed Vivian Moreno to serve as the next Council District 8 City Councilmember. Vivian is someone who has strong core beliefs and values that will not change based on politics. She is honest and straightforward- she tells it like it is and I appreciate that.

Vivian and I agree about what it takes to be a public servant. It means listening to others with an open mind, understanding what people are saying about their positions on issues and the reasons people believe as they do and working hard to find equitable and reasonable solutions. Vivian was active in serving her community long before she ever thought about running for office. Her passion to serve is a result of her upbringing and strong family ties. Vivian is a lifelong resident of South San Diego and knows firsthand the challenges facing the community.   [Read more…]

Poli-trick-ians Like Summer Stephan and Myrtle Cole Have Got to Go

by

Nothing that these Establishment politicians (Republican and Democrat alike) do surprise me anymore, but it still disgusts me. I pray we learn our lesson from June’s election.

Remember when then-candidate, Summer Stephan suggested to the Union-Tribune she was a reformer? Remember when she told voters that she believed law enforcement officers were not above the law? Remember when she said she cared deeply for victims and victims’ families?

All lies. Since being in that seat, she’s cleared every officer involved in the shootings and deaths of San Diegans. Most recently, on September 21, she cleared every officer involved in the death of Earl McNeil although the Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.   [Read more…]

A Tale of Two Properties – Carlsbad at a Crossroads

by

By Socrates Kanetakis

Carlsbad finds itself amidst a commercial rebirth; from the Barrio to Bressi, the sight of new mini-towns, condominiums, clothing stores and eateries is hard to miss. Aside from what these developments mean for traffic, sales taxes and for the daily “wow they are building everywhere” exclamations, they mostly affect two commodities: Land and energy.

Along the narrow stretch of the I5—between Canon and Tamarack—lie two examples of those commodities; the Encina power plant on one side and the vacant south shore of Agua Hedionda on the other. Although these parcels differ in terms of utility, they both face a similar future. One is being decommissioned and the other faces imminent “commission” of some—yet—undecided sort.

Seeing how the city will need both land and energy to accommodate its rising population and blooming commercial establishments, these two properties can and will need to be effectively utilized very soon; It’s all a matter of “how”?      [Read more…]

Mark Bartlett, Chula Vista City Council D1 | Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

by

Chula Vista is the second most populous city in San Diego County. With nearly 300,000 people, we are projected to grow immensely in the next coming decades. Chula Vista is also a city that is booming. Our city is coming back with a strong resurgence after a sluggish decade wherein budgetary decisions made by the previous administration had a direct impact leading to the downward trend.

New development and construction are cropping up across the city, and community leaders, as well as elected officials, know our city has a bright future. The Bayfront Project, Millenia Project, the potential four-year public university, and the flourishing of our Third Avenue Downtown center are just some of the city’s major growth activities.

We have quite a lot for which to be thankful; however, I would not be running for office if I saw everything as idyllic and perfect. Chula Vista, for all its strengths, has significant pitfalls that elected officials must address. We have a lack of public resources in our northeast corner of the city.

  [Read more…]

Written Testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford | United States Senate Judiciary Committee

by

Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Feinstein, Members of the Committee. My name is Christine Blasey Ford. I am a Professor of Psychology at Palo Alto University and a Research Psychologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

I was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina and earned my degree in Experimental Psychology in 1988. I received a Master’s degree in 1991 in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. In 1996, I received a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Southern California. I earned a Master’s degree in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2009.

I have been married to Russell Ford since 2002 and we have two children.

I am here today not because I want to be. I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school. I have described the events publicly before. I summarized them in my letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, and again in my letter to Chairman Grassley. I understand and appreciate the importance of your hearing from me directly about what happened to me and the impact it has had on my life and on my family   [Read more…]

The Miramar Air Show Glorifies War: Just Don’t Go

by

By Dave Patterson

The US war spending, now approaching $1 Trillion annually, directly impacts how we pay for schools, Medicare, Medicaid, social services and our poor and elderly. We at the San Diego Veterans For Peace take the position that the resultant $22 Trillion national debt created by lavish spending on war making is pitched as a good thing at the Miramar Air Show. War made palatable with glorious pageantry and emotional thrills that can’t be topped. This is why we ask the public to just stay home.   [Read more…]

Census Data: More Work, Less Pay for San Diegans

by

From the Center on Policy Initiatives

More San Diegans were working in 2017, but their earnings lost ground.

The median household income in the City of San Diego jumped to $76,662, up 5% from 2016, largely because more people per household worked. But inflation-adjusted individual earnings dropped for the third year in a row, according to analysis by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) of U.S. Census Bureau data released this morning.

“The good news is households have higher incomes, but only because more family members are working,” said CPI Research Director Peter Brownell, PhD. “Wages are still lower than before the recession in real dollars. When you factor in inflation, people are still losing ground.”   [Read more…]

Climate Change, Clogged Drains, and Lorie Zapf

by

By Jordan Beane

On September 13th, the Union-Tribune released their interviews with our District 2 candidates, Dr. Jennifer Campbell and current District 2 City Councilmember Lorie Zapf. In Zapf’s interview, there were a lot of specific questions about the Climate Action Plan, it’s goals and more.

However, I believe the UT should have asked her a simpler question: Do you, Councilmember Zapf, believe in climate change?

Our Republican representative wants you to believe she cares about this existential threat and its impact on San Diego. She, along with the rest of the city council, voted to approve San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2015. She mentioned the CAP in an op-ed. She even used the word “climate”  in a tweet once (the only time she’s done so in 1,700+ missives). She and the Lincoln Club (San Diego’s version of the Koch Brothers) flooded the mailboxes of District 2 with the same two images of Zapf cleaning out the San Diego River, portraying our Republican representative as an environmental champion.   [Read more…]

Jeff Griffith, Senate District 38 | Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

by

Public service has always been a major part of my life.  My father was a firefighter; I followed in his footsteps.  I began my career 30 years ago in Ramona and am now a Fire Captain and a Paramedic.

I am not a career politician.  My progressive beliefs developed early in my career as I saw the need for quality healthcare and came to see it as a right.  I saw the power of unions to responsibly protect workers and working families. As a firefighter, it was easy to become an environmentalist and believer in climate change because of the lengthening fire season.  That is why I am a Democrat, because the majority of Democratic Party values match my own orientation to the issues that are facing us.

  [Read more…]

San Diego Families Hit By Outrageous SDG&E Bills

by

Now is the Time to Adopt Community Choice

By San Diego Community Choice Alliance

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) customers are already reeling from bills that come in at twice the national average. Even while customers take measures to reduce consumption during this summer’s heatwave, many San Diegans report hardship due to their most recent bills.impact on San Diego families and small businesses, who already suffer the highest rates in the state and some of the highest in the country.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry