Chula Vista is the second largest city in San Diego County. The South Bay has approximately 450,000 residents. If San Diegans mean to say, “The biggest hurdle has been trying to get someone from Carlsbad to come down to National City and Chula Vista to drink beer.” Okay. Fair Enough.
I’d then ask: When was the last time people from the South Bay went North of downtown San Diego? It’s too far. There’s very little culture up there — very little to do. [Read more…]
The South Bay celebrates Women’s History Month with two outstanding exhibits:
San Ysidro’s The Front celebrated their 10th annual Dia de la Mujer. On Thursday, March 9th the art gallery opened its Back to Basics featuring 21 female artists from both sides of the border varying from photography, sculpture, paintings and digital art.
“Back to Basics suggests that the way out of many of our problems is to return to the origins, to the most basic forms of community interaction, to respect for nature and all living beings, to teamwork, to respect differences, to search for happiness and love in the simplest things, to the inner and deep look of our existence,” said Norma Iglesias Prieto, curator of the exhibit and Professor of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at SDSU.
Jose Cerda of The Star Newcalled out a CV council member in the Chula Vista Star News explaining that:
City councilmember Mike Diaz stated in a Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017, Star-News article entitled: “An Offer of Sanctuary, The Welcome Mat or Neither,” to reporter Robert Moreno, that: “In the United States about 47,000 citizens die from illegal aliens driving while intoxicated under alcohol and other kind of drugs.” Councilmember Diaz continues, “If you look at that there is a problem with people who are here illegally who are felons, creating crimes.” Adding, “If you can convince me that a sanctuary city is going to make our citizens safer, I’m all in it but there is no statistics that prove that.” (See more.)
But according to Cerda’s research, in 2014 there were 9,967 victims of alcohol or drug related driving impairment, not the 47,000 Diaz alleges. In addition, Cerda writes that the academic studies he’s found conclude there is no evidence of higher crime rates in cities with sanctuary policies. [Read more…]
Summary: The Voice of San Diego reported that SANDAG may have deceived voters, telling them Measure A would generate $18 billion over 40 years, although they knew this was untrue. Mayor Morrison was a SANDAG Board of Director and residents wondered if he knew about the deceit.
Residents during public comments and two council members asked that the California Attorney General do an investigation. The motion failed in a 3-2 vote. A subsequent motion asked for an independent investigation without the California Attorney General, which passed unanimously.
On February 21st, Voice of San Diego reported that prior the November 2016 election, voters were told Measure A would generate about $18 billion over 40 years. Newly uncovered emails, however, revealed SANDAG staff knew as early as 2015 that the $18 billion figure was unrealistic. (The measure failed.) [Read more…]
South Bay took a big blow in comprehensive news coverage and support this week when reporter Christine Huard was laid off from the San Diego Union Tribune.
Huard covered all of the South Bay school districts, often uncovering scandals such as the fact that San Ysidro has paid millions, but not yet received their solar panels from Manzana Energy — a company whose owner also owns La Prensa San Diego. She also covered school board irregularities, celebrated school successes and so much more. This has now, overnight, disappeared.
Huard is only one of two regular South Bay writers at the Union Tribune, Allison Sampite-Montecalvo being the other reporter who serves approximately 450,000 residents south of the I-54 to the border. The other reporters laid off with Huard apparently are going to be staff members who wrote about the Chargers in the sports section. This is yet another example of under-covered and sometimes outright ignored communities losing a key voice who skillfully and thoroughly took on tough assignments necessary to get to the truth [Read more…]
“… nine years and $16 million later, not a single solar panel has been installed.” Christine Huard at the San Diego Union Tribune reports this week.
Already back in April 2016, the U-T reported that the project was running behind schedule. A presentation by Manazana Energy had the owner quoted as saying, “November-December 2015: Ribbon Cutting. System Testing and Commissioning. Handover of System.”
In that very same article, the U-T wrote:
“We’re in April and nothing has been done,” said Rose Estevez, who has three children enrolled in San Ysidro schools. “It does concern me and a lot of other parents. We don’t know where this money went. We don’t know why the solar panels are not up yet.” [Read more…]
Children in South Bay school districts have expressed fears ever since Donald Trump was elected President. Superintendent Francisco Escobedo of the Chula Vista Elementary School District wrote to parents across the district telling them that their elementary schools were safe areas for students of all citizenship situations.
“I received an email … from a teacher, thanking me for that letter that helped her talk to her child and ease his fear, because he came to school crying,” Escobedo said. “He came to school in fear that someone will come and remove him from the classroom.”
The district is one of California’s most diverse with 68 percent of students Hispanic and 35 percent are learning English. [Read more…]
I’m back with your weekly North of the Fence: a summary of news covering the South Bay, San Diego (which includes San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista and National City). In sum: What isn’t happening at the border this week?
The Women’s March may have been the largest day of protest in US history with an estimated 3.3 million to 4.6 million marchers. One in every 100 Americans marched. In Washington D.C. alone an estimated 575,000 people attended.
Organizers of this grassroots movement put together the march in only ten weeks. How did they do it? Mostly through communication on social media.
The grassroots march in Washington D.C. lacked a few elements most of us have become accustomed to. A flurry of advertisements from corporations were markedly absent. The number of food trucks and vendors selling trinkets were somewhat minimal. Large television monitors had been set up all along Independence Avenue for us to hear the speeches, music and poetry. At times, the monitors froze. At times the loud speakers stopped working for a few moments. Nobody cared that the technology didn’t work exactly or perfectly — that’s not why we were here. [Read more…]
Resistance to the Trump Administration could not be ignored today. Signs everywhere on the streets of downtown Washington D.C. made individual sentiment clear.
Already early in the morning Trump supporters and quiet visitors who wanted to experience an inauguration waited in lines to get past the high fenced walls created around the National Mall. As expected, police and secret service presence was intense. Blockades were also ubiquitous, shutting off most traffic from several blocks. [Read more…]
In commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I’d like to give readers a tour of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN and its accompanying National Civil Rights Museum.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. Business declined at the motel thereafter until it went into foreclosure. In 1982, a few dedicated community leaders in Memphis decided to try and save the Lorraine from being destroyed and transformed the site into a museum so comprehensive in African-American history, I would call it the United States’ “Louvre”.
With 260 artifacts, 40 films, and a vast interactive media museum of oral histories and visual displays, there is truly nothing like it anywhere. Erudite, comprehensive and emotional, my recommendation is to take two full days to visit this museum. You’ll leave with a strong understanding of the African-American experience. [Read more…]
By Barbara Zaragoza
Happy Holidays from North of the Fence! And you know what that means for the South Bay: TAMALES!
It’s hard these days to go anywhere South of the I-54 without someone telling me that they are making hundreds of tamales for friends and family. It’s a Christmas tradition. Granted, most people want to make them at home with many family members participating. But if you’ve got too many things to do before Christmas Day, where can you buy the best tamales?
Tamales Ancira is my #1 pick for the best tamales in San Diego Count. They create a taste bud delight that lets you go back in time over 8,000 years ago when the Mayans and Aztecs made these delectable gems. This small restaurant, located on in western Chula Vista on Main Street, has the largest number of flavors I’ve ever found. They make their tamales fresh and by hand everyday. You can choose from beef, pork, chicken, cheese and jalapeno, picadillo, chicharron, sweet corn, beans & cheese, pineapple, nuts and raisins.
[Read more…]
