Imperial Beach again OKs medical marijuana to be cultivated by certain individuals for certain patients, while continuing to ban commercial production and local dispensaries. IB’s sister cities of National City and Chula Vista in recent months also voted against medicinal marijuana shops. [Read more…]
North of the Fence: Chula Vista Pot Shops Face Legal Action …
… Building Homes Next To Truck Traffic In Otay and Migrants Flee to U.S. on Bikes
The Chula Vista Star News reported that a string of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the city of Chula Vista are facing legal action to permanently cease their operations. Deputy City Attorney Megan McClurg said dispensary owners in Chula Vista do not have a business license to operate and if they applied for one they would be denied. [Read more…]
Dan Watman’s Quest To Create A Binational Garden Led To Civil Disobedience
By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
Friendship Park, located at the most southwesterly point of the U.S.-Mexico border, exists thanks to a small group of men and women who have come together over time to call themselves Friends of Friendship Park. From about 2006 to 2011 their civil disobedience forced Border Patrol to negotiate access to this binational space, which the federal government would have preferred to keep closed. [Read more…]
North of the Fence: Institutionalized Racism in San Ysidro …
… South Bay Rapid Transit Breaks Ground, and the Bill of Rights Schooner Needs Help
On Wednesday, February 17th a groundbreaking ceremony marked the construction of the South Bay Rapid project, a $113 million, 21-mile bus route from the Otay Mesa Port of Entry to downtown San Diego. Mayor Mary Salas said it would connect eastern Chula Vista with downtown San Diego.
The biggest question yet unanswered: Will residents switch from their car to public transportation? [Read more…]
When The Junkyard Is Home
29% of the San Ysidro student population is homeless, often living in motels and junkyards.
By Barbara Zaragoza
Veronica Medina went from being an A student to an F student while at San Ysidro Middle School. It was right around the time that her parents split up. Her dad moved to Tijuana and her mom became addicted to drugs. Medina spent many nights and weekends alone in an apartment, not knowing where her mother might be. At one point, her mother couldn’t pay rent and they ended up in a hotel. For two years, Medina bounced back and forth between couch surfing with her mother and living with her grandmother.
That was back in the 1980s.
For the last nine years, Medina has been the homeless liaison for approximately 1,408 students, or 29% of the 4,832 total enrolled in the San Ysidro School District, the largest student homeless population percentage-wise in the entire county. Her title has changed over the years— she is now the Student & Family Services Manager—but her work has never changed. [Read more…]
Let’s Make Peace
NCRC Does It One Neighbor At A Time
By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
Why can’t we all just get along?
For the times that we can’t, there’s a fascinating local San Diego organization called the National Conflict Resolution Center. I stumbled upon NCRC while attending a first reading of Raul Castillo’s Border Crossing play. NCRC was looking into collaborating with artists; in particular, the dramatic play would stop during certain moments and the audience would engage in conflict resolution conversations. This intrigued me enough to look at their website where I found they have a community center in the South Bay–specifically, in San Ysidro. [Read more…]
North of the Fence: Chargers Give South Bay Schools Money, Sirhan Sirhan Lives In Otay Mesa
… and the Olympic Training Center Will Transfer To Chula Vista
Two South Bay school districts might feel the financial pain if the Chargers move up North, according to The Star News. The Sweetwater Union High School District estimates that their schools have received close to $500,000 in funding from the San Diego Chargers, including for facilities and wellness programs. The Chula Vista Elementary School also says their contributions from the Chargers might go away if they leave up North. [Read more…]
Declining Enrollments In Three South Bay School Districts: What Does It Mean?
Declines in class sizes could be positive, especially when over 80% of students qualify as low-income or English language learners, but administrators are left constrained
By Barbara Zaragoza
While the decades-old stereotype may be that illegal aliens are fleeing over the border and saturating American schools, three districts in the South Bay are currently experiencing declining enrollments: San Ysidro, South Bay Union and National School District. Of these three, two lie directly along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Over 80% of students in all three districts are classified as either English-language -learners, low-income students, or both (also referred to as the unduplicated pupil percentage or UPP). All three also have high percentages of students classified as homeless. [Read more…]
North of the Fence: Americans Flee Across Border, The Pope and Chula Vista Elections
Is there an onslaught of American immigrants coming to Mexico? The story isn’t new. For decades Americans have been moving to Tijuana where the rent is cheaper. For local Tijuanese, this means Americans drive up their housing prices and create housing shortages.
How many Americans live in Tijuana, and in Mexico at large? The number is unknown. Guesstimates run the gamut from 5,000 to 500,000 Americans (in Tijuana alone). That’s a pretty big spread. Why don’t we know? [Read more…]
Gun Buyback Program Comes To The Border
By Barbara Zaragoza
The San Diego Police Department, Southern Division, held its first ever Gun Buyback program on Saturday, January 30th at the Otay Mesa Campus of Southwestern College. About twenty police staff, including cadets, retired volunteers and officers were on duty to hand out $10,000 worth of Walmart Gift cards to community members who handed over their firearms.
The Southern Division—which covers thirty-one square miles along the U.S.-Mexico border—has 85 detectives and officers serving approximately 100,000 residents. The area averages about two homicides per year. [Read more…]
North Of The Fence: ‘Black Lives Matter’ Activists Flagged as Terrorists At the Border
Black Lives Matter came to the border last weekend when three African-American men crossing back into the United States were subjected to a frightening experience of being suspected as terrorists. Watch their video. It appears that the major networks didn’t pick up the story, so these citizen activists took to Facebook. Why were they flagged by Border Patrol as terrorists? Apparently, one man was actively involved in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and Border Patrol computers flagged him for it.
Inside are links:
– Female immigrant detainees allege they were unlawfully strip searched in a California detention center.
– Turns out, even O’Malley knows that net migration from Mexico was zero last year. Here are some numbers.
– And here’s an interesting video about an American citizen who lived in Mexico and crossed the San Ysidro Port of Entry everyday to attend school. [Read more…]
Lack of Diversity Among San Diego County Commissioners
Over 200 vacant positions. Zero Latinos on the “Citizen’s Review Board On Police Practices”
By Barbara Zaragoza
On Thursday, January 21st the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI) held a Boards and Commissions Launch Event at MAAC’s Chula Vista Community Room in hopes of encouraging more citizens to actively participate in their local government.
Clare Crawford, President and Executive Director of CPI, opened the event saying, “A few years back we began to do some research into leadership in the county. A couple of things that we found were, number one: the demographics of the county had obviously changed dramatically over the last several decades. But the demographics of our elected leadership and our appointed leadership had not changed to match the folks that were living here. That’s a problem. The other thing we found was that there wasn’t a real intentional pipeline that was bringing community advocates from all parts of the county into leadership roles.” [Read more…]
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