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North Of The Fence: IB accuses Coronado Of Jeopardizing War On Terror

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Obama’s Immigration Order, Jeopardizing the War On Terror and the Case of the Missing 1916 Flood Piece

Immigration & White Dudes

Two newsworthy pieces for our South Bay community:

Fourteen months ago, President Obama ordered a program that would allow illegal immigrants who are the parents of citizens or of lawful permanent residents to apply for DAPA, where they could avoid deportation and receive work permits. The program was called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA. The New York Times reported this week that the Supreme Court will consider a legal challenge to President Obama’s immigration rules.

Because we’re a minority-majority region with over 50% of the population Hispanic, a large Asian–mostly Filipino–community, AND around half of us are women.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Sean Penn’s Drug Lord Interview

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Actor and director Sean Penn secretly interviewed drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera (aka ‘El Chapo’) before his recent capture. Penn’s interview was published in Rolling Stone. El Chapo, having a value of perhaps $1 billion and boasting that he was one of the first to build underground smuggling tunnels …. here we go again, San Diego. One more story about the 1% of people who cross the fence with illegal services & goods.

How many Rolling Stone articles would it take to interview the 99% of people impeded from crossing the fence everyday with their legal goods & services–with items like avocados and flat screen televisions? How many stories could we read about law-abiding citizens impeded by too much security and costing our economy over $7 billion in losses per year?   [Read more…]

Border Construction May Cause Flooding In Poor Tijuana Neighborhoods

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El Nido de Las Aguilas is a Tijuana neighborhood located where the U.S.-Mexico border fence abruptly ends. Residents can go back and forth between the two countries, but the steep mountainous terrain makes crossing pointless, if not foreboding. People live quietly here with a few small convenience stores and public transportation that runs through the main streets every fifteen minutes or so.

Homes in this neighborhood are constructed mostly of recycled materials, such as tin, wooden garage doors and car tires. In a few parts of the neighborhood the border is used as a fourth wall for residents’ homes.   [Read more…]

North of the Fence: Las Posadas and National City’s Pushback on Vice

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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.
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North of the Fence: The Skybridge Opens and Wagon Man Dies

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The Skybridge opened on Wednesday, which crosses from San Diego into the Tijuana International Airport. The bridge requires a toll, a passport and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol inspection. The skybridge was built with investor money that included Chicago billionaire Sam Zell who is also known as the chairman of Equity LifeStyle Properties, the largest mobile-home landlord.

Will this be the beginning of more bridges in U.S.-Mexico relations? In 1959 entrepreneur Allen Parkinson set out to create an international skyride that would cross from San Ysidro into Tijuana, relieving congestion and becoming a tourist attraction at the same time. Plans were foiled by construction of the I-5 freeway. During the 1970s a monorail was planned between San Diego and Tijuana, but the project that also went nowhere.   [Read more…]

The Feast Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe

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On December 12th millions of Catholics will go on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. They will celebrate the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe, which has been a national holiday in Mexico since 1859.

Tijuana, too, has its pilgrimage to their most beloved church: the Cathedral of Our Lady Guadalupe. Located in the heart of downtown, the Church is considered a historic site.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Meth Seizures Up, Violent Attacks and Holiday Cheer

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With the horror of the San Bernadino events and PBS reporting that 355 mass shootings took place across the United States in 2015, the South Bay this week also faced its share of disturbing violence and mayhem:

KPBS reported that meth seizures are up at the border since 2009. The drug is now being produced in Mexican “super labs,” staffed by university-educated chemists and supplied by manufacturers based in Asia. This trend is occurring during a time when less and less marijuana is being grown in Mexico due to its legalization in the U.S. The Imperial Beach Patch showed the terrible destruction meth can cause on a young adult.   [Read more…]

Photography Keeps Alzheimer’s Patients In The Moment

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Most people in San Diego know that the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA), located in Balboa Park, offers exquisite exhibits throughout the year. Lesser known are their outreach programs.

Kevin Linde, Adults Programs Coordinator, has been offering workshops to Spanish language communities in the South Bay for the last two years. Recently, in collaboration with the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), MOPA reached out to Spanish speaking seniors who have been diagnosed with various stages of Alzheimer’s.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Water Rates, Dead Dolphins and More Mexicans Leaving U.S.

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Water Rate Hikes

On Tuesday, November 17, members of the San Diegans for Fair Water Rates Coalition rallied at the San Diego Civic Concourse Plaza asking the SD City Council to vote against the recycled water unitary rate proposal. They lost. The City Council approved a five-year, 40 percent increase to the price of city drinking water overall and then also approved the recycled water rate with a vote of 7-2, Alvarez and Kersey voting against it.

Imperial Beach

Vince Farnsworth at the San Diego Reader reported three dead dolphins washed up on the shores of Imperial Beach in the past month. Investigations are underway to determine whether their deaths were due to Navy sonar exercises. According to Earthjustice, there are only 323 bottlenose dolphins known to live in California coastal waters.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: San Ysidro’s Transgender Teen and the Fall of I.B. Local News

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Violet Ri, a transgender teenager at San Ysidro High School, was nominated for Homecoming Queen last week. Although she didn’t win, San Diego Gay & Lesbian News praised the high school’s staff for promoting a safe environment and not discriminating, for example, against which restroom Ri uses. Violet Ri is also at the top of her class and plans to get a Master’s in education.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Traffic, Water and Stolen Veteran Commemorations

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

Community activist and veteran Jack Gechter noticed graffiti on the veterans memorial in Chula Vista. When he called the city, initially he received no response. Then he called the Turko files. When the piece aired, the city immediately remedied the problem.

A similar situation happened with the veterans memorial in Kimball Park a few years back when plaques were pried off a wall at D Avenue and later found in an apartment complex of San Ysidro.

These acts against veteran commemorations have been occurring for decades, perhaps with very little media attention. In the 1940s a marble commemoration was erected in front of the San Ysidro Public Library to honor San Ysidrans who served in WWII. At some time during the 1950s the marble structure vanished and nobody knows how or why.

Now, a small group of old-timers from San Ysidro–known as Los Amigos–hope to re-erect the WWII memorial in front of the library. However, they are still asking community members to locate the history of the memorial and all the names that originally appeared.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: Tree City Wants A University and Olympians, But Who Will Pay?

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

The community group Crossroads II reported that the City of Chula Vista received a letter from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) that said they would like to turn the Olympic Training Center (OTC) over to Chula Vista. It has been costing the USOC $8 million a year to operate the OTC.

Crossroads II weighed in: “The City and the USOC drew up a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) about what the basic agreement would be. To make a long story short, the MOU makes it clear that the OTC must remain a training site for for the Olympics. The USOC will continue to control certain of the facilities, including the gift shop, but most importantly, the City will not be able to make any significant changes without the approval of the USOC. However — while the USOC will contribute $3 million, the City is responsible for all the rest of the financing and management of the rest of the OTC site — BUT, it must be maintained as a training site for elite athletes.   [Read more…]

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