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Ode to California and The San Diego Free Press

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It was 1975. My parents got the bright idea to escape the Philadelphia winter by taking the kids on a two-week California trip. This vacation wasn’t well-planned and cushy like the times we stayed at the Greenbriar, the Waldorf, or those hotels in Italy. The California vacation was an impromptu, free-wheeling, down-and-dirty road trip. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

It was an ambitious, almost insane, venture. Parents and five kids, ages toddler through pre-teen, crammed ourselves into a rented station wagon and winged a sight-seeing tour in which we drove from San Francisco all the way down into Tijuana. We stayed at whatever cheap hotel would have us.

The front seat of the car featured constant bickering, mostly about maps. The middle seat offered lots of crying and an overpowering stench of dirty diapers. Rip-roaring, hair-pulling fights were common in that section too. They erupted whenever one of the kids overstayed his or her time on the coveted floor hump.   [Read more…]

Fanita Ranch Development Opposed by Santee City Council District 1 Candidate

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Evlyn Andrade-Heymsfield is vying for Santee’s District 1 City Council seat. Rumor has it, she is giving eight-year incumbent Rob McNelis a run for his money. 

People in District 1 can’t turn their heads without seeing signs that read, “Evlyn.” She’s running on her first name, not only because her last name is unwieldy for some tongues, but because she truly is on a first-name basis with so many of the voters. 

Santee, which always had an at-large, citywide voting system, was divided into four election districts in April of 2018. The smaller voting pool of the district system has enabled newcomer candidates, like Evlyn, to hit every resident’s door.    [Read more…]

Rewriting Reality: My Edits to Pruitt’s Resignation Letter

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When I read Scott Pruitt’s obsequious resignation letter, I felt like I was living an upside-down, maniacal, nightmarish reality. It was horrifying to know this longtime adversary of the EPA was leading this same agency. My mind was staggered anew when I read in his resignation letter that he felt his service to Trump was divined by God.

His service was at absolute odds with everything we know about climate change and the affects it will have on my child and on future generations. His role was to pay attention to facts, and to heed the warnings of climate scientists, so as to protect U.S. citizens. Instead, he dismantled environmental regulations with fervor.

Rather than jump into a six-pack, which was my first inclination upon reading his letter, I fantasized an alternative reality where Pruitt admitted the follies of his actions. If he could devise a freakish alternative reality where climate change doesn’t exist and God backs this assertion, certainly I am entitled to imagine that the former head of the EPA admits he should have protected the environment.

Strangely, rewriting Pruitt’s resignation letter made me feel much better.   [Read more…]

Utilities Commission Rejects San Diego Gas & Electric’s Pipeline

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The California Public Utilities Commission placed the welfare of San Diego County citizens and wildlife ahead of San Diego Gas & Electric’s profits on June 21.

The five-member commission voted unanimously to reject SDG&E and its partner Southern California Gas’ bid to install 47 miles of new pipeline from the Rainbow Metering Station near Fallbrook down through Miramar, mostly along Interstate 15. Another potential route these utilities were considering would have taken the line through Mission Trails Regional Park.
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SDG&E’s Proposed Pipeline at Odds with San Diego’s Climate Action Plan

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SDG&E Seeks to Install Unnecessary Pipeline

San Diego Gas & Electric says San Diego County needs a new gas pipeline. I say that’s bunk, and I’m not the only one.

In May, California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge Colette E. Kersten concluded that SDG&E and its partner SoCalGas “failed to demonstrate that there is a need for the proposed Line 3602 Project.” If her draft decision to deny certification to the applicants is approved by other commission members, the pipeline project cannot proceed.

SDG&E has set its hopes on installing 47 miles of new pipeline to transport natural gas from the Rainbow Metering Station near Fallbrook, south through Escondido and Poway, and ending at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar. Most of this pipeline, known as 3602, will travel aside Interstate 15, passing through public, private, and federal land. An alternative route has it going through Mission Trails Regional Park.

The company says Pipeline 3602 will offer San Diegans “greater reliability” because the line will serve as backup in the event that two existing pipelines — 1600 and 3010 — should ever fail. San Diego’s population is growing, the company says, so an additional pipeline is needed to fuel the county’s future energy needs; the economy will benefit and the pipeline will offer safe, clean and affordable energy.

The company’s justifications sound good, but they’re not.   [Read more…]

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