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Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 5: Fixing San Diego’s Broken Infrastructure

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Welcome to Day 5 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here, Day 3, The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department, here. Day 4.  Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhoods and Public Transit, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

We emailed the questions to the addresses listed with the City Clerk’s office as contact points, knowing most of the minor candidates wouldn’t respond. Kevin Faulconer’s campaign is refusing to participate. We can only assume–and, believe me we’ve tried to get them involved– their non-response sends a message about their openness to the citizens in this city. You can decide what that message is.

Editor’s note: According to his campaign staff, Nathan Fletcher did not receive our questions until after we began publishing this virtual forum. His responses have since been added to past questions and are included today.

The complete questionnaire can be found here.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum – Part 4: Walkable/Bikeable Neighborhoods and Public Transit

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Welcome to Day 4 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here, Day 3, The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

Today’s candidate question about alternative transportation/mobility is one of the most complex ones that we are asking in this virtual forum.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayor Forum- Part 3: The Building Permit Process is a Hot Mess and Plans for the Planning Department

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Welcome to Day 3 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here , Day 2, Looking back on the Plaza de Panama controversy, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too open ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

Today’s topic is about what has gone wrong with the permit process and a bonus question about the city’s recently reconstituted Planning Department.  SDFP editor Anna Daniels put together an introduction to the issue so readers can see our thinking behind asking the question.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum- Part 2: Looking Back on the Plaza de Panama Controversy

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Welcome to Day 2 of the SDFP Virtual Mayoral Forum. (See Day 1, Asking about managed competition, here.)

With input from our many contributors, editors put together a series of eight questions we felt were unique, not too opened ended and not trite. We’re publishing one response from the candidates per day (Monday-Friday) so readers can see the verbatim responses side by side.

We emailed the questions to the addresses listed with the City Clerk’s office as contact points, knowing most of the minor candidates wouldn’t respond. What we didn’t count on were two of the big names (Fletcher & Faulconer) refusing to participate. We can only assume–and, believe me we’ve tried to get them involved– their non-response sends a message about their openness to the citizens in this city. You can decide what that message is. (We’ll still be glad to add responses and delete this paragraph. It’s not too late!)

The complete questionnaire can be found here.   [Read more…]

Virtual Mayoral Forum- Part 1: Managed Competition

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One of the best ways for voters to learn about candidates is via debates.

Debates, however, have real limitations. The positive aspect of actually being able to see a candidate as a person can be countered by constraints of time and space.  Sometimes its hard to follow what’s being said, especially if things get heated and candidates start talking across each other.

So we came up with the concept of presenting a virtual debate; an event where the only opinions will be the ones proffered by the candidates.  And we tried to come up with questions that were not trite or unnecessarily open ended. (If you’re looking questions about the Chargers, go to any one of the other debates.)

At our September contributors meeting  eighteen (or so) of us shared ideas on just what we wanted to ask. Copious notes were taken and eventually we came with what seemed to be a reasonable list.

It all sounded lovely on paper.   [Read more…]

Echoed Knock

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By Sunny Rey

I too still wonder
about the rooms of my soul
Where do the doors lead
and how about those deserted roads too?
What are my private intentions?
What is it that fills spaces between cells?   [Read more…]

I Have Fallen in Love Again

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By Sunny Rey

I have fallen again
again and again
in love
with this man
this man who I have met and re-met
in all lightings of the fluorescent-structured street sun
I have seen him glow under and outshine
only to quiet down in the evening
turning half his face away into a shadow   [Read more…]

Will Puppy Mills Banned in San Diego Get a Free Pass in Oceanside?

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By Staff

Over a dozen cities in California including Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Chula Vista, and San Diego have adopted ordinances placing restrictions on the sale of animals from commercial breeders. The ban was created to stop the flow of puppy-mill puppies into those cities, which increases the number of dogs left languishing in shelters, effectively increasing the number of animals euthanized each year and costing cities money. Friends of Fire Mountain

Under a City of San Diego ordinance passed in July, no store can display, sell, deliver, offer for sale, auction or give away animal pets in the city. Existing pet stores, including San Diego Puppy, were given up to six months to stop those practices. While this was a big win for animals in the City of San Diego, people who care about the humane treatment of pets are concerned about the opening of puppy mills in areas of the county which do not have a similar ordinance.

Animal rights activists in Oceanside have recently been protesting the presence of puppy mills and will request that the Oceanside City Council adopt an ordinance that would ban these businesses.   [Read more…]

City Heights From the Outside Looking In

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By Dana Driskill, SDFP Intern

Despite living only 60 miles north of San Diego for most of my life, I must admit that I feel like more like a tourist here than in Chicago where I’ve come to call home for the last two years. My name is Dana, and I’m a journalism and political science student at Northwestern University, spending the remaining weeks of my summer as an intern for the San Diego Free Press before I enter my third year of college. Before Chicago, I lived in the Murrieta/Temecula area, a stone’s throw north of the San Diego county line and right next to the Pechanga Indian Reservation.

My previous perception of San Diego is colored by my limited childhood and early adolescence experiences before graduating high school. When I hear San Diego, I think of Coronado’s endless white beaches, of Jason Mraz, of the Gaslamp District, of avocados and mouthwatering Mexican food, of Comic Con, of ill fated Padres games, and of my soccer playing years. What doesn’t come to mind, and what I’ve come to find out through a little exploration and the guidance of Google Maps, is that San Diego, like Chicago, is made up of dozens of communities with their own distinct attitude and history.

Driving along El Cajon Boulevard Tuesday, what I found most striking about City Heights is the absence of chain restaurants and stores. All my life, I’ve lived in areas where a Starbucks or McDonalds is on every street corner. Here, the main streets are lined with mom and pop shops, catering to every food taste and craving imaginable, from impossible to pronounce Vietnamese specialties to more familiar taquerillas and supermercados. The abundance of different cultures present in City Heights can best be exemplified by a Methodist Church that offers services in English, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Spanish.   [Read more…]

CicloSDias Comes to City Heights Sunday August 11

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Sunday August 11 is a big day for bicyclists and a particularly big day for bicyclists in the Mid-City communities. Four years in the planning, “CicloSDias will be the city of San Diego’s first open street event” according to Sam Ollinger. Sam is the Executive Director and Board President of BikeSD. Sam goes on to say:

With this first event, San Diego will join the ranks of 90 other cities around the U.S. in an attempt to showcase an apparently wary San Diego that no disaster will befall our fine city if she opens her street to people and closes it off to multi-ton motor vehicles for a few hours on a Sunday.

This idea to introduce the city’s residents to the notion of reclaiming the public commons and experiencing it without fear of bodily harm that may come in the form of an automobile barreling toward them at high speed…

  [Read more…]

San Diego Progressives Divided on Fate of Mayor Filner

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38% Vote He Should Not Resign

One doesn’t need poll results to know that San Diego progressives, Democrats, and liberals are divided on the fate and future of Mayor Bob Filner. The poll that San Diego Free Press ran for two weeks magnifies and confirms that division.

To the question, “Should Mayor Filner Resign?”, a plurality said “no” – with over a third agreeing to this position – 38%.

In contrast, 33% said ‘yes’, he should resign, and 6% agreed to the statement ‘if he doesn’t resign, he should be recalled’. This leaves a total of 39% voting that Filner should either resign or be recalled.

A fifth of those polled – 20% – stated that needed more information from the women involved. 13% wanted more info from the mayor, and 2% said they wanted more from the original accusers.

A total of 420 respondents took part in the two-week poll, which began on Sunday, July 14 and running through July 28th.   [Read more…]

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