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The Real Job Creators in San Diego: The US Military and the Military-Industrial Complex

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By John Lawrence

In 1961 President Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex (MIC). He said, “We annually spend on military security more than  the net income of all United States corporations.” Since then spending on the military and the MIC has only skyrocketed. Taken together, they, not the rich, are the main job creators in the US. If you graduate from high school and can’t get a job, no problem.

The military will accept you with open arms, provide you with on-the-job training, even give you a signing bonus. Why stand in an unemployment line or apply for a job along with 500 other applicants? Or go into debt to attend some schlock college?

If you’re a college graduate and can’t get hired, try the MIC: the NSA, the CIA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics – they’re the real job creators.   [Read more…]

The Light at the End of the Shutdown: Looking Back at October 2013

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For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line last year.

By Doug Porter

#1 The Government Shuts Down and Obamacare Stumbles

Today’s UT-San Diego editorial repeats the GOP fantasy that the Affordable Care Act is about to “collapse under its unworkable weight”.  If that’s true, shouldn’t they just let it happen? Could another Democrat get elected for President in the foreseeable future if that’s true?

Today’s paper also features a predictable “poll”.  A plurality says it’s the President’s fault.  The question of whether or not the government should be shut down isn’t even asked.   [Read more…]

The Garibaldi Fish and the Barrio Logan Referendum Vote

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Listen to the Garibaldi fish

By Will Falk

Garibaldi fish have a lot to say about the Barrio Logan Referendum Vote.

I learned this the other day snorkeling in La Jolla Cove when a Garibaldi fish attacked me. The fish, named after the Italian freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi, sprang out of thick plants as an orange flash thumping me square between the eyes on my mask.

I swam too close to a Garibaldi fish family nest threatening the babies. Garibaldi fish will attack any predators that may eat their young no matter how large including sharks and humans.

The Garibaldi fish, in his actions and even his name, demonstrates a basic law of life: When an intruder threatens the physical well-being of you and your loved ones, in a home you’ve lived in for generations, you protect your body and the body of your loved ones.   [Read more…]

Using Creativity in the Battle for Barrio Logan

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Maritime Industry Has Money, We Have Our Imaginations

By Brent E. Beltrán

How does one fight what is possibly the largest industry in San Diego, an industry that has millions of dollars at its disposal? We use our creativity!

Barrio Logan is a laboratory of creative, artistic thinkers. Movements have sprung forth from its streets, homes, alleys and parks. With that kind of history it is no wonder that artists have decided to take on the behemoth that is Maritime Industry and their surrogates.

The first of many artistic projects has already begun. You won’t find this one in a gallery or on a pillar at Chicano Park. This project is only visible on the internet.   [Read more…]

Happy Festivus! Airing of Some Grievances, San Diego Style

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By Doug Porter

Today, December 23rd we celebrate Festivus,“the holiday for the rest of us,” popularized via an episode of the Seinfeld sitcom. Frank Constanza (Jerry Stiller), father of George Constanza (Jason Alexander) supposedly invented the holiday as a reaction to the commercialization of Christmas and other December holidays.

First a little background is in order, via Festivusweb.com, for those of you scratching your head and going “huh?”

Frank Costanza, during a failed attempt to buy a Christmas gift for son George, realized that there should be a new holiday   [Read more…]

It’s Off to the Races! City Council Sets February 11th Mayoral Election Date, Barrio Logan Referendum Vote June 3rd -Plus Lots of 2014 Electioneering in Other Contests

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By Doug Porter

“Bring it on!”

That was the reaction of supporters of the Barrio Logan Community plan yesterday after the City Council voted to place a referendum sponsored by maritime industry interests on the June 3rd primary ballot.  Industry backers were hoping that a successful petition drive for the initiative would force the council to rescind the plan rather than face the costs and conflicts inherent in a contentious campaign.

The UT-San Diego wasted no time showing where its sympathies lie, running with a front page story using the industry’s un-provable contention that jobs would be lost in the lede of a supposed news article.  While a City of San Diego study projects more than 4,000 jobs would be created under the plan, opponents can do no better than quoting individuals who “think” jobs might be lost.

Framing the conflict as one of “jobs” versus “neighborhood planning” is exactly the strategy pursued thus far by maritime industry advocates, who’ve managed to twist both ends of that equation (46,000 jobs will be lost! Yuppie condos are coming!) into an narrative so unpalatable that gathering signatures for an initiative was a cakewalk.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan Community Plan Process Was Truly Democratic

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By Georgette Gomez

Editor’s Note: The following presentation was given by Georgette Gomez, Associate Director of the Environmental Health Coalition, at the San Diego City Council meeting on December 17. Ms. Gomez has been at the forefront of the struggle to get the Barrio Logan Community Plan approved. At this meeting there were only two options available for the council: rescind the Barrio Logan Plan or move forward with the Maritime Industry backed referendum. Residents and advocates chose to go to the ballot box. For more information on this issue go here.

Good afternoon, Georgette Gomez with Environmental Health Coalition.

Here we are again, defending the action that the majority of the Council took, not once but twice and now for the third time. You will hear today from residents, allies and our union workers, urging you to stand behind your adoption of the new plan for Barrio Logan and take it to the June ballot.

The Plan that the Council adopted is a great compromise plan that finally addresses the environmental injustice that Barrio Logan has endured for decades.   [Read more…]

The Narrative Shifts in the Battle for Barrio Logan

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Alvarez comes on strong, shipyard labor calls out maritime lies and affordable housing advocates join the fray

By Brent E. Beltrán

On an unseasonably warm winter’s day in the heavily polluted community of Barrio Logan a shift in Maritime Industry’s false jobs narrative occurred.

At the home of Barrio Logan resident Hector Villegas (the same home that Councilman David Alvarez grew up in and caught asthma) the Environmental Health Coalition, under the leadership of Georgette Gomez, organized a press conference featuring Alvarez, Villegas, union leader Bobby Godiñez and affordable housing advocate Susan Riggs, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation.

Before the assembled media hordes David Alvarez called out, in no uncertain terms, Maritime Industry lies and deception [see full text of his presentation below]. In his strongest opposition to the referendum yet he emphatically stated, “out-of-state billionaires launched and funded a referendum process to scare voters and overturn the democratically created and approved plan. It is truly regrettable that their paid petition gatherers have spread outright lies to fool voters into signing the referendum petition, threatening the City Council’s effort to create jobs and a healthy community for children.”

He went on to say, “The most egregious lie told by signature gatherers is also the easiest to disprove: it is categorically false that all maritime business must leave under the plan, all existing businesses can stay and expand up to 20 percent.”   [Read more…]

The Web of Industry Falsehoods About the Barrio Logan Community Plan Continues to Unravel

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By Doug Porter

Another day has gone by and another misrepresentation by opponents of the Barrio Logan Community Plan has been exposed.  In a city with an honest daily paper these untruths unfolding would constitute a scandal; sadly we live in a city where the dominant storylines are manipulated or ignored.

Today’s UT-San Diego has not a word about yesterday’s dramatic press conference in Barrio Logan. KPBS, City Beat and NBC7News all did cover the story, which, in a nutshell, was that the union members used by the shipbuilding industry to pack City Council hearings last fall have switched sides.

Union leaders told the press they’d come to the realization they were simply pawns in a campaign of misinformation and misrepresentation, as the first stage in a hardball campaign to defeat five years worth of effort to create a community plan full of compromises that sought equitable treatment for all the stakeholders.  The shipbuilders have decided they want a no compromise plan.   [Read more…]

Putting the David Alvarez Mayoral Candidacy into a National Context

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By Doug Porter

While many of the issues at hand for San Diego voters in the upcoming mayoral runoff election may be local, there is a bigger picture being watched by political observers nationwide.

None of the top ten cities in the United States have Republican Mayors. Electing Kevin Faulconer in San Diego would be a double win for the GOP especially if the large Latino population is taken into consideration.  It would also serve as a counterbalance to the perceived trend of big city electorates shifting more towards the left end of the political spectrum.

One only needs to look to incoming mayor Bill de Blasio’s solid electoral win in New York to understand just how seriously the right is taking this trend.  An article in the New York Times last Friday catalogues right wing attempts to blame Mr. de Blasio for crimes currently being committed even though he’s three weeks away from being inaugurated.   [Read more…]

The Battle for Barrio Logan. Which Side Are You On?

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By Brent E. Beltrán

This war, and it is a war declared on us by maritime industry interests, will be fought at various levels from within the community to outside. From the streets and in the courtrooms. From Chicano Park to City Hall and beyond. Battles will be won and battles will be lost but we are not afraid because we have struggled all of our lives for the little things that this community has.

We will use whatever legal means we have to defend the health and safety of Barrio Logan residents. Perhaps even use extra-legal means. We don’t have money. We don’t have power. All we have are our bodies and a righteous cause with a little soul thrown in.

Barrio Logan residents are tired of being polluted by maritime industry, tired of being disrespected by San Diego power brokers and are tired of being ignored by City Hall. Maritime industry is well funded and has many powerful backers. Barrio Logan is but a poor, working class, predominantly Mexican community. In this struggle, the Davids of Barrio Logan, with slings in hands, will take on the Goliath that is San Diego’s maritime industry to determine the future of San Diego’s most historic Mexican barrio. Which side are you on?   [Read more…]

Congressman Juan Vargas Joins Capitol Hill Fast for Immigration Reform

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By Doug Porter

An ongoing fast by immigration activists just steps from the Capitol building in Washington DC continues to grow, both in participants and impact.  The news media around the country has begun to notice, with prominent stories posted in the Washington Post and at National Public Radio.

The four original protesters—who had consumed nothing but water since November 12th—yielded to the concerns of medical personnel yesterday, handing their protest over to Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), the first of a series of lawmakers to participate in the fast.

Kennedy will be replaced by San Diego’s Rep. Juan Vargas today. House Majority leader Rep. John Boehner and other Republicans have declined invitations to meet with the protesters.

Although lobbyists and business leaders have urged to House of Representatives to take action before the end of the year, the GOP leadership has indicated they’ll have to wait until a budget agreement is enacted in mid-January. And even then, they’re not willing to go on the record to say immigration reform will get consideration.   [Read more…]

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