San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Activism

Protest in City Heights of Controversial Ethiopian Consulate Meeting

by

Local Ethiopian Community Invited to Attend Meeting, Allege They Were Kicked Out for Protesting Ethiopian Government’s Human Rights Abuses

By Anna Daniels

Lines of taxicabs were parked along Fairmount Avenue in City Heights yesterday afternoon–Sunday April 28. Police cars were parked in front of the Golden Hall East African Community and Cultural Center where approximately sixty people were holding a protest that spilled into the adjacent parking lot. Signs with “Stop Human Rights Abuses” were visible among the group waving Ethiopian and American flags.

According to protesters, the Ethiopian Consulate from Los Angeles was barricaded inside the cultural center with an undetermined number of members of the San Diego and Los Angeles Ethiopian Community. The Consulate was attending a widely publicized meeting to promote the purchase of bonds to build a controversial dam in Ethiopia that threatens the livelihood of thousands of indigenous peoples.

Protesters maintained that flyers advertising the meeting had been left in City Heights Ethiopian markets and restaurants. One woman told me that when the protesting group entered the cultural center they were met with invectives, hostility and intimidation before being dispersed from the meeting which had been publicized as open to the public.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: Records Set as Flooding in Midwest Takes Its Toll

by

By John Lawrence

There was definitely a lot of extreme weather in the Month of April as records were set for rainfall, snowfall, flooding and low temperatures and the month is not even over yet! However, none of it occurred in sunny San Diego so we should appreciate how lucky we are.

In Rapid City, S.D. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 39.5 inches. This beats the previous April and all-time monthly snow record of 38.5 inches set in April 1927. For Duluth, Minn. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 50.8 inches. This breaks the previous all-time monthly snow record of 50.1 inches set in November 1991. April’s snow total is more than Duluth saw all of last winter!   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Favorite Bicycle Rides #1 – Ocean Beach to National City

by

By John P. Anderson

A few weeks ago I wrote up one of my favorite bicycle routes, from North Park to Ocean Beach.  I got some good feedback and suggestions in response and decided to continue this idea.  However, I’m still a relatively new to cycling in San Diego and there are many areas of the city and county that I haven’t ridden.

To address my lack of personal knowledge I’ll be reaching out to cyclists across the county to profile some of their favorite rides and hopefully connect readers with some new places and routes to check out and enjoy.  I hope this series will be on a monthly basis, but we’ll see where things go.

The inaugural installment of this series features a ride from Jamie Ortiz.  Jamie recently won the 2013 Commuter of the Year Diamond Award from SANDAG for her earth-friendly cycling habit.   [Read more…]

Chicano Park Mural Recognizes the Father of the Immigration Movement: Bert Corona

by

By David Avalos / La Prensa San Diego / April 19, 2013

This week the bipartisan group of Senators known as the “Gang of Eight” put their plan for “comprehensive immigration reform” before the USAmerican public, and once again served the Chicana/o community a Mexican Combo Platter steaming with piles of beefed-up border security smothered in drones, refried Bracero guest worker programs, and microwaved workplace enforcement.

Citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country without legally adjusted status, (“amnesty” to conservatives) went sour when gang member Marco Rubio told Fox News “it will be cheaper, faster and easier for people to go back home and wait 10 years than it will be to go through this process that I’ve outlined.”

Herman Baca of the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR) feels the Chicana/o community has no voice in the debate because it has forgotten the lessons of Bert Corona who introduced the foundational ideas and approaches to establishing immigrant labor rights in this country.   [Read more…]

Darrell Steinberg Says CEQA Reform Not Dead Yet

by

by Robert Cruickshank/California High Speed Rail Blog

Last week Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act to be dead for this legislative session. But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg disagreed, declaring CEQA reform not dead yet and that it is in fact moving forward in this session:

A day after Gov. Jerry Brown said overhauling California’s environmental laws was unlikely this year, the leader of the state Senate said Wednesday the effort is very much alive in the Legislature and he thinks it can be accomplished by year’s end.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said his bill to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is moving forward and he looks forward to talking to Brown now that the governor has returned from a trade mission in China.

“The Legislature is hard at work on CEQA reform,” Steinberg told reporters. “As soon as the governor gets back, I’m going to sit down with him and go over specific provisions of the bill.”

  [Read more…]

Sequester Stalemate Cuts Legal Aid, Child Care, Housing

by

by Brad Wong/Equal Voice News

Weeks after a political stalemate set in motion $85 billion in federal spending cuts for fiscal year 2013, sequestration has shifted from a political debate in the halls of Congress to a looming reality in neighborhood streets – especially in some of the poorest areas of the country.

In Georgia, the drop in federal dollars is taking an 11 percent bite out of extended unemployment benefits that more than 61,000 Georgians depend on for food, utilities and housing, according to the Rome News-Tribune.

In Mississippi, 2,300 children under the age of 3 will likely lose the care and early education they receive in federally-supported Early Head Start programs.

And in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, sequester will mean cuts in legal aid services and housing vouchers for low-income families and reductions in job-search services for the unemployed.

Many community organizations that serve low-income families are already feeling the money pinch.   [Read more…]

Barrio Logan Community Plan Update: Will It Address Community Environmental Challenges?

by

By Joy Williams

It’s official: Barrio Logan is an environmental justice hot spot.

According to CalEnviroScreen, the State’s environmental justice screening model, the Barrio Logan area ranks among the most vulnerable areas of the entire state.

Currently, 92113, the Barrio Logan zip code ranks in the top 5% in the state for environmental justice risks to the community and highest in San Diego County.

Developed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, CalEnviroScreen ranks California zip codes by their cumulative impacts of economic, environmental, health, and social disadvantage indicators. The model is in final draft mode and has had extensive input from community groups, academics, and others. With those particular indicators, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been in Barrio Logan anytime in the last several decades that we’re at the top of that not-so-majestic list.

A strikingly obvious feature of Barrio Logan is that land uses are mixed together in a way not seen in any other community in San Diego.   [Read more…]

“Everything Comes from the Streets” Documents Lowriding in San Diego Premier

by

Registration Required

A new documentary that traces the origins and history of lowriding in San Diego

by Alberto López Pulido

“Everything Comes From the Streets” feature the lives and voices of the pioneers of the lowrider movement in the borderlands of San Diego and Tijuana that brought forth a unique Chicana and Chicano lowrider aesthetic and expression.

This documentary challenges past interpretations of the California Lowrider Scene that has been dominated by lowrider history from Los Angeles and instead highlights the importance of Jacket Clubs, Car Customizers, the U.S.-Mexico border, Women, the Chicano Movement and the establishment of Chicano Park in the history of Chicano San Diego that brought forth a unique lowrider story and movement for California history and the American Southwest.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – No More Tax Dollars for Strip Clubs; End the Corporate Gravy Train!

by

By Doug Porter

Labor unions and their supporters rallied in Sacramento yesterday surrounded by symbolic containers of gravy in support of Senate Bill 434, legislation introduced by Sen. Jerry Hill (D – San Mateo) that would bring about reforms in the Enterprise Zone tax (EZ) credit system in California.

I’m not so sure that reform is even a good idea, given just how outrageously this law has been used by large corporations. California taxpayers gave up $700 million in tax credits last year that were intended to create small business jobs in economically distressed areas.

Who are these businesses? Glad you asked, because much of that information is not available to the public. We do know that Walmart, Hyatt, Wells Fargo and the Déjà Vu Showgirls Club are among those enjoying this taxpayer largess.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Coronado Oil Pipeline Conference Target of Protests

by

By Doug Porter

Local environmental advocacy groups are bravely planning a public protest where protests rarely go: Coronado.

The American Petroleum Industry (API), the largest advocacy and lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, just happens to holding its 2013 Pipeline Conference at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort.  API is made up of nearly 400 members, including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Company, Halliburton, and Shell Oil. These companies provide funding for API, which in turn champions the industry’s interests in the government and through public outreach

Led by SanDiego350.org, with the support of Women Occupy San Diego, Tar Sands Action – Southern California, and the Sierra Club San Diego, local activists are readying to denounce API for ‘being the climate misinformation machine of the carbon industry and for migrating the science of climate change into a divisive, political conflict.’
  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Republicans Reject ‘Civil Rights Issue of Our Time’, Affirm Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

by

By Doug Porter

At least nobody’s been arrested with hookers yet.

That’s the good news coming out of the national GOP quarterly confab going on in Hollywood, Taxifornia this weekend.

The bad news is that it appears as though the Party faithful are going to reaffirm the party’s official position that marriage should be solely between one man and one woman.

It is expected to pass overwhelmingly, proving that evangelicals and social conservatives are still a force to be reckoned with, despite pleas from establishment leaders to focus on party mechanics and stay away from social issues likely to generate negative impressions for the party.

INSIDE: More GOP #Fail, UT-SD Gets National Shout Out, Rhee Gets Unwanted Exposure, GITMO Hunger Strike, Anti-Exxon Video   [Read more…]

SD For Free: A Tree! For Free! Whee! Yippee! For Who? For You! And Who? You Too!

by

By John P. Anderson

A weekly column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free!  We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

  1. Address: Your house
  2. Date and Time: Soon – if you send in your application. Don’t delay, apply today!
  3. Best For: Tree huggers, tree lovers, bird lovers, people lovers (Basically anyone that doesn’t own a parking lot)
  4. Website: http://www.urbancorpssd.org/FreeTree.pdf

Like trees? Love trees? Indifferent to trees but your spouse or children like them?  Have I got news for you! If you live in the City of San Diego and own property, you can have a tree planted in your yard for free.  Yes, 100% free.  The tree itself, the digging, calling the utilities, putting it in the ground, everything.  All you have to do is agree to provide a bit of water each year and try to keep it living and healthy.  The cost per year for the watering is estimated at $3.  $3 a year for a beautiful, living addition to your yard and street.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry