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Excerpt From Sunshine/Noir II: Living and Working In Poverty

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Grim Reality in “America’s Finest City”

By Susan Duerksen

“Living in poverty” is one of those shorthand terms that rolls easily off the tongues of news anchors and politicians before they turn to the next topic. We all tend to glaze over the full meaning of the phrase, the grinding day-to-day misery of hunger, worry, discomfort, exhaustion, and despair.

In the city of San Diego, the proportion and number of people living in poverty edged up in 2013. It should have gone down. Instead, 7,000 more people in the city live in poverty now, in addition to the 202,000 who remain in that dire situation from the previous year.

Statistically, it was a small increase, nothing drastic. When the Center on Policy Initiatives reported it in an analysis (63) of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the main response from local media and others was a yawn.

But consider what that statistic means. It counts only the people whose household income is below the federal poverty threshold, an absurdly low measure in high-cost places like San Diego. The threshold is the same everywhere in the U.S. and varies only by family size; for example, it’s about $12,000 for a single person and about $24,000 for two adults with two children. That’s per year.   [Read more…]

San Diego: Two Expeditions — Enter Father Serra

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Part Two of Seven. Part One can be found here. Source: History of San Diego by William E. Smythe. All quotes are from this book.

By John Lawrence / From the original San Diego Free Press, circa 1969

A land and sea expedition set out from Mexico in 1769. After major navigational difficulties, two ships, the San Antonio and the San Carlos, landed at San Diego on April 11 and April 29, 1769, respectively.

It seems that the incompetent Cabrillo had reported that San Diego was at 34 degrees latitude whereas actually it is at 32 degrees. The result of this bungling was that most of the sailors were sick or dying when they reached San Diego. In fact all the seamen on the “San Carlos” died except for one and the cook. We can see that the plight of sailors in San Diego hasn’t changed much in 200 years.   [Read more…]

It’s Official: Rising Global Temperatures Set Record in 2015

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The numbers have been crunched, and the results are in: independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirm Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record-keeping began in 1880.

All in all, global temperatures in 2015 rose by 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit over the 20th-century average. Last year’s temperatures surpassed the 2014 record by a 0.23-degree margin. Only once before, in 1998, has the new record been greater than the old record by this much.

These observations were confirmed by scientists at Great Britain’s Met Office Hadley Centre and the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit.   [Read more…]

Uber’s Immigrant Drivers Look Forward to Better Pay—and Bigger Voice

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A union for Seattle Uber drivers means finally having the right to a two-way conversation with their multibillion-dollar employer.

By Ana Sofia Knauf / Yes! Magazine

Takele Gobena left Ethiopia in December 2009 in hopes of finding better education and job opportunities in the United States. He settled in Seattle where his only U.S. relative, a niece, had lived for many years.

Nearly six years later, he is a senior at the University of Washington where he studies business. After he graduates in June, Gobena plans to apply to graduate school to study public policy. His goal: to advocate for workers’ rights.   [Read more…]

Who’s the Boss at McDonald’s? Fast Food Industry Pay Scheme Going on Trial

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The struggles of low-paid employees working for fast food corporations will be in the spotlight next week as McDonald’s goes on trial at the National Labor Relations Board in New York. The case threatens the economic model for the company (and most franchise-based companies), which passes off daily operational responsibilities to franchise holders for 90% of its locations under a regimented program.

The company’s reaction to the campaign for better wages in the fast food industry in recent years opened it up to charges it violated labor laws. Now the NLRB will decide the question of whether or not corporate shares responsibility with local operators for the wages and working conditions of front-line employees.

Also… Friday Calendar of Upcoming Progressive Events Inside…   [Read more…]

Bottomless Pit of Right-Wing Lies Continues as City Pension Reform Scheme Loses Appeal

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Over the last few days we’ve heard, via the Union-Tribune and the Wall Street Journal’s free marketeers, a tale of woe arising from the ruling of a state agency holding that the city of San Diego violated state law by not negotiating with employee unions over a 2012 ballot measure that eliminated guaranteed pension benefits for most city employees.

Now we’re being told that greedy unions have circumvented the will of the voters. Talk-show host Carl DeMaio says the agency making this determination is a “kangaroo court.”

Then-Mayor Jerry Sanders worked hand-in-glove with local right-wing politicos to create and sell a “reform” program promising to save taxpayers untold millions of dollars. They lied, they cheated, and when they were called on it, said “so what?”   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Fighting for $15 and/or Anything Else They Can Get

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This was the year that growing inequality became too big a problem to ignore. A growing chorus of voices broke through the white noise of the media’s slavish subservience to the concept of ‘trickle down’ as a viable economic choice.

None-the-less, all the national contenders for the presidency continue to swear allegiance to the failed idea. They are rarely challenged in interviews, editorials or debates, even though the preponderance of data demonstrates a growing disparity between the very rich and the rest of us. Why they don’t get laughed off of any stage where this bad idea gets bandied about is a mystery to me.

Today, we’ll look at some labor advocacy from 2015, focusing on the Fight for Fifteen campaign. Modern-day political reality dictates that the struggle to increase wages will be fought on the local level.   [Read more…]

Barrera Out at Labor Council, SDPD Shooting Video Released, and Other News Ladled Out on Tuesday

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San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Richard Barrera announced his resignation via a press release on Tuesday.

Barrera simultaneously announced he would be starting at the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) on February 1st as Executive Assistant and Secretary-Treasurer.

ALSO: Earlier today, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis released a private surveillance video capturing the police shooting claiming the life of Fridoon Rawshan Nehad.   [Read more…]

Progressive Activism in 2015: Addressing Climate Change in Many Different Ways

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Everybody is in favor of saving the environment these days. Or so they say.

The modern-day litmus test for whether an individual or company is serious about the environment comes down to whether or not they acknowledge climate change to be a man-made phenomenon.

This evolution of public consciousness didn’t come easy. It was built on the work of environmental activists and organizations. Throw a metaphorical rock in San Diego and chances are it will land at the feet of an organization working on some aspect of saving the planet. Today we’ll look back at the actions of the environmental movement locally, nationally, and internationally over the past year.   [Read more…]

Chargers Set to Lose Their Last Game in San Diego

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The Chargers are an apt metaphor for San Diego politics.

Both are led by a skilled and popular quarterback, yet unable to score when push comes to shove. Both suffer from a foundational rot, precluding the fixes the public is led to believe would address their obvious shortcomings.

One year ago, the football team announced it would be playing in San Diego through 2015. This year the only question seems to be what date the moving vans will be pulling out.

Sunday could well be their last appearance at Qualcomm stadium. However, our feckless mayor will have to wait a few years before moving on. It’s likely he’s also headed upstate.   [Read more…]

Breaking News: Poll Shows California Pension Ballot Measures Already in Trouble

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By Dan Braun & Bill Raden / Capital & Main

A pair of potential ballot initiatives written to overhaul California’s public pensions could face a rough road, according to a new poll.

The results from a Capital & Main-David Binder Research poll of 500 likely voters shows that if the election were held today, the numbers of those voting for the measures and those against them appear to be dead even. Those numbers are not what pension-reduction advocates had hoped for going into the 2016 election cycle.   [Read more…]

San Diegans Say No To Hate, Refugees Welcome

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Hundreds of people gathered along San Diego’s Waterfront Park yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day and to make their voices heard on the subject of refugees and support for the local Muslim community.

The San Diego area has long been a prime resettlement area for refugees, taking in as many as 3,000 annually. Successive waves of people from Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East have created new lives here in recent decades.

Fear-mongering over Syrian refugees following terrorist attacks in Paris has led to increasingly strident rhetoric from prominent political figures. Now a ban keeping all people of the Muslim faith from entering the US has gained some traction. Hate crimes have soared, including attacks on places of worship.   [Read more…]

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