San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Columns / Editor's Picks

San Diego’s Police Citizen Review Board Falls Short on Transparency, Accountability

by

Opportunity to provide citizen input at September 23 meeting

By Jeeni Criscenzo

Four years ago today (September 17, 2011) the Occupy movement began in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in Wall Street. Like wildfire the movement that defined Us (the 99%) vs Them (the 1%) spread from city to city.

Three weeks later a large and exuberant crowd gathered in San Diego’s Children’s Park before marching defiantly to Civic Center Plaza, and Occupy San Diego was born.

And from that emerged a group of mostly “mature” women (of which I was one) who used our experience and energy to advance the movement long after the camps in cities throughout the nation had been aggressively dismantled by an organized police campaign. It was in that “dismantling” that many of the original members of Women Occupy San Diego (WOSD) came face to face with the ugly underbelly of SDPD.   [Read more…]

California Poised to Take Major Step for Democracy

by

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

California is poised to take a major step towards advancing voting rights for millions of citizens after the state legislature late last week approved a resolution that requires the automatic registration of all eligible voters.

Proponents of the measure say that Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill, know as the California New Motor Voter Act. If that happens, the old, manual entry process would be replaced by a system that would automatically sign up California residents when they do business with the Department of Motor Vehicles as of January 2016.

State officials estimate that the state has approximately 6.6 million eligible but unregistered voters who may soon be added to the voting rolls.   [Read more…]

Qualcomm Stadium: a Boondoggle from the Get-Go?

by

As published by the original San Diego Free Press (circa 1968), we reprint the rundown on the Stadium in Mission Valley. Outside of the names and a few little details, you’ll be surprised how little has changed. Part One of Two…

Transcribed by John Lawrence / Original byline “Jim Knastic”

Hi, sports fans. Big Jim here.

Well, fans, there is a big spat brewing in major league San Diego and from this experienced observer’s view the losers in this main event are going to be the city’s middle- and lower-income taxpayers.

This whole new controversy is revolving around that great concrete muskmelon in Mission Valley, the San Diego Stadium.

As the Free Press goes to the printers, the news is out that the City of San Diego is suing the San Diego Chargers for one year’s back rent (more than $200,000). The Chargers apparently have decided that they don’t want to pay rent, at least not for the next seven years.

But that is just one of a long series of rubs – one of the first rubs in how that stadium got there in the first place.   [Read more…]

Beach Lifeguards Spread Too Thin Due to Increased Sunset Cliffs Rescue Activity

by

Lifeguard Staffing at OB and Mission Beach Adversely Effected by Rescues at Pocket Beaches – Should Be On Par With La Jolla

By Ed Harris

For years, Lifeguards have expressed the need for increased staffing at several locations.  The need for staffing at Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs is high on the list.

The pocket beaches along Sunset Cliffs (Santa Cruz, Bermuda, No Surf and Ladera Street) have become increasingly busy in recent years.

They used to be attended mainly by locals but the internet, increased tourism and vacation rentals have changed that.   [Read more…]

‘News’ Story Pleads Developers Cause on Civic San Diego Oversight Law

by

By Doug Porter

This is why we can’t have nice things in San Diego. By this I mean the greed of the local billionaire class and the willingness of the Union-Tribune to publish lies on their behalf.

UT reporter Roger Showley was apparently called upon to create some propaganda following the legislature’s approval of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s AB 504, a bill designed to strengthen oversight of organizations like Civic San Diego making land use decisions for cities.

It’s my guess this UT article represents a last ditch attempt to appeal to Gov. Jerry Brown in the hope he won’t sign the bill. (You never know with the Gov…)

Gonzalez and other civic activists saw the necessity for such a measure because San Diego is the only city in California that outsources permitting and planning functions to a nonprofit with minimal oversight. Attempts at oversight and citizen input have been continually stymied.   [Read more…]

The ACLU Beat: Do You Know the Way to Escondido?

by

By David Loy

I became legal director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties in April 2006. In August, Escondido became one of the first cities to propose a ban on renting homes to unauthorized immigrants. So much for a quiet start to the new job.

That autumn, I wore grooves into the freeway as I worked with Escondido community groups, met with residents, spoke at events, and testified against the ban. After the City Council adopted the ban, I led the team that went to court and won an injunction against it.

Since then, I’ve never had to worry about forgetting the way to Escondido. Besides the ACLU’s advocacy for immigrants’ rights and civic participation, I’ve held the city accountable for First Amendment violations such as stifling the right to videotape checkpoints, terminating a social service agency’s contract in retaliation for its speech, and enforcing a restrictive ordinance that stifled rallies and demonstrations.   [Read more…]

Carlsbad City Council Backs Caruso Bogus Claims

by

Strawberry Fields Not Threatened by Vote

By Richard Riehl

Caruso Affiliated’s latest glossy mailer features the smiling faces of the five city Council members who voted unanimously to approve the developer’s plan to build a Strawberry Fields mall. Directly below the beaming politicians is the plea, Don’t let outside interests end the Strawberry Fields and take away what’s ours, followed by the command, DON’T SIGN THE PETITION. You’re invited to “get the facts” from a link to Caruso’s corporate marketing campaign.

You’d think our public officials would refer us to the city’s website, where you can find unbiased documents related to the developer’s plan, like Prop D, passed by the voters in 2006, and the entire Agua Hedionda South Shore Specific Plan (AH-SP). So I went to the city’s website, where I found this. “The City of Carlsbad did not sponsor the initiative and, by law, no public resources may be used to advocate for or against an initiative or referendum.”   [Read more…]

No Differences Between Bernie and The Donald?

by

By Ernie McCray

I’ve read comments somewhere out there in social media land that try to put Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the same bag as the perception that there isn’t much difference between democrats and republicans.

Well, I could take both sides of part of that argument but there’s a galaxy of separation between Bernie and The Donald. I mean one’s a progressive minded human being and the other is a narcissistic buffoon.

As to the clown, according to The Atlantic millions of people feel he is the best choice to lead America. Millions more “are motivated by giddyness at the chaotic spectacle of his success” which should involve, it seems to me, adding giddyness to the list of mental illnesses.   [Read more…]

As Young Refugee Boy Identified, Photos Representing His ‘Outcry’ Reverberate

by

Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi drowned along with his mother, Rehan, and older brother, Galip, while the family attempted to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece on Wednesday.

By John Queally / Common Dreams

As new details emerge about the young Syrian boy, now identified as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi—who drowned along with his mother, Rehan, and older brother, Galip, while the family attempted to cross the sea from Turkey to Greece on Wednesday—the global impact of the pictures has perhaps fulfilled the “sorrowful” hopes of the photographer who took the images in order to “make heard his outcry.”

It has now been reported that the father, Abdullah Kurdi, was the only member of the family of four to survive when the boat they and other refugees were traveling in capsized off the Turkish coast. In all, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, 12 people drowned when two boats attempting to reach the island of Kos capsized. Eight of the 12 were children. The news agency subsequently reported that several individuals had been arrested on smuggling charges related to the incident.   [Read more…]

First “Wetbacks,” Then “Illegal Aliens,” and Now “Anchor Babies” — the Continued Scapegoating of Mexicans

by

The current anchor baby debate is all about who has and maintains political, economic and social power in the United States

By Ruben Salazar / Raza Legal News

“Anchor baby” and automatic “birthright citizenship,” thanks to Donald Trump, are the debate topics de jure. Anchor baby is the pejorative term for a child born in the United States to a foreign national mother who was not lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

It first appeared in print around 1996. But the derogatory term has remained relatively obscure until about 2006. In fact, it became the American Dialect Society’s “2006 Word of the Year.”   [Read more…]

Postcard from Puerto Rico: Someone Gave Us a Cistern. Thank God.

by

By Anna Daniels

Hola My Tia. Yes they r talking about closing schools. It’s really scary my niece writes from the municipality of Carolina, which neighbors Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan. The bagmen who are now running the show have proposed laying off teachers and closing schools as one solution to the island’s financial crisis.

There was a time when we could agree that our children’s public education was a collective responsibility and one of the best investments in their future and our future as a democracy. That time seems to have passed as hedge fund managers, investors and banks demand to be paid today.The future be damned.

And now with the water issues the schools r closing half a day.   [Read more…]

Loss of Community Is Greatest Threat From Airbnb and Short-Term Vacation Rentals

by

Short-term vacation rentals are on the minds of a lot of people these days, especially with those who live at the coast in San Diego.

The issue bubbles up at community meetings. An OB resident brought it up at a recent Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting. And it was the subject of a panel discussion organized recently by the Point Loma Democratic Club. Also, back in February of this year, residents of Pacific Beach made their complaints about them heard publicly.

Then it came up at the most recent OB Town Council meeting last week, during the non-agenda comment period, where folks on both sides on the issue contended for audience sympathy. And it’s certainly a hot topic among callers to District 2 Councilwoman Zapf’s office.
  [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry