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PLACAS: Family, Roots and Loyalty

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It had always been difficult for me to watch a Chicano/Chicano-type play in San Diego. I always feel that they present a stereotype instead of an authentic story. Looking at it another way, I guess those past productions achieved their goal on the most basic level of using the art of theater to provoke thought and analysis.

My feelings about this subject of theater changed this past April when I saw “PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo,” a play written by Paul S. Flores, developed with and directed by Michael John Garcés. The play screamed “This is it! This is the way it is.”   [Read more…]

Only a Bully Kicks the Poor

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By Jeeni Criscenzo

A few weeks back Rep. Darrell Issa (CA 49) tried to defend his statement made during a CNN interview, that “we’ve been able to make our poor somewhat the envy of the world.”

As someone who has dedicated my life to helping our poor, I am compelled to offer an opposing perspective. To be clear, this is not a debate between the left and the right, or liberals vs conservatives, or Democrats vs Republicans. Those are all labels designed to keep us divided and distracted when the issue is actually who we are, as a nation and a community: people who share a connection with all of humanity and are capable of feeling compassion for others; or people who only see others as a means to their personal acquisition of power and wealth.

This is a debate between those who believe our best chance for survival is through cooperation and justice, and those who believe in the survival of the fittest.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Sour Mash of Politics

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By Doug Porter

So much stupidity, so little time.  Here’s what’s clogged up my inbox while I was on vacation:

San Diego’s Board of Supervisors will consider regulating free speech, a third person has come forward to complain about Dave Roberts, and Escondido Mayor Sam Abed actually thinks he can run a campaign for the third district seat stressing integrity. (Cue audience laughter)

SeaWorld supporters have slithered into the red baiting realm, the Chargers continue to play the mayor like a finely tuned violin and a local non-profit news outfit is apparently flouting the same state law it has accused attorney Cory Briggs of violating.   [Read more…]

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Is a Resource-Conscious Blockbuster for Our Time

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By Kate Aronoff / Yes! Magazine

When the first Mad Max was released back in 1979, the era’s reigning existential threats were nuclear winter and, to a lesser extent, peak oil. Set in a not-too-distant dystopian future and against the harsh backdrop of rural Australia, viewers’ ability to map their own fears onto the screen was crucial to that film’s success.

Although the fears have changed, you could say the same thing about Mad Max: Fury Road, the series’ long-awaited fourth installment. Released this month in the midst of California’s historic drought and increasingly bleak studies about the likelihood of catastrophic climate change, the film plays more on viewers’ anxieties about a carbon bomb than a nuclear one.   [Read more…]

SANDAG Bicycle Corridors – Finished Before They Even Started

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By John P. Anderson

Two and a half years ago SANDAG announced $200 million for bike projects to create a regional network. The first of these projects is a $40 million project in Uptown. It would create a critical connection both East to West and North to South in the heart of San Diego’s most densely populated neighborhoods.

Since the original announcement SANDAG has repeatedly trumpeted these funds as a sign of commitment to healthy transport in the form of bicycles. During the time since Uptown was selected for the first SANDAG bicycle project what has changed in the area? Population, businesses, traffic, and roadways all remain the same. There remain only two real options for an East to West connection – University and Washington.   [Read more…]

From the TPP to the Death of Tenure: Neoliberalism Hurts Us All

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Depending on how things line up, this week may be when we learn whether or not the House of Representatives delivers Obama a win on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a bipartisan effort that will more thoroughly enshrine a neoliberal structure in U.S. law in the service of bolstering corporate control of our democracy.

Of course this only provides more depressing evidence in support of recent research on the state of American democracy by scholars James N. Druckman from Northwestern University and University of Minnesota’s Jacob R. Lawrence showing that “presidents from both Republican and Democratic parties mainly serve and are guided by the wishes of the wealthy and political elites and exploit public opinion in order to serve those ends.”   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Los Chicanos, 1950s Social Club

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Los Chicanos, like the other social clubs, focused on providing a positive image of the guys from Logan Heights. According to a brochure from their Golden Anniversary Dance in 2005, Los Chicanos got their name from a suggestion that was made by Albert Usquiano. The general consensus was that other social clubs had been named after animals but that they should be daring and go with the term Chicano.

Even though some of the boys used the term Chicano among themselves, in 1955 it was not an everyday term used in the majority community.   [Read more…]

Looking Backward, Moving Forward: The San Diego Free Press Turns Three!

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On June 4, 2012 the San Diego Free Press made its very first foray into the provision of grassroots news and progressive views. We launched as an all volunteer effort to promote citizen journalism and have continued to operate on a volunteer basis since. Have you noticed that the site is ad free? We decided early on to reject sponsored content.

These defining characteristics make us unique as an alternative media platform.   [Read more…]

Protecting Mauna Kea: Pule Plus Action

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By Will Falk

I went up to Mauna Kea’s summit a few days ago to pule (to pray) with some of the protectors on a ridge inside the Thirty Meter Telescope’s (TMT) proposed construction site. When we reached the site, we were confronted by half a dozen large men in orange vests and hard hats brandishing cameras, audio recorders, and notebooks.

The boss told us we were trespassing on an active construction site and subject to arrest. I looked around and saw nothing but a handful of back-hoes, the open sky at 14,000 feet above sea level, and a sublime, obsidian-colored cinder field stretching to the clouds. Of course, as I’m writing this, construction on Mauna Kea has been suspended for more than two months.

Kaho’okahi Kanuha explained that we were simply here to say some prayers. The boss told us again we were subject to arrest, mumbled into a hand-held radio, signaled to his men, and began recording us with a camera.   [Read more…]

A Passionate Defense of Cory Briggs

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By Reverend Richard Lawrence / sandiegans4opengov

Editor Note: In recent months inewsource.org has published a series of controversial stories concerning activist attorney Cory Briggs, questioning his ethics and motives. Rev. Richard Lawrence penned this reaction for the San Diegans 4 Open Government blog.

I said in a deposition some time ago that I thought Cory Briggs was to the environmental justice movement in California what Dr. King was to the civil rights movement. Recent events cause me to think some more about that.   [Read more…]

Use of Public Funds without Oversight Mars Escondido Charter Schools

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By Nina Deerfield and Rebecca Nutile

Editor Note: This is part three of the series about charter schools in Escondido. Part one here and part two here.

Public education advocates around the country are taking a closer look at charter schools, their finances, their admission and expulsion policies, as well as their questionable academic results. These schools, while privately run, receive millions of taxpayer dollars annually, yet oversight is difficult because charter schools are exempt from much of the Education Code that governs traditional public schools.

Public dollars with little public oversight have created environments in which irregularities and questionable practices–both academic and financial—are thriving. At Alianza North County, we’re taking a closer look at these taxpayer-funded schools in Escondido. One such unusual practice is occurring at the city’s most popular and controversial charter school.   [Read more…]

After Hours Demolition Angers LGBTQ and Preservation Activists

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Shortly after 5pm on Friday one of San Diego’s two remaining historic Saltbox houses was bulldozed by contractors working for developer HG Fenton. Adjoining properties were left untouched. And what some consider the birthplace of the local LGBTQ movement became a pile of rubble.

Local LGBTQ activists and the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) had hoped to work out a deal to save the property, either by incorporating architectural details into the finished development or by moving the house to another location.  A Friday morning conversation between representatives of the Lambda archives and the developer made no mention of the building’s impending destruction.

Activists weren’t concerned about demolition because they had an email from City of San Diego Development Services specifically stating that if a demolition permit is applied for the subject property would be reviewed for historical determination as a 5 year period had passed since the original permitting.   [Read more…]

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