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Getting Sandbagged by SANDAG: San Diego’s Failure of Imagination

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Last week Kevin Faulconer got some good press when, “under pressure from environmental groups,” he voted no to putting SANDAG’s deeply inadequate tax measure on the ballot citing San Diego’s Climate Action plan as one of the factors in his decision. Faulconer’s opponent, Ed Harris, was quick to point out that Faulconer’s vote was less about climate change and more about pleasing his anti-tax Republican base…

Harris is clearly right about Faulconer’s opportunism when it comes to the SANDAG plan, and he adeptly points out that the mayor had a very different position not that long ago. With regard to the SANDAG plan, however, he is way off the mark…

The real problem with this political stalemate is that the Democrats on the SANDAG board and too many other Democrats in San Diego county are satisfied to pursue business as usual and act as if they are still committed to progressive values with regard to the environment. By insisting that the current political hegemony in San Diego is unchangeable they are suffering from a profound failure of the imagination…   [Read more…]

Whose University? UCSD’s Racial Climate and the Making of Student Minorities

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By the Lumumba- Zapata Collective

On the night of Friday April 8th, the University of California, San Diego campus was covered with anti-Mexican slogans chalked by supporters of presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Following a string of similar events throughout the country (including incidents at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara, and Riverside), slogans supporting Trump have persistently coincided with xenophobic attacks against underrepresented communities, specifically Latino, Black, Arab and Muslim students.

The recent chalking incident at UCSD specifically targeted incoming admitted students of Mexican descent.   [Read more…]

May Day: The Forgotten Celebration of America’s Labor Struggles

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By Brett Warnke

On the books, May 1st is officially Law Day, whose origins (like the holy portions of the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust”) came out of the Eisenhower Administration’s rhetorical battle against the Soviet Union. Of course, the silent smear was that radical workers lacked respect for a nation of laws. But for those with a sense of history May 1 is and shall be a day of observance for workers mourned after the bloody Haymarket Affair in 1886 which later became memorialized when strikers pushed for an eight-hour work day.

Is it so hard to imagine an era of endless work? Of plutocrats and bought government? Of a used, dispirited and duped population?   [Read more…]

The 2016 Mayoral Contest: Lori Saldaña Aims to Offer a Choice, Not an Echo

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If you buy into the notion, currently in vogue with supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, of Democratic party orthodoxy as being little more than Republican lite, then Lori Saldaña would the logical choice to vote for in the upcoming San Diego mayoral primary.

The former assemblywoman has an activist pedigree, a history of hard-fought grassroots campaigns, and the enmity of the local political establishment.

In January Saldaña launched an independent campaign to challenge Kevin Faulconer, undaunted by a million dollar war chest (including PACs) and the advantages accompanying incumbency in America’s Finest City. The current mayor’s single greatest accomplishment thus far, in my opinion, has been directing the public relations players at his disposal in a non-stop symphony of praise for their leader, so it ain’t gonna be easy.   [Read more…]

San Diego Homeless Advocates Rock the City Council

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Anatomy of a successful press event

Some days I marvel at the value of the network of good people that has grown in our community—people involved in so many different areas, all so critical, who come together to support one another in our various efforts. Without that, we could have never pulled off the very successful action on Tuesday April 19 in protest of the City’s reprehensible decision to fill an underpass in Sherman Heights where homeless people take shelter with rocks.

This was a case where all systems were running at peak performance. For the sake of all of those younger people who are just starting to dip their toes in the art of community organizing, here’s how it goes when you have a cadre of like-minded friends to call upon for a cause. (I’m using actual first names here because all of those people deserve the kudos.) In the end, that’s more valuable than a pile of money and hired hands.   [Read more…]

The 2016 Mayoral Contest: Ed Harris Takes a Stand Against Business as Usual

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“The City is a huge landlord. It has to quit giving away our own assets.”

Ed Harris wasn’t supposed to ruffle any feathers during his appointed term on the San Diego City Council.

The former marine and lifeguard union leader was supposed to be a bookmark, holding down the Second District seat vacated by now-Mayor Kevin Faulconer until election day rolled around. The city charter’s terms for this temporary tenure included a proviso barring him from actually running for the seat in fall 2014 election.

Then it came time for the kind of wink, wink, nod, nod agreement involving trading off public assets for political gain considered normal in America’s Finest City.  Harris surprised a lot of people by taking a principled and public stand against what he believed was a sweetheart deal involving proposed lease terms of Belmont Park to Pacifica Enterprises.   [Read more…]

The Great Eastern Expansion Into Chula Vista

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Chula Vista Is Set To Have An Influx Of 60,000 Residents

By Barbara Zaragoza

For decades community groups such as Crossroads II have noted that the City of Chula Vista is nothing more than a bedroom community. They explain that developers came into the region, created a mass of housing, but didn’t provide residents with essential amenities, such as jobs, adequate big box stores such as Walmart, smaller retail shops, restaurants, parks or hotels. In Crossroads II’s 2016 Annual Report, they wrote, “Because of the lack of commercial development, Chula Vista is second from the bottom in terms of sales-tax revenues per resident in San Diego County.”

The Chula Vista City Council has attempted to change this bedroom community into a bustling city where local and international tourists come to shop, eat and play. They’ve done it by attracting developers to the open stretch of land located in eastern Chula Vista known as Otay Ranch. Now, within the next twenty years or so, Chula Vista anticipates more than 60,000 new residents will flood into the area, including university students, Olympic quality athletes and Google-type executives. Their goal is to transition eastern Chula Vista into becoming a dense urban environment that is state-of-the-art in technology and also environmentally sustainable.

Excited? Convinced?   [Read more…]

Denim Day: Calling Attention to Rape Kits and Domestic Violence in San Diego

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Talk about timing: Ninety-eight criminal cases, most of them involving domestic violence were mishandled by the city attorney’s office, according to an investigation by the Union-Tribune…At a recent press conference, Suzanne E. Morse of Heartfelt Voices United called attention to the backlog of several thousand unprocessed rape test kits in San Diego.

Hey folks, maybe America’s Finest City has a problem in dealing with violence aginst women, the ultimate assertion of misogyny.

Independent mayoral candidate Lori Saldaña and other community leaders are urging San Diego’s elected officials to join in the observance of Denim Day on Wednesday, April 27th as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. Maybe we should all wear denim that day.   [Read more…]

Three Cases Of Sexual Misconduct At IB’s Mar Vista High School …

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… California’s Longest Drug Smuggling Tunnel Is Found In Otay Mesa, and a Portable Shower Program For San Diego’s Homeless

Mar Vista High School had not one, not two, but three reported incidents of sexual relations with underage females by a walk-on assistant football coach, an ROTC instructor and a tutor. Mar Vista ranks No. 5 out of 10 at greatschools.org and has only 37 percent of graduates who are eligible for UC/CSU. It’s also known as one of the schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) with a larger attendance of low-income students.

Are these students–whose parents rely heavily on staff and the district to safeguard their children while they put in hours at one or even two jobs– especially vulnerable and therefore targeted by unseemly types?

Disturbingly, in the review comments section of great schools.org, an anonymous parent posted on Sept. 1, 2013, “Terrible school. Students date some of the teachers right after graduation.”   [Read more…]

The Other Big 2016 California Primary: U.S. Senate

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California’s primary counts this year. While media coverage of presidential candidates wooing voters in the Golden State is steadily increasing, another primary contest with national implications is flying under the radar.

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s retirement creates the first open U.S. Senate seat in California in more than two decades. Based on the activity level of Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently, it could be a while until the next opportunity presents itself.   [Read more…]

We Will Show Trump the Beautiful Door to Get-The-Hell-Out-Of-San-Diego

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By San Diego Free Press and OB Rag Editors

We anticipate that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will visit San Diego during the California presidential primary campaign.

We at the San Diego Free Press and OB Rag will join with other San Diegans during his campaign stops in our city in expressing our adamant opposition to the racist, xenophobic and misogynist policies espoused by Trump.   [Read more…]

A Chat with Singer Janis Ian

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Appearing May 22nd at the Balboa Theater at a Benefit for the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation Lesbian Health Initiative

By Anne M. Haule

I had the most delightful chat with Janis Ian this morning.  Her warmth immediately calmed my nerves (in this my first celebrity interview). I felt as if I were chatting with a friend. She is upbeat, articulate, humorous and amazingly candid. She was generous with her time and forthright with her comments. She is a self-proclaimed optimist with a sparkle in her voice.

We began by talking about her 50+ year career – and what a versatile career it has been and continues to be. Janis has received 38 awards and honors for her music, her writing, her audiobooks, and her social activism.   [Read more…]

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