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Payback! Hundreds of Homeowners Associations Threaten Banks with Foreclosure

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By Laura Gottesdiener / Alternet

It’s payback time—literally. In Florida, hundreds of homeowner and neighborhood associations are foreclosing on banks that have failed to upkeep their repossessed properties, according to—of all things— a CNN Money report.

Florida is one of the states hardest hit by foreclosures, and there are nearly a half-million foreclosed houses now standing vacant and often slowly deteriorating. When a bank forecloses on a house, evicts the family and then repossesses the property, it also assumes responsibility for maintaining the home and yard and paying homeowner or condo association fees. Yet, some of the nation’s largest and richest banks have been unable or unwilling to upkeep their properties—prompting neighbors across Florida to declare enough is enough.

One Miami lawyer, Ben Solomon, has filed more than 1,000 liens against banks for failing to maintain their properties or pay their homeowner association fees. And when the recalcitrant banks don’t comply, Solomon slaps them with a foreclosure notice—131 thus far.   [Read more…]

Ten Reasons that 2012 was an Unprecedented Winning Year for San Diego Region Working Families.

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by Lorena Gonzalez

Workers throughout the United States and in San Diego faced unprecedented challenges this year. A full scale attack on middle-class wages and benefits, along with a tough economy, made 2012 seem like a very long year for middle and working class folks. But, when it was all said in done, this year should leave a smile on our faces in San Diego – and these are 10 of the reasons why…   [Read more…]

The Euclid Tower and the Ghost of Christmas Past

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I’m sure that there are a number of us who can still remember the Euclid Tower before it was re-imagined with bright paint and a dazzling design. In 1988, when My Beloved and I moved into our little house on 45th street, the Euclid Tower jutted above the streetscape like a grey missile poised for launch. Its graceful art deco architecture and lovely leaded glass lotus windows couldn’t redeem it from a peeling cold war paint job.

I can also remember not only the grey paint job, but the smiling face of Old Saint Nick providing some inscrutable message of good cheer for a number of years over the neon signage of the Tower Bar. There was nothing quite like the 4th of July and looking up at the peeling Tower with Saint Nick beaming down upon us. This was how I knew I was home in my thoroughly mixed up community of City Heights. And stone cold sober.   [Read more…]

Solving the New Year Resolution Quandary

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A few years ago I was on a holiday vacation with my then-girlfriend / future-wife in Argentina. Between meals consisting almost exclusively of bife de lomo (tenderloin steak) and malbec we were doing the usual tourist things: visiting museums and churches, strolling along leaf-strewn parkways, taking overnight bus trips, etc. With the end of the year approaching we got to talking about resolutions, something we had both done to some extent in the past but had never really taken seriously or committed to fulfilling.

Resolutions seemed to be too big of a task – there are so many areas of life that could use some work. It was hard for us to pin down the most important changes we should make. The endless array of choices led our conversation to the same conclusion as our past resolutions had: nowhere. The next day we took a different angle…   [Read more…]

12/30: Live Music and Art at The Casbah Features an Eclectic Mixture of Styles, Genres and Perspectives

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by Brigitte Taylor/SuiteBrigitte.blogspot.com

Local artists Martin Nasim, True Delorenzo and Nick Bahula will be displaying art and painting live as part of the December 30, 2012 Casbah show with the following bands: The Amalgamated, Karlos Paez of B*Side Players, The Soulfires and Steve Harris of The Styletones. Tickets are on sale at www.casbahmusic.com. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

The show will begin with Steve Harris of The Styletones performing his original soul music followed by instrumental funk band The Soulfires (formerly The Fireeaters) and continuing with the local ska act, The Amalgamated. Karlos Paez, lead singer of the B*Side Players will perform with special guests. We rarely see a configuration of musicians and artists of such varying styles and genres. The following local area artists will accompany the bands’ performances, displaying and selling their artwork:   [Read more…]

The Fright Wing: Why So-Called Conservatives Get So Wild and Crazy.

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By Bob Dorn

Until recently, I’ve been mystified by the emotional fits and righteousness that seems to dominate the politics of people who identify themselves as conservatives. From sneering condescension right up to murderous invective, the rhetoric of those who consider themselves more holy than the rest of us has blown past the bounds of realism and into a sort of hallucinatory inferno of loose hatred and speculation.

And it hasn’t taken much to set it off.

Mention the U.N. or World Court, or the possibility of expanding voting hours, or improving our infrastructure and you’re likely to unleash an avalanche of accusations and epithets– one worlder, voter fraud, socialist idiot, moron, traitor.

Infrastructure? Voting? Are those bad?   [Read more…]

The Starting Line(ish): Armed Coup at FreedomWorks

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FreedomWorks nearly falls apart during armed mutiny; NRA leverages massacres to ramp up gun sales; Changes could be coming to San Diego billboard ordinances; #17 Aztecs fall to #3 Wildcats

You just can’t make this stuff up. As you may or may not know, the TEA Party Astroturf group FreedomWorks has been going through a bit of turmoil lately. Most of the group’s troubles only came to light after the Nov. 6 election. Still, even though this is fringe right wing politics—we’re talking the nuttiest of the nutty—no one expected Dick Armey to come marching into FreedomWorks HQ with an armed escort to conduct a hostile takeover. Even in TEA Party politics that seemed like a bit much.

  [Read more…]

Same Sex Parenting Becoming ‘Normal’ in an Evolving Society

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As same sex marriage becomes more accepted by mainstream America, so too does the idea of same sex couples raising families of their own.

by Kit-Bacon Gressitt/Excuse Me I’m Writing

On Family Day in 2009, President Obama proclaimed that, “Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things [emphasis added].”

The proclamation represented a culmination, of sorts, the definitive result of nearly four decades of advocacy for same-sex parenting, endorsed for the first time by a U.S. president. Today, same-sex parenting as a social institution has come of age in popular media and across the country.   [Read more…]

Typhoons, Cyclones, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding Increase in 2012

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In 2011 more than 80% of all the deaths around the world caused by natural disasters occurred in Asia. The Phillipines were the epicenter with 33 natural disasters, more than any country in the world. Typhoon Washi claimed more than 1200 lives in late 2011. Super Typhoon Bopha which struck December 2012 took 900 lives.

Super Typhoon Bopha packed winds of up to 100 miles per hour bringing torrential rains that destroyed villages and left 320,000 homeless. A total of 184 had perished in Compostela Valley, including 78 villagers and soldiers who died in a flash flood that swamped two emergency shelters and a military camp. Most of the typhoon’s victims appeared to have drowned or been hit by falling trees or flying debris, officials said.   [Read more…]

The Best Year of My Life; Thank You

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Hey gang.

As you read this, I’m in New Orleans. It’s gonna be a rajun’ Cajun Christmas for this columnist.

That means I’ll be excused from writing the Starting Line five days a week for the rest of this year. Having knocked out a couple of hundred columns in 2012, I’m ready to relax. Recharge. And visit a place that, for all my traveling, I’ve never been to before.

Some folks like to wrap up the year by listing the “top stories” for the proceeding twelve months. I’d like to take a different approach today …   [Read more…]

12 Cool Holiday Traditions That Aren’t About God or Shopping

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Finding it a little tough to feel warm and chirpy about the birth of the baby Jesus?

By Valerie Tarico / AlterNet 

After an autumn of Bible-based gay bashing, and Religious Right candidates with “rape Tourette’s,” and End Times aficionados gunning for Armageddon rather than peace in the Middle East, some nontheists may be finding it a little tough to feel warm and chirpy about the birth of the baby Jesus. Fortunately the need to celebrate life and light at the darkest time of the year is something that long predates Christianity, and many of the yummy and playful customs of the season are rooted in cultures that have merged and morphed and been shared freely for millenna. Here are twelve traditions with ancient roots.
  [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: Barrio Logan’s Northgate is a Deferred Dream Come True

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On December 11, 2012 the first major supermarket in San Diego’s Historic Barrio District (Barrio Logan, Logan Heights and Sherman Heights) in almost 40 years opened it’s doors to the public for the first time. For Barrio Logan residents the opening of Mercado Gonzalez Northgate is more than just the opening of a supermarket, it is a deferred dream come to true.

It took 21 years for the city and developers to build this market. Twenty one years of promises. Twenty one years to gain an amenity that most communities have.

Not since the closure in the early 1970’s of Safeway, on the corner of 25th and Imperial, has there been a major supermarket that services these predominantly Mexican-American communities. For over 30 years these communities demanded a supermarket. None of the major supermarkets like Vons, Albertson’s and Ralph’s heeded this demand. Fortunately, after all those years, a Mexican-American grocer family stepped up.   [Read more…]

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