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A Tale of Two Properties – Carlsbad at a Crossroads

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By Socrates Kanetakis

Carlsbad finds itself amidst a commercial rebirth; from the Barrio to Bressi, the sight of new mini-towns, condominiums, clothing stores and eateries is hard to miss. Aside from what these developments mean for traffic, sales taxes and for the daily “wow they are building everywhere” exclamations, they mostly affect two commodities: Land and energy.

Along the narrow stretch of the I5—between Canon and Tamarack—lie two examples of those commodities; the Encina power plant on one side and the vacant south shore of Agua Hedionda on the other. Although these parcels differ in terms of utility, they both face a similar future. One is being decommissioned and the other faces imminent “commission” of some—yet—undecided sort.

Seeing how the city will need both land and energy to accommodate its rising population and blooming commercial establishments, these two properties can and will need to be effectively utilized very soon; It’s all a matter of “how”?      [Read more…]

Mark Bartlett, Chula Vista City Council D1 | Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

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Chula Vista is the second most populous city in San Diego County. With nearly 300,000 people, we are projected to grow immensely in the next coming decades. Chula Vista is also a city that is booming. Our city is coming back with a strong resurgence after a sluggish decade wherein budgetary decisions made by the previous administration had a direct impact leading to the downward trend.

New development and construction are cropping up across the city, and community leaders, as well as elected officials, know our city has a bright future. The Bayfront Project, Millenia Project, the potential four-year public university, and the flourishing of our Third Avenue Downtown center are just some of the city’s major growth activities.

We have quite a lot for which to be thankful; however, I would not be running for office if I saw everything as idyllic and perfect. Chula Vista, for all its strengths, has significant pitfalls that elected officials must address. We have a lack of public resources in our northeast corner of the city.

  [Read more…]

Climate Change, Clogged Drains, and Lorie Zapf

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By Jordan Beane

On September 13th, the Union-Tribune released their interviews with our District 2 candidates, Dr. Jennifer Campbell and current District 2 City Councilmember Lorie Zapf. In Zapf’s interview, there were a lot of specific questions about the Climate Action Plan, it’s goals and more.

However, I believe the UT should have asked her a simpler question: Do you, Councilmember Zapf, believe in climate change?

Our Republican representative wants you to believe she cares about this existential threat and its impact on San Diego. She, along with the rest of the city council, voted to approve San Diego’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) in 2015. She mentioned the CAP in an op-ed. She even used the word “climate”  in a tweet once (the only time she’s done so in 1,700+ missives). She and the Lincoln Club (San Diego’s version of the Koch Brothers) flooded the mailboxes of District 2 with the same two images of Zapf cleaning out the San Diego River, portraying our Republican representative as an environmental champion.   [Read more…]

Jeff Griffith, Senate District 38 | Candidate Profiles for the November 2018 Ballot

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Public service has always been a major part of my life.  My father was a firefighter; I followed in his footsteps.  I began my career 30 years ago in Ramona and am now a Fire Captain and a Paramedic.

I am not a career politician.  My progressive beliefs developed early in my career as I saw the need for quality healthcare and came to see it as a right.  I saw the power of unions to responsibly protect workers and working families. As a firefighter, it was easy to become an environmentalist and believer in climate change because of the lengthening fire season.  That is why I am a Democrat, because the majority of Democratic Party values match my own orientation to the issues that are facing us.

  [Read more…]

‘I Have a Dream’ at the San Diego-Mexico Border and Reflections on 1968

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By Rev. Richard Lawrence

1968 came back to me when I stood with Martin Luther King, III, at the Border on August 28 and listened to folks on the other side of the Border holler in pure delight that the day had finally come when a black leader stood tall in the fight for a just immigration policy.

King, III, took us back to his father’s “I Have a Dream Speech” fifty-five years ago and reminded us that there’s no room for leaders who separate children from their parents in the world his father envisioned. No. Dr. King wanted to build bridges, not barriers, to freedom.   [Read more…]

Ammar Campa-Najjar Responds to Fox News Smear and Fear Clickbait Headline

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Editor’s Note: Ammar Campa-Najjar has been in the news a lot since Congressman Duncan Hunter was indicted for illegally diverting a quarter million dollars in campaign funds for his personal use. Since there is no way to remove the incumbent from the ballot at this time, Republicans have come up with a “save the seat” strategy. Hunter will resign should he win the November election, clearing the way for a special election in the spring. In order to ensure that GOP voters in the 50th Congressional District don’t have second thoughts about voting for a crook, Faux News used the headline on this story to gin up some fear. 

Below is Ammar’s response along with a commentary from Pastor Paul Dabdoub attesting to the candidate’s moral character. For the record, Campa-Najjar never met the man in question, since the grandfather that Fox News has raised from the dead died two decades before the candidate was born. 

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Duncan Hunter Jr. must be desperate. He has to dig back three generations to attack me, all I have to do is look back three days ago at his indictment. Hunter is betting it all on the idea that the people in my district are a bunch of bigoted, backward people. I say don’t underestimate the people of the 50th, I’ve risen to occasion — they will too.

  [Read more…]

Are We Facing Generational Guilt in the Time of Trump? | Readers Write

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By Karin Brennan

My mother was born in Germany in 1931.  Her childhood was dictated, literally, by the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Hitler’s Youth organization, which had 50,000 members at the beginning of 1933, had over 2 million members (children) by the end of that year. In 1936, the Nazis systematically shut down or banned all other youth groups, including the Boy Scouts.

Instead, all children had to join the Hitler Youth. Anyone who refused to join was punished, so by 1939, more than 90 percent of German children were members. My mother was 8 at this point, and an official member of the Hitler Youth. Her memory of this time was spotty … she recalls having to take physical fitness tests in the cold lakes of Bavaria, and some marching.

She remembers friends suddenly disappearing from her school and no one would ever say why. She was 13 when her city was bombed, near the end of the war. The city was Munich, and in very close proximity to the city was the longest running concentration camp, Dachau, which operated from 1933 to 1945.   [Read more…]

Lived Experiences, Microaggressions, and Good Deeds in the Classroom | Readers Write

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By Vanessa Torres

As a college student, I now have about a decade’s-plus worth of experience with the benevolence of well-intentioned teachers. I say this as a student that grew up in low-income school districts and a high school in San Diego where the majority of students were minorities and the teachers were not.

Overcrowded classrooms and sharing a dilapidated textbook with your classmate was not out of the norm. The school year was initiated with the teacher’s usual disgruntled disclaimer that there would not be enough books to go around for the school year in yet another overcrowded class.

Teaching in and of itself is a tremendous responsibility a person undertakes as their professional career. Few other professions carry the weight that teaching does. A teacher has the ability to mold and inculcate a young person’s mind which ultimately adds to the prosperity of our community.

Some teachers take the seriousness of their profession and the resulting responsibility to heart; it’s not like they are doing it for the money. But I have to wonder about the others: As the incentive of a high paying salary is nonexistent, what is their reason for choosing such a significant profession? Were they looking for life-fulfillment? Or did they choose this profession as a way of escaping their inherent guilt?   [Read more…]

Responding to the Unconscious Bias and Racism at National City Council Meetings

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By Mark Lane and Shane Parmely

We went to the Tuesday, July 24, National City Council meeting to speak out against the police brutality that left Earl McNeil brain dead.

For almost six weeks, we’ve peacefully and loudly protested at the National City Council meetings. For six weeks, we’ve asked the National City Police Department (NCPD) to release the videotapes pertaining to the in-custody death of Earl McNeil. For six weeks, we’ve been ignored by the three men who control the National City Council and the NCPD. For six weeks, we’ve been treated to excessive force and violence by the NCPD.

And last week, after an hour of the police, including Chief Manny Rodriguez, repeatedly and openly pushing us and other people attending the meeting, we sat down on the floor and were subsequently arrested.   [Read more…]

The Shape of the Human Heart | Readers Write

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By Trevor Barton

As an elementary school teacher and a writer, I often recognize my students as the shape of the human heart.

One of those students is Maria, a 7-year-old second-grader. Her parents fled the after-effects of the brutal civil war in El Salvador and found a new life on the farms and in the fields of South Carolina.

She is like those farms and fields, with dark skin the color of the ground and a garden of a heart that produces love and joy as if they were tomatoes and beans.

I have seen her hold the hand of a frightened kindergartner in the cafeteria lunch line during early morning breakfast and offer her shoulder to a crying friend who scraped her knee on the blacktop during recess. She is a beautiful child.   [Read more…]

A Tiny Home Update: “The New American Dream” in Progress

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By Orlando Barahona

Politics are the Ultimate Porn: The Art of Political Science is about a distilled and formulaic perversion of The People’s ideals: Politicians and bureaucrats do not provide what we want; they teach us how to desire it. Public officials’ speeches and a charismatic delivery do not guide my direction in assembling a business and housing plan for San Diego because they do not offer clarity in describing the steps to achieve its presentation and success.

A very important North County housing summit is about to be hosted in Escondido, California on July 19th, 2018 by the San Diego North Economic Development Council in conjunction with the Housing You Matters Coalition. When I reached the Coalition’s Facebook page I was told all the speakers were booked and thus my revised business and housing plan could not fit in for this event. That is understandable, but not ideal for me, after I have updated and refined my first plan, published here in 2016. Find out more on the event’s page here. I wasn’t offered the possibility to present the plan at any other time.   [Read more…]

The Coming Supreme Court’s Taint of Illegitimacy

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By Bill Adams / UrbDeZine

The circumstances underlying the creation of a strongly conservative Supreme Court for decades may have earned this Court the taint of illegitimacy. Here’s how it went awry.

The “One Person, One Vote” principle is strong in the consciousness of the American Public. It arises from fundamental notions of fairness, equality, and democracy. These notions arise from the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, even if the document itself is less direct in support of the One Person, One Vote principle.  In addition to the high-minded ideals of freedom and equality, the U.S. Constitution was born of compromises arising from practical considerations such as wooing slave states into the new union.

Now we have arrived at a perfect storm of factors to subvert the will of the people. It is the result of the distrust of direct democracy embedded in the Constitution combining with undemocratic intent. The majority is ruled by the minority. There has been a massive abrogation of the One Person, One Vote principle.  We are now rated as a “flawed democracy,” 21st among democratic countries in the company of Italy, Botswana, and Mexico.   [Read more…]

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