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San Diego’s Homelessness Calamity: You Have Just Entered the Twilight Zone

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Say what you want about the faraway White House. But watch what you say about City Hall and the people we elect to local government – they’re practically family.

They live in our neighborhoods. We have coffee with them when they’re running for office. We bump into them at the movies or supermarket. We could hop a trolley downtown and collar them at work. We elect them to work for us.

Their job is to pave the streets, limit what gets built on that empty lot around the corner, keep an eye on the police department, get the trash picked up, and make sure there are enough fire stations to keep us safe and good air-quality levels to keep us healthy and enough libraries and parks to help make us happy.   [Read more…]

Should We Pay the Rich to Build Infrastructure, Then Pay Them to Use It?

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By Dave Johnson / People’s Action Blog

It’s starting to look like President Trump’s promised $1-trillion plan to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure will be as bad for us as his health care plan turned out to be.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has issued their 2017 Infrastructure Report Card. We didn’t do so well. Our “grade” is a miserable D+. Why? Go outside and look around at our out-of-date and crumbling roads, bridges, dams, airports, water systems, and electrical grid.   [Read more…]

March for Safe Living Spaces, San Diego City Council Hearing on Homelessness

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March (and sing!) for homeless San Diegans on March 18, be an advocate for compassion and solutions on March 20

By Women Occupy San Diego

On Saturday, March 18, we envision a marching band led by the Euphoria Brass Band and the San Diego Women’s Drum Circle and community singalong as testament to the healing power of music — a gathering for the voices of our homeless San Diegans to be heard, amplified by the voices of housed San Diegans who believe every San Diegan deserves a safe place to live.

This March of Voices will occur two days before a special meeting of the San Diego City Council to hear solutions to homelessness on Monday, March 20, at 1 pm. at Golden Hall (Note time for Monday Council Meeting changed from 2 to 1 pm. )   [Read more…]

Volunteers Raise High the Roof Beams for Emergency, Very Affordable Housing in San Diego

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Amikas Emergency Housing Expo

The super bloom of wild flowers in the most inhospitable of places–the Anza Borrego desert– has captured the attention of San Diegans, who are flocking to get a glimpse of this short lived phenomenon.

Closer to home, an equally remarkable blossoming takes the form of the cluster of cabins that has sprung up like wild flowers at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in North Park. San Diego has been the most inhospitable of places for enacting solutions to our growing humanitarian crisis of homelessness. Volunteer activists from Amikas have stepped into the leadership vacuum, displaying what can be done to address the immediate housing needs of the most vulnerable among us.

The demonstration project that volunteers designed and are building on the church site represent one low cost, practical approach to providing bridge housing by way of small communities with safe sleeping cabins.   [Read more…]

Aliso Canyon’s Fate – and Ours – Hangs in the Balance

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By Amy Knight / SanDiego350

Considered one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, the record-setting release of methane from SoCal Gas’s Aliso Canyon in October 2015 had both long-term climate altering consequences for the world and immediate health consequences for the people of the greater Los Angeles area. The leak went on for 112 days, emitted 65 billion cubic feet of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, and prompted the evacuation of more than 6,800 households.

Today, the California public can make their voice heard, can be part of choosing the path we will go down from here. SanDiego350 calls on you to phone Senator Ben Hueso (619-409-7690) and ask him to bring SB 57 up for vote in the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communication Committee – and to vote yes on it. The bill prohibits SoCal Gas from injecting any more natural gas into Aliso Canyon until a root cause analysis of the leak is determined. It also calls on the CPUC to finalize by 12/31/2017 its study that will investigate the feasibility of closing the Aliso Canyon facility.   [Read more…]

Jewish Family Service and Dreams for Change: Doing Good Deeds Together

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Here in “America’s Finest City”, the weather is nice year round while rentals are very high, and many families live paycheck to paycheck. This situation is also the reason why there are so many homeless people in San Diego and worse yet- homeless families.

However, two very mensch organizations have paired up to help: Dreams for Change and Jewish Family Service. Next year will be the 100th anniversary of JFS, so this non-profit has been serving the community for a long time with its various programs that strive to help others by empowering individuals and families, sponsoring and supporting refugees, and fostering community connection and engagement. JFS’s mission is to build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient San Diego.   [Read more…]

Internal White House Analysis of Trumpcare: Even Worse Than CBO Predicted

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70% of those who gained insurance through the ACA will lose their insurance in the first year….

By Mark Sumner / Daily Kos

The Trump White House, in an effort to double-check the ugly numbers coming from the Congressional Budget Office, ran their own analysis to determine the results of the new healthcare bill. And just as they suspected, the CBO is wrong … because it’s worse.

The executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, versus the 24 million CBO estimates. The White House has made efforts to discredit the forecasts from the nonpartisan CBO.   [Read more…]

New Lifeguard Procedures Delay Rescues, Waste Taxpayer Money

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By Ed Harris / OB Rag

On December 15th, 2016 San Diego Lifeguard River Rescue team members were holding a deployment briefing prior to an imminent storm.

Fifteen minutes before they were to deploy, they were given a new standard operating procedure. The new SOP was part of an executive order mandated by the new Fire Chief.

There were several changes that have a negative operational effect on the Lifeguards as well as a negative budgetary effect for all of us.   [Read more…]

Return of the Freewayblogger!

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By Freewayblogger / Daily Kos

How mad do you need to get? How many lies do you have delivered straight to your face by this administration? How long do you just sit there and take it?

I’ll be honest with you, if it wasn’t for a bizarre set of circumstances I’d never have started doing this. And if someone else had I’d think it was a great idea. I’d cheer them on, but I wouldn’t start doing it myself. Why? I don’t know. Same reasons most of you don’t I suppose: it’s too dangerous, I’d probably get caught, it’s just something I don’t do.   [Read more…]

Why the Only Way to Fix the Muslim Ban Is Not to Have a Muslim Ban

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The revised executive order has the same fundamental flaws. We’re going to keep fighting it.

By Cody Wofsy, Skadden Fellow, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project / ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

Today President Trump signed a new Muslim ban. The new executive order is a major retreat by the administration, reflecting that, as courts around the country have recognized, the original order was deeply flawed and totally unjustified. But the fundamental truth of this new order, like the old one, remains unchanged: The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and the ban is his attempt to make good on that unconstitutional and indefensible goal.   [Read more…]

Planned Parenthood Says No to Trump; Women’s Right to Choose is “Non-Negotiable”

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Trumpcare effectively destroys access to affordable women’s healthcare services

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

Women’s healthcare providers are readying for a fight. Refusing to back down from its commitment to women’s choice, Planned Parenthood is now at risk of losing nearly 40 percent of its funding—and is calling for a massive mobilization to resist the attack on women’s health.

Ahead of the official release of House Republicans’ the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Monday evening—which guts funding for any healthcare organization that “provides for abortions”—Planned Parenthood reportedly rejected an offer from the White House to stop terminating pregnancies in exchange for the group to continue receiving federal funds for other essential services.

“Offering money to Planned Parenthood to abandon our patients and our values is not a deal that we will ever accept,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, according to the New York Times. “Providing critical health care services for millions of American women is non-negotiable.”   [Read more…]

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