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‘State of Cycling in San Diego County’ – A Snapshot of the Region and Plans for the Future

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by John Anderson

Last Saturday, April 6, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC) hosted a ‘State of Cycling in San Diego County’ event in the Balboa Room of the historic Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park.

This event was held to mark the one-year anniversary of the 5-Year Strategic Plan the group adopted in 2012 and discuss progress and goals for the coming years. Every seat in the room was taken, plus some standing in the doorways. I counted approximately 60 people. A bicycle valet service was provided outside the hotel for attendees – a service the SDCBC also offered at the Padres home opener on Tuesday, April 8.   [Read more…]

Health Care Industry Charging an Arm and a Leg

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Now Doctors are Turning Away Cancer Patients

According to an article in the Washington Post on April 3, 2013, doctors are now turning away cancer patients who can’t pay out of pocket. We previously reported how MD Anderson, a leading cancer hospital in Houston, Texas demanded an upfront payment in cash from Sean Recchi before he would even be admitted to the hospital and about the mind boggling expense of prescription drugs. The patient by the way had health insurance. The admitting agent told him, “We don’t take that kind of discount insurance.” Fortunately, a family member was able to write the check for $83,900. that was demanded before treatment would begin.

Now doctors are doing the same thing – refusing to administer life saving drugs to Medicare cancer patients using the rationale that they they would be losing money because their payments from Medicare are reduced 2% by the sequester.   [Read more…]

It’s Up to Wrestling to Keep Me Alive

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When I was younger, I said that I didn’t want to die until my grandchildren graduated from high school. Of course when I said that I didn’t know that I would have 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Then, after so many of them graduated, I had to modify my statement to say that I didn’t want to die until my grandchildren graduated from college.

Now I find that I have to modify that statement again, because the twins – Landon and Logan – have filed for graduation from Cal St. Fullerton; Cody, my second grandson is a Junior at ASU, and the others are quickly catching up to them. So my latest “death wish” is that I do not die until I see Colin, my 14 year old grandson do two things: Win a wrestling scholarship to attend Stanford; and win a medal at Nationals. I also want to be at his graduation from Stanford. I figure he can achieve those goals in 10 years, and at 84 I could still have a positive life, be reasonably healthy, and continue my quest to find a companion.   [Read more…]

Pharmaceutical Corporations Gouging US Customers Out of Billion$ Every Year

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But Indian Supreme Court Rules Against Big Pharma

America spends about $200 billion a year on prescription drugs. It’s becoming part of American culture from preschool, where kids are started on Ritalin for ADHD, to old age where typical seniors are consuming an entire palette of pills for everything from arthritis to high blood pressure to cholesterol. Drugs are the fastest growing part of the health care bill.

In 2002 the average price for the fifty drugs most used by seniors was nearly $1500. for a year’s supply. That’s for each drug. Most seniors are taking an average of six.

Drug prices are highest for people who are the poorest. That’s because they have no insurance, and, therefore, no bargaining power. Drugs are marketed extensively by means of TV ads. Those ads are usually followed by ads for law firms trolling for clients who have been harmed by said drugs.   [Read more…]

Neighborhood Solar Power

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By Jay Powell 

Last week state Public Utilities Commissioners at a March 21 hearing threw down the gauntlet. Declaring that the sun don’t always shine and we have to guarantee reliable power for SDGE customers, they said San Diego had two, maybe three years to convince them not to let SDGE charge its customers for two new proposed gas-fired “peaker” power plants.

Peaking power is needed usually on the hottest days when air conditioners and other appliances and equipment are cranked up full. This is, of course when solar photovoltaic panels are at their optimum output. But there is a purported catch. SDGE and conventional power plant developers claim that there is a lag time in the late afternoon when solar generators output is waning, but peak loads continue to require more electricity. That is one of their key arguments for a new kind of peaker plant that best runs in an “intermittent mode”. They even claim that these plants are essential to promote more renewable energy.

So what is it going to take to meet this challenge? First, we are going to have to recognize that the deck is heavily stacked in favor of SDGE and conventional power plant developers. In spite of the promise and demonstrated potential of solar energy and energy efficiency, the current energy supply paradigm favors building more power plants and more transmission lines. The regulatory framework is set to reward that kind of system. Since the PUC is required to provide the investor owned utilities (IOUs) like SDGE a guaranteed rate of return on their asset base, the more they build and own, the more they make.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Score One for the Taxpayers; Hoteliers Reach Agreement with Mayor Filner

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Oh, the sweet, sweet irony. Mayor Bob Filner’s refusal to sign off on an operating agreement for the San Diego Tourism Marketing District has led to a firestorm of criticism over the past two months. He’s been vilified at the UT-San Diego, which just this week ran an editorial cartoon depicting the Mayor as The Joker, a villain from the Batman comic/TV/Movie series.

Letters to editor have claimed Filner hates the tourism industry, that he’s purposely tried to cause job loss and even demanded a recall election.

Yesterday, after much posturing and pressure, the City Council endorsed an agreement that protected San Diego taxpayers, created more transparency and encouraged funding for the Balboa Park Exposition Centennial. It wasn’t everything Filner asked for, but his point was made. Business as it used to be conducted downtown will be operating under a different set of rules during his administration.

Credit goes to City Councilman David Alvarez, whose intervention led to the settlement. The “Joker” just saved San Diego taxpayers $30 million should the TMD scheme be ruled illegal.   [Read more…]

The North Park – Mid-City Project Has More Bike Lanes – Commercial Routes or Residential Streets?

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The second Community Advisory Group (CAG) Meeting for the North Park – Mid-City Bike Corridors Project took place March 6, 2013 at 6 PM at the Sunset Temple in North Park (3911 Kansas Street, 92104). The project aims to create two or three enhanced bicycle routes from the Mid-City area to Hillcrest and further the city’s bike friendly agenda. Approximately 60 attendees of the meeting were broken into five smaller groups to discuss the three primary route options.

San Diego, with gorgeous weather, an active populace, and much open space won’t be found on the top 10 most bike-friendly cities from CNN. Nor on the top 50 from Bicycling. We can do so much better! San Diego can, and should be the premier bicycling community in the nation and among the top in the world. All it takes is a populace willing to work for healthier, happier, more vibrant lives and to speak up.   [Read more…]

Full Access to Cedar Creek Falls Will Open April 5 With Visitor Use Permit System

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from East County Magazine

Starting April 5th, hiking to Cedar Creek Falls will require a visitor permit. Access from the San Diego River Gorge Trailhead in Ramona is also set to reopen. The trailhead has been closed since the death of an El Cajon teen who fell over the top of the falls in July 2011. A second trailhead reopened last year.

With the opening, the U.S. Forest Service is implementing a Visitor Use Permit System that will limit the number of visitors to Cedar Creek Falls, while providing for protection of natural resources and enhancing public health and safety.

Under the visitor use permit system, a permit will only be required while recreating within the Cedar Creek Falls visitor use permit area, which is located in the immediate area around the falls. Visitors will need to make a reservation online and pay a $6.00 permit fee. Other trail users who are not recreating within the visitor use permit area surround the falls will not be required to obtain a visitor use permit. All users of the trailhead are allowed to use and park in the San Diego River Gorge Trailhead parking lot free-of-charge. It is important to note that the visitor use permit is a not a parking permit – limited parking space is available at the San Diego River Gorge Trailhead and is offered on a first-come, first served basis.   [Read more…]

Hospitals to US Citizens: Your Money or Your Life

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Chargemaster: Hospitals’ Killer App for Sucking Your Financial Blood Dry – Part 4

Hospital care in the US has morphed into a multi-headed monster in which every advance in medical technology ups the cost of medical care. What Matt Taibbi said about Goldman Sachs in a Rolling Stone article applies to hospitals as well: “[They are] a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming [their] blood funnel[s] into anything that smells like money.”

More expensive technologies like cat scans are used when less expensive ones would be adequate to do the job. In addition to the economic incentives to use more expensive technology and equipment, there’s the legal incentive that doctors are less likely to be sued if they administer every test under the sun and use the most expensive equipment. Drugs that are administered to cancer patients can cost tens of thousands of dollars a shot.

The Chargemaster is a humungus computer file which details every charge that a hospital can add to a patient’s bill from a lowly aspirin to heart surgery. A recent perusal of a Chargemaster for San Diego’s Scripps Memorial Hospital revealed over 54,000 items.

These charges are so far removed from actual costs to the hospitals (most of which are non-profits) that the US spends twice as much on health care as most other advanced nations – 20% of GDP compared to 10%.   [Read more…]

Proposed City of San Diego Medical Marijuana Dispensary Regulations with Map of Proposed Zones

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San Diego MedMJ map zonesMayor Filner Proposed 2% tax, $5000 annual licensing fee, and collectives / cooperatives in limited commercial and industrial zones; Full Council Votes March 25th

From Americans for Safe Access / March 15, 2013

Over the years, medical marijuana patients in San Diego have endured a lack of representation in local governments, raids, lawsuits, eradication efforts, federal interference, and outright misinformation about the issue. Fortunately, now we have a new Mayor who sides with compassion instead of ignorance and is willing to move forward with regulations.

After attending the January San Diego Americans for Safe Access Meeting, where he promised to move forward with regulations, Mayor Bob Filner began working on a proposal to bring to council.
  [Read more…]

State Public Utilities Commission to vote today – March 21 – on SDG&E’s $1.5 billion power plant scheme.

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From the Sierra Club

Numerous elected officials—including San Diego Mayor Bob Filner and County Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Dave Roberts—the Sierra Club, Environmental Health Coalition, Save Mission Trails, and SD350.org are calling for the CPUC to cast the final affirmative vote on its preliminary decision, which determined that the power plants should be rejected because SDG&E could not prove that they are needed to meet our region’s energy needs.

Elected officials and opponents are declaring that our region is already on a local, clean energy path and dirty energy is no longer welcome.

The San Diego region leads the nation with over 15,000 rooftop and parking lot solar installations, generating approximately 150 megawatts in support of the local grid and fueling a rapidly expanding job base.

UPDATE: The PUC voted 5-0 against the power plants.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – San Diego’s Double Standard on Electioneering Dirty Tricks

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Last week I reported on misleading mailers being sent to residents in San Diego’s District 4. There’s a special election on March 26th for the City Council seat vacated late last year by Tony Young. I profiled District 4 and the nine candidates last week.

Chances are nobody will win this contest outright (50%+1 is required), so the real deal next Tuesday is about who will make it into the runoff. And it looks to me like our local Republicans, even though they don’t have anything more than a token candidate in the race, are trying their best to influence the outcome.

This contest is important to all San Diegans because the winner will likely be a key vote on a City Council hesitant to get with Mayor Filner’s program to shift the emphasis of development away from downtown and towards the many neighborhoods of our city. And it’s already very clear that our downtown interests aren’t going to give up their privileged position at the public trough without a fight.   [Read more…]

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