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Five Stages of Republican Grief (A Tribute to the U-T’s Steve Breen)

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By Annie Lane
Last week I came across a Steve Breen cartoon in the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled “Mapping Bob Filner’s Brain” (see left). I had quite the guffaw. I mean, if guffaws were redefined to be humorless, silent events that’s what it was.

I find it interesting that, given Breen’s skill and Pulitzer Prize history, the brain he chose to draw was so boorishly simple. Don’t worry, I get it — it’s intended to represent the supposedly simple mind of our union-sympathizing, anti-hotelier mayor.

But it doesn’t matter what multi-syllabic, mildly offensive adjectives Breen uses to describe Bob Filner because, at the end of the day, he’s still the elected mayor of San Diego. You know, the guy who, like most Democrats in the 2012 election, fairly won against his Republican counterpart.   [Read more…]

‘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…]

Field of View: Barrio Logan

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In spite of being surrounded by freeway on-ramps and overpasses that attempt to make it appear like an oversight, Barrio Logan represents a culture and community that’s decidedly alive. It’s something that can be felt within seconds of parking, and seen in nearly every direction by way of the skillfully executed murals throughout the neighborhood.   [Read more…]

You Make My Heart Sing

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A Shout Out to the Arizona Wildcat Basketball Team

Hey, you, Wildcats!
Man!
You could never understand
how you make my heart sing
when you take to the courts and do your thing.
It’s downright thrilling, appealing,
exhilarating, fulfilling…
And I’m sitting here in my den, chilling,
thinking of rhymes about how y’all beat Belmont
like they were no more than children out to play,
no more than feathers in a hurricane’s way,
and you attached yourselves to Harvard
like leeches feasting on fat prey,
like gloom on a nasty stormy day.
…..   [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…]

The Starting Line – Student Achievement Test Scores Are a Failed Metric

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 A discussion on Twitter with Voice of San Diego’s CEO Scott Lewis yesterday prompted me to dig deeper into the whole question of how and when we use student achievement tests today.

This all started with my critical (and cynical) take on a story published by VOSD about superintendent-designee Cindy Marten. The account led with (and makes much of) test data showing other elementary schools had better rates of improvement on test scores than Central Elementary, where she has reigned as principal over the last few years.

I erroneously assumed in closing yesterday’s column (by saying ‘that dog won’t hunt anymore’) that the realization of just how flawed and failed the use of test scores as a primary measure of educational progress was by now widely evident. I was wr…wr…wrr…wrong. Smart people still haven’t gotten the message.   [Read more…]

A Tale of two City Council Meetings

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The contentious, adversarial nature of one meeting gives way to the spirit of cooperation and common ground.

What a difference a couple of days make, eh? Last Tuesday the San Diego City Council—save one member—looked like it was fully intent on joining forces with the local hotel lobby to declare an all out war on the newly elected Mayor. The Mayor was backed into a corner while the Council attempted to force him to sign a contract he was vehemently opposed to signing. But this Council was unbowed, determined to show the mayor just exactly who ran this city—they would show him who was in charge.

It was a rather embarrassing episode, really.

At the conclusion of agenda item S501, it was clear what interests the City Council represented, and it wasn’t those of the voters who elected them. Their strings were being pulled by someone else.   [Read more…]

Awash Ethiopian Restaurant: A Home Away From Home for African Immigrants

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In 1980, Aster Keleta arrived in San Diego. It was just three months before the United States began granting Ethiopians refugee status. Seeking citizenship was more arduous, but it allowed her to settle in and be of assistance to other incoming Ethiopians, a passion of hers that has continued on for over 30 years.

With the stability she has gained in her professional career, she recently decided to plunge back into the restaurant business once again. Aster and her partner Dr Carrol Waymon are now the new owners of Awash, an Ethiopian restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard at 50th St. Aster admits that she has missed having the creative freedom of running her own business, which also allows her the opportunity to reconnect with her identity and culture.   [Read more…]

Field of View: North Park

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What I enjoy most about North Park is the diversity of the neighborhood. Within minutes you can be transported from University Avenue, a central hub with its “big city” grunge (in a good way) feel to a more traditional residential area — complete with charming Craftsman homes of every color and accompanying architectural landscapes. I have spent many an hour walking the streets of North Park’s neighborhoods with my dog and never, ever got bored of the scenery.

Also interesting is the fact that there is a relatively even mixture of apartment complexes and homes — a cohabitation of owners and renters that doesn’t work so well in many other parts of San Diego. I lived in North Park near Morley Field for two years and never had a problem despite the foot and car traffic along Texas Street. In fact, if you’re looking for some good trick-or-treating action come Halloween, Texas Street is the place for you.   [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…]

Springtime and the Art of Wisteria Hunting in San Diego

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People in the eastern part of the country tend to think that Southern California is the land of no seasons and perpetual sunshine. Those of us who live here can produce rubber rain boots and hefty heating bills as proof otherwise.

This is my twenty-sixth spring in our little house on 45th Street in City Heights. Every February I start sniffing the air like a winter crazed creature until one day I can smell….It! “It” is an almost imperceptible whiff of a delicate green freshness rising from the moist cold earth and carried on the wind. I can hear Colette’s words– “To sing of spring would never do for me; I must go to meet it when it first strikes out through the long shadows, feeling its way…”

By mid- February the immense jasmine vine outside my window is filled with slender claret colored buds. It will burst into a cloud of fragrant shooting stars within a few weeks if the weather is warm. Spring, like all of the other seasons, is unpinned from calendar reckoning.   [Read more…]

The Southern California Major Dailies Failed Miserably in “Commemorating” the 10 Year Anniversary of the Iraq War

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The LA Times and the U-T San Diego Continue the Deception of Ten Years With Their Failure to Discuss the War

Southern California is home to two major daily newspapers – each from the major cities in this part of the country: the Los Angeles Times and the U-T San Diego.

In a review of their coverage of the ten year anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, I found them to be woefully inadequate in any discussion about “lessons learned” on the war, the invasion, or the run-up to the conflict.  I especially searched to see whether they went further and exposed the falsehoods and lies that the Bush administration told the public to convince us to go to war.

Those of us who suffer the U-T would not be too surprised to learn that the Manchester daily would not get too involved with a critique of the Bush’s deceptions and misrepresentations.  However, one would have thought the LA Times – once the bastion of liberalness on the West Coast – would have at least attempted to put together some kind of journalistic endeavor in examining all the ways that the American people were misled a decade ago.   [Read more…]

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