San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

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 Go outside and look around at our out-of-date and crumbling roads, bridges, dams, airports, water systems, and electrical grid.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…]

Looking Back at the Week: March 12-18

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, toons, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, cartoonists, and sourced writers on: The Duncan & Darrell Show, labor talks with the County, American style dehumanization, G.I. José, craft beer in the South Bay, Trump BS, My Lai, Pepe’s, upcoming homeless hearing, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

John Steinbeck’s Road Map For Resisting Donald Trump

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A recent blog post of the National Book Critics Circle asked members “at this time of cultural shift” in the dawning era of Donald Trump to identify their “favorite work of resistance literature.” The writer Paul Wilner identified John Steinbeck’s “quietly furious” strike novel In Dubious Battle as his personal choice.

“We may not see the future lying before us,” Wilner explained, “but Steinbeck has provided a valuable road map to the lessons of the past. He may have fought kicking and screaming against the label of ‘engaged’ writer–he’ll never be confused with Sartre, to his credit–but he understood the power, as well as the perils, of resistance.”

True enough, but my choice of road map for resisting Donald Trump would be The Moon Is Down, the play-novella John Steinbeck wrote during the early, dark days of World War II about anti-fascist resistance by the citizens of a Nazi-occupied country in northern Europe. Steinbeck’s little book inspired citizen resistance in Nazi-occupied territories from the Baltic to the Black Sea. It contains practical advice for Americans opposed to Donald Trump’s attitudes and actions as president, 75 years after it was written.   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Draft

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A gust of air
rushed walls
blew open the bound city
rustled through pages
turned over

Leaves   [Read more…]

Progressive Activist Calendar, March 17-28, 2017

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The Randian nightmare, also known as the Trump administration continues to unfold. A budget plan presented by the White House this week is a boon for billionaires and kick in the teeth for the rest of us.

It should be clear by now we’re in for a long struggle. There are ongoing activities, organizations to support, and organizing to be done. AND, we should try to have a little fun along the way! Take a walk, have a talk, read a book, and turn off the internet from time-to-time.

So what will you do? Check out this week’s Progressive Activist Calendar listings below. Following those listings are upcoming events of national importance, along with opportunities for organizational involvement.

  [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…]

Poverty Rates in the South Bay and My Rant About Beer

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Chula Vista is the second largest city in San Diego County. The South Bay has approximately 450,000 residents. If San Diegans mean to say, “The biggest hurdle has been trying to get someone from Carlsbad to come down to National City and Chula Vista to drink beer.” Okay. Fair Enough.

I’d then ask: When was the last time people from the South Bay went North of downtown San Diego? It’s too far. There’s very little culture up there — very little to do.   [Read more…]

Delta Group Unveils Sustainable Water Plan for California

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By Dan Bacher

Proponents of Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels plan constantly claim that the project, called the “California WaterFix,” is the “solution” to addressing California’s water supply and ecosystem needs, while tunnels opponents say it will do nothing to address either.

As a sustainable counter proposal to the environmentally destructive and enormously expensive California WaterFix, Restore the Delta (RTD) on March 14 released a survey of water projects and proposals that improve California’s regional water sustainability and provide good-paying jobs.

“California’s Sustainable Water Plan highlights projects in communities statewide that are far smarter investments than Jerry Brown’s controversial and expensive Delta Tunnels (CA WaterFix) proposal,” according to a news release from RTD.   [Read more…]

Mayor Faulconer Says No to Trump Immigration Scheme

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Mayor Kevin Faulconer issued a memorandum on Wednesday, March 15, saying San Diego will not be participating a federal program deputizing local law enforcement officers to perform the duties of immigration authorities.

I learned about the memorandum, which came in response to an earlier letter from Councilmembers Chris Ward, David Alvarez, and Georgette Gomez, by way of social media from the 9th District councilman.

I get multiple press releases from the Mayor’s office daily, but somehow this one didn’t rate a mention. I’ve already been informed twice, for instance, hizzoner will be first in line on Thursday afternoon at Stone Brewing’s Liberty Station to taste “Full Circle Pale Ale, the first local craft beer brewed with advanced-treated recycled water from the city’s “Pure Water” facility.”   [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…]

Super Blooms, Desert and Death

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When I lost my job, I thought about death. And there is no better place to indulge in grave thoughts than a desert. And there is no better desert in California than in Anza Borrego, the state’s first desert park. So when I was laid off this week, I headed east to the land of cairns and the emergent “super blooms” in the country’s largest state park in the lower forty-eight.   [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…]

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