San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

SDPD Bias Report Fails to Answer Basic Questions

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Long-awaited data from San Diego State researchers on the question of racial bias in city policing has surfaced via a draft report in the form of a powerpoint presentation and it’s next to worthless.

The San Diego City Council Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee is getting a glimpse of the draft and hearing from the researchers Wednesday afternoon. You can bet their conclusions will include the phrases “more research” and “inconclusive,” words we all should be used to by now when it comes to holding law enforcement authorities to a standard.

The report will point out some already-known disparities, namely that Black and Latino drivers are nearly 2 times as likely to be searched, while Black drivers are 44% less likely to be found with contraband; and Latinos are 46% less likely to have contraband.   [Read more…]

San Diego Poised to Act on Short Term Vacation Rentals

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Two Important Meetings re: STVRs on Calendar

Residents of the coastal neighborhoods who have been fighting short term vacation rentals (STVRs) are happy right now – relatively speaking – as it appears that the City of San Diego is finally poised to act on them.

One of the key organizations in this fight is Save San Diego Neighborhoods, and they are trying to mobilize their supporters for two critical meetings coming up, October 25th and November 1st.   [Read more…]

Donald Trump Is a Serial Anti-Semite

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Trump’s chronic anti-Semitism is often overlooked among the laundry list of the GOP candidate’s bigotry and offensive comments

By Peter Dreier / AlterNet

When this campaign is over, let’s not forget Donald Trump’s steady use of anti-Semitic stereotypes and images throughout the campaign—ideas we can expect he’ll continue to use when the election is over and he tries to re-invent himself as the leader of a white supremacist nationalist movement and the public face of a new media empire (Trump TV?) with his supporters Roger Ailes (former head of Fox News who has a history of making anti-Semitic comments and was responsible for Fox News’ anti-Semitic crusade against the phony “war on Christmas”), Stephen Bannon (head of Breitbart News known for his own anti-Semitic remarks), and hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer (the money behind Breitbart News).

Trump’s anti-Semitism comes in different shapes and sizes. He verbalizes it, encourages it, enables it, tolerates it, and makes excuses for it. What he doesn’t do is condemn it.   [Read more…]

E.Y. Yip Harburg: Blacklisted Left Wing Songwriter

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Lyricist for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

E.Y. Yip Harburg (1896-1981) was born Isidore Hochberg on New York’s lower east side of Russian immigrant parents. His nickname, Yipsel, was later shortened to Yip. Unlike many of his contemporary songwriters like George and Ira Gershwin, with whom he was friends, Yip grew up in poverty and never forgot it.

He was known as “the social conscience of Broadway”. He wrote the words to over 600 songs including all the lyrics for the 1939 production “Over the Rainbow” starring Judy Garland. The music was composed by his collaborator, Harold Arlen. He wrote the words for the classic anthem of the depression, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime.”   [Read more…]

Election Desperation Sets in for Beleaguered Republicans

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Barring unforeseen circumstances, Hillary Clinton will be elected as the next President of the United States on November 8, 2016. What remains to be seen is the margin of victory.

As of this morning, nearly 9 million people have already voted. Over the next week-and-a-half, as many as 40 million more people are going to head to the polls. Democrats are doing well in places like Virginia, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina. Republicans are outpacing 2012 levels in Ohio and Iowa. There is no path for Donald Trump if he loses just one of those states.

As much as some talking heads want us to believe the race for the nation’s top job is still an open question, it’s not. Watching some of these clowns try to spin the mounting evidence about the likely outcome would be humorous if it wasn’t so pathetic. And, of course, YOU still must vote.   [Read more…]

Measure A: How SANDAG Undermines Transit, Environmental, and Social Goals

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By Murtaza H. Baxamusa / UrbDeZine

Nearly a third of all counties in California are proposing a sales tax increase to fund transportation on this November’s ballot. But one stands out with organized opposition from an unprecedented coalition of labor, environmental and community groups. It is perhaps the only transportation measure where both political parties, and the main newspaper opposes it.

Why? In one word, SANDAG.

The San Diego Association of Governments (or SANDAG) is a unique super-governmental agency with unparalleled power over a single county with over three million residents. It spent almost $670 million of taxpayer funds last year.[i] It collects a tax of half-cents on every dollar of taxable sales in the entire county. And it remains an enigma to most San Diegans.   [Read more…]

Requiem for An Activist: Tom Hayden 1939-2016

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Tom Hayden died on Sunday.

The movement he played a role in inspiring lives on. A movement for racial and economic justice; for democracy; for peace; for the planet. A movement against injustice; against imperialism; against cruelty; against repression.

Hayden was smart: book smart and street smart. His gift in politics stemmed from an ability to connect the dots between small events and their place in the broader political picture.

His life was dedicated to activism.   [Read more…]

The Environmental Justice Argument Against Measure A

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The campaign for Measure A was busy this week sending one mailer to Democrats greenwashing their flawed initiative by citing an Astroturf “environmental coalition” that popped up just in time for the election, while in another mailer to Republicans they signaled that conservatives should vote for A because environmentalists and labor oppose it. Welcome to dishonest, doublethink business as usual politics in San Diego brought to you by moneyed interests.

Of course the reality is, as anyone who has paid attention to this column knows, that progressive labor and nearly all of the serious organizations that care about climate and environmental justice oppose Measure A. A few weeks ago, I published a column I co-wrote with Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Campaign and Nick Segura of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers outlining Measure A’s fatal flaws from a progressive perspective. This was followed in subsequent weeks by columns on Measures A’s deep inadequacies with regard to sustainability and climate by Jana Clark of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation and Save Our Forest and Ranchlands, and David Harris of SD 350 and Ruben Arizmendhi of the Sierra Club San Diego.

This week, I am pleased to share this space with Diane Takvorian, the Executive Director of the Environmental Health Coalition who will make the environmental justice case against Measure A.   [Read more…]

Book Release: Reclaiming Our Stories: Narratives of Identity, Resilience and Empowerment

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San Diego City Works Press is proud to announce the publication and release of our new book, Reclaiming Our Stories: Narratives of Identity, Resilience and Empowerment edited by Mona Alsoraimi-Espiritu, Roberta Alexander, and Manuel Paul Lopez.  This is truly a special publication.  All are invited to the release event on October 28th at 7 PM at the World Beat Center (2100 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101), where there will be readings, books for sale, and light refreshments.

Reclaiming Our Stories gathers 19 powerful narratives written by members of the Reclaiming Our Stories Community Writers Workshop located in Southeast San Diego. The authors took great risk bringing these narratives to fruition. These are stories that pulsate with the kind of vitality that can only be constructed out of pain, love, and outrage. Almost all of the authors are emerging writers who reached deeply into their lives to excavate these offerings that, in the end, rise in triumph.   [Read more…]

Meanwhile, in REAL News

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Looking Back at the Week: October 16-22

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This week’s edition of Looking Back at the Week features articles, commentaries, columns, and other work by San Diego Free Press regulars, irregulars, columnists, at-large contributors, and sourced writers on: Measures J, K & L, Trump funders enter D9 race, why Measure A is bad, why Measure A is not bad, voting Clinton, National Boss Day, making the CC better, the mental pain of Trump’s misogyny, the financialization of America, more pollution coming to Barrio Logan, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

Trump Galvanizes ‘Nasty’ Women Voters with Extreme and Incoherent Abortion Stance

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Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was applauded for her compassionate defense of women’s rights

By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams

Donald Trump’s misogyny was once again on full display Wednesday night, with the Republican nominee going so far as to call rival Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” during the final presidential debate. But, the candidates’ answers regarding abortion and the Supreme Court were the most revealing in terms of who would work to uphold the rights of women and would prove to be their “worst nightmare.”   [Read more…]

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