San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Keeping San Diego Seafood Local

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Sustainable Seafood / Slow Food Urban San Diego

The Port of San Diego envisions redeveloping the “Central Embarcadero” an area that includes Tuna Harbor, where the majority of San Diego’s active commercial fishermen dock their boats. “Tuna Harbor is central to San Diego’s cultural history as a fishing community,” says Pete Halmay, San Diego sea urchin fisherman. “It was the hub of San Diego fishing for a 100 years and is central to our local industry today.”

Today, San Diegans have little access to locally-caught seafood, even though we are a waterfront city. The U.S. imports over 90% of its seafood and San Diego fishermen are hard pressed to sell their catch locally. The redevelopment represents an opportunity to invest in our local fisheries and reconnect with our local seafood system. It’s up to the San Diego to commit to this.   [Read more…]

The Big Difference at Standing Rock Is Native Leadership All Around

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By Sarah van Gelder / Yes! Magazine

This year’s massive buildup of resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline follows closely on the heels of the victory over Keystone XL pipeline, something often credited to feverish organizing by 350.org. But years before 350’s involvement, there was the Indigenous Environmental Network, which launched that movement and its “Keep It In the Ground” messaging. This time, with nearly 200 tribes unified behind the Standing Rock tribe’s opposition to the pipeline and more than 3,000 people gathered at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, Native Americans are clearly leading the movement.   [Read more…]

Looking Back at the Week: September 11-17

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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, and sourced writers on: the race in D9, the City Attorney campaign, feeling meh about D3 county contest, bad news money blues, Obama’s wilderness legacy, a water goddess, Chargerfication, Standing Rock, Buddhist econ, 58% supporting marijuana legalization, déjà vu in North County, and lots of other grassroots news & progressive views from San Diego’s friendly, neighborhood, all volunteer, slightly funky, community news site.   [Read more…]

A Water Goddess Who Appears and Disappears Suddenly

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Oh, I remember days, just a few years ago, when memories of Nancy (my very dearly departed soulmate) would weaken me in the knees and draw heavy tears from my eyes … but thank goodness such dreary days eventually wither and die.

Now, when she comes to my mind’s eye, it’s a welcomed occasion, and she’ll usually surface at a real nice time.

Like everytime one of our grandchildren is born I can’t help but see her as a Grandma: getting little Lyric Allen or Marley Mandela or Indigo Maya (or all of them at the same time) in a headlock on the living room floor, they giggling uncontrollably; guiding them into swimmers on our Pacific shores; holding them to her breast with every ounce of the deep well of love that dwelled in her; making them pose for more photographs than should be legal; singing them silly made-up-on-the-spot ditties and songs…   [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Beneath the Bixby Bridge

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Beautified Kerouac
lost his mind
in a cabin beneath the Bixby Bridge

Sleeper waves
wash the grey matter up
onto beaches from Big Sur to Mendocino   [Read more…]

The City’s Upcoming Bad News Money Blues

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The sunny optimism of the Faulconer administration continues even as the dark clouds signifying stormy weather gather on the horizon.

A looming $380 million spike in pension costs and the possibility of $300+ million in damages from class action lawsuits have made their way into the news over the past few days. The first budgetary hit can be described as an act of God (though some conservatives will probably blame Obamacare); the second should best be described as an act of stupidity.

Welcome to Friday, when I get to take a break from the pre-election analysis of candidates and ballot measures to point out other news for the conscious consumer. And I’ll top it all off with the weekly calendar of progressive events.   [Read more…]

Safe and Affordable Drinking Water: The Value of One Vote

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Water Board District Elections and Your Drinking Water

South Bay! Do you know where your drinking water comes from? Not from San Diego County, that’s for sure. This semi-arid, bone-dry environment has seen droughts since settlers came to the region in the early 1900s.

San Diego County must import about 85 percent of its water. Rainwater, in good years, only accounts for about 5-10 percent maximum of water supplies. As a consequence, water districts have been focusing on becoming more water independent while still keeping water rates low for customers. Instead of importing more water from the Sierra Mountains and the Colorado River, both of which are drying up, water districts are looking towards local recycling and desalination plants.   [Read more…]

Art Auction To Raise Funds For 400-Acre Purchase of Local Wildlife Habitat

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Open space campaign aims to protect wildlife corridor

By Adrienne Fuller / Hell Hole Canyon

The Friends of Hellhole Canyon have announced the launch of their capital campaign, raising funds to purchase roughly 400 acres of wildlife habitat next to the Hellhole Canyon Open Space Preserve.

Their goal? Make sure wildlife has the room to roam and reproduce.

The whole preserve, a nearly 2,000-acre park located on the east side of Valley Center, is a pristine chaparral ecosystem home to many endangered and threatened species. The park is owned and managed by San Diego County Parks and Recreation, and welcomes hikers and equestrians to enjoy its trails.   [Read more…]

Vista Planning Commission Meeting a Case of Déjà Vu

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A couple of days ago I came across an article in the Vista Press about the September 6 meeting of the city’s Planning Commission, during which a developer’s site plan to build a 41-unit apartment complex along Creek Walk in downtown Vista was approved (A Two Water Bottle Night at the City Planning Commission Meeting, Sept. 9).

Writer Pat Murphy’s description of the meeting was eerily reminiscent of the August 25, 2015, Carlsbad City Council meeting, where a developer’s plan to build a shopping mall on the banks of the Hedionda Lagoon was unanimously approved — despite an overflow audience of residents voicing their opposition to the project.

Murphy called Vista’s meeting a “two water bottle night” to describe the lengthy session, with standing room only attendance for opponents of the project. The first to speak was an individual introducing herself as a representative of a group calling themselves, “Vistans for a Livable Community.” That sounded to me a lot like the group that dubbed themselves “Citizens for North County,” who spearheaded the defeat of the developer’s plan for Carlsbad.   [Read more…]

County Supervisors D3 Contest: A Whole Lotta Meh

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County Supervisor Dave Roberts is in the fight of his political life. He’s the lone Democrat (first in two decades, actually) in a powerful political entity with few of the checks and balances Americans expect to find in government.

He’s tried to go along to get along, continually stressing the virtues of the entire board in public statements. But a series of poor management (and maybe personal) decisions, costing the county $310,000 in legal settlements, within Robert’s office created an opening for local Republicans.

They’re pressing their advantage, hoping for a return to the one-party system that’s served them well in the past. The race for District 3 supervisor is one of the few bright spots on the local GOP’s horizon.   [Read more…]

58% of California Voters Support Marijuana Legalization

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Proposition 64 Enjoys Wide Support Among Most Voter Categories

A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that a good majority of California voters support marijuana legalization and back Proposition 64.

58% of voters in the state support Prop 64, which would allow Californians ages 21 or older to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes, and would allow individuals to grow as many as six plants. The measure would also impose a 15% tax on retail sales of the drug.

And according to the poll, the favorable attitude toward grass cuts across most lines of age, race, income and gender.   [Read more…]

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