By Louis Rodolico
While development continues unabated in UTC we are arguing over removing yet another planned road: the Regents Road Bridge. The Planning Group is maintaining its myopic view and does not allow the two thirds of the community, who favor the bridge, on their board.
While we argue amongst ourselves other outside interests see an opening.
The photo shows how SANDAG installed the cross tracks at Rose Canyon, just south of the Regents Road Bridge abutment. The UCPG chair and others openly complained about this Dark Project. The unnecessary jogs to the north triggered environmental remediation north of the tracks. This remediation is on either side of the Regents Road Bridge Site and will likely serve as a bridge construction hurdle. The unbanked track jogs can trigger a safety objection to the bridge from Amtrak since derailments are more likely at jogs & switch tracks. [Read more…]
The official fall campaigning season is upon us. Labor Day marks the beginning of the final drives to persuade voters that it’s in their self-interest to cast ballots.
It used to be the goal of election campaigns was to persuade people it was in the national/regional/local interest to vote a certain way, but now that we’ve endured three decades of denigration of the institutions of government, it’s all about me, me, me.
Ayn Rand would be proud.
This week I’ve written about campaigns for US Senate, House of Representatives, & California Legislature. Meanwhile, odds and ends have accumulated in the Starting Line inbox needing saying.
So today’s the day. In a nutshell: Trump loves Putin, Sanchez is snarling, and Politifest is coming. [Read more…]
As many of you may know, the Imperial Beach Mayor is Serge Dedina. He was elected to office in 2014 for a four year term. Two other city council members are not up for election this year: Mayor Pro Tem Ed Spriggs and Councilmember Lorie Bragg.
This week, Spriggs wrote in to explain his position on Prop 59, calling on IB candidates to decline any contributions by Super PACs.
Furthermore, two city council seats are open this November. Current council member Brian Bilbray will not be running for re-election, so the only incumbent in the race is Robert Patton. A total of six candidates are running for the two city council seats.
This week, I contacted the City of Imperial Beach for election information. The City Clerk, Jacqueline Hald, provided me with the following important numbers: [Read more…]
The death penalty victimizes the innocent children and family members of condemned men and women. These are citizens of this country who have committed no crime, and yet, because of capital punishment’s ignominious existence, they are punished too.
Their state-sanctioned suffering, one that Californians will be directly responsible for promoting if they vote for Proposition 66, is severe.
For the children, just think about it: they didn’t do a damn thing wrong except be born. And then, on an especially dark, dreary, and evil day, they’re being brought to prison to see their pa or ma one last time. And they’re in some sterile room, and everyone’s watching; the warden, the prison chaplain, the press, a gaggle of attorneys and guards, all of them are watching to see how these children of the condemned are going to carry it. [Read more…]
There’s bad news and good news about the partisan makeup of San Diego’s representation in Sacramento in 2017.
The bad news is that there is no real competition among the eight local contests for the State Legislature. A few seats are changing hands, but the resulting differences among the newbies will be of style rather than substance.
The good news is that the Democrats likely to be representing the area are all of above average or better quality. What happens in contests elsewhere in California will have a significant influence on just how effective San Diego’s delegation can be. [Read more…]
According to a 2011/2012 San Diego Grand Jury Report, Tri-City Healthcare District Continuing Issues, May 30, 2012, “The Grand Jury believes the coming election to be an excellent opportunity for the electorate to remake the current Tri-City Hospital Board of Directors into a less distracting and more professional body.”
So, how did that go? In the four years since the 2012 election, the “remade” board fired its CEO, hired and fired his replacement, and hired another to take his place.
A series of failed lawsuits cost the hospital over $30 million in settlements, attorneys fees, and lost revenue resulting from bogus allegations related to the purchase of a medical office building that remains vacant to this day on the hospital’s campus. [Read more…]
Of the five electoral contests for the House of Representatives including San Diego voters only the 49th, encompassing the cities of Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad and Encinitas, looks to be competitive on November 8th. A small part of Orange County and the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton are also in the district.
Republican Darrell Issa is facing retired USMC Col. Douglas Applegate.
Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress (2015 estimate: up to $768 million), has all the advantages of incumbency, having served since 2001. Applegate has time and (dislike of) Trump on his side. [Read more…]
Noam Chomsky advocates voting for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party in states that are securely Democratic, and voting for Hillary in swing states where every vote counts. This makes a lot of sense because it’s one way, maybe the only way, to build a third party in this country.
Due to our antiquated voting system, a third party can never be successful. However, it could conceivably replace one of the two present day mainstream parties at some point.
Jill Stein stands for a lot of the things that Bernie and other Progressives stand for. But even if, by some stretch of the imagination, she were to be elected in November, she would still face a Republican Congress. Hillary is right when she seeks to tone down Bernie’s rhetoric and make more modest claims. [Read more…]
By Ed Spriggs
There is one proposition on the State ballot this year that hasn’t yet drawn much attention, and probably won’t. It doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t require anyone to do or change anything. It doesn’t prohibit anything. It doesn’t even benefit one citizen or group of individuals over another. It just supports the core principle of a democratic system of government – one that is of the people, by the people and for the people.
The principles imbedded in Proposition 59 are especially important for smaller cities like Imperial Beach. Why, because Proposition 59 supports the notion that big money Super PACs (i.e., independent-expenditure-only political action committees) should no longer be allowed to pour large amounts into elections, dwarfing any candidate’s direct spending, with the clear goal of influencing the outcome “independently” of the candidate being supported. [Read more…]
When legendary reggae band Black Uhuru began playing the hypnotically addictive, haunting, head-bobbing, foot-stomping beat of their world-famous song, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego (on the night of September 1st), a jovial, overly-sauced patron screamed out: “Black Uhuru is the best reggae band alive!”
And, more than anything else, it was this proclamation that best summed up the feel good, get-on-your-feet-and-dance vibes then pulsing through the Belly Up’s joyful, equally exuberant, filled to capacity crowd – who chanted in unison, at the top of their lungs – the song’s famous refrain and its opening lyric: “Guess who’s coming to dinner, Natty Dreadlocks.” [Read more…]
