San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

A History of Logan Heights’ Neighborhood House: Becoming Maria

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An introduction to the SDFP exclusive series The History of Neighborhood House: From Inception to Occupation

By Maria E. Garcia

I was born in Yuma, Arizona and came to San Diego at the age of three. With the exception of one year, when my mother had TB and we returned to Yuma so my aunts could help care for us, my whole life has been in San Diego County. Our first apartment in San Diego was at 33rd and Imperial Avenue. My parents, thinking a Catholic education was of value, sacrificed to send me to Saint Jude School. That’s where I learned that there was something wrong with being Mexican, and my name was changed to Mary Helen Garcia.

St Jude was my first experience with racism, a concept a shy six-year-old girl had not experienced until she met the nuns. In fifth grade we moved to an old house in Encanto. I attended Encanto Elementary, O’Farrell Jr. High and Morse High School. The blessing with all three of those schools is that they were multi-ethnic and we all learned to play together.   [Read more…]

Take Back the Alley!

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by Avital Aboody

Alleyways are a defining feature of older urban neighborhoods. Such extensive networks of passageways and open spaces that offer easy access to homes and businesses with minimal car interference should be celebrated and utilized. Yet rather than developing alleys for the benefit of the community, they have become the forgotten public spaces.

Years of neglect have turned alleys into prime locations for dumping, tagging, drug dealing, sexual activity, physical assault, loitering, and almost every other type of criminal activity you could imagine. The excessive trash, lack of adequate lighting, and poor maintenance contribute to an environment that is unsanitary and unsafe for residents, business owners, and employees that live and work around alleyways.

It is bad enough that alleys are public health and safety hazards, but when you take into account the fact that low-income urban neighborhoods are also severely lacking in parks and public gathering places, improving alley conditions becomes even more essential.   [Read more…]

Video Pick: The-Dream’s “Black” and Saturday Poem: “The Great Pax Whitie (Peace be Still)” by Nikki Giovanni

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“The Condemnation of Racism Must Make Itself Manifest Now”

By Anna Daniels

Vigilante rancher welfare queen Cliven Bundy’s recent musings on “Negro” history, the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, and NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s racist “etiquette” pointers for his girlfriend are the past week’s dismal trifecta of old white male willful ignorance.

Yes, Meat with Eyes Sean Hannity quickly distanced himself from Bundy’s “maybe slavery was better” ravings. There was an immediate outcry over everything that was in the Sterling tape and I’m not willing to stick my hand into that particular septic tank to fish out an example. The good news being peddled is that as a society we know an old white male racist when we see him and we won’t stand for it.

But before we get all self-congratulatory, the Supreme Court decision upholding Michigan’s affirmative action ban shows how little we are willing to deal with institutional racism, which is quite different than recognizing your garden variety racist.   [Read more…]

“Dunkirk” by HC Jay Powell

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By HC Jay Powell

Dunkirk

Please do for our troops what
the British did for theirs
when they were
trapped:
get them out alive.

The only “surge” we
want now
is a rescue surge
for our brave men and women in service
with their lives on the line to their nation.

Send whoever you need to send
to bring them out   [Read more…]

May is National Bike Month

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By Staff

SDFP editors, contributors and readers include a sizable group that is passionate about bike riding and bikes. Some of our most popular posts have been on this topic. Here in San Diego we have Bike San Diego and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition. Check out the Bike Fiesta planned for May 10.

This interest means that there are stories to share about where you bike and why you bike.   [Read more…]

The Best Bicycle Ride Around Mission Bay

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By Frank Gormlie / OB Rag

The tour I now present around Mission Bay is a great one and it is a ride that has been honed by me and a few riding friends over the last three decades – since the early Eighties.

It is a ride along a route that has a minimum of traffic and street exposure, and it is a route that is practically 13 miles round trip from the Ocean Beach Skateboard Park in Robb Field.   [Read more…]

Balboa Park Conservancy Avoids Confrontation Over Transparency

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By Doug Porter

Activist David Lundin and others were in attendance last night at the Balboa Park Committee Board meeting ready to ask serious questions about the Balboa Park Conservancy, the group now charged by the City of San Diego with trying to salvage the 2015 Centennial Celebration.

Responding to charges made earlier that the Conservancy was violating its own charter by failing to have two annual public meetings, the group claimed their reports made in meetings of the Balboa Park Committee fulfilled the requirement.

Alas, hopes for a window into the Conservancy’s inner working were dashed last night as, for the first time in more than seven years, the meeting was cancelled in its entirety because quorum of the Balboa Park Committee Board failed to appear.

After a 30 minute wait the Board chair announced the cancellation, saying it was “illegal to open the meeting, even for informational or no-action items.”     [Read more…]

For the Mid-City Community: Three Decades of Broken Promises

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By Sam Ollinger  / bikesd.org

In late 1972, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) released a report detailing the impact that would result after the construction of I-15 (from I-805 to I-8, approximately 3 miles) through the heart of Mid-City, specifically the neighborhood of City Heights:

The project is in an urban area. Potential impacts are mainly on people, air quality and noise. Another issue is the use of land from the area known as Park de la Cruz.

The selected freeway design will displace about 650 apartment units or homes [Ed. note: displacing 2,000 people plus about 63 commercial units affecting 110 jobs and $1.5 million in annual taxable retail]. The impact of displacement is borne by the people in the path of the freeway. For some, moving will mean a disruption of life patterns. Others would have been moving away. For many, the Federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 will bring economic benefits as high as $15,000 for moving costs, replacement housing payments and interest differential payments.

  [Read more…]

Geo-Poetic Spaces: Santa Ana’s Return

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By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes

Santa Ana returns
shooting Bougainville into air
galloping through streets
storming houses …   [Read more…]

Last Call for the GOP Obamacare Apocalypse

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By Doug Porter

It’s no secret the national Republican campaign strategy for 2014 revolves around the demonization of Obamacare. Given the party’s inherent structural advantage (gerrymandering + off year turnouts) in the upcoming midterm elections, problems with the healthcare insurance program could be spun as mandate for repeal.

Now, facing growing public acceptance and a run of good reviews, the GOP is getting desperate. The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report yesterday asserting only 67% of HealthCare.gov enrollees had paid their first premium. Reuters news is reporting today about  Republican plans to use Senate confirmation hearings for Sylvia Burwell, Obama’s pick to replace Kathleen Sebelius, to “re-energize their election-year attacks on his signature healthcare initiative.”     [Read more…]

How Should California Test for Marijuana DUIs?

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By Law Enforcement Against Prohibition via OB Rag

Editor:  A bill in the California legislation that would have created per se limits on driving under the influence of specified drugs – like marijuana – based on blood tests even absent other evidence of impairment, AB 2500, just failed in the Public Safety Committee. More bills like this are expected. So, this may be a good time to see what a law enforcement group in favor of marijuana legalization has to say on marijuana DUIs.   [Read more…]

Republicans in the Senate Vote Not to Raise Minimum Wage

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By John Lawrence

A report by Demos revealed that, in 2012, the compensation of fast food CEOs was more than 1,200 times the earnings of the average fast food worker. Proxy disclosures recently released by fast food companies reveal that the ratio remained above 1,000-to-1 in 2013. Raising the minimum wage would do more to reduce inequality in the US than just about any other measure that could be taken.

But Republicans in the Senate voted down a Federal increase in the minimum wage. What else did we expect? As long as they have the veto, nothing will pass the Senate that benefits the middle class or the poor.

Thomas Piketty’s book Capitalism in the 21st Century is the top seller on Amazon.com. He is drawing attention to the fact that the very rich have incomes hundreds of times greater than average workers.   [Read more…]

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