San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

In the Fog: The Struggle for Power, Territory, and Justice in the Mexican State of Michoacán

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“We are not paramilitaries, we are working people and we have helped to liberate our towns. The government or any cartel doesn’t support us.”

By Clayton Conn / Upside Down World

Over the past several weeks, the national and international press has been swarming in the Mexican state of Michoacán as armed clashes have erupted between members of the Knights Templar drug cartel, armed civilians, and security forces of the federal police and army in the region known as Tierra Caliente.

Much of the coverage depicts a scene where local townspeople, fed up by a decade of cartel threats, extortions, kidnappings, murders, along with corruption by municipal and state authorities, have taken up arms to restore security and peace in their communities.

However, some analysts suggest that the lines and intentions are much blurrier, with the state deliberately whacking the hornet’s nest to wrestle a stake in control over the flow of capital generated by criminal and illicit business ventures.   [Read more…]

Disturbing Images Show Border Agents Encouraging Children to Shoot at Migrant Effigy

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Use-of-Force Policies Called to Question as the Agency’s Culture of Violence is Unabashedly Taught to Children
By Ricardo Favela / San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium

Different images shared by an anonymous source and found online depict Border Patrol staff showing children of various ages how to use paintball guns to shoot at a target wearing clothing with the border fence in the background.

Pedro Ríos, Chair of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, states, “The target is dressed to resemble a migrant and is located within 100 feet from Virginia Avenue where actual persons have been killed by Border Patrol gunfire.”

Mr. Ríos continues, “While encouraging children to use guns to shoot at a migrant effigy is unconscionable, it is also symbolic of the agency’s unabashed culture of violence which has grown from a lack of accountability, oversight and unprofessional standards that rebuke best practices in situations involving use-of-force.”   [Read more…]

Help Wanted: Who Did What in the North Park Jack-in-the-Box Construction Caper?

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By Doug Porter

On Wednesday I included an item in my column about a community rally and fundraiser for the North Park residents still hoping for a hearing on the lack of consequences for permit violations occurring remodeling of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant. In that story I made the following comment:

The bottom line here is that the City of San Diego (also being sued) chose to be sued by residents rather than take on a corporation. We can thank City Attorney Jan Goldsmith for that legal strategy. 

One of my favorite phrases in writing about politics in San Diego is everybody knows. Based on reporting in City Beat (and elsewhere), I thought everybody knew that the construction was allowed to continue due to actions (or inaction) by the City Attorney.

Jan Goldsmith’s office now says that’s not true. So I’m asking for a little help from our readers to figure this out.   [Read more…]

Gardening Is the New Front Porch in America

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By Susan Taylor

Gardening is the new front porch in America. Scratch not too deeply and we all have agricultural roots from someone, somewhere. San Diego is growing veggies in the front yard, the back yard, a community garden or even on someone else’s property. The “new” hot landscaping is called edible landscaping. Take a walk and look around. See any lettuce, chard or grapevines next to the sidewalk, near the front door?   [Read more…]

If I Can’t Accept You At Your Worst, Then Maybe You Should Stop Being So Horrible

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By Matt Walsh /

I remember the first time I was awarded the “game ball” in my Little League. I don’t recall the details exactly, but I’m pretty sure my stat sheet looked something like this:

Zero RBIs, zero home runs, zero hits, zero stolen bases, zero plays made on the field, seven errors, four innings spent sitting on the bench.

Most of my team probably performed similarly, but I know we put a few runs on the board, so SOMEONE must have done something notable.

Alas, that kid — whoever he was — got jobbed this tragic afternoon. They gave the game ball to me. You can only imagine how I felt.

That is, confused.   [Read more…]

Why Downtown San Diego Pedestrians Stop for Cars More Than Any Other City and What to do About it

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San Diego is lucky to have some of the country’s best planning minds.  The trick is getting their input implemented.

By Bill Adams / UrbDeZine.com

San Diego’s downtown street grid and its small blocks make continuous walking difficult, especially for people trying to go in a straight line. Jogging is even more difficult. The blocks are 200 by 300 feet. Among major cities, only Portland has smaller blocks at 200 by 200 feet.

So depending on walking direction, pedestrians generally must stop every 200 or 300 feet to wait for traffic.

While this may not be troublesome for people on vacation or on a day-off, for residents and downtown workers who use their feet for more utilitarian purposes, it is an impediment not experienced in many other cities nor even in the suburbs.   [Read more…]

Faulconer’s Game Plan for San Diego: To Hell With Those Citizen Gadflies – Build, Baby, Build!

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By Doug Porter

His plan is just perfect for sound-bite coverage. Mayoral candidate Kevin Faulconer rolled out his miracle cure for San Diego’s housing crisis focus on the homeless population on Wednesday and the local media dutifully reported his talking points without challenging any assumptions.  It should have been easy to ask a few questions; after all here were no specifics, facts or dollar figures cited.

Today we’ll take a look at some of those assumptions, with a big assist via remarks made by by former mayor Jerry Sanders at a panel discussion sponsored by Torrey Pines Bank. Candidate Faulconer’s plan is simply a gussied up version of “trickle down” economics. And by now hopefully you’ve figured out how that hasn’t worked for 99% of the population. What’s going on here is that the GOP candidate is hiding his true intentions behind a “feel good” press release about the homeless.

A 2012 report by the Center for Housing Policy does a good job of outlining the problem, which extends way past the homeless population. While nearly one in four working households nationally are defined as having severe housing cost burden, 37% of San Diego residents are paying more than half of their income for housing. Much of the working population is one mishap away from being homeless, so when you’re talking about housing in San Diego, you may as well talk about the whole problem.   [Read more…]

This Is What Climate Change Looks Like

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California isn’t experiencing cold weather this winter, but it’s as vulnerable to the deepening climate crisis as the rest of the country

By  / OtherWords

“It’s been a bit cold here,” my dad told me on a recent phone call. He lives in Chicago; I’m in San Diego. The next time I turned on the news, I saw headlines screaming “Polar Vortex!” with sub-zero temperatures across the Midwest.

Dad’s known in our family for his stoicism and even keel, but his understatement about the weather was a bit much, even for him. Surely he’s noticed that the weather has taken a turn from its normal Chicago standard of freezing and windy to hypothermia-inducing temperatures so cold that even the polar bear at the zoo couldn’t take it anymore.

I realize that, in such times, we San Diegoans are universally hated by most of the rest of the country. Nobody sheds a tear for me when I complain about there being only a few days in the 90s amid our normal wintery perfection of 70s and sunny.   [Read more…]

The Real Job Creators in San Diego: The US Military and the Military-Industrial Complex

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By John Lawrence

In 1961 President Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex (MIC). He said, “We annually spend on military security more than  the net income of all United States corporations.” Since then spending on the military and the MIC has only skyrocketed. Taken together, they, not the rich, are the main job creators in the US. If you graduate from high school and can’t get a job, no problem.

The military will accept you with open arms, provide you with on-the-job training, even give you a signing bonus. Why stand in an unemployment line or apply for a job along with 500 other applicants? Or go into debt to attend some schlock college?

If you’re a college graduate and can’t get hired, try the MIC: the NSA, the CIA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics – they’re the real job creators.   [Read more…]

Our Oppression, Our Responsibility

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By Will Falk

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about responsibility.

It all started when a friend of mine asked me why she should feel responsible for this culture’s oppression. “I’m not doing any oppressing,” she said. “I refuse to accept responsibility.”

This shocked me – not so much because I haven’t heard people say this before, but because it came from a woman I consider a very compassionate person. If she refused responsibility maybe I should think about it, too.

This spun me into a tornado of self-examination. We only get one chance at this life, right? If the oppression is not my responsibility, why should I spend all my life fighting it?   [Read more…]

Alvarez Brings Neighborhoods Agenda to Carmel Valley

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Mayoral candidate criticizes his opponent for prioritizing industry, big developers over community groups.

By Andy Cohen

In an effort to reach out to a wider array of voters, and answering criticism that he is unfamiliar with the neighborhoods in the northern parts of San Diego, City Councilman and mayoral candidate David Alvarez ventured into Del Mar to discuss his plan for neighborhood and community development with representatives from various community groups throughout the northern reaches of the city.

There are more than 40 identified, unique communities in San Diego, each with different characteristics and different needs. To better address those needs, Alvarez called for a series neighborhood summits within his first 100 days in office, allowing each community group the opportunity to communicate directly to city staff and identify their priorities.   [Read more…]

How Dry We Are – Worst Drought Conditions in California Since 1895

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By Doug Porter

Thursday’s weather forecast for San Diego includes the slight possibility of rain. Maybe that should be a slight possibility of a slight amount of rain, since the total precipitation is expected to be in the one hundredth of an inch range. The Sierra Nevada Mountains are expected to see as much as six inches of rain, but even that amount will be the proverbial drop in the bucket when compared to the severity of the current drought.

Today’s column will start off with a look around media outlets and water conservation activists in the Golden State addressing the impact of the current dry spell.  A Public Policy Institute poll cited in the UT-San Diego indicates that ten percent of Californians see the drought as the most important issue of the day.

Based on the reactions of State and Federal officials it seems likely to me the public is uninformed about the severity of the situation. Droughts, after all, lack the sex appeal of stories about 19 year old pop stars being arrested or the latest in ObamaScare lies being peddled by the GOP.   [Read more…]

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