San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

“Everything Comes from the Streets” Filmmakers Seek Funding

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Local Lowrider Documentary Needs Help for Post-Production Costs

By Brent E. Beltrán

In my neighborhood of Barrio Logan lowriders are a ubiquitous presence. They’re part of the cultural fabric that sews this community together. It’s not a new phenomenon. They’ve been around here for decades and are part of the history not only of Barrio Logan but of San Diego as a whole.

Recognizing a need to document and tell that history local lowriding legend Rigo Reyes joined forces with professor Alberto Pulido to create a documentary on the beginnings of San Diego’s lowrider scene. Though the film, Everything Comes from the Streets, might be their first these two longtime San Diegans know their stuff when it comes to lowriders and Chicano history.

Rigo Reyes is a founder of Amigos Car Club, which organizes the annual Chicano Park Day lowrider car show, and the San Diego Lowrider Council, which have been in existence since the late 1970’s. Dr. Pulido is the chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of San Diego. Both have been members of the Chicano Park Steering Committee for many years, Rigo since the takeover on April 22, 1970.

As a professor Alberto has come to recognize that all learning doesn’t happen inside the ivory towers of academia. A lot happens outside the hallowed halls of learning institutions. “As an educator one of the things that I’ve come to realize is that so much of the knowledge that we’re trying to do in the classroom is actually out in the community or like our film says its out in the streets.”   [Read more…]

San Diego for Free: La Playa Beach – Point Loma’s Wonderful Hidden Beach

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By John P. Anderson

An irregular column dedicated to sharing the best sights and activities in San Diego at the best price – free! We have a great city and you don’t need to break the bank to experience it.

  1. Address: La Playa beach (McCall Street at San Antonio Avenue, Point Loma) Google Maps link
  2. Best For: Watching boats and swimmers, reading in the sun, building sand castles

As a stay-at-home father I’m constantly looking for outdoor activities to do with my kids. We frequent playgrounds, the San Diego Zoo, beaches, and spend a lot of time walking around North Park.

Recently a friend from Point Loma mentioned that the La Playa beach is a great place for playing in the sand.   [Read more…]

Leapin’ Lizards, It’s Words Alive! Encouraging Lifetime Learning through Literacy

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By Frances O’Neill Zimmerman

For a good time, call maestra Amanda at (858) 274-9673.

This San Antonio-born Texas rose will explain everything you need to know about joining Words Alive, a local literacy non-profit now seeking adult volunteers for this school year which runs from October through May.

If you’re into reading stories aloud and think you would enjoy doing same for pre-school kids who return the favor by imagining you are nice, fun and funny – Words Alive is meant for you.

Or, if survivor teenagers are your cup of tea, you can lead a monthly book discussion for determined high school students from the County’s Juvenile Court and Community Schools. There’s a volunteer writing-help brigade as well – part of Words Alive’s Adolescent Book Group.

Not to worry about feeling insecure: all WA volunteers work in pairs or groups.   [Read more…]

Sex in San Diego: How Body Image Issues Can Ruin Your Sex Life

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From Huffington Post

Does bad body image lead to bad sex? Quite possibly.

“Nothing kills the mood quite like being negative about the way you look,” HuffPost Live host Caitlyn Becker said during a Sept. 11 segment on how body image affects women’s sex lives.

Sarah Jenks, founder of life coaching and weight loss organization Live More Weigh Less, explained that many women’s body concerns get in the way of their pleasure in the bedroom. “A lot of us believe that if we lose 20 pounds, that’s when we’ll finally feel sexy,” she said. But of course, feeling sexy has much more to do with your state of mind than your weight.

Emotional eating expert Isabel Foxen Duke recommended that women whose self-esteem affects their sex lives ask themselves: “Is this about an underlying self-doubt that has nothing to do with my weight?”   [Read more…]

In Charter School Fantasy World, Teacher Experience Irrelevant

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By Randy Shaw/BeyondChron

As the New York Times reported on August 27 (“At Charter Schools, Short Careers By Choice”) most charter school teachers only remain in the profession for two to five years. In contrast, traditional public school teachers average nearly fourteen years of experience. But in the fantasy world of charter school proponents, far from being a shortcoming this lack of teaching experience is a positive. One charter school official told the Times, “There is a certain comfort level that we have with people who are perhaps going to come into YES Prep and not stay forever.” Wendy Kopp, whose Teach for America program is criticized for high turnover, said “The strongest schools develop their teachers tremendously so they become great in the classroom even in their first and second years.”

I’ve never met a teacher who believes they were “great” in their first two years. But the business model for charter schools relies on this fiction. It requires their advocates to praise inexperienced teachers and high turnover even though every other profession—law, medicine, accounting and all of the construction trades—value experience and longevity. The turnover numbers are further evidence that the case for charter schools is unraveling, as veteran teachers and activists are winning the battle against elite-driven “reform.”   [Read more…]

King Tut in City Heights

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Egyptian Revival Architecture on Euclid Avenue

By Anna Daniels

It is difficult to imagine the excitement and personal interest in Egyptian antiquities that Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tutankhamen’s 3,000 year old tomb engendered in 1922. A series of sealed chambers were filled with so many funerary objects that it took days to remove them on stretchers. The final chamber which included the nested sarcophagi of the “Boy King” was filled with dazzling gold and blue adornments and objects provided for Tut’s journey into the after life. Carter had hit the archeological mother lode.

The discovery of the tomb was significant for Egyptologists and it also caught the imagination of the European and American public. Travels to Egypt to view the antiquities became even more popular. Jewelers recreated designs found in the tomb. Scarab rings and brooches became fashionable.   [Read more…]

21st Century Revitalization for San Diego’s Neighborhoods

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Part II: Challenges and Opportunities for Promoting Sustainable Neighborhoods in the Mayoral Campaign

By Jay Powell /Part One is Here

Sometime last year the street grinders and asphalt layers showed up in our neighborhood in Normal Heights. They did a great job right in front of our house– which really didn’t seem to need any repair, but around the corner, the worst, most traveled portion of the street wasn’t touched. Still hasn’t been.

After some considerable neighborhood wondering and grumbling it became apparent that the bumps and rolling topography and potholes actually served as a kind of regimen of reverse speed bumps to slow down some of those folks who thought the curves on Mountain View Drive were there to test the adhesion of their Mini Cooper’s tires at high speed.

This repair was a part of the much ballyhooed “streets-are-sexy” resurfacing and slurry program touted by City Councilmembers and Mayor Sanders at the start of this decade. But the infrastructure issue in San Diego goes far deeper than neighborhood potholes.   [Read more…]

Uneven Progress: What the Economic Recovery Has Meant for California’s Workers

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California Budget Project Report finds disturbing trends for middle and lower wage workers.

By Steven Bliss/California Budget Project

Earlier this month, the California Budget Project released our annual Labor Day report, taking a look at the latest employment and wage trends, what they mean for workers and their families, and some key implications for public policy. This new report shows that even after more than three years of job gains, California’s recovery from the Great Recession thus far has left many workers behind.

Uneven Progress: What the Economic Recovery Has Meant for California’s Workers finds that Californians continue to face a deeply challenging job market, with long-term unemployment down only slightly from a record high, much of the state still stuck in double-digit unemployment, and wages among low- and mid-wage workers still below where they were prior to the recession, after adjusting for inflation.   [Read more…]

David Alvarez Officially Enters the Fray

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Democratic Councilmember declares his candidacy for Mayor of San Diego.

By Andy Cohen

City Councilman David Alvarez officially entered the special election for the vacated San Diego mayoral office yesterday with a press conference in Presidio Park adjacent to Old Town. Alvarez joins 30 other potential candidates as listed by the City Clerk’s office, but becomes only the third “major” candidate, joining City Councilman Kevin Faulconer and former State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher as top contenders for a runoff. A potential candidate is someone who has filed a “Candidate Intention Statement” with the San Diego City Clerk’s office.

The special election is scheduled for November 19. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two candidates will take place within 49 days of the primary. The winner will complete the term of departed former mayor Bob Filner.

“The City has neglected the needs of neighborhoods and vital infrastructure, and has focused instead on giving taxpayer subsidies to well connected special interests. The City has been beset by corruption, conflict and scandal,” Alvarez said in a prepared statement.

“I’m running for mayor because I believe that San Diego is bigger than the special interests. That by coming together around our shared values we can solve our problems. That working families, not well connected businesses, are the heart of San Diego.”   [Read more…]

Filner and Crappy Stadium Blamed for Chargers’ Loss

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By Doug Porter

There are a boatload of people who’ve declared their intention to run for Mayor of San Diego.

The Daily Fishwrap has hammered home the meme that ours is a city teetering on the edge of ruin following nine months of bullying and grabbing on the eleventh floor of city hall. Hotel executives are metaphorically scattered throughout the Gaslamp District with tin cups in hand trying stave off the looming economic disaster brought on by the former Mayor’s insistence that taxpayers be protected.

Into this power vacuum have stepped the San Diego Chargers, a professional football team owned by an ultra-wealthy family that believes it’s entitled to taxpayer assistance in building a new football stadium.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a full court media press on over the last few days extolling the virtues of a recycled proposal for a downtown venue that would turn San Diego into a world class city overnight.  Former Mayor Jerry Sanders was on KUSI TV this morning saying, “We’ll find the Chargers a new stadium in the not-too-distant future, I predict.”

Yes indeedy, a new stadium will make everything okay.  Our long regional nightmare will be over.   [Read more…]

Challenges and Opportunities for San Diego’s Next Mayor

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Forming the Basis of a Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative

By Jay Powell / Part One of a Two Part Series

As things stand now Kevin Faulconer, a two term City Councilman, appears to be the choice of establishment Republicans, while Nathan Fletcher, former State Assemblyman and David Alvarez, City Councilman, will be vying for the support of the Democratic Party faithful.

Questions still remain about IF other credible candidates will throw their hat in ring in the days remaining to declare and file as candidates for this accelerated special election.

While we hold our breath, I suggest that those of us who have embraced a platform that was characterized as “neighborhoods first” during the last Mayoral election take the initiative to define what we mean by that phrase.   [Read more…]

Part II: The Birds, the Bees, and the Wolf Pack

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Did Bob Filner jump? did he fall? was he pushed?  

By Norma Damashek
 / Numbersrunner

Forget you, Nancy Drew.  You’re being replaced by Perry Mason, super-sleuth defense attorney from the zero hour this guy would laboriously rise up in the middle of the courtroom and pull a rabbit out of a hat.  First he’d say something enigmatic to the judge, then to the jury.  Soon he’d turn to the seated onlookers and dramatically finger the real culprit… swindler… murderer… for a histrionic wrap-up to another solved case.

The case against Bob Filner, however, doesn’t lend itself to cheap theatrics.  The complexity and political fallout of Bob Filner’s ouster bring his political demise closer to classic tragedy than pulp fiction — not merely for him personally but for the future of our city.

So let’s stick with the diligent approach of Ms Drew to arrive at some answers to this mayoral mystery: did Bob Filner jump? fall? or get pushed? and when the curtains are drawn back will we find a master manipulator slinking around in the shadows?   [Read more…]

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