San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Fake Thing

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With a newfound exercise obsession, Coca-Cola and other companies are trying to shift the blame for what they’re doing to our health.

By  / Other Words

New rule (as Bill Maher would say): If you make billions of dollars a year selling unhealthy food, you don’t get to tell us to work out.

It was one thing when Cookie Monster began telling kids to eat vegetables. Cookie Monster doesn’t earn a living by selling cookies, and vegetables are a fantastic alternative to cookies.

But it was a totally different story when Ronald McDonald went all Richard Simmons on us, visiting schools to tell kids to work out.   [Read more…]

I Bought Into Bob Filner as Mayor and Was Betrayed

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I’m not a registered Democrat or Republican (or as I prefer Democrata or Republiklan). I never bought into the two party system and I probably never will. As the late Chicano leader Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez said, Democrats and Republicans “are one party that feed from the same trough.”

Under rare circumstances have I ever voted for either political party. When I did it was usually to vote against the Republican candidate. For most of my 20’s I didn’t vote at all.

I didn’t vote for Bill Clinton or Al Gore. I didn’t vote for John Kerry either. There was no way I would’ve voted for either of their Republican opponents. During the Clinton elections I didn’t vote. During the Bush/Gore race I voted for Ralph Nader and during the Bush/Kerry election I voted for imprisoned American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier.   [Read more…]

Global Warming is Cooking the Planet Now – Not in Some Far-Off Future

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90 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide are Dumped into the Atmosphere Every 24 Hours

By John Lawrence

As Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, states in his book, Eaarth, global warming is not some far-off event that we will have to prepare for sometime in the future; it is here today and the effects of global warming are being manifested here today. Yet the oil and gas industry is pulling out all the stops to convince people that global warming is just a myth perpetrated by fuzzy headed liberals.

Extreme weather events, billion dollar weather events, are happening with increasing frequency just as Wall Street analysts are computing Big Oil’s stock price based on all the assets yet in the ground and which the industry is bound and determined to pump out on its way to becoming part of the atmosphere. If such were to be the case, kiss the earth, as a habitable place for the human species, good-bye.   [Read more…]

Tío Emilio and the Secrets of the Ancestors: Chapter 14 — Power Animal

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“The Toltecs and other native cultures of the Americas believe that the spirit of an animal has chosen to be one of your guides. On a spirit level you have agreed to accept its help. This animal spirit has been with you for some time now and knows your thoughts and dreams. It knows other information too, and can try to share that information with you.” Don Emilio

By Richard Juarez

The more that time passed, the more I found I really looked forward to spending time with Don Emilio. The stuff he had talked about so far was not the typical boring stuff we trudged through in school. Some of it sounded strange, but in a good way. I didn’t really understand it yet, but I knew these ancient teachings were really important stuff, and that I would eventually want to share it with others. I was glad that Don Emilio and people like him were making an effort to see that this knowledge was preserved.   [Read more…]

Photo Gallery: The Urban Architecture Along I-15

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By Jim Bliesner

An excerpt from I-15 in City Heights: How a Freeway that Divided the Community Became an Urban Monument to Citizen Activism:

Something happened to create all of those [architectural developments bordering the I-15 freeway]. They didn’t just show up fully blown from an engineer’s sketch pad. It was the assertive voice of the people of City Heights that modified the design over a period of at least twenty years. The covers, in some people’s eyes, stand as an urban monument to citizen activism, focused on things larger than anything they might ever work on for their whole lives.   [Read more…]

Lining Up to Piss on Filner’s Political Grave

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By Doug Porter

As this is being written before the San Diego City Council’s meeting today, I’m operating under the assumption that the deal negotiated with Mayor Bob Filner will be approved. It’s hard for me to see any other conclusion to this kabuki theater.

A political writer with the Los Angeles Times is saying via Twitter this morning that the deal will involve Filner not formally quitting until the end of August and that he’ll be making a televised speech following the council meeting.

Attorney Gloria Allred took to the airwaves yesterday to demand her pound of flesh, warning against any deal that didn’t help her share of any settlement with her client.

The city will likely save money on the current deal, regardless of what the negotiated resignation will cost. Filner will be gone and ‘business as usual’ will return to San Diego.

But others aren’t so sure. And the public anger stimulated by a hyper-ventilating press can not be so easily contained. The virtual mob has tasted blood and they want more.   [Read more…]

Just Another Gomorrah

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By Bob Dorn

I give up.

I won’t be following local television and print as it winds its way through this embarrassment of scandals.

Through this series of wickets leading on to glass-lined halls little people in suits smile for no reason other than for the cameras which surround them on their creep; there go the Princes of Maionnaise and Inglory (their dark Lord of Manchester guiding them), the Kevins and Donnas and Corys already forgotten and eclipsed by the Pallamarys.

We are bound by people who study contracts, covenants, guarantees and warrants, bonds and settlements and pacts (and all those dead words and narrow schemes they advance) with no less fervor than the religious who search through their God’s leavings for hints of how to gain immortality.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review “El Borrego”

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El Borrego
4280 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92105
619-281-1355

In March of this year, I received an invitation from a restaurateur to enjoy a meal at her restaurant. I tried to visit the day before Easter but they were closed and did not get back to it until today.

I really was not anxious to try it because their focus is on lamb, and I have not eaten lamb since 1956. (I got sick on the smell of it while pregnant and have never had it since.)  However, the invitation and the recommendation of one of SDFP writers – Anna – made me decide to “bite the lamb” and give it a try.

I called Joe, my friend from on-line dating days, and he agreed to go with me to try it out. He lives in the neighborhood and was looking forward to another restaurant to add to his walking tours.   [Read more…]

Public Banking: The Antidote to Wall Street’s Domination of the Economy – Part 1

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States, Cities and Pension Funds Have Gone into Debt to Wall Street When They Could Have Started a Public Bank and Paid Interest to Themselves

By John Lawrence

Public banks plow their revenues back into community needs like infrastructure, education, health facilities, local enterprises and other public banks. When municipalities, cities, states, countries and even smaller jurisdictions like school districts fund their deficits with Wall Street, the profits go into the pockets of executives and investors.

Currently, only the state of North Dakota has a public bank. As a consequence North Dakota suffered very little from the Great Recession of 2008, has a robust economy and no budget deficit. California on the other hand struggles every year with its budget because it pays a lot of interest on its loans to Wall Street. If California had a public bank similar to North Dakota’s, it would have no budget deficit at all and could fund its infrastructure needs out of its own revenues.   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Smorgasbord of Independent and Progressive Blogs

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By Frank Gormlie

Every now and then, it’s important to acknowledge and highlight the many independent and progressive blogs out there in San Diego’s blogosphere. Let us take you through some of them – as many of these blogs post daily and carry very informative news and perspectives – needed media options for San Diegans.

GrokSurf’s San Diego

GrokSurf’s San Diego is published by George J Janczyn who has all the news and info you need about water issues in San Diego and Southern California. The banner says it’s “local observations on water, environment, technology, law and politics.” On top right now at GrokSurf is a mid-August “round-up” of regional water news. If water is in your veins, you have to check out this valuable resource for our County.

La Vida Locavore

Then we have nationally-known foodie Jill Richardson‘s own blog here in San Diego: La Vida Locavore . Richardson posts recipes, knowledgable tales with “how-to-do’s” in cooking, botany, Native American cooking and culture. Right now, Jill has up a post about “Finishing the Kumeyaay Village”, with text that explains that Kumeyaay Indians and a few non-Indian helpers like herself were “putting the finishing touches on a model village they’ve built on some land they’ve recently (re)acquired near the Sycuan reservation.” Also up is a lesson on “botany for foodies”.
  [Read more…]

Bicycle Expressways for San Diego

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By JEC

August 11th was CicloSDias in San Diego. Sections of 30th and Fern streets were closed to motor vehicles; cross streets were blocked off and traffic monitors helped motorists cross the river of bicycles. Some say not quite a river, more like a creek.

Bicycling in San Diego has some serious advocates, including the San Diego Bike Coalition. They see benefits for San Diegans if we switch to using bikes more often than cars. As a bike rider, I agree with them. The challenge in front of us is how to grow a bicycle culture.

Along 30th Street I saw many fancy bikes with riders dressed in those colorful skin tight outfits. I also saw some unique forms of self-propelled transportation. I was hoping see folks wearing regular clothes as if they were going to school or work – but then it was Sunday plus CicloSDias is only once a year at that.

Given the agreeable weather, San Diego has been a great place for recreational biking. In the 70’s a familiar (now unfriendly) voice advocated for building bike paths and adding bike lanes. Roger Hedgecock had some success, including getting a path around San Diego Bay built that was recently expanded and improved. Bike friendly policies were promoted. So workers could ride to work employers were encouraged to provide shower facilities and bike storage lockers. I rode 7 miles to work, for a while. Taking a shower at work was less than pleasant.
  [Read more…]

I-15 in City Heights: How a Freeway that Divided the Community Became an Urban Monument to Citizen Activism

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By Jim Bliesner

When you drive North or South on I-15 between University Ave. and El Cajon Blvd. you can’t help but notice a few unique things, especially if you compare the ride to being on 805 between the same streets. First you notice the walls go straight up and down rather than splayed wide like a sliced piece of chicken. Second, when you go under University or El Cajon you’ll notice the street covers are larger than other underpasses on I-15.

The third thing you notice is that you pass under a block long cover; so long it’s necessary to light it up underneath, and long enough to honk your horn at least three times before you hit sunlight again. Then you notice there are trees on the wide covers. If you are really attentive and you are heading north, you can look to your left just before University Ave. and there is a huge park adjacent to the freeway. If you look up right then you will see a footpath connecting the homes on each side of the freeway as well.

If you are quick and you look at the University or El Cajon overhead signs you will see that they read “Transit Plaza.” You won’t see that designation on other large green overhead signs on the interstate. At the Adams Ave. bridge look left and you will see another park butting up to the freeway. You will probably notice that the Adams Ave. bridge is smaller than those of El Cajon and University. The walls are straight from end to end on either side of the tube. In the middle of the freeway from end to end through Mid City you see a vacant wide lane from sitting there like it is waiting for something to happen, some future plan.   [Read more…]

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