By Brent E. Beltrán
The holidays are upon us and the time for gift giving is here. Instead of shopping at the malls and giving your hard earned cash to a corporation why not purchase items from local artists and artisans?
Here is a short list of holiday art bazaars and small businesses that deserve to be patronized this holiday season. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
U.S. District Court Federal Judge Jeffrey Miller denied a motion yesterday that would have granted a new trial for four Somali men convicted of aiding terrorists.
At the heart of their appeal were defense assertions that evidence collected by the National Security Agency violated the Fourth Amendment Rights of the defendants.
You might think this was an open and shut case: the government’s “big ears” caught some bad guy terrorists and they were brought to justice. But you’d be wrong.
The implications of this case go far beyond the common media portrayal of some African immigrants wiring money to a shady militia back home. [Read more…]
By Jay Powell
Livable Neighborhoods was a program piloted in City Heights in the early 90′s by then City Manager Jack McGrory. It was in response to a community improvement partnership of community members and the City to bring City staff out of City Hall and into the communities. It was complemented with Neighborhood Policing that had assigned teams cruising patrol cars and bikes and meeting in storefronts to proactively address issues block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
“The fish stinks from the head” is an old Turkish metaphor used to attribute poor leadership as the cause for dysfunctional enterprises.
News accounts from the past 24 hours about San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and the North County Transit District (NCTD) speak to seriously misplaced priorities, along with racism and sexism in both organizations.
In today’s UT-San Diego there is a story detailing how officials with the Metropolitan Transit System have declined to offer discounts for low income students. A pilot program, funded by both the school district and the City Council will now be cut by more than half.
Yesterday reporter Brad Racino at inewsource/KPBS broke a major story about sex and age bias in employment policies within the North County Transit District. [Read more…]
By City Councilwoman Marti Emerald
I feel proud every time I attend a neighborhood meeting, a community coffee, or an event in City Heights. After all, it is the most vibrant, diverse, and innovative Council District in the city. My staff and I refer to District Nine as “the People’s District.”
Diversity isn’t a catchphrase in my district; it’s a way of life. Walk around City Heights for a day and you’re likely to see Cambodian immigrants eating at Ethiopian restaurants, African Americans buying the best Vietnamese Pho in town, or Latino, Rwandan, Burundi and Congolese kids playing baseball at a community park. More than 30 languages are spoken here, and dedicated organizations, such as the Great Lakes Union for Development, support the hundreds of refugee families that have settled in City Heights.
Diversity in City Heights goes beyond the residents. The community is made up of 16 separate neighborhoods – many with their own community groups – making each part of the community unique. Instead of one voice trying to speak for the diverse needs of the community, City Heights has numerous organizations constantly searching for creative ways to make the area the best it can be.
[Read more…]
By Janis Mork / East County Magazine
City Heights – On the weekend of September 21st, some 30 would-be urban farmers flocked to hear Farmer Bill Tall from City Heights Farmers Nursery offer advice on how to raise chickens. San Diego, along with several other jurisdictions locally, recently legalized backyard ownership of hens – though not roosters.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Tall led off with tips on keeping eggs.
“You don’t have to refrigerate them as long as you don’t wash them,” he said. He advised storing washed eggs in a separate container from foods. [Read more…]
By Anna Daniels
It is easy to imagine that the Republican hostage taking in Congress is little more than a great deal of sound and too much fury that signifies nothing to ordinary people living ordinary lives outside of the Beltway. The words “shutdown” and “default” don’t enter into conversations very often here, John Boehner is an unknown and that is perfectly fine with the madmen and madwomen who are much more concerned about being disrespected, waiting for the end time and the perfect photo-op.
The people who live here on 45th Street keep talking about the same things they have been talking about for the past five or six years– they are looking for full time work that pays a livable wage, affordable housing, health care and enough money to get the car fixed and buy school clothes for their kids. There is also an urgency for the children who were brought into this country without documents to receive legal status through the Dream Act.
It is easy to imagine that these two worlds don’t intersect, but that is not the case at all. [Read more…]
By Anna Daniels
Once a year Teresa Gunn, artistic director and founder of Street of Dreams, stands before a full house in the City College Saville Theatre and opens the student performance with these words:
We have the highest prison population that we have ever had in the history of the country. At Street of Dreams we are not willing to put another generation of people in prison because we lack the humanity to produce a creative solution. The solution is education and community collaboration. Street of Dreams is part of the solution.
Street of Dreams has been part of that solution since its founding in 1998, when Teresa Gunn recognized that the power of story telling and arts education could provide a path out of poverty and inter-generational incarceration and addiction for young mothers who had found themselves in the juvenile justice system. [Read more…]
By Jim Bliesner
The informal economy forms a major portion of the day to day economic life of most City Heights residents. It is very visible throughout the neighborhood. Frequent and constant “yard sales” appear daily but more often on weekends. Fruit vendors appear at random locations with everything from oranges, mangos, watermelons to fresh boxes of papaya. Soccer games are sites for icy cones, fruit, and in some cases hot food.
Food vendors circle the soccer field. When school lets out at the Adult Education Building the food is ready. Periodically tamale vendors wander down the street, followed by hand built furniture salesmen in big pickup trucks filled with tables and chairs. Rather than a food truck one may find a push cart parked outside the bars at midnight. Garages serve as sewing factories while kitchens cook tamales, various specialty dishes for local restaurants. There are two full blown Nicaraguan restaurants in someone’s living rooms and yard known only to the special invitees and guests. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
The Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI) released its annual number crunching report for San Diego yesterday based on 2012 Census data, and picture painted within isn’t pretty.
Despite media reports about how “things are getting better”, CPI’s data point to the reality that the economic recovery has passed by most households and employees in the San Diego region.
“People have less money to spend, even those working full-time,” said CPI Research Director Peter Brownell in a press release. “The wealthiest saw their incomes increase in 2012, but when we hear talk of economic recovery, it hasn’t reached most people in our region.” [Read more…]
Lack of Interpreters is a Life and Death Situation for Many
By Lorena Gonzalez
There are more than 50 languages spoken more comfortable and proficiently than English by the residents in the South Bay and Mid-City San Diego neighborhoods I represent. Throughout California, this challenge is shared by more than 6.5 million Californians, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
Ordering food. Asking for directions. Attending school. Interviewing for a job. Filling prescriptions. Rescheduling appointments.
No situation involving a language barrier is as frightening, though, as one that risks the life of a loved one. [Read more…]
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…]
