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Imperial Beach Mayor Pro Tem Ed Spriggs on Proposition 59

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An Open Letter to Imperial Beach City Council Candidates

By Ed Spriggs

There is one proposition on the State ballot this year that hasn’t yet drawn much attention, and probably won’t. It doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t require anyone to do or change anything. It doesn’t prohibit anything. It doesn’t even benefit one citizen or group of individuals over another. It just supports the core principle of a democratic system of government – one that is of the people, by the people and for the people.

The principles imbedded in Proposition 59 are especially important for smaller cities like Imperial Beach. Why, because Proposition 59 supports the notion that big money Super PACs (i.e., independent-expenditure-only political action committees) should no longer be allowed to pour large amounts into elections, dwarfing any candidate’s direct spending, with the clear goal of influencing the outcome “independently” of the candidate being supported.   [Read more…]

Ferdinand’s Friendly Familia: Animal Sanctuary in Imperial Beach

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As you turn onto Hollister Road in Imperial Beach, and go into the Tijuana River Valley, you feel like you are in a different world. It feels like the dusty countryside in Mexico, and a place where non-conformists live. This is where you will find Ferdinand’s Familia, a sanctuary for large and small animals, run by an unusual couple.

Ferdinand, the peaceful bull, is a good symbol for this place that was founded by vegetarian peace activists, Michael Pratt and Janice Jordan. They have shared the same vision in life for 19 years. Both are members of the San Diego Peace and Freedom Party.

Ferdinand’s Familia first started in 2008 in their home and with rental stalls. However, as word got out and they began to rescue more neglected and abandoned animals, they realized they needed a larger property of their own and the present sanctuary opened in 2012.   [Read more…]

‘Always Fly Away’ : Teaching Children to Be Smart, Strong and Safe

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Milena (Sellers) Phillips’ book “Always Fly Away” is not the work of someone who has made a career of writing books for children. This brightly illustrated book written for elementary school children is a reflection of how the author herself has come to understand the world as much as it is a children’s story.

“Always Fly Away” acknowledges the necessary transition that takes place when young children want to start exploring the world with an ever growing degree of independence. It also helps to develop the critical judgement that young children need to recognize when a situation doesn’t feel right and what to do when this happens.

Phillips spins a story that retains the joy and mystery of a child’s explorations while providing ways to assure that the exploration is as safe as possible. It is a remarkable story because she personally experienced the devastating death of her nine year old son Jonathan Sellers.   [Read more…]

Dan Watman’s Quest To Create A Binational Garden Led To Civil Disobedience

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

Friendship Park, located at the most southwesterly point of the U.S.-Mexico border, exists thanks to a small group of men and women who have come together over time to call themselves Friends of Friendship Park. From about 2006 to 2011 their civil disobedience forced Border Patrol to negotiate access to this binational space, which the federal government would have preferred to keep closed.   [Read more…]

Declining Enrollments In Three South Bay School Districts: What Does It Mean?

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Declines in class sizes could be positive, especially when over 80% of students qualify as low-income or English language learners, but administrators are left constrained

By Barbara Zaragoza

While the decades-old stereotype may be that illegal aliens are fleeing over the border and saturating American schools, three districts in the South Bay are currently experiencing declining enrollments: San Ysidro, South Bay Union and National School District. Of these three, two lie directly along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Over 80% of students in all three districts are classified as either English-language -learners, low-income students, or both (also referred to as the unduplicated pupil percentage or UPP). All three also have high percentages of students classified as homeless.   [Read more…]

Raquel Martinez, Female Bullfighter

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Steven Schoenherr / South Bay Compass

She was a petite blond who lived in Imperial Beach and graduated from Mar Vista High in 1967. She was also a bullfighter.

Raquel Martinez was 22 when she left her home at 729 Cypress Avenue in 1971 and faced her first bull in the Tijuana Cortijo. She was determined to become the first woman matador since Patricia McCormick and Bette Ford in the 1950s, and to become as famous as the great Conchita Cintrón in the 1940s.   [Read more…]

Friendship Park in 2015

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Making new meanings and memories through friendship

By Jill Holslin / Friends of Friendship Park

It has been a busy year for Friendship Park, the little park south of Imperial Beach where you can go to visit with people on the other side of the border wall in Tijuana. Friends of Friendship Park has continued with our mission this year: to maintain public access to the park on the border where friendships can blossom, and families separated by deportation, by mixed immigration status, and by the injustice of border militarization can come together and maintain family bonds.   [Read more…]

North of the Fence: The Skybridge Opens and Wagon Man Dies

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The Skybridge opened on Wednesday, which crosses from San Diego into the Tijuana International Airport. The bridge requires a toll, a passport and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol inspection. The skybridge was built with investor money that included Chicago billionaire Sam Zell who is also known as the chairman of Equity LifeStyle Properties, the largest mobile-home landlord.

Will this be the beginning of more bridges in U.S.-Mexico relations? In 1959 entrepreneur Allen Parkinson set out to create an international skyride that would cross from San Ysidro into Tijuana, relieving congestion and becoming a tourist attraction at the same time. Plans were foiled by construction of the I-5 freeway. During the 1970s a monorail was planned between San Diego and Tijuana, but the project that also went nowhere.   [Read more…]

North Of The Fence: It’s All About The San Diego-Tijuana Border

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By Barbara Zaragoza/ SouthBayCompass

The Times of San Diego reported that former Arkansas governor and Presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee, visited Border Field State Park on Saturday, October 10th. Standing alongside former congressman, Duncan Lee Hunter, Huckabee talked about illegal border crossers, saying: “They’re not coming to make beds and pick tomatoes. They’re coming to sell drugs. They’re coming to commit crime and to bring the mayhem that they have in their hearts upon the American people.”

Huckabee didn’t cite his sources. The statement was interesting because more than 68% of the 1.6 million people living in Tijuana legally cross the border at least once a year (sometimes once a week); they have in their hearts a desire — to shop. They spend at least $6 billion a year, or more than $1 of every $8 in retail sales in San Diego. (Check page 7 of the linked report.) That means legal, peaceful Tijuanese put a heck of a lot of sales tax dollars into our economy each year.   [Read more…]

The Filipino-American Tour of the South Bay

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By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass

Ethnic enclaves are generally defined by a cluster of stores and eateries that feature culinary delights from a specific country from abroad. Within that cluster of businesses, you’ll usually hear that foreign language being spoken. In addition, there will often be a religious organization (usually a church) in the vicinity where the members of that ethnicity go to worship, but also come together as a community to support one another.

So how do you like my definition?…It’s imperfect for sure, but I am fascinated by residents who identify with more than just one country and one “ethnic” label.   [Read more…]

Restaurant Review: SEA180º Coastal Tavern

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By Judi Curry

Many, many years ago, I was the Vocational Manager at San Diego Job Corps. There was not a restaurant that would rank over a “3”then, but times have really changed.

This past weekend I celebrated my $%th birthday. But the way I celebrated it was different than I thought it would be. My friend, “Cowboy” flew in from North Dakota to help me age. But he also had started building a solar panel over my flat roof the last time he was here because I kept complaining how cold my bedroom was during the day. He drew diagrams, checked different places on line for parts, and asked a question that triggered a memory from a few years past. I cannot tell you what that question was, but I knew where I could get the answer.

During the time I was at SDJC, we had an excellent Solar instructor teaching our students how to build and maintain solar panels. Over the years I called upon him to repair various problems I had with the electrical lines going to the house, and I knew that if I ever was in a bind I could call on him.

I put in a call to Randall Mann and he agreed to meet us and see if he could answer Cowboy’s questions. He suggested that we meet at the “SEA 180º Coastal Tavern” because it was close to work and a nice place. And nice it was! Beautiful view, both from the inside and outside.   [Read more…]

Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina Promises Civic Engagement

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By Barbara Zaragoza

Ask an Imperial Beach resident, such as Jessica Hogan—small business owner of the Wave Café on Seacoast Drive—what she thinks about Serge Dedina and she’ll give you the optimism that comes with new promises and visions: “I love our new mayor. I have high hopes for our new mayor.”

Serge Dedina took office on December 10th after he won the elections by 43 votes. He gave his first State of the City Address on Monday, February 9th to a packed audience at the Boys & Girls Club. Members of the Fire Department, the Women’s Club and even Chula Vista Mayor, Mary Salas, attended.   [Read more…]

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