Month: March 2020

By Terrie Best

Courthouses are places of pain, frustration, hopelessness and fear. San Diego’s new downtown courthouse is a towering reminder of the taxpayer money going into perpetuating a criminal justice system that is broken, favors prosecutors and works against the poor and disenfranchised.

We’ve been hearing about prosecutor misconduct in the news and through a valiant effort by documentarians to tell the stories of the wrongfully accused, Walter McMillian, Kalief Browder, The Central Park Five as well as the Orange County DA use of inmate informants. Hundreds of cheats which ruined the lives of many have been exposed through the media. And like cockroaches, for every one uncovered there are likely many more.

Since prosecutorial, police and courtroom treachery happens here in San Diego, as evidenced by the work of local activists in the Time Done and Participatory Defense models, I will bear witness and write about it. This particular practice is called courtwatch. It is done by citizens who believe when we watch the system, the powerful behave better.

San Diego City College Release Events: Tuesday 3/10 at 12:45 in MS 140 and Wednesday 3/18 at 11:10 in MS 162

San Diego City Works Press is proud to announce the release of Reclaiming Our Stories 2.

Reclaiming Our Stories 2 is the sequel to San Diego City Works Press’s wildly successful Reclaiming Our Stories: Narratives of Identity, Resilience and Empowerment that went through multiple print runs. As editors Khalid (Paul) Alexander, Manuel Paul López, Darius Spearman, and Ebony Tyree put it in the introduction to this anthology, Reclaiming Our Stories 2 is in –

the tradition of a literature—beginning with the slave narrative—that counters hegemony and white supremacy. These stories offer a glimpse into the lives of real people in their own words; they put a human face to members of our communities who have been marginalized, labeled as criminals, and discarded by our society.

Most of the authors are first-generation college students who have all survived and continue their struggle to overcome the constant challenges of being Black, Brown, and poor in San Diego.

At the last Ocean Beach Town Council meeting, the newly-elected and re-elected board members took their seats. Re-elected was Mark Winkie, President, Jon Carr – now Vice President, Cameron Reid – now Corresponding Secretary, and Grace Quigley – now Events Chair.

Also just elected to the Board are Christie Romano and Arlene Fink (not pictured above). The rest of the community certainly congratulates and welcomes these dedicated volunteers.

The next public meeting is Wednesday, March 25, 7:00 pm at the Masonic Lodge

Provided by the Ocean Beach Green Center

Events at the Ocean Beach Green Center

Every Tuesday at 10 am – noon (or longer) March 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st. Ma’heonehoo estas, Northern Cheyenne oil painter + musician.
Every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. Climate Mobilization Coalition Meeting.

March 8th Sunday 7 pm Open mic at the Ocean Beach Green Center.

March 12th Thursday 7 pm. Film Night. “Edible City”

March 28th Saturday noon to ? Come visit Ocean Beach Green Center to ignite our collaboration with Eden art garden.

Events not at the Ocean Beach Green Center

March 7th Saturday 9 am – 11 am March’s Ocean Beach Cleanup at OB Pier Ocean

March 7th Saturday 4 pm – 6:30 pm Protest Safari Club International

On Thursday, March 5, Councilman Scott Sherman’s lead over Councilwoman Barbara Bry shrank as the County Registrar of Voters continued to count outstanding ballots. Whomever comes in second, of course, in San Diego’s mayoral race, will face off with Assemblyman Todd Gloria in November, as he finished first.

On Wednesday, Sherman had a lead of 3,063 votes over Bry, but by Thursday evening, it dropped by 923 votes to 2,140. If Bry gains ground at this rate in the next few days, she will pass Sherman to take that second slot, so reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

By Colleen O’Connor

Regardless of the outcomes, most voters are disappointed with some result this election.

For example, 2020 is not just the 100th anniversary of Women’s right to vote, but March is also Women’s History Month. But, what do women have to show for all this?

Three older white men vying for the Presidency of the United State; Trump, Biden, and Bernie. No glass ceilings broken.

Perhaps, Elizabeth Warren will remain in the race and provide an alternative voice—and real plants—but, realistically, she may drop out before this column is even posted. [Ed: which is what happened.]

How about those voters who wanted to stop the spread of unwanted development in San Diego’s back country? They lost, too.

By Ernie McCray

I look at the Democratic Party and I just have to shake my head – for how it holds back from doing truly great things.

But I happen to be a democrat. And that’s not because of the party itself, but because of my experiences with so many individual democrats over the years.

I mean they’ve been in the vast majority of people whom I’ve marched with, in my activism, carrying signs ranging from “Free Huey!” to “Give Peace a Chance,” chanting questions about what we wanted and when we wanted it, with the answer always being: “Now!”

Democrats are my peeps. But the Democratic Party? That’s a whole other thing.

The democrats I’ve been in the streets with are both dreamers and doers, folks who really adhere to Mahatma Gandhi’s hope inspiring point-of-view that “You must be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

In one of the strangest and twisted stories out of Ocean Beach these days is how some scam artists tried to rent a couple’s home on Saratoga – without their knowledge. Laura Acevedo from 10News reported on the scam.

It turns out, the Bergstroms, who own their home, found out that it had been listed for rent on Zillow and Trulia when a daughter’s friend asked them why their house was on Zillow. This came as quite a shock – as they had no knowledge of any such listing. Their house has never been up for rent since they’ve owned it.

Stephanie Bergstrom then called the phone number with the listing and acted as if she was a potential renter. As 10News reported, Stephanie said, “I called this woman and played along.” The woman she called said she was looking for a nice family to move in to her home.

Here are the latest San Diego County and City Primary results:

By Andrew Hansen / LomaBeat – The Point PLNU

On Feb. 16, FC Porto forward Moussa Marega left the soccer field in the middle of the second half, both middle fingers raised to the crowd after opposing fans showered him with racist insults.

Marega is the latest victim of racism from fans in European soccer as the sport’s struggles to deal with racism continues in 2020. Marega is a French-born Mali international player and currently plays for FC Porto, one of the top clubs in Portugal. He previously played for Vitoria Guimaraes, which was the opposing team whose fans racially abused Marega.

League officials from Liga Portugal released a statement that said, “Liga Portugal will do everything to ensure that this episode and all other racist incidents do not go unpunished.”

If the incident with Marega was an isolated incident, then the league’s statement might have validity. However, Marega is only the most recent soccer player to deal with racist fans.

The OB Planning Board meets this week on Wednesday, March 4. The main agenda items appear to be the permit to demolish and build on the 4700 block of Orchard, a presentation by the city’s Planning Department on utilities franchise fee contracts, as well as another presentation by SDG&E on their franchise fee contracts.

The Board is employing a new technique – the consent agenda – which is commonly used in larger legislative jurisdictions – like the city council. Unless a Board member “pulls” the item off the consent agenda, it could be part of a simple vote up or down without discussion on all consent agenda items. (Perhaps a member of the public can also pull an item off.) This is essentially an efficiency thing.

For Wednesday’s agenda, it is being used for the only project the Board has to review – a project that was approved by the Project Review Committee on a vote of 5 to 0 at their meeting on Feb. 19. – the demolition and construction planned for 4719 Orchard Ave. (See agenda.)

by Candice Woo / Eater San Diego / Mar 2, 2020

“Restaurant Impossible”, the long-running Food Network show hosted by Robert Irvine that travels the country trying to save struggling eateries, will be in San Diego this week to come to the aid of Ocean Beach stalwart Kaiserhof. The German American restaurant debuted in Mission Valley in 1980 before moving to its current Sunset Cliffs location in 1993.

Working with a $10,000 budget, the “Restaurant Impossible” team will be in town transforming Kaiserhof on March 17 and 18.