Category: Civil Rights

There’s been a spike in detentions of Afghans living in San Diego recently and it’s being condemned by the local chapter of America’s largest Muslim civil rights group, CAIR, which stands for Council on American-Islamic Relations.

In a statement issued Dec. 3, the Executive Director, Tazheen Nizam of San Diego’s CAIR said:

“This past week, our office has seen a spike in calls from Afghan community members suddenly facing new threats to their status and safety. This morning, I accompanied an Afghan evacuee to what ICE claimed was a routine check-in in San Jose; despite full cooperation, he was detained immediately. We’re hearing the same fear from long-time green card holders, already-vetted refugees, and families who have waited years to reunite with loved ones now trapped in limbo.

From Associated Press , San Diego UT

Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours, city officials announced Monday, hours before Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders visited striking baristas on a picket line.

The development came amid a continuing strike by Starbucks’ union that began last month at dozens of locations around the country [including San Diego].

The workers want better hours and increased staffing, and they are angry that Starbucks hasn’t agreed on a contract nearly four years after workers voted to unionize at a Buffalo store. Union votes at other locations followed, and about 550 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned stores are now unionized. The coffee giant also has around 7,000 licensed locations at airports, grocery stores and other locales.

Workers and the company dispute the extent and impact of the strike, but Mamdani, Sanders and some state and city officials sought to amplify the baristas’ message by mingling with scores of strikers and supporters outside a Starbucks shop in Brooklyn.

“These are not demands of greed — these are demands of decency,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist who ran on pledges to aid working-class people, told the crowd. Some workers carried giant mock-ups of Starbucks takeout cups, bearing the union’s logo instead of the coffee chain’s insignia.

by Ernie McCray

Oh, as I looked back at pictures
of the “No Kings” protesters
in San Diego
I so wished that I could take to the streets
as I’ve done so many times before
over my lifetime
but standing and walking
for a longtime
would not treat me very kind.
But it’s plain to see
that this kind of massive togetherness
is the key
to our surviving the mess
we find ourselves in,|
chaos brought to us
by a madman
whose goal in life
is to do us in

Joe Adamantly Still Supports 30-Foot Height Limit and Opposes Turquoise Tower

By Madison Beveridge / PB Monthly SDU-T / December 1, 2025 

Large-scale, controversial housing projects and people staying overnight in vehicles were the top concerns voiced by Pacific Beach residents during a recent town hall meeting.

The Pacific Beach Town Council hosted the Nov. 5 meeting with City Council President Joe LaCava at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in PB.

With attendees ranging from locals to government officials, the primary focus was a question and answer session with LaCava.

The councilmember, whose District 1 includes Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Torrey Pines and Del Mar Mesa, served as a sounding board for the community during the meeting. The evening was a chance for locals to connect directly with their elected city representative and address the region’s short- and long-term goals.

“Several of the most notable topics discussed were the two large project developments happening in Pacific Beach right now,” said PB Town Council President Charlie Nieto. “The first is the Turquoise Tower, which is a 23-story residential tower. The other is a newer project called Chalcifica, a 136-unit project.”

Sometimes the best truth in a newspaper can be found in its Letters to the Editor.This is what happened in today’s (Dec.2) LA Times where a reader raised needed and serious questions about a recent news article about the “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” that was published in the Times on Nov. 21 — with a similar story being published in the Rag that same day, with the headline, “The Border Patrol Is Monitoring the Driving of American Citizens — Detaining Those With ‘Suspicious’ Patterns.” It’s such a crazy and frightening story that none of our readers raised questions or commented. But Charles Petithomme of Burbank had the nerve to do so with the Times. Here, below is his letter in full.

Re “Feds monitoring, detaining drivers,” Nov. 21

What a frightening story that leaves so many unanswered questions.

Questions about who is being pulled over: Was the system tested before being made operational? Does the targeting algorithm have built-in biases? What is the racial composition of the people being surveilled? What is the conviction rate of those being surveilled?

By Steve Rodriguez

First comes the sighting of a Venezuelan boat.
Just about any fishing boat will suffice.
Next, fixing the target in a missile’s
crosshairs. Followed by a dramatic
blasting of the vessel. Bright flash
of light ensues, conveniently captured
by camera for later media airing.

By Jim Varnadore

Dear SD U-T Editor,

There are recent rumors that San Diego will soon have a new ride-share called “Waymo”. As I understand it, Waymo is a vehicle without a driver.

I look forward to reading the newspaper coverage of that new service.

It raises a question.

Under state law drivers must exchange identification and insurance information in the event of a collision. If I were to bump into a Waymo, how do I tell it who I am and who is my car insurance carrier?

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings December 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th.

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine
The San Diego River Park Foundation has volunteer opportunities in Ocean Beach: Point Loma Native Plant Garden Club on the 2nd and 4th Sundays
Every Sunday 2 pm – 4 pm Occupy Otay Sunday Action Otay Mesa Detention Center

December 1st Monday  12 pm – 1 pm Interfaith Vigil For Earth Justice
December 1st Monday 4 pm – 6 pm The Courage to Connect:
December 1st Monday We Ain’t Buying It

December 2nd. Tuesday 6 pm – 9 pm Community Craft & Film Night Fundraiser
December 3rd. Wednesday 5 pm Santa’s Clean Air Workshop:  Holiday Crafts for a Healthy Portside
December 3rd. Wednesday 10 am- 11am Celebrate Without the Waste: Sustainable Holidays Webinar
December 3rd. Wednesday 5 pm – 8 pm Salty Cinema Fall 2025: Tides of Renewal.

December 4th Thursday 6 pm – 8 pm Protecting Southern California from Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling
December 5th Friday 6 pm Film Night “The Great Debaters”  Event by Black Panther Party of San Diego
December 6th Saturday 1 pm – 3:30 pm Party for the Planet

December 6th 12 pm – 3 pm Active Duty Coffee Talk
December 6th Saturday 11 am – 2 pm Friends and Neighbors Holiday River Celebration & Art Market
December 6th Saturday 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Mission Beach Community Climate Conversation

December 7th Sunday 12:30 pm- 3 pm South Bay Community Climate Conversation
December 7th Sunday 9:30 am  – 10:30 am Ramona Wildlife Center Tour

Strategy hinges on California’s density bonus law, which empowers builders to secure waivers to avoid development requirements

By Jennifer Van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 28, 2025 

A recent court order directing the reinstatement of the 30-foot height limit in San Diego’s Midway District would seem to stop short a development team’s plan to remake the city’s sports arena site with thousands of apartments and a replacement venue in buildings that tower over the restriction.

But the ruling’s net effect on the megaproject may only amount to a short-term, bureaucratic delay. That’s because the Midway Rising team believes it has something more powerful on its side: California’s density bonus law.

“Midway Rising is moving forward as planned under state density bonus law that encourages affordable housing development,” said Jeff Meyer, a spokesperson for the development team. “We have full confidence in this transformative redevelopment and look forward to working with our local and state partners to bring the vision put forward in the Midway Community Plan to life.”

The team expects the project will be considered by the City Council in early 2026, he said.

The posture of strength suggests that the city and the development team, tied together by an exclusive negotiation agreement, have not labored in vain.

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 22-24, 2025

An aggressive plan to add nearly 20,000 potential new homes to Clairemont over the next 30 years got a key green light Friday when the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee unanimously approved it.

The new growth blueprint for Clairemont — the oldest and largest of San Diego’s suburban neighborhoods — also includes a new fire station, new parks and a possible new trolley station at Jutland Drive and Morena Boulevard.

The blueprint, which could boost the neighborhood’s population from the current 80,000 to about 119,000, also shrinks vehicle lanes on Morena Boulevard and Genesee Avenue to make way for bicycle-only and bus-only lanes.

There are also some ambitious goals like aerial tramways over Interstate 5 to connect Clairemont to coastal areas, and a missing link hiking trail that would connect Marian Bear Park and Tecolote Park.

And the neighborhood’s 30-foot building height limit would be wiped out in many areas to allow high-rise and mid-rise buildings that would range in height from 40 feet to 65 feet.

Campillo Is Lone Vote Against Approval

By Maura Fox / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 24, 2025

A development blueprint that plans for tripling the population of the College Area over the next 30 years is one step closer to being adopted, after a San Diego City Council committee voted to approve the update.

The community plan, which hasn’t seen an update since 1989, will guide land use and development for the neighborhood for the next two to three decades. It will now head to the full City Council for review.

It projects ambitious population growth in the College Area and expects more opportunities for cycling and public transit, green spaces along busy streets and a campus town center near San Diego State University.

“I’m excited to see how, outside this plan update, we can work to make those recommendations a reality for the community,” Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, whose District 9 includes the area, said at Friday’s meeting of the Land Use and Housing Committee.

The plan update passed 3-1, with Councilmember Raul Campillo, who represents nearby District 7, voting no.

From Fox5 San Diego / November 25, 2025

A class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleges Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of violating due process by targeting people after court proceedings in San Diego County.

Represented by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA’s School of Law and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL), three detained immigrants filed the lawsuit.

“Entrapping and imprisoning people who are complying with their immigration requirements isn’t just cowardly, it’s unconstitutional,” CHRCL Legal Director Bardis Vakili said via a press release. “Due process requires that, before taking away our freedom, the government must prove at a hearing that detention is justified.”

Throughout the summer, ICE targeted people leaving court hearings at 880 Front Street, according to the lawsuit.