Category: Culture

Nearly 600 Events Planned as of Friday Evening

By April Rubin / Axios / January 9, 2026

ICE Out For Good” vigils and protest events were quickly planned nationwide for Jan. 10 and 11 in response to a fatal shooting by immigration officers in Minneapolis, organizers told Axios on Friday.

Why it matters: The killing and a subsequent Border Patrol shooting in Portland have sparked outrage and anger at the Trump administration, which has defended its agents.

Driving the news: There have been at least seven officer-involved shootings since President Trump ramped up Homeland Security operations in early 2025.

On Wednesday, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis as she drove past immigration agents. The Trump administration claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense as Good drove away, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has rejected that claim.

On Thursday, two people were shot by Border Patrol agents in Portland during what officials said was “a targeted vehicle stop.” Both were hospitalized.

State of play: Protests, vigils and other “ICE Out For Good” events are being held by groups including Indivisible, 50501, the Disappeared in America Campaign, Voto Latino and the American Civil Liberties Union. The mobilization is meant to humanize ICE victims and demand accountability.

Well-known community activist and now newspaper publisher, Shane Harris, has raised the issue of paid parking at Balboa Park to a new level with his introduction of a city ordinance to repeal the largely unpopular new policy which just went into effect formerly Monday, January 5.

Also, Harris has launched a county-wide petition to repeal paid parking in Balboa Park — with this effort having gained the support of 10 county mayors, his campaign claims.

In doing so, Harris has entered the squabble between city council members and Mayor Gloria over the apparent disastrous roll-out of the paid parking program (outlined by Rag writer Lou Rehling and by U-T reporter David Garrick).

By Angelo Haynes

On the evening of January 8th at 6pm, residents and community members of Encanto and surrounding areas of City Council District 4 gathered at the Encanto Recreation Center to provide input on the construction of a skate plaza on an existing shuffleboard court.

Several community groups were in attendance, including the San Diego Parks Foundation, an independent non-profit group that raises funds with the goal of enhancing public parks across San Diego County. One man in particular, Abel Macias, has been the driving force behind this entire project beginning with his activism with a local chapter of Black Lives Matter during the pandemic.

Abel coordinated with several skater friends in the neighborhood to create an activist group that took to the streets in a unique protest that brought people together for social justice, but turned into a coalition that sought to develop the sport of skating in his community.

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / Jan. 8, 2026

It’s been more than two years since the Ocean Beach Pier permanently closed for safety and structural concerns in late 2023. The city is planning for a replacement, but still has no clear idea of how it’ll pay for it.

Ocean Beach residents aren’t just concerned that constructing a new pier will face continued delays with no solution in sight. They’re also getting increasingly anxious with the state of the still-standing pier — especially considering plans for the replacement include elements of the current structure.

Ralph Teyssier, the son of the OB Pier’s original engineer and a member of the former Ocean Beach Pier Task Force, said the pier is being “pillaged.”

He cites historic elements of the pier, such as the original bronze plaque, which was stolen, and the bars of the original gate that were cut through, possibly by those who vandalized the former Walking on Water Cafe.

These pieces of the pier won’t be viable for incorporation into the future design even though they’ve been built into the plans to help maintain the pier’s historic character, Teyssier said.

From SOHO

A coalition of 17 former staff leaders and board members of the San Diego Historical Resources Board (HRB) has issued a formal letter to City leadership (read here), charging that the City’s Historical Resources Program has become professionally isolated and administratively dysfunctional. The group is calling for immediate administrative reform to restore the transparency and collaborative spirit that once defined San Diego’s preservation efforts.

The signatories, which include retired senior planners, former board chairs, and a past State Historic Preservation Officer, argue that the program now managed within the Development Services Department has lost the independence and transparency that once defined it.

The group highlights a critical shift in departmental culture:

Loss of Public Collaboration Former officials cite growing concerns regarding “diminishing communication and collaboration” between HRB staff and the public, noting that the principles of openness and mutual respect that once fostered confidence in the process have been replaced by administrative barriers and a loss of meaningful review.

Mayor to ICE: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis!”

By Caroline O’Donovan and Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post / Jan. 7, 2026

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a 37-year-old woman during an operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday, federal authorities said, an incident that came as the Trump administration has staged a massive enforcement effort in the city.

Local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), said they were aware of the shooting and denounced the surge of federal officers at a news conference. Frey accused federal authorities of attempting “to spin this as an action of self-defense” by the ICE officer.

“Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bullshit. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed,” Frey said. “There’s little I can say that will make this situation better, but I do have a message for our community and our city and for ICE. To ICE: Get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at least two shots had been fired and the victim suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the hospital. An investigation is being conducted by the FBI and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, he said.

By Paul Krueger

If our elected officials were as creative with cutting expenses as they’ve been picking our pockets, we’d have a balanced budget with little, if any, need for additional revenue.

But our Mayor and City Council won’t make the fiscally responsible decision to cut the city’s workforce — especially its bloated middle-management ranks — through buy-outs, early retirements, furloughs, and lay-offs.

What we get instead is an endless array of new fees and taxes, which place the biggest burden on those least able to absorb these costs.

Doubling parking meter fees, expanding the hours, days, and locations where those fees are imposed, charging for parking in and around Balboa Park, and issuing thousands of $100-plus “daylighting” citations for motorists who unknowingly park within 20 feet of an intersection are just the start.

Every day brings a new and very unwelcome scheme that lightens our pocketbook.

Cocina De Barrio
3924 W Point Loma Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
Cocina De Barrio 
(619) 222-6600

By LK Bruce

Cocina De Barrio is one of those places you walk out of kicking yourself for not going there more often.

The menu is not your usual Mexican fare of tacos and burritos but rather focuses on authentic Oaxacan dishes which include not just corn, beans, and chili peppers, but a great variety of other ingredients and preparations based on Oaxaca’s varied geography and indigenous cultures. Chef Jose J. Flores has crafted a diverse, interesting and creative menu that pops with classic Oaxacan ingredients.

The difficult choices start with the appetizer menu; everything sounds so good. Imagine prickly pear and lime marinated striped bass ceviche, Mexican street corn with shrimp, sliced raw salmon with pickled strawberries or fresh guacamole and/or salsa made in a real molcajete, the traditional Mexican mortar and pestle made of volcanic basalt. And you’re just getting started.

by Douglas Letter  / Time / January 6, 2026

On Jan. 6, 2021, I was in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives as violent insurrectionists attacked our nation’s Capitol, bent on interrupting Congress in carrying out its constitutional responsibilities and doing serious harm to Vice President Pence, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and members of Congress.

[Please go to original here for all the links]

As I reflect on this dark day for our precious—and often fragile—American democracy, I keep returning to one of the underlying forces helping to fuel the violence: Second Amendment extremism.

Second Amendment extremism comes from what legal scholars describe as the “insurrectionist” interpretation of the Second Amendment. This seriously flawed reading believes that Americans have a right under the Constitution, and even an obligation, to take up arms against the government when they disagree with its direction. At the core of this extremism is the dangerous view that the founders viewed aggrieved citizens who attack the government through armed violence as righteous patriots, rather than the enemies of the state.

By Steve Rodriguez

The start of a new year always brings forth a flurry of predictions for what to expect in the coming months. Predictions can range from the wild to the more reasonable, with prognostications coming from a variety of individuals to include mystical clairvoyants, creative visionaries, and more research-based futurists.

Instead of just waiting to review such predictions, I thought this year I would do some hard thinking and come up with my own look into what 2026 might bring forth at both local and national levels.

My approach is a mixture of amateur psychic, sophisticated seer and analytical trend forecaster.  Not to intentionally downplay my prophetic talents, but some of these predictions are easier to make than others. After all, predictions are often based on data and patterns reflecting past behavior. On the other hand, some of the more extraordinary prophecies can be attributed to my exceptional gut instinct.

Quite frankly, I enjoy being called a “futurist.”  In fact, just the other day as I was walking through the neighborhood, I heard someone say, “Look, it’s the smarty pants futurist, too bad he can’t bother to look ahead to figure out which week to put out the blue recycling bin.”

In any event, here is my list of the top 26 headlines we can expect to see sometime in 2026.

1.     Padres Hire New Batting Instructor

by Lu Rehling

Confusion was the order of the day in Balboa Park on January 5th , and no wonder, with info about the city’s new parking policy and rates missing and mixed throughout the Central Mesa and beyond.

As Visitor Center reps reported that they were fielding questions and complaints all day, one major block to even figuring out the new parking regime was signage. Some are just not there.

For example, there is none to identify which parking lots cost what under the tiered parking system. So, consider your options:

To find out what parking costs at any given lot, you can check at the payment kiosk for that lot. Could be $16 dollars a day or $10, and maybe with partial day parking available at a lower cost, or maybe not. If you pull in, go up to the kiosk, tap it; then, if you don’t like what you see, you can always turn around and exit that lot to try another, hoping to get luckier.

Next, if that doesn’t work out, you can enjoy driving back to the closer lot that you’d checked out in the first place. But wait, wait!–the first rate that you see on the kiosk screen actually may not be the correct one for you, IF you’re a city resident AND already have registered for discounted parking (which, by the way, cannot be done on the spot and costs $5 up front online, with a two-day wait to confirm). In that case, presumably, your registered resident rate won’t come up until after you enter your license plate number.

Hundreds of people were forced to flee a homeless shelter near downtown San Diego as floodwaters rushed through the front door just recently, leaving many with few belongings.

Officials evacuated Alpha Project’s Bridge Shelter, a massive gray tent near 16th Street and Newton Avenue on the edge of Barrio Logan, early New Year’s Day. About 325 men and women are now sleeping in the Municipal Gym in Balboa Park.

More than 2 inches of rain fell on San Diego County on New Year’s, breaking local records and causing multiple water rescues. The shelter was one of the first casualties.

Now Alpha Project is calling on San Diegans to donate items — and they’re asking people to deliver them to the Recital Hall in Balboa Park.