“Paradise Plundered” Takes Aim at San Diego’s Political Culture (tags)
Once upon a time, San Diego had a reputation for being an efficiently governed city whose taxes were low -- and so was its level of services, especially to working-class and lower-income people. Today the level of services is even lower and the city is so wretchedly governed the New York Times called it "Enron by the Sea." What happened is explained in the new book "Paradise Plundered," whose co-author, Vladimir Kogan, came to the Hillcrest Town Council October 11 and talked about the city's infamous pension crisis.
Keith Brown Interviews Mark Conlan on ?Big Brother? HIV Test Program (tags)
Two audio links to information about the viciously intrusive, Big Brother-ish "Lead the Way" HIV antibody testing program being pushed by Dr. Susan Little, head of the Antiviral Research Center at UC San Diego (whose previous HIV test program broke the confidentiality of ALL the people tested in it). One is Zenger's Newsmagazine editor/publisher Mark Gabrish Conlan reading his editorial "Big Brother Is Testing You," with cut-in quotes from Dr. Little herself; and the other is an interview with Mark Gabrish Conlan by Keith Brown of the "Gay Spirit" radio program in Hartford, Connecticut that also contains new information about "Lead the Way."
Big Brother Is Testing You (tags)
Big Brother is testing you. Big Brother is sending out mobile test vans to certain census tracts in Hillcrest, Normal Heights and other neighborhoods in the 92103 and 92104 Zip codes to knock on people?s doors and present them with a then-and-there demand that they take an HIV antibody test. That?s what Dr. Susan Little of the Antiviral Research Center (ARC) at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center came to the Hillcrest Town Council on May 10, when she spoke at their meeting to announce a new, stunningly intrusive and threatening program called ?Lead the Way? designed essentially to force everyone between the ages of 18 and 64 in the 92103 and 92104 Zip codes ? the parts of San Diego with the greatest concentration of Queer residents ? to take the HIV antibody test and go on immediate ?treatment? with anti-HIV medications if they test ?positive.? What makes this even worse is that Dr. Little has a documented history of breaking the confidentiality of ALL her subjects in a previous HIV antibody testing study!
San Diego Queers Split Over City Redistricting (tags)
San Diego?s Queer community has split over their response to the redrawing of district lines for the City Council. On one side are the members of the self-styled ?LGBT Redistricting Task Force,? who are pushing a major redesign of the city?s Queer-influenced District 3, pushing out the people of color and less affluent Queers in City Heights and adding more upscale neighborhoods like Mission Hills and Bankers? Hill to the Hillcrest/North Park core of the district. On the other side are Queer residents of the City Heights community of Azalea Park, who bought there because gentrification had priced them out of Hillcrest and North Park and now find themselves threatened that they will no longer be represented by a Queer Councilmember. The current District 3 is San Diego?s most ethnically diverse; the district proposed by the LGBT Redistricting Task Force and the Hillcrest Town Council will be 70 percent white.
Gioffre & Rader: Real-Life Gay Couple Do Video Together (tags)
Though the passage of Proposition 8 in November 2008 put a damper on their original business plan to market themselves as specialist in wedding videos for Gay and Lesbian couples, videographers and real-life husband and husband Gary Rader and Anthony Gioffre are going ahead with their company, Golden Lodestar Productions, and even marketing themselves as specialists in commitment ceremonies. They also do other kinds of video production and are frequently seen with their gear at local pro-Queer demonstrations and other political events they’re documenting for historical purposes.
Two Openly Gay Councilmembers Debate Sales-Tax Increase (tags)
Rival City Councilmembers Todd Gloria and Carl DeMaio — the first two openly Gay men elected to the San Diego City Council — spoke at the Hillcrest Town Council September 14 and debated Proposition D on the November 2 ballot. This would allow the city to raise its sales tax one-half cent for five years to plug the $72 billion hole in its current budget — but only after the city implements 10 “reforms” reducing its pension obligations to workers and making it easier to privatize city jobs. But even in Gloria’s relatively liberal district, the polite but hostile response from the audience made it clear the measure will be a tough sell to city voters.
Congressmember Davis Speaks at Orderly Town-Hall Meeting (tags)
Elsewhere in the country Democratic Congressmembers are being heckled and sometimes driven off the stage when they try to hold town-hall meetings to explain the health-care reform bill the House is currently debating. Not in San Diego August 11, where Congressmember Susan Davis was able to hold a meeting in peace and discuss the issue in a polite, civil manner. This was largely due to the strategy of the sponsoring organization, the Hillcrest Town Council, which admitted their own members and Hillcrest residents first -- thereby assuring Davis a mostly liberal audience that wouldn't try to disrupt her meeting.
Progressive San Diego Council Candidate Takes On Developer (tags)
Progressive San Diego City Council candidate Stephen Whitburn held a press conference September 7 to protest a new development proposal for the Hillcrest area that would erect two high-rise towers in a small-scale, intimate neighborhood, adding to traffic congestion and destroying the community's atmosphere. Developer Bruce Lightenberger, also interviewed, said he couldn't care less; he claims that as long as it meets existing zoning, he has an absolute right to build his project and neither the city nor the community can stop him.
San Diego City Council Candidates Debate (tags)
San Diego City Council candidates Stephen Whitburn and Todd Gloria debated at the Hillcrest Town Council September 9. Both are openly Gay men and the debate was held in the center of San Diego's Queer community, but the candidates are otherwise quite different. Gloria emphasized his roots in San Diego and his extensive experience working as a staff member for elected officials, while Whitburn criticized Gloria's support from developers and said his own experience in journalism and the nonprofit sector would make him a better Councilmember.