The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
The international border between San Diego and Tijuana has long spurred artists to make work that comments and reflects on it.
Border art can offer harsh criticisms or nuanced perspectives on the politics surrounding the fence, often commenting on how officials handle the people who cross it.
Now that President Donald Trump and his desire to build a border wall and step up immigration enforcement is making international headlines almost daily, the irreverent critiques and commentary border artists have visualized over the years seem more timely than ever.
I went ahead and rounded up 20 notable acts of protest art at the border.
The Pure Water Problem
The city of San Diego is moving forward on its plan to turn sewage into drinking water.
Called Pure Water, the city wants to produce 30 million gallons per day of recycled sewer water by 2022.
But cities and water districts across the region are less enthused, not because of old-fangled toilet-to-tap-type worries, but because the project has penned out to be a lot more expensive and larger than when it was first pitched.
VOSD’s Ry Rivard dives in to the city’s Pure Water push and the nervous neighbors who think the project should be scaled back.
Racial Bias in Policing and What to Do About it
How will the San Diego Police Department change its policies in light of the racial bias found in a traffic stop report by a group of San Diego State University researchers?
The San Diego City Council will take on that hot topic Monday morning. Council members are also scheduled to appoint a dozen community leaders to a community policing board that’s been revived after a 16-year hiatus. (U-T)
ICYMI: Assemblywoman Shirley Weber has some thoughts on what the police department should do.
What’s That Smell?
Residents of the South Bay could sniff the stench of a big sewage spill in Mexico long before any officials told them about it.
The Associated Press reports that more than 140 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Tijuana River on Feb. 2 and flowed north to San Diego area beaches. Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina criticized federal officials in the U.S. and Mexico for not telling anyone about the sewage spill.
This certainly isn’t the first time sewage from the Tijuana River has flowed freely and without warning into local waters.
Weekend News Roundup
• On HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday night, Rep. Darrell Issa said he supports independent Senate and House investigations of Trump and his presidential campaign’s possible Russia connections. He also said Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from such a probe because of his connections to Trump. (Time)
• San Diego is outfitting 3,200 street lights with cameras, microphones and sensors. It’s just the first large-scale roll out of General Electric’s “Smart City” initiative, but this financial news website says it’s a growth industry to keep an eye on. (TheStreet)
• The number of murders in San Diego County has increased for three years in a row. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, for example, saw a 68 percent increase between 2015 and 2016. The U-T recalls some of the past year’s most shocking cases, looks into the numbers and says while shootings claimed the most lives, there’s not one particular factor to blame for increase in murders. Remember, though, that violent crime as a whole is way down.
• VOSD has reported on the increase in seniors using local public transportation. Helping enable older adults to get around is one of the four projects aimed at seniors that have been funded by grants from the San Diego Foundation. (Times of San Diego)
• With news of cuts and closures in the San Diego craft beer world, it’s seemed like the bubble had finally burst. Not so, says the Reader’s Ian Anderson, who writes about several upcoming spring openings and says we can now officially “return to our regularly scheduled craft-beer boom.”
• More rain is coming. (U-T)