Coming of Age Film Festival
Feb 09, 2012
By Aaryn Belfer
As much as I may disagree with standardized testing and the abysmal curriculum that comes with it, I believe in and want to be a part of a successful public-school system
By Aaryn Belfer
As much as I may disagree with standardized testing and the abysmal curriculum that comes with it, I believe in and want to be a part of a successful public-school system
By Aaryn Belfer
Kohn lambasted—while citing research—traditional education methods like worksheets and bubble questions, as well as the intellectual, social and psychologically stunting impact of tests, quizzes and grades.
By Aaryn Belfer
My husband and I see no incentive to subject our daughter to the ongoing experiment aimed at busting teachers unions, closing public schools and reopening them with public funds and unaccountable corporations at the helm.
By Aaryn Belfer
Designed to prep the little ones for the revolving door of tests, the classwork being pushed is also perfect for squashing the curiosity right out of them.
By Aaryn Belfer
These boys are not the 99 percent, and when it comes to megalomania, they’re at the top of their respective games. They think so highly of themselves, in fact, that each thinks he’s immune to his problems with the ladies.
By Aaryn Belfer
Well, here it is—the midyear-budget-cut runaway train is gaining speed and headed toward San Diego Unified School District.
By Aaryn Belfer
I can sort of understand why folks snap. There’s a finite amount of are-we-there-yets that a reasonable adult can handle. One can only ask a kid to brush her teeth (or wash her hands, or feed the dog, or please, please, please, for God’s sake, go brush your teeth) so many times each morning, as if it’s the very first morning in the history of mornings. One can only take so much Groundhog Day.
By Aaryn Belfer
Not all indulgences are expensive, the Times points out. “But they could be on a party-supply list: premixed cocktails and coolers, cheesecake, cosmetics and wine.” Cheesecake saw a 22-percent sales increase in the last year. People: There’s been a run on cheese cake! Who would have thunk it?
By Aaryn Belfer
Kia is wise beyond her years—as they say, an old soul. She is beautiful, warm, funny, kind, creative, insightful and smart. She also happens to be fighting for her life, which took an unexpected detour last spring when she learned she had Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.
By Aaryn Belfer
In case you haven’t heard, an organization called One Million Moms (OMM) has got its flesh-toned, 98-percent-nylon-2-percent-lycra granny panties with the lace waistband all bunched up inside its uber-tight butt crack.
San Diego's 32nd Annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration got underway last Saturday with a parade that passed in front of my house. Location, location, location.
San Diego's 32nd Annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Celebration got underway last Saturday with a parade that passed in front of my house. Location, location, location.
By David Rolland
On Sunday, new U-T San Diego poobahs Doug Manchester and John Lynch said we “must not let the boundaries of our city’s enormous possibilities be limited by too-modest dreams of our own.” God, I totally agree.
By David Rolland
On Sunday, new U-T San Diego poobahs Doug Manchester and John Lynch said we “must not let the boundaries of our city’s enormous possibilities be limited by too-modest dreams of our own.” God, I totally agree.
By David Rolland
There are 14 people working in our office, not all of them full-time. Six of the 14 work in the editorial department, not all of us full-time. The rest of those folks you see closer to the beginning of our staff box at the bottom of this page are freelance contributors who get paid per piece of work.
By David Rolland
The last time CityBeat underwent a major redesign was February 2006, when we switched from a newsprint cover to a glossy. It’s time for another.
By David Rolland
More than 40 years of civic involvement for one man is bound to include some measure of controversy.
By David Rolland
Kudos to KPBS this week for sizing up the hornet’s nest and giving it a couple of good whacks with a baseball bat. Making major changes to the radio schedule that are certain to send thousands of loyal listeners—and donors—into an apoplectic rage takes guts.
By David Rolland
I received a letter a couple of weeks ago from an anonymous correspondent who’d heard me talking about sex offenders on KPBS’s Feb. 4 Editors Roundtable radio show.
By David Rolland
“That guy looks like a villain,” a pre-teen friend of mine said when he spotted Nick Popaditch at Election Central in the civic center’s Golden Hall last Tuesday night. No, no, I told him, he’s wearing an eye patch because he was injured in Iraq. And it’s good that he is, I added, because it might help kill the stigma of eye patches.
By David Rolland
Moments after a Catfish Club-sponsored debate over Proposition D ended in Balboa Park last Friday, an attendee approached San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio and asked if he’d been polling the November ballot measure.
By Kelly Davis
I spent a few hours two Sundays ago at a training for volunteers participating in San Diego’s “Registry Week”—an effort to survey people living on the streets of Downtown to identify the most vulnerable and get them into housing.
By David Rolland
Most San Diegans would undoubtedly find some joy in one consequence of the Philadelphia Phillies’ sweep of the Padres last weekend: It did serious damage to the already slim chance that the Dodgers will make the playoffs as the wild-card winner. A lifelong Dodgers fan, I am not among those San Diegans. Go ahead, laugh it up.
By CityBeat Staff
This is his roadmap to election: Lie to voters about a problem that only he knows how to fix.
By CityBeat Staff
This is his roadmap to election: Lie to voters about a problem that only he knows how to fix.
By CityBeat Staff
In December, pollsters commissioned by organized labor asked San Diegans who are highly likely to vote in the June primary election whom they’ll select for mayor. The results should have Congressmember Bob Filner very concerned.
By CityBeat Staff
This week was a sad one for the CityBeat family. Kia Bowman Momtazi lost her battle against cancer on Saturday afternoon. She was 29.Kia started with us as an intern in January 2005 and later joine
By CityBeat Staff
There was so much buzz surrounding the high-energy opening of Mayor Jerry Sanders’ State of the City speech last week that it threatened to drown out some of the silly things Sanders said in his annual talk.
By CityBeat Staff
Mayor Jerry Sanders will give his seventh and final State of the City speech on Wednesday night, Jan. 11. We won’t like most of it. Here’s what we wish he’d say:
By CityBeat Staff
SOPA’s twin in the U.S. Senate is the Proect IP Act, or PIPA. Both bills threaten to rip apart the fabric of the Internet, compromise the planet’s digital security and open the doors for China-class censorship.
By CityBeat Staff
We understand that purposefully killing Occupy wouldn’t be consistent with the movement’s ethos. That would require an overt act of leadership, and there’s no place for leaders in Occupy’s horizontal structure. A natural death, or, better, an organic evolution into something different, would be more appropriate.
By CityBeat Staff
The Iraq War has drawn more anger from us than any other matter as we’ve periodically updated the body count throughout the years.
By CityBeat Staff
Voiceofsandiego.org, a nonprofit news website that launched in 2005 and is funded through donations and grants, sent three journalists packing, along with its development director, Camille Gustafson. One of the reporters laid off was Emily Alpert, who’s easily the best education reporter in San Diego, if not beyond.
By CityBeat Staff
Goldsmith said his support of the initiative is meaningless. If that’s true, why did he bother showing up at that press conference in April?
It seems like whenever a major decision has to be made, our local leaders have a knack for going down the wrong path.
It seems like whenever a major decision has to be made, our local leaders have a knack for going down the wrong path.
Your Jan. 4 Internet editorial was another great subject. If any of the politicians mess with the Internet, we may experience a movement more forceful than Occupy Wall Street. The Internet is a fantastic medium for learning and commerce. I use it for my work, for my studies and to purchase goods and services.
Shamefully, in last week’s issue, we neglected to credit the tattoo artist who created the design we used on our cover (pictured here). That artist is Rob Benavides of Flying Panther Tattoo & Gallery.
Shoving our heads in the sand to forget only buries the guilt and profit of those responsible for hijacking our society and rewards them for it. As emotionally difficult as it may be, we must face up to this.
For goodness sake, you can’t honestly stand behind a dried-out burrito with french fries in it. And what good is a burrito without rice to soak up the salsa and meat drippings?
Regarding “(One) war is over” [“Editorial,” Dec. 21]: I took a personal interest in the Iraq War, having traveled to both Europe and Africa in order to interview regular citizens and politicians for my web-based column. As with my hero Hank Aaron, congratulations on touching all four.
About Aaryn Belfer’s Nov. 23 column, “School cuts mean hacking off limbs above the tourniquets: Thank goodness you did not touch the superintendent’s office air conditioner. This was the first facility air-conditioned in the district and the only one deemed necessary for proper education to take place. Thank you for saving this most necessary comfort zone.
Are you just trying reinvigorate the old topic of campaign reform, or are you a lobbyist for the Tom Udall legislation that is attempting to address the issue? If you’re trying to reinvigorate the topic, you gotta major up the dose of inciting rhetoric.
In my opinion, considering the problem and my ideas about the cause, without a different voting system in the entire country, there is no solution
I was delighted to see Larry Flynt featured in the Nov. 9 issue. Mr. Flynt is indeed a “champion of free speech,” as writer Enrique Limón describes him.
In San Diego politics, the frame of the game stays the same
In San Diego politics, the frame of the game stays the same
By Carl Luna
City may have passed a pain-free budget, but it has a bigger hole in it than Henry’s bucket
By Carl Luna
A eulogy for departed City Attorney Mike Aguirre
By Carl Luna
Why would anyone want to be a member of the San Diego City Council?
By Carl Luna
You can’t fight City Hall—but you can fight retro plans to build a new one
By Carl Luna
Elections in odd-numbered council districts and an odd trio challenging an odd city attorney make for odd times
By Carl Luna
Even small wars cost a lot to raise these days
By Carl Luna
Our neighbor's house is on fire--and no one seems to give a damn
By Carl Luna
From financial woes to flaming fires, plagues of problems bedeviled San Diego in 2007, but we muddled on
By Carl Luna
Can the city attorney survive the autumn of his discontent?
By D.A. Kolodenko
Having grown up in San Diego seeing so many creative, smart people move to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Europe and other, less-deserty pastures, I always admired those who stayed, or relocated, here for their resolve to make it work in a town where picking up a newspaper is less popular than applying zinc oxide to the nasal region.
By D.A. Kolodenko
Having grown up in San Diego seeing so many creative, smart people move to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Europe and other, less-deserty pastures, I always admired those who stayed, or relocated, here for their resolve to make it work in a town where picking up a newspaper is less popular than applying zinc oxide to the nasal region.
By D.A. Kolodenko
Punya and Abhijeet, both in their late 20s, told me they were the only two guys from hundreds in the company’s Bangalore office who’d been sent to San Diego for training. So, these were the voices on the phone! I had come face to face with the living, breathing targets of every joke ever told in the U.S. about trying to get a modem fixed.
By D.A. Kolodenko
Long before the Gaslamp Quarter became the gentrified playground of San Diego’s young 9-to-5ers, there was this giant antique mall down there, south of Market.
By D.A. Kolodenko
If New York is the city that never sleeps, San Diego is the city that has a glass of warm soymilk before tucking itself into bed at 8:30.Sure, you’ve got your weekend Pacific Beach bro-fest, your
By D.A. Kolodenko
Five people were arrested on Saturday for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
By D.A. Kolodenko
I’m sure you’ve heard about Irwin Jacobs’ plan to invest in a park renovation that
would remove cars from the Plaza De Panama in the heart of the park and
divert traffic coming off of the Cabrillo Bridge toward other parking
areas.
By D.A. Kolodenko
Living smack in front of the tide pools in O.B. for 11 years will make an amateur pelican expert out of you, and it occurs to me that this year, something looks different.
By D.A. Kolodenko
It’s already happening across the country. The New York Times reported that since Republicans made gains in the mid-term elections, 29 states now have anti-choice governors and 15 have both anti-choice governors and legislatures.
By D.A. Kolodenko
One of the more interesting yet under-reported stories from the ongoing disaster in Japan is about how the Tokyo Electric Power Company has ramped up its effort to find workers willing to brave the dangerous conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
By D.A. Kolodenko
Shut down San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant! If enough of us demand it, it will happen. Raise your voices! Send letters! Organize a demonstration! Walk like an Egyptian!
By Dave Maass
Can you help U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracy and political system in the way of his development dream--a waterfront sports-and-entertainment complex? Print im
By Dave Maass
Can you help U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester navigate the labyrinthine bureaucracy and political system in the way of his development dream--a waterfront sports-and-entertainment complex? Print im
By Dave Maass
ACROSS 3. Candidate's name is defined online as "the frothy mix of lub and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."4. Former candidate's family had a hunting spot called,
By Dave Maass
There are 16 San Diego mayoral candidates' surnames in this word search. How many can you find?
By Dave Maass
Can you match the Navy ship currently in San Diego Harbor to the guy it's named after?
By Dave Maass
Guess the winning bids on these County of San Diego contracts:1. 50 campground grills2. 60,000 20” x 34” fring-range targets3. Eight 42” LCD TVs4. Two Chevrolet Caprice poli
By Dave Maass
This holiday season, the county sheriff will use a high-tech, portable sniper tower called "Skywatch" to protect shoppers--and you're his deputy! Grab a friend, a couple of straws or pen casings an
By Dave Maass
Gifted potty mouth (and actor) Alec Baldwin was recently kicked off a plane for playing Words with Friends on his smartphone. Using these letters, try to form the highest-scoring insult possible. Inve
By Dave Maass
By Dave Maass
This image of a cop dousing seated protesters with pepper spray at UC Davis has grown into a viral meme. Draw or paste in something creative, cut him out and stick him somewhere or download the image for a mash-up.
By David Rolland
Dear musicians: Are you having trouble coming up with an original band name? CityBeat editor Dave Rolland has you covered.
By Edwin Decker
I’m like Rachel in the movie The Ring. Whenever the phone rings, my heart stops for fear the caller might be a little girl with wet, black hair who will want to talk about band camp for an hour. This is why I am so grateful for all the communication technology we have today.
By Edwin Decker
I’m like Rachel in the movie The Ring. Whenever the phone rings, my heart stops for fear the caller might be a little girl with wet, black hair who will want to talk about band camp for an hour. This is why I am so grateful for all the communication technology we have today.
By Edwin Decker
Whether you believe newborn babies are miraculous gifts from God or subterranean alien vampire-rats bent on draining your life force, can we at least agree that songs about babies tend to suck rusty buckets of contaminated amniotic fluid?
By Edwin Decker
How is it possible that all the over-reactionistas and followers of The John Lennon Church of Latter Day Music Snobs don’t recognize that redesigning old songs is an exciting and unpredictable part of the music scene.
By Edwin Decker
The bill is called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012, and it basically does what all previous NDAA bills have done—fund the military—the only difference being that this one has a provision that desecrates the Constitution, the founders, civil liberties, puppies and everything else that is right and good about the U.S.A.
By Edwin Decker
This is why I can’t wait for Dec. 22, 2012. Because there will be not one, but thousands of kooky soothsayers who will have to backpedal like hell once Mayageddon is proven to be horse shit. And I know it’s horse shit for three reasons:
By Edwin Decker
What is going rogue, you ask? Going rogue is buying or doing something so wonderful, thoughtful, bla bla bla for your wife, that it causes all the women of the inner circle to blurt to their husbands, “How come you don’t buy me no iPad!?”
By Edwin Decker
On Nov. 1, Congress passed a non-binding resolution to reaffirm “In God We Trust” as the national motto. There are two problems with this. The first, and most glaring, is that “In God We Trust” is a terrible motto.
By Edwin Decker
Don’t you hate when people make declarative, predictive statements about things that might happen in the future when everybody knows that nobody knows what the future holds.
By Edwin Decker
I always get a big yuck out of these mainstream-religion types who scoff at fringe religions as being preposterous, which is like junkies scoffing at tweakers for being addicted to a more damaging drug.
By Edwin Decker
While I received a lot of support from members of the LGBT community, a lot more sent very angry, accusatory missives, all of which boiled down to one or all of the following questions 1. Is Ed Decker a homophobe? 2. Is it ever permissible to use bigoted epithets? 3. Does Ed Decker owe an apology?
By John R. Lamb
Sure, call him a carpetbagger. Yes, he is a new resident of District 1, having recently rented a modest apartment in the UTC area. You can also call him determined, as in he plans to win.
By John R. Lamb
Sure, call him a carpetbagger. Yes, he is a new resident of District 1, having recently rented a modest apartment in the UTC area. You can also call him determined, as in he plans to win.
By John R. Lamb
Mayor Sanders' media machine was on full defensive alert this past weekend, when hotel mogul Papa Doug Manchester used his latest purchase—the town’s major daily, recently renamed U-T San Diego—to encourage readers to "think big" about San Diego’s future.
By John R. Lamb
Spin Cycle presses on with its effort to recognize all candidates running to be San Diego’s next mayor. While most media would have you believe that only those named Carl, Nathan, Bonnie and Bob are worth hearing from, the list of folks who’d argue otherwise has now grown to 16 candidates. Here’s a glimpse into three relative newcomers to the race:
By John R. Lamb
Spin Cycle presents “New Year’s Resolutions that Would be Great to Hear but We’re Not Holding Our Breath.”
By John R. Lamb
In District 7, there are few bold predictions. Voter registration is now fairly evenly split among Republicans, Democrats and independents and words like “down to the wire” and “swing district” crop up frequently in conversations.
By John R. Lamb
It began recently when a longtime community activist sent out an email questioning the leadership qualities of former San Diego school board member Shirley Weber, the most familiar name in a growing field seeking the newly shaped 79th District seat.
By John R. Lamb
San Diego County ranks near the bottom in terms of “civic engagement,\" which suggests local residents suck at voting, group participation and working with neighbors to solve a problem..
By John R. Lamb
When it comes to police clashes with demonstrators, there is likely no more reflective a former police chief than Norm Stamper.
By John R. Lamb
Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in these here parts, has grabbed national headlines recently for comments she made about plans for-ramped up actions against San Diego’s unregulated medi-pot dispensaries, the landlords who rent to them and possibly the media outlets that run their advertisements.
By John R. Lamb
Now, a memoir being a memoir, Murphy has every right to depict his four-year, eight-month reign as mayor in any light he chooses. But this 192-page book could have been so much more. Instead, it’s an autobiography of an orderly man seeking relevance—Murphy even offers 10 “new” goals—six years after he stepped away from the political spotlight.
