Goddess

Filter in North Park 

Moved my blog

Hi friends, I moved my blog today and I have a new name:  “At the edges”  You can find me at http://www.attheedges.com  or click here for At the edges

 

Thanks for reading!

Chance Encounters with Beauty: Art in Zona Centro Tijuana

Urban artist James Mercado works on a piece based on the traditional Mexican calavera figure

Last night, I went out to a gallery show and graffiti live painting event with my friends Jodi and Dan, and I was delighted to discover a vibrant art & cultural scene in the middle of downtown Tijuana.

Click here for my SLIDE SHOW

Jodi parked on Calle Tercera, and the three of us took advantage of a brief break in the rain to walk quickly over to Avenida Revolución, dodging the random drips and drops from awnings, looking for the “arcade” Paseo Rodriguez.  We accidently ducked down the wrong passageway, right next to the enormous red facade of Casino Caliente, and were met by a specter of old Tijuana: “Hey come on in! What are you looking for? Do you want a drink? What are you looking for? Marijuana? Cocaine?”  Like the black & white stripe drawings of zebras that now appear randomly on storefronts & concrete walls, the man’s offers felt like a parody of a Tijuana long gone, when Saturday night streets were crowded with thousands of American tourists looking for cheap booze and loud music.

Patrons relax outside El Grafógrafo bookstore & Wow gallery

While the $25 million renovation of Casino Caliente promises to bring back the sleazy Tijuana we all know, the streets are mostly quiet now, making room for local Mexican hipster kids, indie bands, poetry readings and acoustic guitar performances. Paseo Rodriguez is one of many new little commercial corridors that’s been appropriated and given new life by artists, musicians and cultural producers interested in giving new life to Tijuana.

Two doors down, we found Paseo Rodriguez, and discovered a couple dozen new galleries, bookstores, art supply shops nested in the long covered passageway. We were greeted by Efren Parra, owner of the gallery BajaRepubika, and a few other artists we had stumbled upon several weeks earlier as they were celebrating their friend’s birthday in the gallery.   Efren reminded us that the group had open galleries on the first Friday of every month.

Down at the end, we found Jodi’s friend James Mercado and the graffiti event we were looking for.  Artists Kafy, James and Anselmo were busy with their spraycans, painting big colorful pieces on the east wall, illuminated by an enormous spotlight, while dozens of hipster kids and other graffiti artists looked on in admiration.  I observed a couple of young guys deep in concentration as they worked with magic markers on sketches in their black books. In gallery Local 29, a group gathered around an enormous table made of wooden screenprint frames stacked into a swirl, laden with fruit, cheese and crackers, while local artist Kurtis DJThird RaiLooks Solis stood spinning tunes at a console in the corner providing accompaniment for a bevy of bellydancers in another gallery across the walkway.  At the far end of the arcade, another group of a hundred people sat at tables chatting and drinking coffee, while a singer performed “Tijuanerías” (Tijuana songs) and strummed his guitar.  The artists from HEM Crew a group of urban artists who have been beautifying Tijuana streets lately with enormous murals, clowned around and posed for the camera.

At the very end of the walkway we stopped to chat with Gil, an old friend of Jodi’s who was now running a screenprint shop and selling t-shirts and original art prints. Gil and Jodi and Dan swapped stories about old days in Chicago, and Gil reminisced about his plan to live for one month in each neighborhood so that he could fully enjoy the diversity of Chicago’s ethnic communities. Remembering an art collective Gil was involved with there, he remarked hopefully:  “I think it’s still going–I hope it’s still there.”

What’s clear is that these innovative & cosmopolitan Tijuana artists have much to offer, both to their city and to our region.

Midnight in Tijuana

Delicious Molcajete with shrimp, carne asada, mushrooms & cheese topped with fresh avocado and radish served with fresh tortillas for 100 pesos, at Tacos Salceados (formerly Tacos Ermita), located on  Ermita Norte between Díaz Ordaz and Benítez, a bit east of Plaza Patria. Es muy "gor-met."  

Easier route soon to A.L. Rodriguez International Airport in Tijuana

Just yesterday, I was out in Otay Mesa at the Brown Field Border Patrol station for a meeting, and I realized just how close we are to A.L. Rodriguez International Airport on the northeast side of Tijuana.  You can literally get out of your car on Brittania Blvd, walk for a couple of minutes over to a fence, and you will be standing right next to the runways.

Yup, I could throw my suitcase over the fence, and get on the plane right there.  But you can’t get to the airport from here.  Nope.  Gotta go all the way into Tijuana through a Port of Entry, and on your way home, you can be sure you will end up  sitting in your car for hours to get back into the U.S.

But help is on the way, from Sam Zell, the guy who bought the L.A. Times.  Read more…

Group wants to link US fliers to Mexican airport

From the Associated Press,  February 13, 2011

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — The Flores family’s frequent trips to visit family in Mexico begin with a two-hour drive from their suburban Los Angeles home to San Diego, followed by a quick jaunt across the border to the Tijuana airport for the flight to Guadalajara.

Getting there is breeze, but the trip home can take twice as much time due to long lines of cars waiting to cross back onto U.S. soil.

“It’s a waste of time, but we save money by flying out of here,” Noel Flores of Rosemead said as he waited with his parents for a flight out of A.L. Rodriguez International Airport.

A shorter trip could be just steps away if a group of Mexican and American investors, including real estate mogul Sam Zell, is able to build a pedestrian bridge connecting ground transportation on the American side of the border to the Tijuana airport.

Supporters of the plan believe it will help relieve traffic at two nearby border crossings, maximize use of the Tijuana airport, and steer Southern Californians away from other international airports in the region.

The $78 million project calls for a two-story building and parking lot in Otay Mesa, an industrial district on the southernmost end of San Diego, where passengers can park their cars or get dropped off, pick up their boarding passes inside a lobby before going through U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoints. From there, they can pay a fee to walk across the 525-foot bridge and reach the Tijuana airport where they can show their passports to Mexican immigration officers before proceeding to security check-ins and boarding.

“The main reason this makes sense is that it’s a quick, convenient and secure way to cross the border,” said Greg Rose, who is overseeing the project for Otay-Tijuana Venture LLC.

The investors conducted a market study that projects that by 2012, when they hope to complete construction of the facility, about 2 million passengers — half of the total who’ll use the airport — would be crossing the border.

That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 65 million crossings from Mexico to California in 2009, the latest government statistics available. Nonetheless, backers of the cross-border project said the numbers illustrate a booming economic zone where people cross the border daily to do business.

Over the years, authorities worry that bottlenecks at the crossings are stifling growth. At the San Ysidro port of entry, the nation’s busiest border crossing that’s a few miles from the airport, waiting time to enter California can last as long as two hours. A study by the San Diego Association of Governments found in 2007 that border crossing delays cost about $3 billion in economic activity for the border region.

“The border is an opportunity and an inconvenience,” said Cindy Gompper Graves, executive director of the South County Economic Development Council, a nonprofit that has been promoting better use of the Tijuana airport. “It offers unique opportunities for companies doing business in two different countries with just a short drive. It’s an inconvenience because there is a secured border that you have to wade across.”

She said the cross-border facility would treat the San Diego-Tijuana region as one economic entity and help facilitate business developments on both sides of the fence.

The idea for a bi-national airport began decades ago as local officials struggled to find a solution to overcrowded conditions at San Diego International Airport, a single-runway facility bounded by a harbor, hillside neighborhoods and the downtown area. The physical constraints, along with a strict departure curfew, have limited long-distance flights, particularly to Asia. As a result, many San Diego County residents drive or take the 40-minute, 120-mile flight to Los Angeles International Airport to connect to international flights.

Through the years, ideas to build airports offshore in the Pacific or to convert a military base into a commercial airport never took off. The proposal for TwinPorts, which called for building an airport in Otay Mesa that would share the runway and air traffic control tower with Tijuana’s airport, failed because of concerns over security, noise, traffic and pollution.

Recognizing the need to address future air travel demand, the San Diego Regional Airport Authority is evaluating several scenarios. The authority recently published a report that projects that from now until 2030, the number of plane boardings in Southern California airports will jump from 48 to 80 million passengers. The report estimates that Tijuana’s airport will see the largest percentage increase of passenger boardings from 1.6 to 5.6 million.

The investors, meanwhile, see an opportunity to pull international travelers from LAX to the Tijuana airport, which offers low-cost flights to Mexican destinations as well as Aeromexico flights to Shanghai and Tokyo.

Aeromexico, along with three low-cost Mexican carriers, offer daily flights to at least six Mexican destinations from the Tijuana airport.

Flores said his family could save a lot of hassle by flying to Mexico from LAX, but tickets from the region’s largest airport to Guadalajara could cost twice as much.

“We fly two, three times a year, so that adds up,” he said, adding that a one-way ticket from Tijuana to Guadalajara only cost them $175.

An aviation consultant said the project’s success will depend on the fee for crossing the bridge, which the investors said has not been determined. “They can’t charge an outrageous amount for crossing the bridge,” Jack Keady said. “Otherwise the airfares out of Tijuana might not be that much lower than San Diego.”

To stay competitive, the San Diego airport is undergoing a $1 billion makeover to add terminal gates, roadways and lobby space. Meanwhile Rodriguez airport is undergoing a $30 million renovation to expand and modernize its check-in, baggage and terminal areas, with construction expected to wrap up by the end of the year, said airport director Guillermo Villalba Moralez.

Moralez said airport operators decided to upgrade the airport before the cross-border project came along, but they welcomed the potential for more passengers if the bridge gets built. Last August, the U.S. State Department granted a presidential permit to build the bridge after finding that it would not cause any significant environmental impact. The project must receive a few more approvals by U.S. and Mexican authorities before construction can begin.

In the meantime, the CBP said it was cooperating with the private developers, but it declined to comment further because the project was still in the planning stages. To ensure security, current plans call for dividing the bridge into two corridors to separate northbound and southbound passengers.

A San Diego County man who created the Website tijuanaairportguide.com said those features would help reassure Americans who don’t feel comfortable crossing the border to get on a plane.

Bill Livingston of Carlsbad said the experience could be intimidating for first-timers, so the traveling salesman posted a video providing step-by-step instruction for crossing the border. It has been viewed more than 17,500 times.

“Southern Californians should take advantage of the hospitality and competitive airline prices offered by our friends right across the border,” Livingston said. “I find the airport to be very flier friendly. It might as well be San Diego’s other airport.”

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Modern San Diego by Keith York

The Golden Hill Cafe is a great example of San Diego's Streamline Moderne architecture from the 1930s & 40s.

While I’m on the subject of modernism in San Diego, I wanted to point out another amazing San Diego webpage celebrating San Diego mid-century style:  Modern San Diego.

Modern San Diego was started by San Diegan Keith York, who works as program director at KPBS and teaches courses in media & communication at SDSU.  York’s love of mid-century architecture & design has led him to document San Diego’s architectural heritage, and we have York to thank for this terrific website including an online archive of photos of San Diego’s mid-century homes and buildings.   Check it out!

The Ned Paynter Collection: San Diego Architecture

The Friends of San Diego Architecture have just posted an amazing collection of architectural images donated by the local historian Ned Paynter (1935-2007).  Paynter was an avid traveler with a passion for architecture, and his collection of 10,000 images includes 500 photographs of buildings in San Diego.  Many of San Diego’s architectural treasures suffered from San Diego’s zeal for rapid commercial development and were demolished years ago–these exist now only in photo archives like this one.

Click on Ned Paynter Collection for the home page to this terrific, searchable archive.

And a big thanks to the Friends of San Diego Architecture!

Pretty chiles

Chiles in Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana

Brewed Awakening: Serving fair trade coffee, tea and speakers to stir the social conscience

Check out this Wednesday night speaker series sponsored by my friend and colleague Jamie Gates, at Point Loma Nazarene University. Critical analysis of social issues and smart conversation from a faith perspective.

Sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University’s Center for Justice and Reconciliation, the Brewed Awakening series gives a platform to speakers who bring critical analysis of pressing contemporary social issues while pointing to ways of engaging these issues with hopeful alternatives.  The Brewed Awakening series showcases individuals and organizations with keen insight as well as practical ways of getting people involved.  Special attention is given to Christians who are engaged in the struggle for justice and reconciliation.  All speakers are encouraged to reflect on the relationship between their passion for justice, their actions and their faith.

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Wednesday, February 9
Colt Forum, Point Loma Nazarene University
7pm (6:30 coffee)
Friendship at the Border: Developing a cross-border peace park in San Diego/Tijuana
Friends of Friendship Park, www.friendshippark.org
Located where the US-Mexico border meets the Pacific Ocean, Friendship Park is a unique venue of great historical significance. It has served as the centerpiece of California’s Border Field State Park since its inauguration by then-First Lady Pat Nixon in 1971. PLNU has co-sponsored the annual advent celebration La Posada sin Fronteras at the park for the past 8 years.  Recent changes to the border fence have marred Friendship Park and destroyed the space as a place where families divided by nations can freely gather.  Friends of Friendship Park is calling for a restoration of Friendship Park both for the sake of cross-border friends and families and as a symbol of hope for more peaceful times.

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Tuesday, March 15
Colt Forum, Point Loma Nazarene University
7pm (6:30 coffee)
Modern Abolitionists: Border interceptions in the 21st century slave trade
Jenna Hudlow, Tiny Hands International, http://www.tinyhandsinternational.org/

Tiny Hands is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the church in the developing world to help the poor overcome poverty and become lights of the world.  We are committed to finding the greatest injustices in the world, and working towards relieving them however possible.  We are particularly called to orphans, street children, and the victims of the sex-trafficking industry. We want to find those who are already doing the work, who are called and faithful, and help them do it in greater ways and with more efficiency. We do it all in obedience to, and for the glory of Jesus Christ.

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Tuesday, April 12
Colt Forum, Point Loma Nazarene University
7pm (6:30 coffee)
Sabbath-Jubilee Economics: Putting radical Biblical economics into practice
Ched Myers, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, http://bcm-net.org/

In the story of the poor man Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52), Mark’s gospel gives us an archetypal portrait of the journey from “blindness” to faith (relief sculpture left by Charles McCollough). We believe that Christians should stand for compassion and equity, and against all forms of oppression and violence in these difficult times. To do this we must face our personal and political blindness to the realities of human suffering, as well as to God’s horizons of justice. Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries is a group of believers committed to revisioning the relationship between the Word and our world, in order to help animate and build capacity for communities of discipleship and justice.

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For more information, contact Dr. Jamie Gates, 619.849.2659 or cjr@pointloma.edu .

Learn more about the Center for Justice and Reconciliation at www.pointloma.edu/cjr

For directions to the university, call 619.849.2200 or go to http://www.pointloma.edu/Directions

Friends of Friendship Park to Unveil Alternative Design to Assure Dignified and Humane Public Access to Border Park

Coalition Deems Border Patrol Plans Inadequate and Inhumane

WHEN: Wednesday, February 9, 5:30 p.m.
WHAT: Press Conference Unveiling of Proposed Design for Friendship Park
WHERE: Marina Vista Community Center, 1075 8th St., Imperial Beach CA
(MAP: http://mapq.st/hrUxOI)

The Friends of Friendship Park Coalition will unveil their alternative architectural design for San Diego’s historic border park in a press conference at the beginning of a public outreach Open House scheduled by San Diego Border Patrol on Wednesday evening, February 9.

Working collaboratively with the Friends of Friendship Park, celebrated San Diego architect James Brown, principal at Public Art & Architecture (http://www.publicdigital.com), has developed a proposal for Friendship Park that would celebrate bi-national friendship as a necessary part of true security.

“Jim Brown’s design for Friendship Park aptly captures the essence of bi-national friendship, while addressing every legitimate security concern that San Diego Border Patrol officials have shared with us across months of consultations,” stated John Fanestil, Executive Director at the San Diego-based Foundation for Change and a leader in the coalition.

At present Friendship Park features security infrastructure and arbitrary enforcement practices resulting in public confusion about whether and how the public can visit the park. A limited public access area created by San Diego Border Patrol has offered park visitors an experience that many liken to visiting someone in jail.

Formerly, families from San Diego, Riverside and Los Angeles would come to the park to visit with family members who had often traveled for days from the interior of Mexico for a family reunion. The present arrangement prevents families like these – and other visitors to the park – from comfortably talking with each other. Family members, who sometimes have not seen each other in years, are routinely turned away after a 30-minute visit.

San Diego Border Patrol will have on display at the Open House proposed modifications to the park which do nothing to address these problems. In addition, Border Patrol plans would place the Boundary Monument – an historic marker recognizing the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo at the end of the U.S.-Mexico War – on the south side of the border fence, leaving it inaccessible to the U.S. public.

“Proposals coming from San Diego Border Patrol continue to violate the spirit of Friendship Park,” stated Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee and a leader in the coalition. “By ensuring that visitors can see each other, touch each other and converse freely in a dignified and orderly manner, our coalition’s proposal honors the original purpose of this historic border park.”

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Click here for a slideshow of Friendship Park

Click here to REVIEW and ENDORSE OUR DESIGN

Contact:
John Fanestil, john@foundation4change.org, 619-823-6223
Jill Holslin, jholslin01@gmail.com, (619) 804-8030
Jim Brown, jb@publicdigital.com, (619) 682-4083

The Friends of Friendship Park is a coalition of leaders and organizations promoting orderly and dignified public access to Friendship Park, San Diego’s historic park on the US-Mexico border.

http://www.friendshippark.org
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