Monday, June 08, 2020

CoViD-19 & Black Lives Matter: More Facilities To Reopen As Covid Cases Continue to Rise | Faulconer's Lip Service | San Diego Budget Hearing

Starting on Friday, June 12th, places like San Diego Zoo may reopen in San Diego County.
(Whether they do or not is another story. Taken 3.9.2020)
I've only listened to a very small amount of the City Council meeting today, but after listening to about five hours of last week's public comment, most calls are to 'defund' the police. For some it means not adding any additional money for next year, especially not from the CARES Act monies, and other calls for significant reduction in current funding levels, or some to abolish the department altogether. And judging from the Mayor's briefing, he doesn't expect any of those roadblocks to stop his budget tonight, but there are still an enormous amount of calls before any motions will be made by the Council. Unfortunately I think that once the public is allowed to attend meetings in person, the ability to call in will likely be discontinued as repeated callers have ended their calls with "Fuck The Police" or one that called out Faulconer "to read a book, look at the world around you, instead of going to play putt-putt golf or whatever the fuck you rich white people do for fun." Yikes.

Anyway, things are moving quickly, things are opening quickly, and we're already reviewing the guidelines for the Casbah (perhaps without music), but in the meantime, all proceeds from Casbah merch sales this week will go to the ACLU. Bars and Zoos are on the list to open Friday and I'm not emotionally ready for it. I can't wait to go, at the same time, I my anxiety about the world around me and people not following the rules tells me that it might be awhile before I'm comfortable really leaving my cocoon.



  • County of San Diego Media Briefing
  • San Diego Mayor Briefing
    • San Diego Budget is in the process of its final hearing right now in City Council
      • Facing $350million deficit 
      • "Revised budget reflects the needs of the community", "Real and immediate needs", "Lifting people up" 
      • Mayor supports proposal by Montgomery & Gomez: Office of Race & Equity
    • Public Safety
      • Not really gonna report here. Just a bunch of platitudes about body cams (which they often refuse to share footage), policies and procedures are online (nothing to hold people accountable, ending carotid holds, held emergency meetings by CAB and CRB. "Police will continue to build on its relationship with the community by adopting deescalation policies." 
      • "Next steps": effective, accountable, transparent, and have the trust of the public
    • More reopenings (face coverings, same household, social distancing still required): 
      • East & West Mission Bay park
      • Fiesta Island to peds, bikes, sidewalks
      • Tuesday: All piers and boardwalks
      • Friday: Balboa Park Central Mesa & Lots at full capacity
      • Reiterated County openings as listed above
  • Today's Suggested Reading:
      • How Law Enforcement May Be Worsening the Spread of COVID-19 at Protests: Using tear gas can help spread the virus, and law enforcement just seized hundreds of masks that could protect people.- Teen Vogue (6.5.2020)
      • There's another San Diego City Council meeting on Tuesday. 
      • America Is Giving Up on the Pandemic: Businesses are reopening. Protests are erupting nationwide. But the virus isn’t done with us. - The Atlantic (6.7.2020)
        • Excerpt: A brief glance at Covid Exit Strategy, a site that tracks state-by-state progress, reveals that most states are not actually hitting the reopening marks suggested by public-health experts. Yet state leaders have not stuck with the kinds of lockdowns that suppressed the virus in other countries; nobody has suggested that cases must be brought to negligible levels before normal activity can resume. No federal official has shared a plan for preventing transmission among states that have outbreaks of varying intensity. The Trump administration did not use the eight weeks of intense social distancing to significantly expand our suppression capacity. 

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