By Megan Burks
Catching Up On Curfew Sweeps
This week, we shared a report from Speak City Heights partner voiceofsandiego.org about the questionable growth of curfew sweeps in low-income neighborhoods. In areas such as southeast San Diego and City Heights, police have tripled curfew arrests without analyzing whether they deter juvenile crime or unnecessarily introduce poor, minority youth to the criminal justice system.
A robust conversation followed the release of Kyle’s investigation. Since these discussions took place across our media partners’ websites and on-air programming, I want to make sure you’re all caught up.
| • Read the report here • See video of a sweep, including interviews with arrested youth • Find out how Kyle ran the numbers • See what Mid-City CAN Director Diana Ross says about sweeps • Follow the growing debate in the comments section of the report • Listen to a radio interview with Mid-City CAN’s Ramla Sahid • See Kyle on KPBS Evening Edition, where he shared information that didn’t make it into the story.
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Follow Keegan Kyle @keegankyle.
African Thinkers React to Clooney Testimony
Following last week’s criticism of Invisible Children’s Kony2012 campaign, African and African-American thinkers are asking U.S. policymakers once more to listen to African voices—this time in reaction to Congress taking testimony on Sudan from George Clooney.
The actor testified Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on bomb attacks in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan. CNN reports Clooney was also arrested this morning in a protest outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington.
Laura Seay, a political scientist at Morehouse College who studies African politics tweeted, “WHO CARES what George Clooney thinks about Sudan? I mean, it’s great he’s engaged and all, but he shouldn’t be testifying before Congress.”
She and others pointed to an article from the BBC about a South Sudanese doctor who is helping refugees in the region as deserving more publicity than Clooney.
Seay and others can be found on Twitter via this Kony2012: African Writers list. What they’re also tweeting about:
Council Considers How to Spend Surplus—It Won’t Be On Community Plans
Speak City Heights partner KPBS reported this week City Council is set to extend library and recreation hours and hire more police officers with a $16.5 million budget surplus.
One voiceofsandiego.org reader had this to say about the news: “Did I miss the announcement that funding for the updating of community plans would also be restored?”
Many of the city’s community plans—documents that detail zoning and lay out how neighborhoods should grow—are out of date because the city hasn’t been able to afford updates. The Mid-City Communities Plan was last updated in 1998.
Community planners and developers are getting restless. An outdated plan can mean extra time and money spent getting special permits. With so much changing in Mid-City, many residents are also anxious to put what they envision for their community in writing.
Follow the San Diego Housing Federation’s Urban Planning list on Twitter.
Urban Corps Has 500 Homeless Trees
Urban Corps has 500 trees it needs to plant before summer. It’s currently surveying neighborhoods and asking for resident input on where to plant them.
“We are seeking public right-of ways that can accommodate a minimum of 25 street trees. We would like to give priority to areas devoid of trees where children play: those surrounding schools, libraries, parks, or multi-family residential areas.”
If you know of an area that is in need of street trees, contact Ty Sterns at tsterns@urbancorps.org or (619) 235-6884 ext 3312. Urban Corps will consider areas without existing planters or planting strips.
Find Urban Corps on Facebook.