By Megan Burks
Assembly Passes Bill Requiring 3-Foot Buffer for Cyclists
The Associated Press reported the California Assembly passed a bill Monday that would require drivers to stay 3 feet from cyclists. Drivers would pay a $35 fine if they encroach on that buffer zone.
The bill still must make it past the Senate and governor’s desk, where a similar bill was vetoed last year.
Here in San Diego, cyclists have become vocal about sharing the road following a rash of fatal accidents late last year and early this year. They say San Diego’s roads prioritize cars, putting cyclists and pedestrians in danger. Bike San Diego editor Samantha Ollinger has also questioned why drivers who hit cyclists rarely face criminal charges.
Follow Bike San Diego @BikeSD.
Checking In With Har Sin
Freelance photographer Sam Hodgson blogged this week about his recent visit with Har Sin, a 24-year-old Burmese refugee who came to City Heights deaf and without language. While reporting for Voice of San Diego, Hodgson and reporter Adrian Florido followed Har Sin for about a year as he learned formal communication.
From their first piece on Har Sin:
| Each dusk, an eclectic cacophony envelops this dense Mid City apartment complex — whacks, laughter, yelps, children’s squeals. The sounds are the nightly soundtrack of community in one of the many refugee enclaves of City Heights.
Har Sin cannot hear that soundtrack. Two years ago, when he arrived in the United States, he dreamed he might. But he is deaf. So as the whacks and laughs and squeals resonate around him, Har Sin sits on the carpet, leaning against the once-white living room wall of Apartment 7, and imagines what it all must sound like. |
Hodgson and Florido were there with Har Sin for his first hearing test, his first sign language class and his earliest interactions with San Diego’s deaf community. But the three slowly lost touch. On his blog, Hodgson reflects on what it’s like to pass in and out of people’s lives as a journalist.
| Particularly because of how difficult it was to communicate with Har Sin and the cultural differences between us, it was more difficult to establish the traditional journalistic boundaries we are taught to create. He came to my house, saw how I lived and we would spend quite a lot of time just hanging out. It taught me a lot about why we don’t always need to keep up some of the traditional walls we’re taught in J-School between journalist and story subject. If you don’t give a bit of yourself, show some level of human compassion and friendship, how are they ever supposed to trust you? If you don’t care for them on some level, then why are you documenting their lives in the first place?
Every time I passed their street, rushing to and from assignments, it got harder to show my face. Finally, a few weeks ago I showed up and a couple of days later, Adrian joined me. |
Read more from their visit and see photos of Har Sin and his family here.
Follow Sam Hodgson @samuelhodgson.
Young Children Appearing in Immigration Court Without Lawyers
At 11,000, the number of unaccompanied minors who have been placed in deportation proceedings this year is nearly double last year’s numbers, according to The New York Times. And the majority of them are showing up for hearings without lawyers.
The government does not provide immigration lawyers for those who can’t afford them, even if the defendant is a young child who doesn’t understand what they’re experiencing.
Julia Preston and Michael Stravato of The New York Times introduce us to 6-year-old Liliana Muñoz, who was smuggled into Texas to be reunited with her parents.
| Even with an interpreter, Liliana had a hard time following the hearing. She gave the judge her name and age. But she did not understand that she had crossed an international boundary, or that she was now in the United States, or what the United States is exactly. She did not know she had done anything wrong. |
Watch a video with Muñoz’s story here.
Follow The New York Times national immigration correspondent Julia Preston @JuliaPrestonNYT.
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