In San Diego County, the Inzunzas are the region’s Chicano Kennedys.

They’ve been beloved educators and doctors, prep athlete stars and authors, entrepreneurs and just plain ol’ good neighbors. But the true family business is politics, and since the 1970s, Inzunzas have served city councils in National City, San Diego and Chula Vista; school boards in San Ysidro and Imperial Beach, and even water districts.

Dozens of them gathered Jan. 10 in Balboa Park at the Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art to celebrate the Inzunza clan’s latest contribution to America’s Finest City: a coffee table book of 200-plus pictures from the early 1970s taken by one of their own.

A crucial era in the Chicano movement

“Movimiento en la Sangre” (“Movement in the Blood”) is an extraordinary collection from the archives of Nick Inzunza, a Vietnam War veteran turned Chicano activist who worked as a school psychologist in National City and went on to become a school trustee. From 1971 to 1974 he took nearly 1,800 photos of a crucial era in the Chicano movement, when young activists realized they needed to run for political office to effect true change and also began to embrace the undocumented immigrants their elders once shunned.

There are shots of what would become Chicano Park, the world-famous collection of murals underneath the Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan. Casual images show giants of the Chicano movement — Cesar Chavez, Bert Corona, Reies López Tijerina, José Angel Gutiérrez — behind podiums or chatting with admirers. The photos also depict protests and conferences not just in San Diego but also El Paso, San Bernardino and Los Angeles, plus local activists who never made it into the history books — until now.

Even better are snapshots of Chicano life in that time: the puffy haircuts and sharp outfits, after-school boxing programs to keep boys away from gangs and a Christmas toy giveaway by Santa Claus to barrio kids organizing against the Border Patrol. There’s even a baby-faced San Diego mayor Pete Wilson addressing a group of Chicanos at a banquet, back in the days when Wilson was somewhat sympathetic to undocumented immigrants and before he demonized them to win reelection as California governor in 1994.

“Movimiento en la Sangre” is a much-needed addition to Latino, San Diego, Southern California and civil rights histories that too often overlook the book’s subject matter. The self-taught Inzunza knew how to frame what was before him, so the photos are as aesthetically pleasing as they are important. Breaking up his ouvre are excerpts from college papers, musings and letters he sent in that era.

“The Mexican culture which is all around us can no longer be denied,” he wrote to a teacher who protested a Mexican Christmas event held at an elementary school. “We as human beings can no longer ignore a culture that is indigenous to this land and has been here for centuries.”

Redemption for the most famous Inzunza

What’s most amazing about “Movimiento en la Sangre” is that Inzunza’s book was 50 years in the making and comes more than a decade after he died.

Inzunza’s nephew Ralph Inzunza (one of the book’s two official authors, in addition to Nick’s son Nicólas Jorge Inzunza) told a rapturous hometown crowd about the book’s genesis at the launch event, which I helped moderate.

After Nick shot his movimiento photos, he kept rolls of undeveloped film in a box that stayed in the trunk of his yellow Ford Mustang for decades, then moved them into his house. When the family finally processed them a few years ago, the results were so impressive that San Diego State English and Comparative Literature professor William Nericcio suggested the Inzunzas publish the best shots for San Diego State University Press, which Nericcio runs.

Ralph is the most famous San Diego Inzunza, for better and worse. Elected to the San Diego city council in 2001, he soon became deputy mayor and was considered a rising star. But in 2005 a federal jury convicted him in San Diego’s so-called Strippergate scandal. Prosecutors alleged Ralph and two other council members took campaign contributions so they could try to change a law that barred dancers from touching their clients. He was the only one of the three council members who served time because one died and the other had his conviction overturned.

But Ralph’s reputation rebounded. He works as a political consultant and “Movimiento en la Sangre” is his third book, following a young adult novel about life on the U.S.-Mexico border and a fictionalized memoir of his prison years (start taking notes, José Huizar).

In his short speech Ralph shouted out the many activists in the book — young then, veteranos now — who were in the audience. Above all he praised the legacy of his uncle Nick, whose box of camera rolls, left untouched for decades, were also onstage.

“It is history, and it is not,” Ralph said of Nick Inzunza’s magnum opus, “because it’s alive.”

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The San Diego Police Department is looking for a suspect involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed a minor in Pacific Beach at around 3:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

The crash occurred near the intersection of Ingraham Street and Pacific Beach Drive.

The suspect’s vehicle is being described as a dark Jeep SUV, according to SDPD.

Police say there is no one in custody as of now, and that the investigation is ongoing.

An overnight bus between the U.S.-Mexico border and downtown San Diego is so popular that local transit officials are making it permanent and planning new marketing efforts in Tijuana and on Spanish-language radio.

Local leaders are calling the border bus a great example of how transit can adjust to unconventional situations with innovative solutions.

Dubbed the “Overnight Express,” Route 910 covers essentially the same ground as the South Bay portion of the popular Blue Line trolley from 12:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. seven days a week.

The Blue Line can’t run during those hours, despite intense demand for overnight trolley service, because the tracks it uses are occupied by freight trains then.

That has left many early-morning workers and students who live near the border without a convenient and affordable way to get to downtown and other locations in the early morning.

Trying to solve that problem, Metropolitan Transit System officials began operating Route 910 as a pilot express bus last January.

While ridership took a few months to ramp up on the new route, Route 910 — which costs the normal MTS one-way fare of $2.50 — is now used by more than 7,000 passengers a month.

Perhaps more importantly, officials say it has reduced crowding on the first few Blue Line trains north from San Ysidro each morning.

“This is an example of creating something our customers need and actually want,” said San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno, who serves on the MTS board. “It’s a model for how we can grow and adapt.”

San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, another MTS board member, said the overnight express helps people avoid having to pay for a taxi or Uber or asking a family member to drive them in the wee hours.

“This is a tangible way to improve folks’ lives — and very hard-working folks,” Elo-Rivera said.

The MTS board voted unanimously Thursday to make Route 910 a permanent express route.

The decision will cost $800,000 per year, but it won’t create budget problems because the route is already built into budgets for fiscal 2026 and 2027. Its funding comes from SB 125 — state legislation that devotes many millions to mass transit across the state.

The decision to make Route 910 permanent was based on strong ridership numbers.

Ridership during the six-month period from July through December was 31% higher than it was in the route’s first six months. During those first six months, an average of 191 people per day used Route 910. During the second six months, that had risen to 251 people per day.

Brent Boyd, director of planning and scheduling for MTS, said he expects those numbers to keep going up as more people become aware of Route 910.

“I’d expect that the ridership keeps growing gradually,” he said. “We see no reason for it not to.”

Mark Olson, director of marketing and communications for MTS, said the route was promoted during two waves of outreach — one last January and one in the fall.

MTS is also planning to advertise Route 910 on billboards in Tijuana and on Spanish-language radio. “We think there’s a lot of growth opportunity for this route,” he said.

Route 910 has better numbers than other MTS express buses based on its number of riders relative to how much it costs to operate. Officials called that remarkable when you consider the unusual hours that Route 910 operates.

Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, another MTS board member, said the success of Route 910 shows that we live in a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week society.

Boyd said it was surprising to see that the most popular bus on Route 910 is the second-to-last one before the trolley begins operating — not the last one.

“I think it’s because the last trip is close enough to when the trolley begins that people might just wait,” he said.

Route 910 doesn’t stop at all Blue Line trolley stations. It stops at San Ysidro, Iris Avenue, Palomar Street, 24th Street, 12th and Imperial, City College and Santa Fe Depot, taking less than an hour to finish its route.

Boyd estimated that about 60% of passengers board at San Ysidro and that roughly half are headed to downtown and the other half are headed to other stops.

To make the route permanent, MTS had to analyze whether it has had any adverse impact on low-income residents or ethnic minorities. The analysis determined that it hasn’t.

The agency says the population of the area served by Route 910 is 38% low-income, compared with 24% in the overall MTS service area.

The Blue Line, which was extended from Old Town to La Jolla and University City in 2021, carries 80,000 passengers a day. MTS officials believe it’s the second-busiest light-rail line in the nation.