San Diego, CA

San Diego organization fighting homelessness and addiction awarded $250K

Published

3 hours ago

September 30, 2024

San Diego organization fighting homelessness and addiction awarded 0K

Aaron Barrett is lucky to be alive.

“I overdosed seven times,” Barrett said. “Twice, I was flatlined. No heart rate, no breathing, no pulse. And they were able to bring me back.”

Barrett spent decades addicted to drugs and alcohol, and for the last seven years of his addiction, homeless on the streets of San Diego.

“There’s a lot of despair and hopelessness amongst the homeless community. Every little bit they have, it’s so easily taken away,” Barrett said. “There were times where, you know, I slept out in the cold. I’ve eaten out of trash cans. I’ve gone and picked up recycling just to get some money, you know, to do whatever — either get high or maybe get a little bite to eat, maybe not. And that’s how it is for most people. That’s how they live every single day. They wake up cold and hungry, and usually they go to sleep cold and hungry.”

When Barrett overdosed the last time in 2021, his wife found him on the riverbed and took him to the hospital.

“That’s when they told me I had a fever of 103, I had already gone septic and I had enough fentanyl in me to kill 30 people,” Barrett said, “and that if she wouldn’t have made it there within the hour or two that she did, there would have been nothing they could have done to save me.”

That was the moment Barrett said he began to turn his life around.

For years, he had been attending dinners hosted every Tuesday night by We See You San Diego, a nonprofit organization that invites anyone experiencing homelessness for a home-cooked meal each week.

“We host these dinner parties. We call them lavish dinner parties to show lavish love, to show people we believe they’re worthy of a better life,” said Laura Chez, We See You San Diego’s executive director.

Chez, her husband and another couple began serving meals in 2017.

They began with just a handful of guests, but seven years later, they serve more than 100 people each week, providing dinner, clothing, hygiene products and more.

It also comes with an invitation for those battling addiction: We See You San Diego will pay for detox and residential recovery for anyone who wants it.

“We walk alongside people all the way through to sober living and help them plan next steps so that they can reintegrate and live healthy, wonderful, beautiful lives with limitless potential,” Chez said.

Barrett accepted the invitation three years ago. He’s still at every Tuesday dinner – but now, serving guests, some he remembers from his days living at the riverbed.

“For a long time, I was lost. I didn’t have a purpose. You know, I was just trying to fill this hole inside that couldn’t be filled, this emptiness,” Barrett said. “And I found my purpose. My purpose is to help others pull them out from where I was.”

Chez said they’ve walked 107 people through recovery since January 2023.

“We see this over and over, that there are plans and purposes that people have not yet stepped into, but they needed an assist, and they also don’t want to do it alone,” she said. “There’s so much fear, and so we’re there to help mitigate that fear. We tell them, ‘We’re never going to leave you.’”

We See You San Diego’s work caught the attention of the Lucky Duck Foundation, a privately funded group that looks for immediate solutions to the homelessness crisis.

“Not one kid ever raised their hand and said, ‘When I grow up, I want to be homeless. I want to live on the streets,’” said Lucky Duck CEO Drew Moser.

“There’s far too many people suffering on the streets,” Moser continued. “Sometimes government can get tunnel vision on ‘We need more housing,’ and I think a lot of people can agree housing is an ideal outcome, but if all we do is focus on housing, we say that’s kind of like telling passengers on a sinking ship, ‘Hang on, we’ll build you some lifeboats sometime in the next five to 10 years,’ because that’s how long it takes to add housing, unfortunately, and it’s really challenging to scale economically. We’re focused on the here and the now.”

In September, the Lucky Duck Foundation – long backed by late Padres owner Peter Seidler and basketball legend Bill Walton – awarded We See You San Diego its annual “Fr. Joe Hustler of the Year Award” in honor of Fr. Joe Carroll.

That award comes with $250,000 to help We See You San Diego expand. It’s part of Lucky Duck’s newly unveiled $3 million commitment to several initiatives aimed at combatting homelessness.

But the award comes with a challenge: it’s contingent on a match from local governments, like San Diego County or any of its 18 cities.

“We’re encouraging government to do its part to help expand a program that’s proven, that’s tangible, that’s immediate, that has a lot of value and that’s saved a lot of lives,” Moser said. “The bang for the buck is significant, especially compared to some of the existing strategies that they’re employing.”

On Sept. 26, Lucky Duck sent a letter to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors outlining the ask and noting that there are only 78 detox beds in the entire county that accept Medi-Cal. The county board said it received the letter and was in the process of reviewing the request.

Chez said the funding could make a world of difference.

“The only thing I see is faces. I see the faces whose lives could be transformed with that money,” Chez said.

Her message to local government is simple.

“Let’s save lives together,” Chez said. “It would be an honor.”

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San Diego, CA

Celebrate San Diego at These Can't-Miss Events

Published

11 hours ago

September 30, 2024

Press Room

Celebrate San Diego at These Can't-Miss Events

CRSSD Music Festival | Courtesy of San Diego Tourism

There are many ways to approach a visit to San Diego. You could organize your trip by neighborhoods, attempting to try the best foods in each corner of the city. Or you could get even more specific, sampling only the best, say, rooftop bars or wellness activities. But these itineraries risk missing out on some of the best year-round events, festivals, and celebrations that the city has to offer. Since temps rarely go below 60 degrees, that means the city can stay happening all year long. Check out these options to get you started:

Plane geeks, history buffs, and anyone who can appreciate some aeronautical acrobatics flock to Miramar for this performance — a show-off of some of the best flying in the world. Everything from WWII-era P-51 planes to the uber-futuristic, vertical-landing F-35Bs are highlighted at this show, plus plenty of stunt flying from the Blue Angels and Red Bull’s Air Wing teams. Visitors can even tour the inside of several planes, including massive cargo haulers flown by the Marines Corps. It’s a great chance to see some of the most awe-inspiring technology the military is allowed to disclose to the public.

CRSSD — September 28-29, 2024

Hosted alongside the lush fountains of Waterfront Park, CRSSD (you can pronounce it “Crossed,” if you’d like) is San Diego’s largest electronic music festival, bringing dozens of big names in house and techno to three stages. This year’s lineup includes well-known draws like Disclosure and Four Tet as headliners, but even the undercard has some heavy hitters on it: Nora En Pure, Neil Frances, and Quest, among many others. CRSSD also has the perk of being less swampy than your typical rave, thanks to breezes off the San Diego Bay that make it easy to maintain your stamina all night long.

Breeders’ Cup World Championship | Courtesy of San Diego Tourism

October is the best month to be a kid in San Diego thanks to Kids Free, a program that opens up over 50 city museums and attractions to kids, free of admission. The variety to choose from is enormous, ranging from pop culture exhibits like the Comic-Con Museum or LEGOLAND California to historic and scientific museums like the Fleet Science Center, the San Diego Zoo, and the Birch Aquarium. It’s an amazing opportunity for the family to explore all that San Diego has to offer — including local history hotspots like the California Surf Museum or Maritime Museum of San Diego.

San Diego’s hottest chefs — plus others flying in across the country — show off their stuff during this seaside enclave’s food festival. The Del Mar Wine + Food Festival hosts six days of specially-crafted dinners across San Diego, harvest celebrations, and ingredient-themed events, culminating in The Grand Tasting on the former polo grounds at Surf Sports Park in Del Mar. The individual events are jam-packed with celebrity guests and chefs — including a pickleball tournament hosted by Drew Brees — but don’t think it’s all just for fun. The event also aims to raise $25,000 for hunger relief group Feeding San Diego, so your ticket price goes towards a good cause.

If you want to see the city all dressed up, look no further than the Breeders’ Cup World Championship (i.e., the end of international horse racing’s season). Hosted at the spectacular Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, the event puts on several races of different age groups in a weekend-long celebration of luxury. It’s a chance to see the Del Mar at its most elegant, which is saying something for an already-glamorous European-style beach town. The racing events themselves are thundering and adrenaline-inducing, with over $31 million on the line, but the event is worth a visit just to explore the race grounds alone.

Wave FC is San Diego’s beloved women’s fútbol club who call the new Snapdragon Stadium their home. Despite having only been around for a few years (2022 was their debut season), the team has an impressive win record, taking home the NWSL Shield for best regular season record in 2023 and winning the NWSL Challenge Cup this year. As of this writing, they’re in contention for the Champions Cup. Games will be played throughout the fall, with a final home game scheduled for November 3, but be sure to check out Snapdragon’s other offerings: they host the San Diego State Aztecs, the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby, and are the home of the Holiday Bowl.

This expansive series of food-focused events celebrates their 20th anniversary this year, and will feature over 300 chefs, wineries, farmers, artists, and brands over the course of the week. The events include documentary screenings, vineyard tastings, and neighborhood-specific tours of San Diego’s best culinary scenes. This series culminates in a Grand Tasting as well as a Grand Fiesta (including a taco taste-off), both held right on the scenic waterfront of San Diego Bay, just steps from downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter.

The NCAA season starts to heat up in November, and the best place to watch some of the biggest teams in college basketball is at LionTree Arena on the UCSD campus. This year, teams from Ole Miss, NC State, Purdue, and BYU will be among those facing off in the Thanksgiving tournament, which benefits Rady Children’s Hospital.

Torrey Pines golf course | Courtesy of San Diego Tourism

The earliest events of the PGA Tour naturally seek out warmer weather, and the Farmers Insurance Open is one of these, held at the public Torrey Pines golf course. A cliffside course with views of the Pacific, Torrey Pines gives city dwellers the chance to play a world-class round of golf for only $25. (Playing the course also then enables you to backseat the pros during the Open, opining on how you would’ve done things differently.) The Farmers Insurance Open sets the tone for the longer PGA season, and has historically been the launching point of many of golf’s biggest stars.

San Diego FC Season Kickoff — February 2025

San Diego FC, San Diego’s first men’s Major League Soccer team, kicks off its inaugural season in 2025. Also hosted in Snapdragon Stadium, the team is composed of an international roster of elite players, so new fans will have an easy time connecting with their favorites coming in from other leagues. As with the recently-formed San Diego Wave FC, this season represents a one-time opportunity to get on board with fandom before anyone else. The team’s culture and identity will be shaped by their inauguration and early games, so you won’t want to miss any of the season openers.

Concours D’elegance | Courtesy of San Diego Tourism

SoCal means classic cars, and America’s Finest City shines during the La Jolla Concours D’elegance where where 150+ cars are displayed along the pristine Pacific Ocean. This car show is the biggest all year, bringing in everything from early-automobile classics to more modern fan favorites. The categories range from “British Royalty” to “Japanese, 1967–1998” so there is something for all auto buffs to appreciate. For a taste of the gleaming chrome you can expect to see, take a peek at last year’s winners.

Although many San Diego festivals take advantage of the waterfront access that the city offers, few make as much of the space as Wonderfront. Boat flotilla parties and sunset cruises are part of the weekend, paired with huge names performing on stages across the bay. Although the lineup for 2025 hasn’t been announced yet, 2024’s headliners spanned several genres, including Weezer, T-Pain, and Beck, so you’ll be able to find something to like.

FUNDED IN PART WITH CITY OF SAN DIEGO TOURISM MARKETING DISTRICT ASSESSMENT FUNDS.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego first responders' long history of aiding natural disasters

Published

18 hours ago

September 30, 2024

Press Room

San Diego first responders' long history of aiding natural disasters

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Local first responders heading out to assist with the devastation from Hurricane Helene are now three members short.

A crash injuring a battalion chief and two captains marks the first serious accident of its kind in the long history of aiding natural disaster relief.

That history spans years.

From a series of wildfires in maui:

“I’ve never seen fire touch the beach and beyon – never seen it burn to the shoreline,” said Doug Nakama, a FEMA program specialist based in San Diego.

To flooding in Northern California:

“People losing their homes, homes being flooded, property being destroyed. The potential for people losing their lives,” said San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Aide Barbat.

One task force deployment was Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas and Louisiana in 2017, followed closely by Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm.

Seven years ago, the Urban Search and Rescue Team Task Force 8 had just about one day between disasters to recuperate, gather their supplies, and hug their families.

“As the task force was arriving yesterday, to meet their families returning from Hurricane Harvey, it was about the exact same time we got the evacuation order from Hurricane Irma,” said Dave Gerboth, a Battalion Chief with San Diego Fire Rescue. “Certainly the families are a cornerstone to us being able to do what we do, I know that I couldn’t be doing it without having that support back home.”

Their assistance dates back to one of the most significant hurricanes in history – Hurricane Katrina.

Task Force 8 members, along with San Diego fire captains, were deployed for about three weeks.

“We’re primarily a rescue team, but we’re kind of a rescue team on steroids because we have that additional capability and knowledge,” said a member of the task force.

Whether it’s fire or rain, heartbreak or destruction, San Diego first responders have been there – then and now.

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San Diego, CA

Nick Canepa’s report card: Stellar work by Chargers QB, coaches, but Chiefs prevail

Published

1 day ago

September 29, 2024

Press Room

Nick Canepa’s report card: Stellar work by Chargers QB, coaches, but Chiefs prevail

The Union-Tribune’s Nick Canepa grades the Chargers following Sunday’s 17-10 loss to the Chiefs:

Quarterbacks: A

Justin Herbert probably shouldn’t have started with his bad ankle and severely depleted offensive line, but he did, and he hit his first seven throws, one for a touchdown. Presnap penalties — not unexpected with the problems up front and noise from Chiefs fans — constantly had him in a hole. Nothing much after the first quarter, but he gets an A for a mighty effort.

Running backs: C

It didn’t figure running would be a thing with that O-line, and it wasn’t. J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards & Co. were running in a little room.

Receivers: D

There simply is not enough danger here, and not much separation from an inexperienced group. Ladd McConkey, improving by the minute, made a pretty catch for a TD at the end line. Tight end Will Dissly caught a big 22-yard screen early. Josh Palmer actually surfaced. Quentin Johnston finally had a catch at the end of the third quarter.

Offensive line: Incomplete

Presnap penalties? How many would — you like? A nightmare after the first quarter. Both — BOTH — starting offensive tackles (Rashawn Slater and super rookie Joe “Delete” Alt) were in the nurse’s office, which normally means … not good. Trey Pipkins started at right tackle, Jamaree Salyer at left tackle. Sam “Ah,Who?” Mustipher started at guard and chop-blocked right away.

Defensive line: C+

The D got tired. Teair Tart had a sack (he limped off in the fourth). But the guys in the middle — Poona Ford, Otito Ogbonnia and Tart — are stout.

Linebackers: B

Joey “Big I’m Hurt” Bosa was out. Again. Tuli Tuipulotu forced an early fumble and batted down a pass. Bud Dupree had an early sack. Troy Dye and Tarheeb Still split a sack. Dye later got juked out of his tighty whities by Patrick Mahomes. Khalil Mack had an important stop when the DBs had blown coverage, then a nice batdown.

Secondary: C+

Star safety Derwin James should not have been — but was — suspended for this game for tackling too hard. Replacement A.J. Finley immediately allowed a pass to Travis Kelce. Elijah Molden recovered the first fumble. Kristian Fulton picked Mahomes and then allowed a long TD, despite interfering. But he’s skilled.

Special teams: B

Cameron Dicker The Kicker’s 50-yard field goal put his side up 10-0, but he later missed a 55-yarder. Derius Davis, who simply can’t learn, had a fair catch at the 5. JK Scott is a really good punter.

Coaching: B

Teacher had no problem with Jim Harbaugh going for it with the game tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter and the ball at the goal line, but the pass play call stunk (after refusing a challenge that might have overturned a play). But it’s hard to find many flaws in his plan. He held the Chiefs to 17 points. He will have something going here.