Crawling out of my cage
Plus some things to do this week
I did it. I survived my first year of teaching. I’ll write more about that soon, but for now I’m just excited to have a summer break and let my brain re-solidify. As you may have noticed (or maybe not) the frequency of these newsletters has fallen way down, and I apologize. I’m truly thankful for all of you who continue to read and support this newsletter.
But before I upgrade to full-blown cohesiveness, here’s a garbled mix of thoughts I’ve had over the past few months.
I’m doing some things this week
Trivia at Nate’s Garden Grill: I’ve started hosting a monthly trivia night at Nate’s Garden Grill, and the next one is this week, June 22, at 6 p.m. There is no theme, just general pub trivia. I write all the questions, which has made me infinitely smarter about dumb shit, and also 100% more annoying to be around, since I’m constantly saying “Oh, that could be a good trivia question!” in response to anything anyone says. If you haven’t been to Nate’s, it’s a San Diego gem with great food, and the outdoor patio is the perfect environment to heckle a trivia host.
North Park Book Fair: I’ll be repping AWKSD at Verbatim’s North Park Book Fair this Saturday, from 10 am to 5 pm. Come say hi! I’ll have some books, pins, other merch for sale, also a new shirt with this design:
Perfect for the summer goth in your life. Supplies will be pretty limited, and I’ll only do mail orders if I have any left over from the book fair.
Twitter
We haven’t really talked since Musk took over Twitter, but I’ve pretty much removed myself. I’m not going to make some grand exit, because I’ll still post every once in a while, but the way that conversations now give priority to those who pay for blue check marks has made it useless. And since only the dumbest people pay for blue check marks, it makes the site feel like the whole world is dumb. Just the dumbest takes from the worst people. If you spend too much time there, you forget that the world is actually relatively normal outside. The final straw was the discourse about the marine who killed Jordan Neely on the subway a few months ago. After reading through threads about whether or not it’s all right to kill homeless people, I was just like, “We’re broken. This site has broken us.”
San Diego’s homeless encampment ban
This year, I had two friends—a married couple—get served a no-fault eviction notice. Despite both of them being full time teachers, they could not find housing in San Diego that fit into their budget, so they moved back home with their parents. Of course, they are lucky to have that fallback plan, but not everyone has that fortune, and it just goes to show how easy it is to become homeless in San Diego.
Which is why I’m so disappointed and saddened by the City Council’s decision to pass the homeless encampment ban. Homelessness is a complicated problem, but criminalization is never the right answer. Just legislative cruelty.
Perhaps you’ve been in University Heights lately, but there’s a MASSIVE luxury apartment building about to open on the corner of Park and El Cajon called The Winslow. Like, it seriously looks like a mini city, and I believe there are two rooftop pools. Anyway, a friend emailed out of curiosity to see their prices, and this is what they received in return.
The Winslow is not the reason that people are homeless in San Diego, but it’s not NOT the reason. How can the city allow this to happen? How can we, as a society, allow this to happen? It’s always the people who buy into and support this kind of housing who are most vocal about getting homeless people out of their sight, totally ignorant of the correlation and their participation in a system that pushes people into the streets.
Cormac McCarthy
One of the world’s greatest living writers died. If you haven’t read Blood Meridian, I suggest doing that this summer. I’ve read a lot of violent books, but none will be as beautiful and horrifying as that one.
Got a tip or wanna say hi? Email me at ryancraigbradford@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @theryanbradford. And if you like what you’ve just read, please hit that little heart icon at the end of the post.
I understand, truly, everyone's disappointment in the Safe Camping Ordinance. But as someone who works close to East Village, I don't see it as criminalizing it. They can either go to a shelter (if bed is avail) OR go do EXACTLY what they're doing there on the street and do it 10 blocks away, while they are receiving services, have bathrooms, access to food -- with no barrier to entry (bring your drugs, alcohol, wife and dog!) -- right on site! The trash they leave is an unacceptable on our city's streets.
When you write about how your school year (at Hoover, right?) went, mention things you could use from us, like supplies, literacy tutoring, homework help, etc. And how we can provide them.