SAN DIEGO –The African-American community needs to have a greater awareness of challenges and risks associated with HIV/AIDS, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Councilman Tony Young said at a news conference yesterday in Emerald Hills.
Although African-Americans make up 6 percent of San Diego County's population, Sanders said, they represent 12 percent of those diagnosed with AIDS. The group also has the highest rates of AIDS in the county, two to three times that of Latinos and three to four times that of whites.
“This community has endured a lot of things,” Young said. “I think AIDS and HIV is probably our most deadly enemy.”
Sanders and Young spoke at a health fair at the Malcolm X Library on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
Groups to protest sale of nonprofit hospital
A dozen citizen and church groups plan a noon demonstration today in front of the state Attorney General's Office in downtown San Diego to protest the proposed sale of nonprofit Paradise Valley Hospital in National City to for-profit Prime Healthcare Services Inc.
Members of the groups – including the Catfish Club, Ecumenical Council of San Diego, Committee on Chicano Rights and Indian Voices – will gather at 110 W. A St.
They want Attorney General Jerry Brown to block or postpone the sale so other interested buyers can submit bids to keep the hospital as a nonprofit. They also want to talk to Brown about their fears that once Prime buys Paradise Valley, it will eventually do away with the hospital's charity-care programs.
Brown is scheduled to make a decision by Feb. 19.
Report: City needs better handling of land assets
SAN DIEGO – The city's real estate assets department lacks training, up-to-date equipment and access to timely legal advice, according to a report delivered yesterday to a City Council committee.
To improve services at the department, the city needs to create what was called a portfolio plan. It would contain property evaluations, details of leases and an outline of how surplus inventory could be cleared.
San Diego commissioned a consultant, Grubb & Ellis Corporate Services, to study the city's handling of its land assets, which has been troubled since 2005, when a former director resigned under pressure following a San Diego Union-Tribune article that showed disorganization in his department.
It has since been reorganized to focus on four goals: acquisition and disposition, asset management, corporate services and support functions.
The city's land holdings are varied. They include 120,000 acres and 3,400 properties. Nearly 700 are leased.
Nail salon's clients may
have been exposed to TB
CHULA VISTA – Clients of Lisa's Nails in Chula Vista may have been exposed to infectious tuberculosis because a person who worked there between Aug. 1 and Jan. 26 was diagnosed with the disease, county health officials said yesterday.
Patrons who think they may have been affected should contact their doctors or call the county's tuberculosis program at (619) 692-8621 if they don't have a health provider.
It's the fifth time in 48 days that county health officials issued a public notice about possible TB infections. That doesn't mean the county is seeing more cases, said Dr. Kathleen Moser, head of the county's tuberculosis program.
“It just means that we've had a lot of cases in which it was hard to alert people because they weren't in a home or an office. They were in more public settings,” she said.
Symptoms include persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
Former Navy boot camp
reborn as Marketplace
SAN DIEGO: Redevelopment of the former Navy boot camp in San Diego crosses a key threshold tomorrow with the opening of the $50 million Marketplace retail and office center. Trader Joes and Starbucks are the first tenants to sell their wares from the old military barracks off Rosecrans Street in Point Loma.
The specialty grocer is the first of several major tenants coming to the 160,000-square-foot shopping center. Doors will open at 8 a.m.
The center is in the Historic Core of the 361-acre Liberty Station, and construction crews worked to maintain original architectural elements, including wood trusses on the 20-foot ceilings and some distinctive columns.
The former Naval Training Center is now the city's showcase redevelopment project that includes homes, businesses, schools and cultural offerings.
Hillcrest bathhouse to be
shut down by city in April
SAN DIEGO: Hillcrest bathhouse 2200 Club will be shut down April 30, amid allegations it operated as a place for sexual encounters, according to a statement from the San Diego City Attorney's Office yesterday.
The move is the result of a complaint filed by the city attorney under the California Red Light Abatement Act. The corporation that owns the club, at 2200 University Ave., settled without admitting liability, the city said.
The city first issued a warning letter in January 2005. After that, a citizen complained that nothing had changed and six months later the first of two police undercover operations discovered sex was still occurring in common areas and private rooms, the statement said.
Staff writers Cheryl Clark, Maureen Magee, Jennifer Vigil, Jeanette Steele and Jennifer Vigil contributed to this report.
