Calexico

The city of Imperial has placed a moratorium on data centers within its borders.

Nearby Calexico adopted a permanent citywide data center ban on September 16th, with a 30-day delay before it takes effect, so two weeks from now.

The local community of Brawley declined to enact a proposed temporary moratorium and is instead working on data center zoning regulations.

Calipatria is considering a permanent ban.

[laughs]

Oh, Mexicali is on the other side of Calexico in California.

So the, uh, Ed Gomez and-

Oh, so it's south of the border? Uh, Mexicali-

It's Mexicali, south of-

Okay

... of Calexico.

Calexico-

The project is not on tribal land, so there's a limit to what they can really do.

The cities of Coachella and Calexico in California have prohibited data center uses within the city, and there is no expiration date on those bans.

Desert Hot Springs in California has an interim moratorium on licenses, permits, and entitlements for data centers.

Brawley, California has a large facility moratorium.

I was like, what happened after this? The grand prize winner of MTV's 1990 B.

Dick Tracy promotion was Eddie Gutierrez from Calexico in California.

So I was like, okay.

Then I typed in Eddie Gutierrez and Just kind of like Googled him a bit.

I am honored to be joined by a very old friend of mine, Johnny Shaw.

He was born and raised on the Calexico-Mexicali border, the setting for his award-winning Jimmy Veeder Fiasco series, which includes the novels Dove Season, Blaster City, and Imperial Valley.

He is also the author of the Anthony Award-winning adventure novel, Big Maria, the heist novel, The Upper Hand, and the crime extravaganza, Floodgate.

He is also in the process of reissuing a lot of his earlier work as And one of those books is The Upper Hand.

north of, I mean, it's

not really, like it is and it isn't.

And where I grew up, Calexico on the American side of the border is, I don't know, 35,000 people, 40,000 people.

And Mexicali on the southern side, on the Mexican side of the border is over a million people.

The article would also note that American lead actors and an American director would be settled on soon, with some Canadian actors and crew on board for filming, what was expected to start in late September.

Production on the $7 million film would commence on October 1, 1981, and last for eight weeks, filming in Los Angeles and various parts of Southern California that could still reasonably stand in for 1965, while the Tijuana scenes themselves would be shot in the southern Imperial County city of Calexico, on the shared border with Mexico about two hours east of San Diego.

For Curtis Hansen, Tijuana would be his third movie as director, after the 1972 softcore Roger Corman production Sweet Hill and the 1980 comedy The Little Dragons.

For Jackie O'Reilly, best known as the troublemaking baseball player Kelly Leak in the three Bad News Bears movies, Tijuana would be his first film since playing Moocher in the Oscar-winning sports dramedy Breaking Away in 1979 and his first ever leading role.

So the new river is, think of it kind of like the sister river of here in Tijuana, the Tijuana River.

Over there, it crosses from Mexicali in Baja California all the way through Imperial Valleys, Calexico, their communities, and ends up in the Salton Sea.

So it travels pretty much 60 miles into Imperial Valley.

And that river is also contaminated with untreated wastewater.

How are they looking to make headway here?

Yes, it sounds like it's the same, you know, urgency that the new head of the EPA made, vowed here in the Tijuana River Valley to push Mexico to upgrade, you know, their system and to essentially stop sewage from making its way over the border.

And that was kind of the promise that was made to the community in Calexico and Imperial Valley.

So some of the work that they're talking about is upgrading and expanding a plant in Mexico, in Mexicali specifically.

After Mexican drivers began losing their visas, following encounters with US officials involving alleged cabotage violations.

The dispute spilled into public view Thursday when truck drivers blocked commercial traffic at the Mexicali, Mexico/Calexico east border crossing in protest of visa revocations.

Mexico's National Chamber of Freight Transportation estimates more than 25,000 visas have been revoked from commercial drivers along Mexico's northern border, including potentially 4,000 in the Tijuana area alone.

Industry leaders warn that continued uncertainty could disrupt time-sensitive shipments, including medical products, technology, food, and perishables moving from Mexico into the United States.

And, you know, some of the communities that are most affected by these climate change issues already are being targeted with data center developments.

Like if you look at the Imperial Valley in California, that area between El Centro and Calexico on the border, it's the poorest county, the most unemployed county in the state of California.

And they have the most consistent droughts.

They have the highest temperature.