Keeping Tabs on San Diego’s South Bay

Developers Want to Build 4,000 New Homes Along Truck Route in Otay Mesa

By Barbara Zaragoza / San Diego Free Press

This week, the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce wrote in their newsletter:

The City is proposing a residential development with more than 4,000 homes along Cactus Road and Siempre Viva.

The access for this new village is Britannia, which of course is an existing truck route. The Chamber has requested the City to explore requiring the housing developers to either build or contribute to adding the Heritage Intersection to SR-905. The City Council is considering adopting the Central Village Plan next Tuesday April 2nd. at 2:00 pm.

The Chamber is encouraging people to attend the meeting and comment. See more information here.

• Also, a truck fell into a sinkhole in Otay Mesa West this week. The sinkhole was caused by an underground water main break. (Times of San Diego)

Sewage From Tijuana May Have A Solution In Sight

Baja California is addressing the issue of untreated sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River. The soon-to-be released plan includes a new sewage treatment plant and a pipeline to collect wastewater. Sandra Dibble at the San Diego Union Tribune has an extensive report.

IB Mayor Serge Dedina weighed in on Facebook saying:

Tijuana Sewage at Border Field State Park on January 12, 2017 (Photo by Barbara Zaragoza)

“This new proposed plan to upgrade the Tijuana sewage system is what we have been pushing Baja California and border agency authorities to push for months now. More than ever, this needs to be a priority. We are very happy about the details of this plan finally being made public.

This plan involves “zero discharge” of sewage into the Tijuana River and stopping sewage flows along the beaches from Playas southward. This is an important step forward — now we all have to get involved to make sure this plan is actually implemented. Luckily-for the first time all year, the Pump station that diverts water from the TJ River was finally turned on–so we can start to reduce the flow of water in the river and ultimately flows that reach our beach.”

Chula Vista

• The City of Chula Vista is planning a 6,000 square foot arts space on Third Avenue. (Chula Vista Star News)

• “Turning the Hearts Center” in Chula Vista provides help for those who have fallen on hard times. (San Diego Union Tribune)

• The newly formed Citizens Oversight Committee will meet on April 1st. The group will oversee Measure P, a temporary 10-year general sales tax, that will be used to fund infrastructure improvements for the city. The sales tax hopes to bring in $178 million. (Chula Vista Star News)

National City

• The NC City Council voted 3-2 to require majority approval to place an item on the meeting agenda. This means when residents go to their city council members asking for an item to be placed on the agenda, they won’t be able to bring it forward unless a majority of the council members agree. This could severely impact citizen representation. The San Diego Union Tribune has more.

• Fabio Rojas opened a recording studio in National City “Refugio Music.” The station focuses on education, entertainment and audio production. (Chula Vista Star News)

• Two people on a motorcycle were killed in a traffic crash after a police chase along Plaza Boulevard. (Times of San Diego)

• The San Diego Union Tribune also headlined: “National City boxer Orozco takes on Gibson, Google in nationally televised fight.”

Border News: Nicaraguan Man Commits Suicide While in U.S. Immigration Detention

• CIVIC (Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement) is calling for an independent investigation after a Nicaraguan man died by suicide while in U.S. immigration detention. He is the fifth person to die in immigration detention in 2017 according to ICE. Read more here.

• Ben Christopher from CALmatters wrote an article in the Times of San Diego that uncovered the terrible conditions detainees face inside southern California’s largest immigration detention facilities.

• The Los Angeles Times ran a story about Miguel Luna who is working on telling the stories of 100 people living in the United States who once were undocumented immigrants.

• A Mexican law enforcement official was arrested at the border in San Diego on suspicion of taking part in drug trafficking. (Imperial Beach Patch)

• The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made their own statement about President Trump’s border wall, saying that any estimates of wall costs are premature.

• Brooke Binkowski at Snopes wrote about the Roots of United States Immigration Policy.

• inewsource reported that Mexico receives about 60% of all its natural gas from the United States, but due to the Trump administration’s hostility towards Mexico, the country wants to break its dependence. (One pipeline is located at the border near Otay Mesa.)

Rocky De La Fuente, Industrial Developer of Otay Mesa Wants To Run for Mayor of New York

Rocky De La Fuente ran for president in 2016 as a Democrat. At the same time, he was running for Senate in Florida. Now, he would like to run for mayor of New York — as a Republican. The New York Times reports:

Mr. De La Fuente’s desire to run may be real, but his first problem is that he does not live here. Mr. De La Fuente, also known as Rocky, was rejected by the management of an upscale Fifth Avenue hotel and apartment building, the Sherry-Netherland, after he tried to buy an apartment there, his campaign said. If elected, he would have to establish residency in the city before election day.

Mr. Olsen said that the building management had “refused to interview” Mr. De La Fuente because he is Hispanic (his parents were born in Mexico), and that the candidate had vowed to sue in federal court. Michael Ullman, an executive vice president at the Sherry-Netherland, declined to comment.

The De La Fuente family has been around for decades. In particular, they are credited as having been the driving force in turning Otay Mesa from rural to industrial development. They were also frequent contributors to political candidates in the area, most of them Democrats.

Here is a South Bay flashback — the first page of a Chula Vista Star News article about the family from June 28, 1984: