Midway Planners Not Happy With SANDAG Moving Forward on ‘Transportation Hub’ Without Public Input

By Geoff Page

It seemed for a moment there that the Midway-Pacific Community Planning board was channeling OB.  As the pictures show, the board met at the Bay City Brewery and sat on backless bar stools at tables consisting of four piled wooden shipping pallets.  A big sign hung above them at the back of the room “Bay City Brewery.”  It was a relaxed, comfortable, definitely funky location to discuss planning board stuff.  So, it felt a bit like the OB Planning Board meetings.

The Midway board met for some years at the community college on Kemper Street but had to relocate a year ago. The new location was generously provided by the Urban Corps on Jefferson Street.  But, that only lasted a year and the board moved again.  A private business stepped up this time and donated the aforementioned space.

The Bay City Brewing Company at 3760 Hancock Street, north of the Sports Arena, offered to host the meetings in one of its large, high ceiling rooms. Bay City is a local craft beer brewery and the location has a bar for tasting beer. They have a beer named Fiesta Island. They also have food.

The surroundings aside, the board conducted its usual monthly meeting.  The meetings are normally held the third Wednesday of each month at 3:00 in the afternoon, but this meeting was on the fourth Wednesday, May 22, just for this month.  Anyone who wants to have a beer and hear some planning board business too is encouraged to attend.

SANDAG Presentation

Despite the laid back surroundings, the main item on the agenda, the one that took up most of the meeting, was a presentation by Coleen Clementson from SANDAG. Unfortunately, as often happens, technology did not work.  There was a large monitor or TV on the wall but there did not appear an ability to connect a laptop and do the Power Point show that was to illustrate the new proposed transportation plan.  So, the show went on without the visuals.

Clementson began by relating that there was a new sheriff in town, Hasan Ikhrata. SANDAG’s current executive director has been in the saddle since December 2018 and is making changes.  Basically, the new director is, according to Clementson, turning the big transportation ship in a different direction – somewhat away from the automobile and toward other mobility options.

As some may know, SANDAG has been raked over the coals in the past few years for its last plan because it was basically too automobile-centric.  SANDAG was told to go back to the drawing board and was in the process of doing that when Ikhrata came on board. Clementson said they were about one third into the new plan when he started.  The new plan is addressing the previous criticisms and it contains plans for alternate forms of transportation.  The former SANDAG executive director had a long career as a road builder, the new leadership does not come from that part of the transportation world.

Clementson related that when Ihkrata formally presented his vision for SANDAG to SANDAG on April 26 of this year, it received a good reception.  Some of Ihkrata’s ideas that Clementson described were HOV lanes on I-5 north, a double train track north and south, bike and pedestrians features, and something called “mobility hubs.” These would be near mass transit such as the trolley and would offer various forms of mobility for the “last mile” as it is normally referred to.  Decisions on what to put at these hubs, such as flexible fleet cars, scooters, autonomic cars, or bikes, is open for discussion.

Clementson also described a proposal for a sophisticated data management system that would help people efficiently manage their transportation needs.  The system would provide people with costs and times of various transportation options on their smartphones. But, that was assuming, of course, that everyone had a smart phone and that is not the case.  People who can’t afford those phones would be left out of this innovation.

There was a discussion of a “Grand Central Station” SANDAG has in mind .  The idea is for a big, main transit center that all forms of transport will be connected to.  Clementson described three ideas SANDAG is considering.  One idea is to site the facility where SPAWARS now sits on Pacific Blvd., within the Midway District.  The second idea is to site it near the new airport car rental facility. The third idea, oddly enough, is not an actual main building at all –  it only consists of trolley extensions from the Convention Center to the airport and possibly into Point Loma.

Surprisingly, Clementson said there would be a decision this month on the Grand Central Station idea. The board chair Cathy Kenton asked how the public could have a say in this and Clementson explained that SANDAG held open meetings in conformance with the Brown Act and that was how the public could find out more.  Then came one of those shake your head moments when Clementson went on to explain that SANDAG does not hold regularly scheduled meetings and a meeting for June was not set yet.

Since the choice for a major infrastructure project, is to be decided in June, and no public meetings are scheduled in June, it appears that SANDAG’s new sheriff was leaving the public out in the street on this one.

The idea of siting the Grand Central Station at SPAWARs drew Kenton’s ire and she voiced some passionate criticisms. Kenton’s was displeased, to put it mildly, for two reasons.  The first reason was that the Midway board only learned about the SPAWARS site as a possibility for this major transportation hub in the news.  The mayor and Ikharta made a public announcement that they were considering a proposal to reuse the old military facility as this Grand Central Station. No one talked to Midway.

Considering that Midway had just concluded a decade long effort to complete its new community plan, Kenton felt this was a slap in the face because no one thought to talk to them about this idea before the public announcement.  When politicians don’t even have the decency of at least making it look like they care what the community wants, and they begin to tell the community what it wants, that’s when they need to be put out to pasture. Kenton said, “We had to learn about it when the mayor and SANDAG grandstanded the idea for the news.”  Kenton said she was “ incredibly concerned” and “very offended” with how this was handled.

Kenton’s second, more serious objection was that Midway already had enough traffic issues, adding a Grand Central Station would seriously exacerbate those problems. Anyone who has driven the Midway area would have to agree with her on that point.  Kenton said the best location was near the rental car facility where it could be hooked up to the transit system set up between that facility and the airport terminals.

Clementson related some other ideas being floated at SANDAG such as a tunnel from the border to the Grand Central Station.  She even had a bit of specific information on this one saying it would be 19 miles long and would allow for high speed trains that would make the trip in 20 minutes.  Also mentioned was high speed rail from the border to Oceanside.  The plan is to take one “corridor” to the board in September to show what the plan will look like.

After the presentation, the questioning and comments were very direct with criticism of SANDAG’s past to the point where one board member asked how many of SANDAG’s leadership in place under the former director are still there. The answer was that about half of the leadership had changed and that there was a new focus on diversity in hiring including women and people of color. The board member’s response was that it was good to hear that half were gone and said all of them should be changed to give the public some confidence in SANDAG.

The Transnet tax came up and Clementson explained that Ikhrata does not believe it is providing enough capital to do what SANDAG wants to do.  She went into an explanation that put the blame for less than expected gas tax revenues on more fuel efficient cars and people driving less.  This sounded like an excuse to one visibly irritated board member who expressed a strong resentment for SANDAG putting off the responsibility for money issues on something like that instead of admitting that SANDAG had mishandled the money it had.

One idea Clementson mentioned for increasing revenues was to raise prices on the I-5 north corridor, that are charged based on how crowded the freeway, is called “congestion pricing.”  Seems like a good idea, the busier the road is the more it costs to use it.  So, who gets to use it?  Not Jose or Juan who work for gardeners in Point Loma but live considerably elsewhere.  It just boils down to another perk for those who can afford it.

If the reception SANDAG got at the Midway meeting is any indication, SANDAG has a ways to go to repair its damaged reputation.  The idea that SANDAG is seriously putting together a diverse transportation plan that includes much more than the automobile is encouraging.  The proof will be in the results.  For now, the big issue is the Grand Central Station and anyone who wants to say anything about it has to email or call SANDAG unless a public meeting is held this month.