Councilmember Steppe Is Out of Step

By Joni Halpern

Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe made an interesting but erroneous assumption in her defense of the City Council’s recent approval of city planning reforms that would allow taller apartment buildings and more backyard units in so-called Transit Priority Areas.

Ms. Steppe’s comment was based on an incorrect assumption that often surfaces whenever residents of stable housing, particularly residents of single family homes, voice opposition to over-densification, rescission of parking requirements, and the overburdening of public assets and facilities through the addition of thousands of residents in a neighborhood over a short period of time.

Surprisingly, Councilmember Jennifer Campbell finally spoke out about the “tremendous” and “terrible” impact of these building code changes, noting proponents of the changes will not achieve their publicly stated goal of adding to the stock of housing available to moderate- and low-income San Diegans.  Campbell said, “Just accepting what purports to increase housing doesn’t tackle the issue in the way we really need to.”  True that.

Councilmember Steppe replied that Campbell and others who oppose the changes should not presume to know the burdens their fellow San Diegans will bear in order to reach public transit facilities.

“You will walk a mile to transit if you have to,” she said.  “For those of us who maybe have never had to, it’s easy to say folks won’t do that.”

Her statement was a sneer at San Diegans who are fortunate to live in stable housing and have been able to retain use of their cars in this era of dramatically increasing costs.  She is calling attention to those of us occupy those fortunate digs.  She implies we know nothing of the sacrifices those who are forced to rely on public transit are willing to make.

She also implies that if we are not struggling to put a roof over our heads, if we do not have to rely on public transportation, then we are probably selfishly ignorant enough to assume that others would make the same choices as we would to avoid public transportation.

With this statement, Steppe and other proponents of the “walk-a-mile-to-transit” philosophy, have suggested that physical and financial struggle has never been experienced, and can never be understood, by persons who are not presently faced with a housing or transportation struggle.  She couldn’t be more wrong.

Many of us grew up without transportation in the sprawling expanse of San Diego’s suburban landscape.  Many of us can remember waiting an hour or more in the heat or rain for public transit that often was – and still is – late, infrequent, unavailable for night shifts, beset by rules that limit the number of bags that can be carried on, prohibit pets, and often are in need of simple cleaning, let alone sanitizing.

Many of us can remember not being able to accept a job, because the bus schedule and location of transit stops offered us no way to arrive on time to work, or to provide us with a connection home after we got off work.  Many of us can remember disembarking in the darkness for the long walk home, encumbered by groceries,  work items or other burdens, wondering if we would make it home safely.

Those experiences weren’t just “back in the day.”  Even recent bus and trolley experiences often involve the same obstacles to passenger accessibility and ease of use as in earlier times.  People with small children, bags, books, shopping carts, and other necessary “baggage” still have a terrible time using public transit without mishap.  Persons with minor or serious disabilities can find themselves facing terrain in that “last mile” home that is challenging to the able-bodied, let alone those encumbered by physical impairment.

In recent years, a city planner addressing burdens of that “last mile” beyond public transit stops recommended the use of Uber or scooters to reach one’s destination.  Her audience was too polite to laugh, but several persons mused after she left that the planner obviously had not been afflicted with any of dozens of disabling conditions that make it downright dangerous to use scooters or bikes, and perhaps impossible to walk the last mile.

As for hailing an Uber, Councilmember Steppe’s remarks about the ignorance of the fortunate would be better directed at this planner, who may not have experienced the kind of budget limitations that prohibit paying for individual transport.

Speaking of the less fortunate, it is worth noting that many of us who live in single family homes or are otherwise among the blessed, in terms of stable housing, have served, or still serve, very low-income individuals and families in our work, whether paid or volunteer.

Many low-income parents cannot afford child care, so they must take all their family members with them on public transit to grocery shop, attend medical appointments, or get to their work activities after dropping small children at school.  Bus passes for a family are expensive.  And even if school children are free, it still is a monumental struggle to travel by bus with belongings and children.

It is also exhausting for persons with disabilities, many of whom are very low-income and dependent on public transit.  For all of these reasons and more, even people who have no other form of transportation to rely upon often choose to stay home unless they absolutely have to take the public transit system.

Those who have worked closely in the service of deeply poor individuals and families in San Diego have often advocated for a bigger investment in public transit rather than in building more roads to allow developers intent on prospering from expansion of suburbs.  We have testified  before the City Council, the Metropolitan Transit District, the County Board of Supervisors, state legislators and anyone else who would stand still long enough for us to make our case.  To no avail.  The vast majority of funding went to road development and improvement.

Meanwhile, the public transit system continued on its inglorious path to utter irrelevance.

Now public officials like Councilmember Steppe are awakened to the need for a more robust use of public transit.  Alas, the system is so far behind in the development of its infrastructure that it is virtually useless to all but a small fraction of the riders needed to pump up its appeal, let alone its revenue.

Nevertheless, Councilmember Steppe and others on the Council, as well as other public officials, go along with developers who insist we can never house low-income persons unless developers are free to overwhelm our streets and neighborhoods with hundreds of units, despite the lack of parking, the provision of only meager, if any, amenities, and inadequate public facilities and services to accommodate this massive, immediate growth.

A common argument of these developers and the majority of the City Council is that if there are insufficient parking spaces, people will use the vastly inadequate public transportation system, which should have been the target for intense development all along.

These over-densification proponents criticize those in opposition as being the privileged few who care nothing if the rest of the city’s families live in the streets.  The real truth is that the continued acquiescence to developers’ interests in San Diego City and County, while profoundly underinvesting in public infrastructure, has actually increased the need for housing for people who are struggling to find a residence they can afford.

The number of persons served by the proportionately small percentage of “affordable” housing made available in new  developments is far too little to catch up with the huge backlog of affordable housing need.  And as for the needs of very-low-income households, the changes affirmed by the City Council, now as in the past, have absolutely no hope of making a noticeable dent in this important and enduring population of individuals and families.

Even if every San Diegan were capable of walking, and thus agreed to walk a mile as the crow flies, or a mile-and-a-half or two miles for actual access to a transit stop (even across busy freeway overpasses and crowded streets), it would not sufficiently address the huge backlog of housing stock needed to meet the needs of our fellow citizens who cannot afford local rents, let alone the purchase of local housing.

That is the result of poor public leadership, not the failure of some residents to envision which of their fellow San Diegans would be willing to walk a mile.