Despite Rain, There’s Things Going On in San Diego — Updated

Atkins to Run for Governor

State Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, launched her long anticipated campaign for governor Friday, making her one of three women vying to be the first female governor of California.

“Many have said that in 2026, it’s time for California to finally elect a woman Governor,” Atkins said at her launch party at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, before numerous San Diego politicians and labor supporters in orange vests. “As the most qualified candidate running for Governor, who also happens to be a woman, I agree!”

She joins the race against Democrats Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, and state school Superintendent Tony Thurmond.

Scores of classes canceled at San Diego State University and Cal State San Marcos as faculty strike

The normally bustling San Diego State University and Cal State San Marcos campuses were largely deserted Monday due to the widespread cancellation of classes by faculty, who began an historic, week-long strike for higher wages and better benefits. Faculty also were forming picket lines at the California State University system’s 21 other campuses in a job action that comes during the opening days of the spring semester. It’s believed to be the largest university faculty strike in American history.

The systemwide cancellations could affect most of the 460,00 students in the CSU, the largest public, four-year university in the nation. It was not immediately clear how many classes faculty canceled Monday at SDSU and Cal State San Marcos, which collectively serve more than 53,000 students. But few people appeared to be headed for classrooms at 8 a.m., which is when many lectures begin. For more here.

City Council Race to Replace Montgomery-Steppe Will Tip the “Balance” of Power

The battle to represent southeastern San Diego on the City Council could tip the balance of power at City Hall and determine whether the council treats Mayor Todd Gloria as an ally or adversary. The two leading candidates in the race would join different sides of a hardening 4-4 split on the all-Democratic council and create a new 5-4 majority.

Henry Foster III, longtime chief of staff for former Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, would join a group of council members focused on asserting their legislative power and shrinking Gloria’s legislative role. Chida Warren-Darby, a Gloria aide since the mayor took office three years ago, would join a group of council members more inclined to cooperate with the mayor — also a Democrat — and downplay any divisions at City Hall.

Foster and Warren-Darby are facing off in the March primary for the District 4 seat Montgomery Steppe vacated last month when she joined the county Board of Supervisors. A third candidate, Tylisa Suseberry, is not expected to gain significant support. SDU-T

Residents, staff members at San Diego Safe Sleeping site hit with abdominal illness

San Diego County health officials were at the O Lot Safe Sleeping site to investigate reports of residents and staff experiencing acute abdominal pains. The city received several reports Friday of approximately 30 residents ill with gastrointestinal symptoms. Four staff members of the nonprofit provider Dreams For Change also reported symptoms, according to officials. The following actions were being taken by the city to limit the spread of the illness:

• Ongoing sanitation of shared spaces and common areas, including
• transportation shuttles;
• Isolation of residents experiencing symptoms;
• Increased janitorial services;
• Added bathroom and hand-washing facilities;
• Donated bottled water to residents on-site.

There are approximately 370 residents staying in 320 tents at sleeping site, which has a capacity for 408 tents. As a precaution, new resident intakes are being paused as the investigation continues. There were no reports of illness at the city’s second safe sleeping site at 20th and B streets. 10News

Report on roads one more chapter in San Diego City Hall’s history of incompetence

The 30-year history of incompetence at San Diego City Hall is tough to exaggerate. Intentionally underfunding city retirement accounts twice and becoming a national punch line as a result. Pursuing a bold plan to shift most city workers out of defined-benefit pensions only to have state courts tell the city years later the change wasn’t handled in a legal fashion, requiring costly reparations to affected employees.

Acquiring an office tower at a huge cost only to find out after the fact that it was uninhabitable and had been called “functionally obsolete” by a previous owner. Installing fancy “Smart Streetlights” ostensibly to gather traffic data only to have the public learn years later that they really were part of an elaborate mass surveillance system. U-T Editorial Board

City Council to consider sweeping changes to surveillance technology ordinance

San Diego’s City Council will consider a proposal on Tuesday put forward by Mayor Todd Gloria that would substantially change how the city regulates surveillance technology. Privacy rights advocates warn that the changes would water down hard-fought protections passed in 2022. The City Council passed the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology Ordinance in August 2022. The TRUST Ordinance requires the review and approval of all surveillance technology used by San Diego police and other city departments.

The ordinance came after years of controversy tied to the use of surveillance devices, including so-called smart streetlights equipped with cameras. After the streetlights first rolled out in 2016, San Diego police began accessing the cameras for investigations — unbeknownst to the public. KPBS

San Diego has a plan to woo back scooter companies: Roll back the rules

Two months after the last remaining electric scooter company pulled out of San Diego, the city’s controversial plan to roll back its strict scooter regulations will be presented to the City Council for approval Monday, Jan. 22. City officials said this week they are hopeful the looser rules will persuade scooter companies to return. And one of the biggest, Lime, is praising the softer regulations and saying it hopes to return as soon as possible.

But leaders of the city’s coastal communities and an advocacy group for safe sidewalks are stepping up criticism of the rollback, saying it will compromise safety and essentially subsidize scooters with taxpayer money. City officials say scooter companies must be lured back because scooters are key to San Diego’s climate action plan. They say scooters reduce greenhouse gases by providing a convenient alternative to cars.

But the coastal leaders and other critics say the scooters are used mostly by tourists along the coast and downtown, not by ordinary residents trying to streamline their commute to work or school. And after a rush in popularity several years ago, scooter companies have more recently been struggling financially in cities around the world.

A key element of the proposed rollback is San Diego’s retreat from a rule that aims to keep sidewalks safe by forcing companies to install speed-throttling technology that automatically slows scooters on sidewalks to 3 mph. The city’s proposal would allow scooters to travel 15 mph on sidewalks, but riders would get a loud audio alert and see a flash when they ride on a sidewalk. SDU-T