Councilmember Stephen Whitburn
By Lisa Mortensen
Yesterday’s [May 21] council meeting was a first hand look at the total Pay to Play culture of our city hall in their 8-1 vote to publicly recognize Vibrant Uptown as the community planning group. This is a bunch of hand-picked (non-elected) minions of Todd Gloria.
They are his footmen you could say who are hellbent on getting the Plan Hillcrest high-rise, high density agenda pushed through in just a few months time and then begin their destruction and ‘one-size fits all, tear down the old, and build the new big box projects added to our landscape in all our communities, not just the Hillcrest core. Here it comes, people!
I want to take a moment and let those of you who were unable to attend know that Uptown Planners and your fellow community members provided a masterfully cogent discussion with wonderful speeches; leaving nothing unsaid. All the speeches by those who were in support of keeping Uptown Planners were as eloquent as a valedictorian’s speech at graduation. This in comparison to the words of those from Vibrant Uptown which could be compared to a 4 year old at pre-k graduation.
In addition, thank you to those of you on this community e-roster for your wonderful emails and calls to the council the last few weeks. We cannot be deterred by those at city hall who are self-serving and must continue this fight with our voices and our votes. We have the power to throw these nardi wells out of office to take our city back for us and future generations.
I also want to give special thanks to Terry Hoskins who is the challenger candidate running against the current Dist 9 council member, Sean Elo-Rivera for speaking out in support of Uptown Planners. He’s not even in our district 3, yet Terry took the time and determination to speak up on our behalf. So those of you who are in District 9, please give Terry your support. He’s on our team and we should be on his team. Meanwhile, our Councilmember, Steve Whitburn, was sitting throughout the meeting in a deep stare; not engaging with the audience nor did he have any ‘words of wisdom’ for his vote for Vibrant Uptown. Not even a ‘thank you all for coming out’. Steve Whitburn acted like a tree stump.
But in the end, the fix was in. This city council is a zombie council that completely ignores its constituents blindly and does as they are told by their ‘supreme leader, T-Glo’. Sadly, rules and regulations do not apply to Todd Gloria. We cannot take 4 more years of this destruction and threat of bankruptcy. Todd Gloria has given you such wonderful real estate projects as Ash Street, Midway Rising, NAVWAR, the Kettner and Vine Mega Shelter (our homeless warehouse that will cost taxpayers billions!), Tailgate Park (in litigation), etc. What else do you expect from a guy who is our ‘renter in chief’ and is directed by political opportunity.
Or we can stop this continued chaos and demise of our quality of life and vote for Larry Turner for Mayor. Please go on Larry’s website and ask questions, attend a ‘Larry Listens’ meet and greet. Larry Turner is an Independent so he is not financed like Todd Gloria is as the golden boy of the local Democratic party. So take a moment and find out about Larry and support Larry (https://larryturnerformayor.com/ ); order a yard sign to show your support.
Otherwise, if T-Glo is reelected, the kids and grandkids will not be moving back and you will be sitting on your porch watching the 5th high rise going up in your once residential community. You won’t be driving anymore due to narrowed streets and unused bike lanes. You will need to have your groceries delivered. Is this the city you want to live in? This is not hyperbole. If you drive through our metro communities now, we see the increased congestion, we see the cranes and the many construction fences that have rapidly taken place during T-Glo’s term as mayor.
So what can we do and what are the next steps?
First off, I hope you will contact Uptown Planners and thank them for their decades long dedication to protect our community. We need to provide them the support and encouragement to continue the work for the next 6 months until we elect a new mayor. I personally would hate to see Uptown Planners dissolve due to the outrageous decision of 8 ignorant people in an instant mindless vote. Contact – Uptown Planners (uptownplannerssd.org) . I will let you know in the days ahead what Uptown Planners decisions on their future will be.
You can also contact Steve Whitburn’s office (619) 236-6633 and unleash your fury. Better to direct your anger to his office rather than me because you’re singing to the choir here.
In closing I will say, in life, you have your successes and your losses, the only way to bring more success in your future is to truly take the loss as a teaching moment. If we ignore the loss and do not learn from or build on this, then we will have a 50-50 chance of success in the future. Losses provide us a better compass toward success.
So never forget, we cannot be silenced nor will we stay home on election day or we will be guaranteed a loss. We must continue to speak out and be sure to vote, our city ‘s future is at stake.
Our voices and our informed votes matter!!
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
The conspiracy theories on this website are limitless! Seriously this op-ed actually thinks the Mayor of San Diego handpicked the Vibrant Uptown people? You can hate Gloria all day and think the new CPG sucks but yeesh that is a level of conspiracy that would make Trump and the MAGA people blush.
Sometimes you just lose in life
1. Deny
2. Discredit
3. Delay
4. Dismiss
“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
– Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice 1916-1939
Mateo you are truly a weirdo. You are all over this website which is a bad look for the OB Rag. The horseshow theory where the weirdo right-wing guys and the yahoo lefties are converging seems to be playing out on this website.
Joseph – You have crossed the line and violated our comment policy. All future comments will go into moderation until the administrator okays them, individually. And apologies to Mateo.
First time I haveever been called a weido, kinda funy. And after posting a Louis Brandeis quote? I could probably see it if it were like an Alito quote, or a Clarence Thomas quote or something…
Joseph – In any debate, personal attacks expose for all to see, the glaring weaknesses and incoherence of any argument.
Hi Joseph. Just so you get your facts from conspiracy suspicions straight, your buddy, Zac Thompson who is one of the Vibrant Bros actually ran twice for the Uptown Board and not only lost, but got the least votes each time. These were the same elections where other Rise up candidates won board seats. Zac sounds like a sore loser and confided with his friend Todd to be able to fast track Todd’s Plan Hillcrest agenda if he could form the Vibrant Uptown.
Also, for your information, Vibrant members have not had their elections so not sure how to categorize them as anything more than Todd brothers.
You may think that isn’t influence but I personal stBrothers. statement of grift and Pay to Play at Todd’s city hall. Todd is like a spoiled brat. He will do anything to get his way.
I prefer to vote for an adult who has business sense and is not so politically motivated.
I see you have no evidence that the Vibrant “Bros” are friends with Todd Gloria. So, why don’t I accuse you of being handpicked by Larry Turner, or Carl Demaio, or whoever?
You mean, you don’t have Xwitter to see for yourself?
Zach did not win a seat in the election, true, but only because the sitting board altered Zach’s fair chance for winning in the election one month before the community would have the chance to vote. It was unfair, against our bylaws (I termed out in that election), and disgraced the group in the eyes of the community and city.
Uptown Planners made its own bed and now they get to lay in.
Lisa is spot on with her post. Toddler hand picks and appoints all Dept. heads and their right hand puppets. Out of fear of him firing them on the spot, they do whatever he wants them to do for him. He doesn’t own the place he lives, he rents so he can relocate with his next election. He’s like a cat. Make a deep hole, leave his pile of something smelly, then scratch the dirt to try to cover it up. He and Steven Whitburn and others haven’t a care in the world for their constituents, they’re all about themselves. Toddler will leave a legacy in SD, one of failure again and again. Why the democrats keep voting for him, is a mystery to me, since he has no marketable skills, having gone from a private college to politics. Keep on drinking the KoolAid and you’ll be a part of the reason for the huge, financial deficit in San Diego, if you elect him for anything. His parents are not poor migrant workers, his dad retired from “General Atomics as a Planner”. Maybe he mowed someone’s lawn at some point, but it was before Todd was born. His mother is an “Independent Internet Professional”, and they bought their house in Serra Mesa in 1998 when Todd was 20 yrs. old. How many gardeners and housekeepers with three kids, buy houses in nice neighborhoods. So for those who trust his word, ask him a direct question, he’ll give you words, but not an answer to your direct question. He’s had years of politic speak practice. Vote for Larry Turner for Mayor, Terry Hoskins for Council dist. 9, they have leadership skills without instilling fear in their staff and Dept. Heads. With the finances of SD as it is, it will be worse next year. If you want to see cuts, and increase in taxes, and anything else Toddler AKA Toddles can figure out how to do, keep drinking his Kool aid.
That’s not fair to cats!
Pats, I’m all for voting out Elo Rivera in D9 but Terry Hoskins needs to get his act together because his website is not up and properly functioning.
https://hoskins4citycouncil2024.com/
Pat, I agree with your every word. Sorry, Frank, a double insult to cats. I do apologize.
Hi Lisa –
I am far from being “hellbent on Hillcrest high-rise, high density agenda pushed through in just a few months time and then begin their destruction and ‘one-size fits all, tear down the old, and build the new big box projects added to our landscape in all our communities, not just the Hillcrest core. Here it comes, people!” I don’t want this at all. Hillcrest is going to grow but it needs to be reasonable. I’m very much more aligned with many of you on current Uptown Planners in regards to the changes proposed for our neighborhoods. I’m very skeptical of developers.
But unfortunately, many of you associated with the current Uptown Planners have been so mean and nasty to anyone who disagree with you. Your nastiness such as calling the folks with Vibrant Uptown like “4 year olds at pre K graduation” just takes away so much credibility from your arguments. You and many others can’t be civil and frankly are embarrassing with the behavior many of us have witnessed at your meetings. You lost my support (and many others) because of that – not because of opposing views on development.
I am really hopeful this necessary reset of our planning group for Uptown will bring some needed civility and balance back. I hope some of the current Uptown Planners or their allies will run and win seats along with others who can bring unique perspectives and be willing to have civil discussions and compromise.
And please stop calling our councilmember “Steve”. He goes by Stephen and you owe him at least that respect.
Seeing you lecture others about “civility” is like watching a prostitute preach on the virtues of chastity. You’ve only ever been snarky and nasty with those who disagree with you. In fact, you were so toxic that Todd Gloria of all people had to fire you as his spokesperson!
Benny, you’ve lost each time you have tried to get elected to Uptown Planners — never getting more than 65 votes — precisely because your reputation precedes you. And you’ve been involved with “Vibrate” (©Whitburn) from the beginning.
Don’t try pretending now that your protests have anything to do with being a ‘necessary reset’ to restore civility: as always, it’s about you trying to get what you want and damn the consequences to anybody else.
And as far as Whitburn is concerned, you would do better to remind him (as he is also a former boss of yours) that one needs to give respect in order to get it.
I’ve never worked for Todd Gloria, so I could’ve never been fired as his spokesperson.
I’ve never been involved in or been to a Vibrant Uptown meeting.
The rest we can disagree on.
You were a public information officer for the City of San Diego’s Department of Communications. So Todd was your boss, and I’ve not heard a different take on your employment separation nor have you provided one.
And your candidate statement for the Uptown Planners election this past March literally used the phrase “vibrant Uptown,” and you’re close associates in person and on social media with ‘Vibrate’ members. But we’re to take your word that you don’t share their viewpoint and goals, because allegedly you’ve been to one of their meetings?
Like the local people you’ve named as role models, you pretend to be nice to hide that you are not — just as you’re doing here.
Lisa, you said this Council is one “that completely ignores its constituents blindly”, yet of the five up for re-election, three are running completely unopposed and the other two both finished above 50% in the recent primary and are on their way to easy victories in the fall. Meanwhile, Todd may have finished a smidge under 50% but will certainly rout Larry Turner in November after beating Barbara Bry 56-44 in 2020. Seems like they ARE listening to their constituents, they keep winning!
OB Ted – Thank you for proving the point about the paralytic death-grip the Central Democratic Committee has HAD on our City as well as the State.
By simply looking anywhere, in any community, any San Diegan can see for themselves the insufferable abject failure of local government.
Central Democratic Committee installed stooges ONLY focus is on counting money from brokering real estate deals for all of the Wall Street corporate housing monopolists, they serve. And going all-in, squandering what precious resources the City has, to construct a monstrous sports arena complex for an imaginary professional sports franchise. When it is well evidenced, that said imaginary championship “team” will not be supported, especially, at the exorbitant prices fans will have to be charged in order to cover Termini’s Cost Plus Project that will undoubtedly grow so grotesquely over-budget. Hardly a “win”
OB Ted – Gloria has ducked every debate, and done so with the blessing and at the behest of “the Party”.
Let’s analyze just a portion of the character assassination hit jobs pumped out by “the Party” backed candidates:
Slanderous, dishonest inaccurate hit-job mailers by the millions, against progressive Barbara Bry by Gloria’s ’20 campaign for mayor:
Bry supports off-shore oil drilling in San Diego waters
Bry is a Trump supporting Republican
Bry MAGA candidate of choice
Bry stands with Trump
Disgraced Nathan Fletcher the Letcher’s campaign’s unhinged character assassinations of Lori Saldaña speak for themselves because in reality, they should never be dignified by repeating the lies.
Gil Cabrera’s failed thug attack to question Turner’s residency reveals a lot about how scared Gloria is running. That in conjunction with the fact that the California’s second largest city, conveniently, hasn’t any polls conducted to reference, hmmmmm.
Anti-housing reactionary, PR firm much? Has a catchy resonance to it, but it is contradictory to itself & really makes no sense.
re·ac·tion·ar·y | r??akSH??ner? |
adjective
(of a person or a set of views) opposing political or social liberalization or reform: reactionary attitudes toward women’s rights.
Yes, reactionary Mateo! “In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo.”
Status quo on housing is not building any more housing. It’s putting this city in amber because we got ours and we’re pulling the ladder up behind us.
The majority of the major commenters and authors here – have never met a housing development they’ve liked or supported.
Thankfully their regressive ideology has been relegated to the dustbin of history. Building more housing is popular. People want abundant housing and the chance to build the same life here that all these folks born on third base and think they hit a triple had.
Keep screaming into the void at the occasional city council meeting and in the safe spaces of the OB Rag comment sections. The war is over and you lost. You’re all just the last to know.
OBTed – have to disagree with your definition of “reactionary.” I noticed you used the wikipedia generic definition. How about this:
one who supports Reaction in opposition to the general progressive Western zeitgeist, often accompanied by a sense that the expansion of democratic politics has made life in general much worse; usually believes race is a real genetic construct and therefore not surprised at disparate average outcomes across large population groups; usually believes hierarchy is imprinted upon mankind by nature and/or God, and that hierarchy is not only not necessarily evil, but desirable and even inevitable.
Urban Dictionary
Lol “oh obviously you can’t trust ‘Wikipedia’ so here’s the URBAN DICTIONARY” isn’t the flex you believe it to be Frank. Also I noticed you’ve got no critique of my other points so I’m glad you agree with them.
The Cambridge definition of reactionary is a nice summation – “a person who is opposed to political or social change or new ideas”. Every screed about housing on this website is demanding nothing changes. You are all housing reactionaries, the literal definition.
See, here’s how your narrow view on “reactionary” comes out; Trump promises change –BIG CHANGES (ya know, like concentration camps, Dictatorship, use of DOJ versus his opponents, political assignations) yet we are absolutely opposed to his “changes” and with your definition, that would make us “reactionaries,” right? But, of course, Trump is the reactionary – because he opposes the changes in this country over the last half century.
And BTW, that’s total bullbucky about our views on housing; to begin with, San Diego does not have a housing shortage, it has an affordable housing shortage; the market unit developers want less controls or restrictions and local planning groups have been accused of being the source of the time it takes for development to happen; we totally support genuine affordable housing and have called for all the units in the new Sports Arena redevelopment (public property) to be affordable, not just a fraction. We have opposed housing projects in open undeveloped land in our local wilderness areas.
So, there ya go. Please keep your comments civil.
And don’t for a minute think that Ocean Beach isn’t on their radar, too.
When the next election comes around, ignore the person’s party affiliation, listen to what they say. Do they believe what you believe? Do they want higher residential density? Do they want higher taxes? Do they want to get rid of the coastal height limits in the name of whatever?
Elections have consequences. Pay attention.
Yup, can’t disagree with you there, FF, OB and Pt Loma are definitely “on their radar.”