Dear Council members:
You have conducted three closed-session meetings on the Kettner and Vine mega shelter that have been preceded by several hours of public comment prior to each closed session. Throughout each public comment period, there have been speakers from all communities of our city, from all walks of life, from all professions, and some who have had the ‘lived experience’ of being homeless so your flipped remark of Nimby-ism is a false flag to defend this upside-down project. All these diverse individuals were united in their opposition to this terrible project that we all have come to nickname “101 Ash redux”. In fact, the public comments were 99% opposed to the shelter.
Yet during these meetings both Jen Campbell and Steve Whitburn were in a trance looking at their devices the whole time. We elected them and they are voting against us? What’s wrong with this picture?
At one point there were 7 council members who had ‘temporarily’ left the chambers for unknown reasons. If you had been a child in a school classroom, the teacher would have disciplined you for this behavior. But now that you are elected officials, making 6-figure salaries, decorum doesn’t matter to you anymore. I suggest you read the Morning Report article below, it confirms the fact that our elected officials are not interested or invested in our communities but only in your own political futures.
However, one comment that was repeated by many of the speakers was the lack of public engagement and input on this financial fiasco of a project. And it’s not like we haven’t had examples of failed real estate deals concocted by city hall within the past 4 years. But I guess you’re thinking: “that was then, this is now and we can fool the public some more.”
We are tired of the false promises and the lack of transparency with your ‘nothing to see here’ gazes. Please be aware that we are watching and becoming an empowered and informed public who will not tolerate continuing to be ignored. Instead, we will vote you out in November or initiate recalls in 2025 if we do not receive better performance from our ‘do nothing’ city council.
So, stop this nonsense, cut out the Kettner and Vine project from the budget and begin a true ‘listening tour’ or playback the video from the three sessions of public testimonies. To do nothing, you are showing your complete ignorance.
Our voices and our informed votes must matter!
Lisa Mortensen
Taxpaying homeowner since 1986
Community Advocate/Community Organizer since 1985
San Diego Realtor since 1976
This newsletter is sponsored by City of San Diego Retired Employees Association
MORNING REPORT: San Diego city Council Thwarts Mayor’s Proposed Cuts
June 12 2024
After Mayor Todd Gloria dropped his proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 that sought to address a major budget deficit, residents of some historically underserved of communities turned out to decry a slew of one-time cuts to programs created in the name of equity.
City Councilmembers, with help from their in-house wizards in the Independent Budget Analyst’s Office, found almost $13 million in city money that could be shifted to save some of these equity programs from budget cuts.
The City Council ultimately voted 9-0 on a budget late Tuesday that restores and increases funding for homelessness programs and the San Diego Housing Commission, money dedicated to climate equity and public power. Councilmembers also directed $3 million to support victims of the Jan. 22 storm and $1 million for youth drop-in centers.
Where they found cash: The City Council’s budget solutions included deciding to pay for some parks and fire vehicles with debt instead of cash, postponing the hiring of park rangers for vacancy savings, reaping about $742,000 in savings due to reduced water use at city parks during an especially rainy year and applying cash from a refund from the county Registrar of Voters. The City Council also agreed to take on additional debt to avoid more cuts.
The City Council’s big budget calls:
Gloria’s mega-shelter pitch survived the budget process – and so did his plan to pursue a safe parking lot for people living in vehicles at H Barracks. City Council voted to invest $1.9 million in day-to-day funds into the shelter if a final lease is reached with the owner of the Middletown warehouse plus millions of dollars for potential building upgrades. (Note: A lease deal still isn’t a sure thing.) The City Council separately identified about $4.2 million in savings tied to expected shelter closures to pay for new shelter beds. Councilmembers considered this crucial because the city expects to be down hundreds of city shelter beds by the end of this year if it can’t find replacement sites.
Homeless programs that had been slated for significant cuts ended up whole. The City Council increased funding for the city’s much-lauded homelessness prevention program so it will be able to take on new clients this year, bolstered funding for an outreach program that received no funding in Gloria’s initial budget proposal and nixed initially planned cuts to shelter programs that the Housing Commission had said could be crippling.
How they did it: The City Council made a tough call to direct $6 million that the Housing Commission had planned to offer up for affordable housing projects to preserve those other programs. For now, that means the Housing Commission will only have $3 million to offer for affordable housing projects in the upcoming year, a small amount it may decide isn’t even worth doling out. But councilmembers led by Budget Committee Chair Kent Lee also added a caveat: If the proposed Kettner and Vine shelter doesn’t go forward, the Housing Commission will get $6 million in federal block grants now expected to back upgrades to the Middletown warehouse to dole out to affordable housing projects.
City Councilmembers decided to agree to Mayor Gloria’s proposal and empty the city’s public power piggy bank – known as the Energy Independence Fund – which acts like a savings account of SDG&E shareholder funds to prepare the city to eventually pursue a takeover of the energy grid. But the City Council restored $500,000 to finish a public power feasibility study. (The first phase of that study found that it’d ultimately be cheaper to switch to public power for electricity.)
CIty Councilmembers restored some money to the city’s Climate Equity Fund, another program set up through the city’s contract with SDG&E, which Mayor Gloria had swept into the city’s general fund to get through the tough budget cycle. That money goes toward completing projects in communities on the front lines of climate change, which are typically underserved areas of the city.
You don’t want the unhoused sleeping under bridges, sleeping in alleys, sleeping on the beach. You don’t want them sleeping in their cars (if they are fortunate enough to have a car). In fact, you don’t want them sleeping anywhere – you just want them gone. But they are here and every city has them. So let me ask you, where do you want them to sleep? Not all those without homes are criminals, drug addicts (we’re talking about unacceptable drugs, not the drug caffeine that tens of thousands in our city are addicted to: coffee). How often have you walked by the corner of Kettner and Vine? Ever? It’s not exactly a tourist destination – if you know you know.
Peppered through our my neighborhood in Mission Hills there are a few yard signs opposing the proposed shelter – but I’m betting the homeowners who have these signs never stroll past the proposed corner. If anything they whiz by in their hybrid cars and Mercedes Benz.
I’m no fan of closed door meetings held by people I voted into office let me clear about that. But I do favor shelters where services like a clean bed and a shower are offered. Our humanity is showing it’s ugly side when we deny a safe place, a bathroom and a shower are denied to those without by those who have.
The corner of Kettner and Vine is no paradise, but it is a place enough out of the way that you won’t be bothered by the site of those who have struggled to fit in with the American dream. And let me be clear, if they don’t sleep in the shelter, they are still there in the street. They aren’t going anywhere.
John
Thanks, John, for expressing another side. You’re correct, “the corner of Kettner and Vine is no paradise.”
We’re trying to up the discussion on this proposed side.
John,
You’re right. I live in the neighborhood, have a sign in my yard, and go whizzing by Kettner and Vine in my hybrid car. I don’t walk past the proposed corner of Kettner and Vine because (as Ralph Nader put it) it is unsafe at any speed.
1,000 beds at the end of the I-5 offramp where 20,000+ vehicles pass daily (SANDAG numbers) is definitely not a safe place.
It’s no paradise, that’s for sure – and it is absolutely not out of the way. It is bounded by I-5 on one side, and fenced in by the railroad tracks on the other.
The issue is not whether or not it’s visible. It is visible. That’s not the point. The issue is not the expense of the location. The expense of the location is eggregious. That’s not the point. The issue is not that the building itself and the land upon which the building sits is a potential toxic hazard to people (clients or employees). That’s not even the point. The issue is that the location is unsafe. Period.
There is no way to cross the street safely in that area – the closest crosswalk is at the traffic light at Sassafras. I have walked that crosswalk many times. It can be hair-raising.
The sidewalk across from the building, coming from Vine, is very narrow. There was a woman on the sidewalk this afternoon, with a cart. The sidewalk was so narrow that she was exposed to the heavy traffic and in danger just sitting on the sidewalk.
I worry for your safety, if you walk that block! I fear for the safety of anyone who is coming or going from that location.
I’ve already dealt with someone who jumped or fell from the overpass at Kettner and Sassafras. He was someone’s son, or brother, or father. I stayed with him until help came and was with him when he took his last breath.
1,000 people and 20,000+ cars… what could possibly go wrong?
No to Kettner and Vine. Not the right location. Period. Surely there are other city-owned vacant properties which would be a better choice?
Mary,
You write that the primary issue is safety – “I worry for your safety, if you walk that block! I fear for the safety of anyone who is coming or going from that location.” That makes sense. And I agree with that as I am sure many would.
But the sign in your yard doesn’t mention anything about safety for those who would use the site. It doesn’t mention, that there is a better solution. Instead, the sign header in your yard read, in red lettering and all capital letters: PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY, and then goes on to read: STOP THE MEGA HOMELESS SHELTER.
So not to be rude, which is certainly not my intention at all in this discourse, which is it:
a.) safety for those who are already sleeping out in the elements – including heavy rains and intense heat – under bridges and in bushes and in alleys (which doesn’t seem very safe to me)
or
b.) “protection,” whatever that is supposed to mean, for “our” community. Whose community are we speaking of? Those who have the funds to own or rent, or all of us who live here, regardless of where we lay our heads at night. San Diego, including Mission Hills doesn’t belong only to those who can afford a roof.
A better idea. Honor Bill Walton’s project Sunbreak Ranch. Fabulous proposal. Way to support a San Diego hero/native who espoused and applauded the best in our city. Call it the Walton Court. Read for yourself.
https://sunbreakranch.com. Just need some leadership!!! Land available. Money needed from feds, county, city, private and public foundations/corporations. LEAD….a solution for all
A better idea. Honor Bill Walton’s project Sunbreak Ranch. Fabulous proposal. Way to support a San Diego hero/native who espoused and applauded the best in our city. Call it the Walton Court. Read for yourself.
https://sunbreakranch.com. Just need some leadership!!! Land available. Money needed from feds, county, city, private and public foundations/corporations. LEAD….a solution for all
If you read my full post, you would understand that I do not want to see someone live in their own filth but I also believe that Kettner and Vine is an inhumane and if you would ask a person living on the street (which I have) if they would go to a shelter with 999 other beds, they have all said ‘no’. Not my words but theirs.
So, what you are saying is as long as we get them off the street they are out of mind?
Let’s provide decent housing with proper individualized needs. Todd Gloria has squandered millions and we have only had the homeless issue elevate to chronic proportions.
Our city council could care less because they are not unhoused, and they are not listening. If you have anger and you should about this situation, then have them talk with professionals. Or better yet, vote for Larry Turner in November. He knows what to do. Todd will just collect his salary and have photo ops for four more years. The choice is yours.
So tired of the shitty decorum and disrespect for the public. At least pretend to care.
Isn’t that a Brown Act violation to only have two councilmembers in chambers? You need 5 for quorum every second of the meeting.
How much money has been spent on solving the homeless problem in San Diego? What has been the outcome? What do they really need to turn their lives around to self-sufficiency, if not happiness? What are the goals? These questions are not answered by the same approach repeated for an old problem.
I live on India st. with my family and neighbors. Plenty of people contributing to society and trying our best to get by. We are the frontline of the mission hills neighborhood and the homelessness passing on this street is already so high that weekly occurrences happen where car accidents happen on India and Kettner because this area is such a high traffic area. If this shelter happens mission hills community will have homeless wandering all over one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in San Diego. Completely not fair to every resident who pays rent or mortgage to have to deal with these outside worries of the unstable people. Let alone little Italy down the road which is an actual nice part of San Diego will go to shit, like literal human shit. (There’s already enough of that on India st too.) This is completely wrong and shelter must NOT happen. Let alone no homeless wants to be in a 999 bed shelter, if you actual saw these folks and talked to them they are lone wolves. This is a huge waste of taxpayer money on a ridiculous plan that WILL fail in one way or another.