The Callen Report
By Kate Callen
Once again, Mayor Todd Gloria wants the instant gratification of a real estate deal that seems financially perilous and legally tenuous. This time, he may not get it.
Like 101 Ash Street and Midway Rising, the Kettner and Vine homeless campus has been hurtling forward at Gloria’s insistence since he abruptly announced the project April 4.
The scenario is all too familiar: Gloria is exuberant about a land use proposal, and he wants it to happen fast. Maybe the estimated costs of tenant improvements seemed reasonable (101 Ash). Or maybe the winner of a bidding process was an unknown player with no track record (Midway Rising).
People may grumble, but Gloria has supreme confidence in his own judgment. As Council President, he pushed hard on 101 Ash, asking city staff, “How soon could we close the deal?” Outlining his 2023 plans to salvage the Civic Center complex, he told reporters, “I see this as a tremendous opportunity to build the housing that we so desperately need.”
Hasty decisions skip over the tedious work of careful analysis —who has the time? Then, inexorably, fissures surface. Asbestos that nobody looked for made 101 Ash uninhabitable. The sudden discovery of a buried sewage line scrambled Midway Rising’s Sports Arena development plans.
Such failures have never adhered to Gloria. He skated away from the 101 Ash fiasco by brazenly complaining in a 2022 Union-Tribune op-ed that he “[had] been stuck cleaning up messes created by those who put politics above prudent governing.” When the Midway Rising team he personally chose withdrew a key pledge to include middle-income family units, he shrugged it off.
This mayor has always bet on the public being forgetful and disengaged. And he’s always been right. Until now.
Opposition to the Middletown 1,000-bed campus was swift. Pop-up protests at the site drew media coverage. Public comments before three closed-door Council sessions were overwhelmingly negative. Gloria scoffed about “folks who have concerns, that are fearful, that don’t like change.”
Folks who have concerns now include the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) and City Attorney Mara Elliott. Their forceful statements days before the Council’s July 22 vote have landed like a one-two punch.
On July 15, the IBA report identified flaws that evoked painful memories: lack of due diligence, no independent appraisal, overpaying in the current market. Four days later, Elliott piled on more questions about the legality of rushing to sign a 30-year lease that favors the seller of an “as-is” property.
But the most ominous news for Gloria may be the unprecedented speed and sophistication of a grassroots campaign to thwart him.
“Kettner and Vine” started out as a group of Middletown neighbors who organized in early April. Today, it is a full-fledged campaign with a comprehensive website (kettnerandvine.com) and financial support from across the city.
“We had no indication this was being considered,” said Kettner and Vine spokesperson Vanessa Herbert. “No one reached out to the community. We finally said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and we came together quickly.”
The Kettner and Vine neighbors know the property well. They have serious concerns about the project’s viability, starting with public safety.
“That is a very dangerous intersection,” Herbert said. “I-5 traffic exits right onto Kettner. On any given day, 25,000 cars zoom by at 55 miles an hour. People will try to cross Kettner to get to the shelter, and there will be accidents and probably fatalities.”
Herbert and her colleagues have been warned that Gloria has a reputation for vindictiveness. “We know this is risky,” she said, “but we stand to lose either way. We lose if we prevail and he retaliates. And we lose if the project goes in and the community is endangered.”
But politicians never seem to lose, at least not in this city. “The mayor wants to say he built the biggest homeless shelter on the West Coast,” said Herbert. “If it fails, he won’t care, because he’ll be on to his next job. The City of San Diego will suffer the long-term consequences.”
Taxpayers Assoc. AGAINST! “The taxpayers association is urging the council to address multiple concerns, including how the cost of the lease was assessed and the failure to issue a request for proposals to explore more competitive options”. Think Ash Street mess.
Kettner & Vine… another reason to get rid of OddTodd.
Gloria keeps pushing his agenda and spending tens of millions of dollars on issues that are unsolvable. We want the city to rehire an adequate police force and maintain our roads! We are tired of flat tires!
In Dallas TX., the police Dept. has 1500 officers, per the internet. In SD CA, the police dept. has a little over 700 per the internet. Populations are almost the same. NYC proper has 3,500 officers. SDPD NEEDS to have 1500 officers on the street.
there is also the $30 million annually needed to run the site, which has to be approved via the budget every year. The amounts being shown aren’t true representations of the costs.
Great article Kate.
In the meeting this afternoon and evening, I was shocked to hear one Union Rep after another endorsing their Unions support. I wanted to ask them if they had checked with their due paying members if they wanted their taxes to increase in order to pay for this 1,000 occupancy bldg.
Be careful people there are 3 tax increases going to be on the ballot in Nov. Be AWARE of political double speak. As one of the speakers pointed out on this kettner and Vine potential project how the working on it, from the Developmental Services Dept., and supported by the Mayor is it MAY solve the homeless issues, and it MAY do something else. I was not WILL do this and that. So even the presenters are not sure their plan WILL work, but it May. That’s the kind of double speak you have to watch for.
Another great article by Kate Callen. Thanks for bringing it all together, Kate. Amazing that the residents of San Diego feel the need to worry about “retaliation” from their Mayor. That is one of many indications that we need a new Mayor. Another is the poor planning that has the City losing 700 shelter beds in the short term without having any replacement beds lined up. Certainly this Kettner & Vine shelter idea that only surfaced in April wasn’t supposed to replace them as these beds wouldn’t be available in time, even if it were approved, and this idea wasn’t generated by the City in any event, Hamm brought it to the City.
Now we have an idea the Mayor is pushing uphill to fulfill his State of the City promise, not because it is a great idea or even a good deal according to the IBA, the SD Taxpayers Association or the City Attorney, but because it is an election year.
Unfortunately, what Todd Gloria learned from 101 Ash Street is that if you push and pull hard enough, you can get even the worst ideas over the finish line in San Diego. Let’s not reinforce that horrible lesson. Let’s correct that mistaken assumption now by saying NO to another costly mistake for the taxpayers of San Diego and the homeless population. There are many more humane and effective ways to serve the homeless, starting with supporting the priorities in San Diego’s Community Action Plan on Homelessness. Let’s invest in keeping people from falling into the abyss of homelessness and in creating permanent affordable housing.
And on November 5, let’s think twice about whether we want a mayor who retaliates against people who oppose his ideas and pet projects (like 101 Ash Street). Instead, wouldn’t we rather have a mayor who has served his country and his community with honor? We have a choice come November 5.
Nutso YIMBY’s in Hillcrest want to put utter trash out on TOSD.
https://timesofsandiego.com/opinion/2024/07/23/san-diegos-new-urban-plans-will-foster-affordable-inclusive-communities/
The city puts a 1% tax increase on the ballot. Their crying about the sidewalk repair backlog. Gee, how many sidewalks could be fixed with Ash St money? And now, the shelter would require finding the money for it while they lipservice housing affordability. The 1% tax hurts low income people more.
Yesterday, Todd Gloria lost big. The Council pushed back on Kettner and Vine, delaying action and possibly killing it outright. And Gloria was present in Council chambers — he put himself on the line for this — so he actually had to listen to eloquent people speaking the truth about his sorry leadership.
Quote of the day from Paul Krueger, delivered with Gloria sitting right behind him looking peeved: “The mayor has the time to fly to China to say goodbye to pandas … [but] the mayor does not have the time to meet with people in these communities who have a direct stake in what happens [and] the mayor does not have the time to meet with people from Lived Experience Advisors who know better than any of us what works and what doesn’t.”
Maybe, just maybe, the tide is beginning to turn.
Thank you to the author doing due diligence in this research! San Diegan need to stay informed when these ideas first start to germinate !
After a meeting that stretched past 11 p.m. Monday night, the San Diego City Council delayed a decision on Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed 1,000-bed homeless shelter until next week to allow further negotiation with the landlord.
Is what has been reported by TOSD
Excellent article, Kate Callen. I hope it will help many voters to decide who to vote for in November, and who to not vote for.