Month: April 2025

by Kate Callen and Paul Krueger / Times of San Diego / April 30, 2025

The San Diego Community Coalition will make its public debut May 1 by addressing the San Diego Planning Commission when it discusses proposed changes to the controversial “Bonus ADU” ordinance.

The coalition is a citywide network of neighborhood activists focused on two interconnected issues:

Overbuilding in residential neighborhoods — from mid-rise towers to giant multi-unit ADU complexes — which erodes our urban infrastructure and produces minimal affordable housing.

City Hall’s disrespect for constituents, its refusal to engage the public in open dialogue, and its suppression of community planning groups.

So far, the coalition includes activist leaders in 15 communities: Bay Ho, City Heights, Clairemont, College Area, Encanto, Golden Hill, Linda Vista, Middletown, Mission Hills, North Park, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Pacific Beach, Talmadge and University City.

PLEASE TAKE 2 MINUTES TO SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT TO THE SAN DIEGO PLANNING COMMISSIONERS BEFORE THIS THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2025

On Thursday, May 1 at 9 am, the Planning Commission will review the Mayor’s proposed changes to the Bonus ADU Program.

These proposed changes will do little to alleviate the harm that the Bonus ADU Program is causing to first-time homebuyers and single-family neighborhoods, as are outlined in various recent posts here.

Whether you can attend the meeting or not, please submit a comment on the Planning Commission’s web portal before Thursday morning’s meeting.

It’s very easy to do. Just follow these steps…

The Community Planners Committee (CPC) is an officially-recognized body of leaders from all of San Diego’s official community planning boards. It now has jumped into the fray of reforming the city’s Bonus ADU Program with the following recommendations expressed in this letter addressed to the San Diego City Council, dated April 24, 2025, and signed by Andrea Schlegeter, chair of the CPC.

To San Diego City Council

When setting out to provide recommendations for changes to the Bonus Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Program the Community Planners Committee (CPC) followed three guiding principals: adhere to state law, treat all development applicants equally, and find a way to address the lag in affordable housing at the lower end of the Area Median Income (AMI) scale.

To follow the first guiding principal, the City and the State should be held at their word and to the reasoning for increased density. SB 9 is the overriding state legislation for single family lots (RS zone), which allows for lots to be split. Pairing this with the state ADU regulations every RS zoned lot can have a primary residence, an ADU, a Junior ADU (JADU), and a bonus ADU.

Thus the CPC has come up with a “4 means 4” proposal. This is the simplest way of adhering to state law, while clarifying what the max density in RS zones is.

There are many good arguments in favor of capping density in RS zones at four.

By Bruce Coons / Special to the OB Rag

California needs more affordable housing. But the way we get there matters and today, Sacramento is pushing forward a series of bills that would destroy historic neighborhoods, disempower communities, and leave San Diegans with fewer tools to protect the places that tell our city’s story.

Three bills, AB 609, SB 607, and SB 79 are now advancing through the Legislature. They are marketed as housing solutions, but in reality, they are blunt instruments that would weaken environmental protections, silence local voices, and sacrifice California’s and San Diego’s historic built environment.

At SOHO, Save Our Heritage Organisation, we have long advocated for responsible growth that strengthens, not erases, our communities. We urge our elected officials and our fellow citizens to reject these short-sighted measures.

Well, we’re finally here. The first hundred days of Trump’s authoritarian regime. What do we have?

Amidst falling stock markets and his “Day of Liberation” of tariffs, Trump’s poll numbers on just about every issue are crashing. And crashing badly.

An average of different polls on his job approval rating at 100 days has Trump at the lowest level of any other president in 70 years. That average has him at a 43% approval rating with a 54% of disapproval. Some polls, like the recent Washington Post / ABC / Ipso poll, have him down to a 39% approval raring.

Economists are predicting empty shelves in markets across the country within a couple of weeks, especially if the tariff war with China continues; some are predicting a recession by summer. On trade and tariffs, the poll averages have 39% of Americans approving and 61% disapproving.

He’s under the water on every issue.

By Amita Sharma / KPBS / April 22, 2025

With head-spinning speed, President Donald Trump has targeted and reoriented key areas of American society through a barrage of executive orders and other administrative actions in his first three months in office.

Trump denied during his presidential campaign last summer any connection to the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy agenda Project 2025 and ridiculed some of its proposals. But now, many of his early directives echo or are outright lifted from the 900-plus page plan.

In fact, Project 2025’s director Paul Dans recently told Politico the president and Elon Musk’s moves to shut down programs that combat climate change, encourage diversity, equity and inclusion and eliminate the deep state through mass federal worker firings are “actually way beyond my wildest dreams.”

By Dave Schwab / sdnews.com / April 29, 2025

Point Loma muralist Jack Stricker’s latest endeavor is a real crowd-pleaser: a nostalgic portrayal of Padre greats Trevor Hoffman, Tony Gwynn, and Ken Caminiti in friar garb on the back wall of Harbor Town Pub.

The formal unveiling followed the Padres game on Saturday, April 19 in the rear of the popular neighborhood eatery and hub at 1125 Rosecrans St.

Large-scale Peninsula murals are becoming the stock and trade of Stricker, a hometown artist. His last community-based effort was a year ago at the United Portuguese S.E.S. Hall at 2818 Avenida De Portugal. Stricker combined with Austin Gosswiller to paint a two-sided mural there, a collaboration between UPSES and the Point Loma Association. That mural is a re-creation of “azulejos,” blue-and-white Portuguese tiles using acrylic paint. The tile mural was done on the historic building to highlight the 75th-anniversary celebration of the United Portuguese S.E.S. in Point Loma.

By Kate Callen

Community college students running an underfunded newspaper in Chula Vista have just taught the nation a lesson about the power of diversity.

The Southwestern Sun of Southwestern Community College has won the Gold Crown award from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association for being the top collegiate newspaper in North America.

The Sun’s multi-cultural staff are student reporters from working-class and immigrant families. They surpassed peers who attend prestigious universities and grew up in privileged surroundings.

If you badly need a ray of hope in a dark time when journalism and equity are under siege, this might do the trick.

Sun reporters have had plenty of reason to give up. For many, English is a second language. They juggle full courseloads with jobs of 25 hours a week or more to support themselves and their families.

But they are unyielding. “These students do journalism the right way for the right reason,” said Max Branscomb, professor of journalism at Southwestern and a decades-long Sun adviser.

by City News Service – Times of San Diego / April 23, 2025

San Diego County is well on its way to meeting state-mandated goals for housing development, and could easily exceed the benchmark, according to a report presented Wednesday to the county Board of Supervisors.

The county Board of Supervisors Wednesday voted unanimously to formally accept a report that its vice chair said shows progress on more  housing development.

According to Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer’s office, the new data shows that 84% of the state-mandated housing goal has already been met, “just four years into the eight-year cycle.”

The county’s 2024 General Plan and Housing Element Annual Progress Report found that 5,645 housing units had received permits toward a goal of 6,700 units, along with 4,500 additional homes “moving through the pipeline,” according to Lawson-Remer’s office.

At the current pace, “the county is projected to exceed its housing goal by more than 4,500 homes by 2029,  a milestone that could mean thousands more families, young people and essential workers can afford to stay in San Diego County,” according to the supervisor’s office.

$1.3 Billion Gaylord Pacific Resort Rises Like a Huge Block Along San Diego’s Bayfront

A few months ago, I was up on Mt. Helix for the great views. As I cast my eyes westward, I saw a huge block sitting near the southbay coast. It was a monster and stood out like nothing I’d ever seen along that lower stretch of San Diego Bay. Was it military? Was it some huge monument? Nope, neither as I found out later. It was the new Gaylord Pacific Hotel and Convention Center in Chula Vista. Here’s some other views of the place.

For more than 20 years, the Gaylord Pacific Hotel and Convention Center has been talked about in some fashion, in large part because of the incredible opportunity that the Chula Vista development holds for San Diego’s South Bay region. That vision is nearly reality as the $1.3-billion project rapidly approaches its mid-May opening date.

by Ernie McCray

There is so much around us
that can lift our spirits,
a song,
a poem,
a loving gesture,
a bright smile on
a handsome face
like the one of gratitude
on Eric Allen’s
as he received the news
that he had made the NFL Hall of Fame,