Environmental Justice Requires More than Micro Transit for Southeast San Diego: ‘We Are Worthy of Real Infrastructure Investment’

By Rob Campbell

On August 12, local leaders including SANDAG, San Diego City Councilmembers Henry Foster (District 4) and Sean Elo-Rivera (District 9), and State Senator Akilah Weber Pierson (39th District), held a joint press conference to announce a new Micro Transit pilot program for Southeastern San Diego.

Councilmember Elo-Rivera hailed the program, saying, “This new connection will allow people to get around Southeastern communities in a more convenient way, providing low-cost access to essential places like supermarkets, hospitals, educational institutions, employment centers and our transit network.”

But while the promise sounds ambitious, a closer look at the reality of this pilot and the real needs of the communities it claims to serve raises important questions about priorities, environmental justice, and equity.

Overlooked: The Environmental and Infrastructure Crises

The neighborhoods included in the pilot are Mountain View, Mount Hope, Chollas View, Lincoln Park, Valencia Park, Emerald Hills, and parts of Encanto. All are overwhelmingly communities of color with some of the highest rates of concentrated poverty in the City of San Diego. These areas are historically underserved and bear the brunt of environmental and infrastructure neglect: heat islands worsened by a lack of tree canopy, crumbling roads, broken or incomplete sidewalks lacking ADA compliance, minimal street sweeping, poor lighting, and bus stops with no shelter from the elements.

These are not just inconveniences; they are environmental justice issues. When a community lacks basic infrastructure, its residents are more exposed to environmental harm and safety hazards, especially in the face of extreme heat events, rising crime, and inadequate public space. Parks are few and in poor condition. There are ongoing cuts to essential services, such as reduced hours at the Malcolm X Library in Valencia Park, and the City often claims there is no money to fix any of this.

Yet, the City found $125,000 a year, $500,000 over four years, to help fund a Micro Transit service in a neighborhood already well-served by public transportation.

A Transit Solution Without a Transit Problem

The Micro Transit pilot will cost a total of $3.8 million over four years with money coming from multiple public sources, with the City funding $500,000. But here’s the issue: this area is already dense with public transportation options. The MTS Orange Line runs directly through the corridor, with stops at 47th Street, Euclid Avenue, and 62nd Street. From those stops, nine individual bus routes connect residents across the region. Public transit is not the gap.

This isn’t a neighborhood lacking transit access. It’s a neighborhood lacking everything else.

No Hospitals, No Grocery Stores – So Where Are We Going?

Councilmember Elo-Rivera mentioned increased access to hospitals and supermarkets, but residents know the reality. There are no major hospitals in the service area. UCSD Health, Kaiser Permanente, Sharp, Scripps, and the VA, are all located far outside the community and outside the range of this new Micro-Transit. The only local healthcare facility is a San Ysidro Health clinic that does not provide urgent or emergency care.

And while the Micro Transit service promises access to groceries, this area remains a food desert. There are few full-service supermarkets, and for many, food shopping requires leaving the community altogether. Without a destination to reach, what purpose does new transit serve?

Misplaced Priorities in the Name of Environmental Justice

Environmental justice isn’t about adding shiny new programs, it’s about fixing the long-standing neglect that leads to unequal health, safety, and environmental outcomes. The $3.8 million allocated to this Micro Transit pilot could have been used to:

• Repair broken or incomplete sidewalks and make them ADA-compliant
• Install lighting in poorly lit areas
• Increase tree canopy to reduce extreme heat exposure
• Improve parks and public spaces
• Restore library hours and community services
• Fund basic maintenance like litter abatement and street sweeping

Instead, the City is layering new transit over existing systems, potentially competing with MTS services that are already facing falling ridership and financial shortfalls. This isn’t innovation; it’s duplication, and it’s unsustainable. When the four-year pilot ends, there’s a high likelihood the service will be deemed inefficient and shut down, leaving nothing to show for the investment.

The Bottom Line

Environmental justice cannot be achieved with performative projects. Real equity means ensuring all communities have clean, safe, and functional infrastructure before adding new services that don’t meet urgent needs. Micro Transit may make sense in truly transit-deprived areas, but in this case, it’s a misallocation of resources.

If San Diego wants to claim it’s addressing environmental justice, then it must invest in the most basic elements that sustain a community. Parks. Sidewalks. Safety. Cleanliness. Healthcare access. Food security.

Southeast San Diego deserves more than symbolic gestures. It deserves the same level of care and infrastructure investment seen in wealthier, whiter parts of the city. Until then, $3.8 million spent on Micro Transit feels less like progress and more like a missed opportunity.

Source  KPBS

If you think this was a misuse of public money like I do, stay tuned for one of my next articles on SANDAG’s eye popping $25.6 Million Imperial Avenue Bikeway Project – and I’m an avid bicyclist.