Once again, we return to Letters to the Editor for the truth — and it’s so much more fun to see letters written by people you know. So, here’s a couple from today’s Union-Tribune, one from Rag writer Kate Callen and another from Ralph Teyssier, a commenter on the Rag.
Re “Campillo’s reforms a smart response to Gloria’s trash fee machinations” (Nov. 30):
Thank you for pointing out that San Diego has one elected official with a functioning moral compass. Yes, Raul Campillo is pushing the reform rock up the hill — for now. But widespread disgust with the mayor’s mendacity and the connivance of eight City Council members is changing the political landscape. We see this in the overflow crowds at council meetings and the scores of angry letters you print.
Anger alone won’t get the job done. We need to mobilize. Every San Diegan who is sick of being disrespected by our politicians must become actively involved in future elections. If we don’t, the Chamber of Commerce, the building industry and the unions will continue to choose who governs us.
— Kate Callen, North Park
If s about time we saw a member of this City Council stand up for the people instead of toeing the mayor’s line. Raul Campillo’s actions are a rare reminder of what real representation looks like. Too many of his colleagues are off chasing their own pet agendas — Sean Elo-Rivera of District 9 being Exhibit A.
The deeper problem is the one no one in City Hall wants to confront: a culture with zero accountability. Until that changes, we’ll keep getting waste, spin and political games dressed up as “policy.” Real reform isn’t optional anymore—it’s overdue.
— Ralph Teyssier, Talmadge
Raul Campillo crossed an enormous line with me when he refused to support the bedroom tax on AirBnBs and second homes. Housing should be for housing. Not hotels. Not vacation homes. Not investment vehicles. Homes. Cannot support him.
He opposed the tax because he saw many San Diego residents owned those homes and he saw it as one more tax on San Diegans. However, his other votes have been extremely positive and noteworthy. He stands out from his so-called peers and usually opposes Gloria every time he can.
Increased taxes on the wealthiest segments of the population exploiting their excess housing units for personal gain while we all suffer the negative externalities of housing as investment, including the push for supply-side policies when this kind of demand-side stuff is sucking up available units and truly damaging our communities.
Greg, me thinks you protest too much. The Rag for a long, long time has opposed the proliferation of STVRs. San Diego and OB are facing lots of problems and issues, but to stick Campillo on this issue alone is just not fair. Even if you disagree with him on this one, he’s been one of — if not the most — accessible councilmembers around and who listens to members of different communities. His votes on a number of issues were very good. You made a point earlier and I tried to explain Raul’s position, not necessarily agreeing with it myself. But, hey, disagree, vote for whomever or campaign for whatever.
Greg: Tens of thousands of jobs rely on the vacation rental market, from contractors who maintain them to small businesses that tourists frequent. Thousands of San Diegans use their second home to afford living in their first home with skyrocketing costs. I support jobs created by small businesses and the people trying to survive here, just like you also clearly do. Your position is based on a principle that I acknowledge is worthy and broadly good, but you must acknowledge the consequences of destroying the STR market—inflation, job loss, and closing up businesses.
> Thousands of San Diegans use their second home to afford living in their first home
I think we all agree that halving the housing inventory to subsidize half as many people living in San Diego is unreasonable. And of course tendency to now value residential property under commercial valuations creates a market distortion which establishes an artificial floor under housing prices and contributes to cost-of-living inflation for everyone.
> Tens of thousands of jobs rely on the vacation rental market
No, they happen because of tourists. The majority of whom still overwhelmingly stay in hotels, and still do the same tourist things. Regardless, hobbling our future by bending over to pick up throwaway jobs vs creating actual, fulfilling careers and industry growth is foolish. Jobs that are full-time, have benefits, and grow our pie.
Holding water for these 1% of investors is an unpopular position. Of these full-time STR owners who have multiple homes, 36% of them are not owned by San Diegans. I’d urge you to have your staff do some more research on this item. Happy to talk about it.
Full-time STRs are a scofflaw industry that reaps social benefits to funnel taxpayer money into private pockets. They are exploiting an arbitrage opportunity by buying subsidized and discounted housing, then offering it in a completely different market that commands a premium, and then compete unfairly with hotels while doing it.
I think a lot of these policy proposals need better vetting. The second home – Vacation rental tax sounds reasonable in concept but how will the money be used or will it get lost in the general fund? How was a $5,000 per bedroom tax arrived at?
Is the intent to raise revenue or for the properties to be turned into long term rentals or be sold either to a first time buyer or an investor group who will turn it into ADU apartments?
San Diego does a poor job of stating its intended goals and objectives and form a policy from there. Instead it likes to throw out poorly thought out ideas and see what happens, usually with a lot of bad outcomes and unplanned for consequences.
That said, it’s great the OB Rag is providing a forum for people to share their perspectives including a City Council member.
FYI the point of the passage of the item in the Oct 22, 2025 meeting on the Vacation Home Tax was to do the requisite investigation. It authorizes the Independent Budget Analysts (IBA) office to do the analysis you suggest.
So, all due respect to Councilmember Campillo, but he, Airbnb, the San Diego Short-Term Rental Alliance, and the SD Chamber of Commerce came to this meeting protesting that we even look into the proposal.
The intended goals were laid out in Councilmember Sean Elo-Riveras’ staff presentation (Item 4 Presentation.pptx) [1]. It is a hybrid intent of both collecting tax to account for the harm, but also improve housing affordability with an expectation that a certain number of the houses will be sold or rented long-term and even some of the underutilized vacation homes may actually become part-time STRs.
[1] https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecomm/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=6702&doctype=1&site=comm
So were does the “harm tax” go, the General Fund?
Elo Rivera also spearheaded the trash tax ballot measure inconjunction with the IBA’s cost analysis and we know how that turned out. Elo Rivera pushed the trash tax pitting those who own a home and those who don’t and pay for private trash collection. Now he is looking for ways to keep landlords from passing along the trash tax to tenants. He’s looking to do the same with charging non City residents for beach and bay parking but then tries to circle back to create carve outs to minimize those he deems sufficiently poor, while calling for an afforability summit.
I’m all for freeing up more housing and think the City should be creating incentives to preserve starter homes and the building of single ADU’s on properties where the owner will continue to live.
Unfortunately, Elo Rivera has supported incentives for developers and investors that take starter homes off the market while upzoning large parts of the city, which increase property values.
Elo Rivera is looking for revenue and is using the cost of housing as the vehicle to get it. In this case, he will probably be successful because vaction rentals and people with a second home are a pretty unsympathetic target.
Elo helped create the problem with the ADU fiasco rewarding investors with rental additions and decreasing the supply of SFR’s for families. If mom and pop want to downsize, they run right up against newer buyers in the same small scale home category. And then Elo now wants to tax empty homes? How about empty hotel rooms and market rate investor apartments then? He seems to have a bone to pick with homeowner voters via trash taxes and now this bedroom tax, while gutting DIF fees for the developer class. As a politician, you’d think there’s an obligation to serve all people fairly and equally, not using investor/ developers through less financially fortunate people against the middle class for his convoluted affordability game.
You may not agree with Campillo on STVR taxes, but he has paid attention to opposing views, and he has taken the trouble to explain his reasons (cogently and respectfully) in a comment on a news site. When is the last time we saw an elected official engage like this? I doubt his Council colleagues read the news. They have staff for that.
This single issue pales in comparison with saturation market-rate density, bait-and-switch trash fees, paid parking in Balboa Park, the Midway Rising fiasco, etc. Is Campillo perfect? No. Do I agree with him on everything? No. But he is clearly forging his own path away from City Hall’s cesspool politics, and that gives me hope.