By Paul Krueger
Mayor Gloria and his minions routinely claim credit for accomplishments they didn’t make happen. In their latest PR contrivance, the “Todd Squad” is crowing about a national survey that shows 76 percent of San Diego residents are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their city.
According to Gensler Research, San Diego ranks second in “satisfaction with their city as a place to live,” trailing only San Antonio, TX, with a 78-percent score. (Axios, which published the results, cautioned that “satisfaction” is a “broad” term, defined as “a general vibe check on how people are feeling about job opportunities, housing costs, safety, and other key urban issues.”)
Our ever-smiling Mayor immediately plastered his social media accounts with the upbeat poll results. Remember, this is the man who rammed through lax multi-unit ADU development, agreed to revise them in the face of neighborhood outrage, and then had the temerity to take credit for the reforms.
Still, did anyone in the Land of Todd even read the Gensler report? A glance at the survey methodology reveals a very significant — even disqualifying — limitation: The poll was conducted more than a year ago, from July 18 to November 24, 2024.
Since then, San Diego has been hit with a tsunami of change, almost all of it bad. It’s a sure bet to say a large majority of us are much less “satisfied” with life in America’s Finest City today, compared to last year.
Let us count the ways:
- Paid parking in Balboa Park, the Zoo, and the streets around the Park.
- A doubling of parking meter rates everywhere, to $2.50 an hour, and up to $10 an hour in the Gaslamp and other parts of downtown during “special events.”
- The expansion of hours during which metered parking is charged. Meters that operated from 8 am to 6 pm now require feeding from 8 am to 8 pm, and 10 am to 10 pm in Hillcrest.
- Additional meters on streets (like 6th Avenue in Uptown/Hillcrest) that were meter-free.
- The threat of paid parking at Mission Bay and our beaches.
- Thousands of “daylighting” citations issued to unsuspecting motorists who’ve parked within 20 feet of a curb. Worse, many of those curbs are not painted red, and there’s no signage warning against parking.
- The imposition of a monthly trash collection fee double the city’s official estimate.
- A 31-percent increase in the cost of water over the next two years, and an additional 31-percent increase in sewer fees over the coming four years.
It’s not just my gut feeling that these new fees and costs have contributed to a significant decline in resident “satisfaction” in the year since that Gensler survey was taken.
A recent survey of San Diego city voters by FM3 Research found that 62 percent of voters feel the city is “on the wrong track,” compared to 22 percent who think we’re headed in the “right direction,” and 16 percent who “don’t know”.
A nationwide 2025 study by the Milken Institute delivered similarly sobering results. Among cities with more than 275,000 residents, San Diego ranks 71st in “best performance.” This analysis compares job and wage growth, housing affordability, high-tech concentration, and other economic benchmarks.
San Diego’s ranking in this Milken study is 34 places lower than last year, when we ranked 37th. (The top cities this year are Raleigh, NC, and Ogden and Salt Lake City, UT.)
Lastly, a local activist shared with me the results of a recent poll by a reputable survey firm: 66 percent of local voters disapprove of the trash fee, and more than 80 percent reject the imposition of paid parking in and around Balboa Park.
Setting the polls aside and listening to the vox populi, there’s overwhelming anecdotal evidence that San Diegans forcefully reject the Mayor’s embrace of a year-old “general vibe check” that portrays 76 percent of us as “very satisfied” (or even just “satisfied”).
Reviewing the “most relevant” of the 169 comments on the Mayor’s Facebook post, not a single one gives the Mayor a shred of credit for any “satisfaction” they might have with our city.
And those who reject the survey results posted some scorching responses:
“Satisfied with what?” asked Ken McDonnell. “A new $550 charge on property tax bills? Yeah, that should help with affordability. Increasing parking fees should too.”
Heather Crichton told the Mayor, “Don’t take credit for the sunshine and ocean vibes, Todd!! We aren’t satisfied with local government, roads, taxes, nor the cost of living.”
And Carlos Ayala echoed a prevailing sentiment: “We’re satisfied with San Diego because of where it is on the map, not because of the clowns in charge.”
If you’d like to see the FM3 voter survey, click on the link in this sentence in the Voice of San Diego story: “Sixty-two percent of San Diegans say the city is on the wrong track, according to polling results shared with Voice of San Diego.”
The link is highlighted on the works “polling results shared with Voice of San Diego.”
Is there really a link in the above paragraph written by Mr. Krueger? I’m unable to find it and I’d like to see how the questions were phrased, please?
Thank you ??
If you’re looking for the FM3 survey referenced by the Voice of San Diego, I have the download and can email it to you. You can reach me at pwk4871@gmail.com
I voted for Todd Gloria twice. The other guy was a Trumper and I think it’s important for the city to have a gay mayor.
How does sexual preference (or lack of) have anything to do with someone’s ability to lead and manage a city?
His first opponent, Barbara Bay, is a Democrat, and about as far from Trump as you can get. I volunteered for both Barbara and Larry Turner, because I believe both were more qualified to lead and administer our city government, than Todd is.
I vote for Paul Krueger as the best San Diegan to initiate a recall Todd Gloria campaign. How about it, Paul? I’d be happy to help in any way possible.
There’s already a petition out there to do that.
Thx for the compliment, Ron.
I think we need to focus our energies on electing the best, most responsive and independent city council candidates in next year’s (2026) elections. I think our best chance to elect a candidate who really listens and acts on the concerns of residents who are now ignored at City Hall is in District 2 (the beach areas and Clairemont). I am supporting Mandy Havlik, https://mandyhavlik.com and hope you and others will learn about the candidates, meet them at one of their fundraisers/meet-and-greets, walk a precinct for them, and contribute to their campaign as your budget allows. I do not live in D-2, but it’s important that city residents from all neighborhoods do our best to win a seat on the city council for a representative who does not owe their allegiance to their political party, big real estate developers, labor unions, and the business community. District 8 is also in play, and I support Martha Abraham https://martha4sandiego.com in D-4. It’s also good that Kent Lee has an opponent in D-6, to “keep him honest” in that campaign.
Mr. Krueger, I’ve been thinking that since we voted out the position of City Manager, it seems that our elected leadership has grown more detached from the public and some of the very serious issues confronting our budgets, re: Ash St debacle, City Settlements for County Sheriff’s and City Police misconduct, might have been less costly or less frequent if we had maintained a Coty Manager whose job was to monitor and mind the City’s Fiscal Health and capabilities.
Your thoughts please, again, thanks very much ??. James Barker, jbarker52@cox.net.
You nailed it Paul. Good info and well said. I don’t know anyone who thinks Toddler has done a good job since day one of his first round. Why the voters re-elected him, is a mystery to many.
Todd Gloria’s dictatorship, lack of common sense, destruction of North Park and other long established communities, and his money grabbing to cover financial wasteful spending is the reason I sold my forever house, and location that I loved, and moved out of the City of SD 3 yrs. ago and bought another house. I could see, he would start raising every money maker he could and plant a multi story building right next door, to eliminate my personal back yard privacy. I took grandkids to the Zoo on annual passes, and we went a lot because it was so close and free parking. I loved North Park, bought my first house, on Florida St. in the mid 70’s. When the voters voted for a strong mayor form of government a few years ago, I didn’t vote for that, because I thought, what if we get a wing nut as mayor. Wellllll here we are. And due to he and the City council frivolous spending they now have the City of SD in a deep swamp. I now don’t have a 31% water and sewer increase, or a trash increase, or lack of parking, or have to pay to park, or the traffic congestion due to narrowed streets, and the City of SD has no idea what won’t be known until Gloria is termed out, and it all floats to the top. I know other people moving out of the City to get away from Todd Gloria and the City Council’s destruction too while they can still sell their home and still have street parking not used up by the apt. complexes on single family zoned lots.
Gloria is following a traditional politician’s rule, “Shoot at anything that flies. Claim anything that falls.” Claiming credit for others work is a long-held practice among politicians.
Thanks, Frank. The only petition to recall Todd Gloria I could find was on change.org. Do you know of an official petition?
No, sorry. But recalls are damn difficult if not impossible in this town. How many do you remember succeeding? One, maybe, but you’ve been around the sun many times and there are reasons you haven’t seen more succeed.