To the editor LA Times:
By Paul Krueger / Jan. 24, 2026
San Diego has indeed laid out the welcome mat for apartment builders and their investors (“San Diego shows what happens when a city actually lets builders build,” Jan. 20). But my city’s laissez-faire approach to development has failed to supply truly affordable housing while virtually ignoring the obvious need for additional parks, schools, fire and police stations and parking for car-dependent, working-class families.
Some of these new rental projects offer small studios for $2,500 per month and one-bedrooms for $3,000. Parking, when available, can cost $300 a month more. The so-called affordable units required by the city in some of those high-density buildings still cost more than $2,000 per month, well beyond the reach of our low- and very low-income residents.
Our mayor and his building-industry allies now claim their fast-track approval processes — which disregard neighborhood concerns about the negative impacts of these high-density/high-rise projects — are pushing down rental rates. But according to data from RentCafe.com, the recent 1.85% drop in monthly rental rates equates to just $55 per month in savings and a still expensive $2,938 average monthly rent.
Meanwhile, bike lanes and on-street parking restrictions have led to reduced parking spots. Builders are finding it much harder to rent units with no off-street parking. Vacancy rates are steady or increasing, which will tamp down new construction, causing rental rates to resume their upward climb.
Our city does not have a rental housing “crisis.” But we do have a severe shortage of truly affordable housing. Our elected officials’ love affair with construction industry execs who fund their political campaigns proves that the private sector and free-market strategies will not solve that problem.
Paul Krueger, San Diego
Because the Mayor and Council gave developers a bonus ticket by ALLOWING the developers to NOT build affordable units ON-SITE, but rather OFF-SITE somewhere in the ABYSS, at SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, of course there AREN’T any affordable units BEING BUILT.
I would venture to predict that these developers cry BANKRUPTCY and NOT build any at all. Then apply for a NEW BUSINESS under a DIFFERENT NAME.
It appears, to me, that the Mayor and Council’s goals ARE NOT AFFORDABLE UNITS, but their OWN RELATIONSHIP with the developers LINING San Diego’s Mayor & Council’s POCKETS.
KEEP THE PRESSURE ON – SAN DIEGO!
We need you to SEE IT FOR WHAT IT IS.
Paul Krueger’s letter appeared in today’s LA Times online.
Thanks, Paul. I was so dispirited when I read that LA Times article touting SD’s building practices. Your response is right on the mark.
Actually, SD could learn from relatively recently revised LA regulations aimed both at ADU development (providing design assistance for developing backyard secondary suites and cottages versus SD’s mislabeled apartment buildings crammed onto SFR lots) AND at adaptive reuse (LA now ranks third nationally in office-residential conversions).
Of course, both cities have a long way to go in providing enough truly affordable units for middle- and low-income residents (while still providing for sufficient infrastructure, recreation, and community cohesion), which is a big task. But SD’s “building it tall, build it everywhere” ideology should not be a model, especially when other experimental approaches promise better all-round outcomes.
Best practices in managing the regulatory bureaucracy need not come at the expense of responsible planning. And simplistic thinking about supply-and-demand is not a good fit when, in fact, many complicated factors are in play.
Thanks again for setting the record straight.
The Los Angeles Times — via CalMatters, not from its own reduced staff — has been paying attention to San Diego’s situation in the last few weeks. First, our elected officials’ pay-to-play arrangements with developers and lack of “affordable” housing down here. .More recently, a story on the debacle of paid parking throughout Balboa Park and ensuing furor from the public and Balboa Park institutions. Thanks to Paul Krueger for his letter to the editor featured today, setting the record straight on our housing shortage.
I totally agree with the above comments. What people keep saying is, the more they build, the sooner all the news ones will have to decrease the rental rates. What I’ve said repeatedly is the contractor has to get a construction loan and make payments to the lender during construction. Then he/she has to get permanent financing, pay off the construction loan and make payments on the permanent loan. Each apt. is priced to cover the loan payment, water, sewer, landscaping, routine maint., The builder/developer/contractor can’t charge rents for less than the cost of the expenses. He/she is not going to pull money out of their pocket to pay the bills. They may have a promo to try to get occupants, and maybe a free months rent, but in a year when the lease is up, it will go up enough to make money. Bottom line is, they’re not going to reduce rents to what is affordable for a minimum wage earner. Affordable is part of the mayor’s word game.
Pats, these are not done with construction loans. The money comes from investment funds. There is no payback; these are effectively all cash apartment owners with no bank ties. As he says, the developer (who is paid as an expense) is not personally responsible if it isn’t bringing in a profit. The developer answers only to the investment funds – usually not private individuals either.