How to Make Changes in the Underfunded Finest City
By Paul Coogan
California is the land of gold rush mentality. After the yellow stuff was scooped up, agriculture, hospitality/entertainment, and tech put gold in the coffers.
Now, the boondoggle is real estate, a limited resource and increasingly in demand. Escalating land value triggered a property tax revolt in 1978 (Prop 13) and now we live in the post-capitalist, libertarian result of a society that wants everything but refuses to pay for anything.
The recent trash fee battle in San Diego is a microcosm of this attitude. It started when in 1919, the public voted in favor of the People’s Ordinance to have free waste removal after the city started making money on selling the haul to pig farmers. Thus the metropolis was left scraping the pot to fund the dump year after year. Folks complain about busted bins, but liberals and conservatives alike were willing to join hands and trash city hall for trying to make ends meet.
A change in leadership at City Hall will only be shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, as the layers of bad policies and worse state laws have created a Gordian knot that strangles new ideas in their infancy.
Even the most seasoned developer will get caught in the morass of SB897, SB9, SB79, CCHS, SDA, TPA, PTPA, and SDMC §141.0302(b)(9)(D), to name just a few. A construction project to build a “granny flat” now requires a law firm on retainer and a bankroll that can withstand a pay-for-play Development Services Department that always puts big money at the front of the line.
In New York City, the Mamdani administration of New York City is creating successful models like appointing a “Mom & Pop Czar” to help ultra-small businesses navigate city government. Meanwhile, San Diego has cut the Small Business Enhancement Program by 63%.
Small businesses drive our economy and generate the taxes and fees for civic services. Efforts to follow the NYC model of taxing second homes fell flat when the constraints of Prop 13 forced the fee to be a flat excise tax, not scaled to property value or size. The public, already enraged by trash fees and a poorly rolled out parking meter program, said hell no. Once again, no income, no services.
The new crop of potential mayors will not be able to solve the city’s problems until the electorate understands there is no fraud, waste, or abuse great enough to pay for the backlog of neglect that has hung an infrastructure albatross around our collective necks.
The list of rumored and confirmed candidates is shorter than our recent governor’s race, but every single one has been involved in land-use policy written by and for the well-heeled West Coast real estate robber barons. This spectrum of leaders leaves us with few options other than to throw our own hat in the ring or work within the byzantine system created by ignorance and greed.
Working within the system means accepting the relentless Sisyphean task of comprehending every land-use policy and loophole until every casual conversation becomes a TED Talk on The Origins of Political Order.
It also means winning, albeit at the micro level: a tree planted, a crosswalk installed, a community garden issued a permit. It’s those small wins that propel the land-use activist to keep pushing on the larger issues of affordability and public amenities.
We need change. Be the change. Run for something!
Coogan is Chair of the Normal Heights Community Planning Group
