By Mat Wahlstrom
Consider what can be accomplished in four years. High school, college, military service, medical residency, a term in political office, a vehicle lease, can all be encompassed in that time. So it is fitting to reflect that four years ago today was the kickoff of the Midway Rising scheme, when the San Diego City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee voted unanimously to send it to the full council as their “recommendation” of the three proposals winnowed by Todd Gloria’s staff.
Here is the link to the original write-up of that meeting by Jennifer Van Grove in the San Diego Union-Tribune. (Full disclosure: one of the public comments she reported was by yours truly, so judge for yourself how well this project has aged.)
It was already clear that the fix was in for Midway Rising. La Prensa revealed a week before the committee’s vote that the couple behind its development team had been the largest individual contributors to Todd Gloria’s 2020 political campaign.
It was five months after the council’s approval that La Prensa revealed the Midway Rising team was promoted to the council by a union leader — who did not disclose that she was the wife of one of the team’s lobbyists. And it was just over a year after that vote that the development team informed the council that the hotel for union workers and union-built middle income housing units key to securing union support were being jettisoned as unfeasible — without a peep.
Covering the ground between then and now, there’s the synopsis by Michael Smolens published just days ago in the U-T. It’s sadly laughable how crooked the Midway Rising scheme has been from the get-go. Because what appears to have been accomplished since 2022 is an unprecedented flexing of state party machinery to gut five decades of landmark state environmental law (CEQA) — while shielding everyone involved in the Midway Rising scheme from liability claims related to CEQA — on behalf of a municipal party machinery that was rebuffed twice by the California Supreme Court for violating CEQA.
I won’t flatter myself that Gov. Newsom either reads or cares what I have to say. But surely he must have a campaign advisor pointing out that his failure to veto SB 958 and SB 344 would
bring a stink of official corruption to the media’s attention in covering his 2028 presidential ambitions. And I can’t imagine there is anyone currently in the White House who wouldn’t
contemplate federal prosecutions for graft by public officials or even a RICO investigation.
The governor really should consider if being complicit in Todd Gloria’s self-dealing is worth it.
Thx so much, Mat, for keeping us focused on Midway Rising’s checkered past and our need to insist — through letter-writing, commentaries, and public comment at council meetings — that the City Council craft a lease agreement that best serves all San Diegans, not billionaire (25 times over) Stan Kroenke and his partners, who have flexed their money and connections to buy their way (so far) out of legitimate environmental reviews of the proposed project’s negative and irreversible impacts.
Here’s the root problem – the Gavin Newsom/Scott Wiener/Todd Gloria cabal will not rest until they get what they want.
There is only one lasting solution – vote these crooks OUT in a manner that shows anyone else who is even thinking of doing the same what will happen to them.
At this point it doesn’t matter if you align with any of these 3 on any other issues – this most basic issue is the mother of them all – will they do what their constituents want, represent them and accept their expressed will, or will they continue to feast on the payola of the special interest groups in clear violation of the law and the spirit of our representative democracy ?
I think we all know how they are going to act. It is up to us to stop them in the only way we can – vote them and their cronies out of office, sending a clear message that we have had enough and aren’t going to take it anymore.
It’s either that or be constantly on guard against their unending avarice.
To call Gavin Newsom a “crook” (without legal evidence) plays into the hands of Republicans — who are not immune from this kind of Midway Rising shenanigans (remember Ash Street?) — and the MAGAistas. This is NOT the “mother of all issues,” so sorry we have to disagree. I’d say the party that wants to bring fascism to America is the mother of all issues and Newsom to his credit has stood up to this authoritarianism like no other Californian. Besides neither Gloria or Newsom are running for anything right now, but Weiner is up in San Fran. Send his opponents money and support.
To ignore what’s happening on the national level is placing your head firmly into the sand. It’s to your detriment and to those who count on you for support to ignore our slippage into a neo-Nazi regime.
To call Gavin Newsom a “crook” (without legal evidence) plays into the hands of Republicans
The party that wants to bring fascism to America is not what is here in San Diego and you are foolish to pretend by design one size fits all and purporting that is the case for change in this town.
You’re the fool if you think that when fascism takes hold, it won’t affect San Diego? Let’s not let it happen, ok Chris? When Hitler took power, you don’t think a city in Bavaria, let’s say, was not affected? What world is that?
Am I not surprised as to what is threating to you? Funny referencing Hitler. Again, you reference history some 80 years ou5.
To believe Newsome and Gloria are not positioning for the next office is ignoring the obvious.
I have discussed underground structural bathtub foundations as the fix to future proof against Sea Level Rise (SLR) for buildings on liquefiable soils and reclaimed saltwater marsh tidelands.
Example of bathtub foundations include he World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City; and the Port of San Diego Headquarters, the County Administration Center (CAC), and the former Navy Broadway Complex (NBC) – Manchester Pacific Gateway – IQHQ RaDD along Pacific Highway and San Diego Bay.
But another great example of a bathtub foundation that could be used for Midway Sinking is the existing Sports Arena. Whose bathtub foundation has worked for the past 60 years. In order to enter the Sports Arena you have to climb several stairs. And inside the lower level stage seems to be located below existing grade, with additional basement levels below. I previously tried to find the foundation plans for the Sports Arena at the City’s DSD and they could not produce the foundation plans or basement elevations for public review.
The current Geotechnical Reports state that the top 60 feet of reclaimed soils and tidelands are not stable, and some unknown depth is subject to liquefaction.
The safe engineering solution would be a 60 foot deep structural bathtub foundation that could also serve as 4 levels of underground parking for the project. Or 60 foot deep caissons which would not provide any parking. Both structural foundation solutions are very expensive to build and would change Midway Sinking to Midway Rising.
However, as far as I know Midway Sinking is planning on adding 5 foot of soils that would be subject to compression and failure with future high King Tides. Then use cheap at-grade mat foundations that are great to use for 1- to 3-story structures on liquefiable soils, but not for high-rise towers.
I think Assembly Member Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson stated that she will not be involved with our public safety and foundation concerns after Senate Bill 958 and Senate Bill 344 passed, and we should give our public safety and foundation concerns over to the City. The City, County, Port, and SANDAG have ignored our seismic safety concerns for high rise structures on liquefiable soils for over 20 years.
This is exactly the sort of problem that a proper CEQA analysis would have noted as best practice this project. CEQA only requires that transparent due diligence is needed for proper decision-making. It does not mandate that any action must be taken beyond making “a decision on whether to approve, condition, or deny a project after completing environmental review, and it mandates public involvement throughout the process.”
Which begs the question of why precisely the city and the Midway team went around the California Supreme Court twice to avoid any CEQA analysis being performed on this scheme? (Shh, trick question. Todd Gloria told us the answer: “Failure is simply not an option, and we will get this done.”)
Wow, Frank, your defending Gavin Newsom on this matter is an impossible stretch. If Newsom lets Midway Rising happen, he will have harmed his chances to become President. Period, full stop — as he so tiresomely says. In my book, he did democracy a disservice when he trashed the citizen’s redistricting maps for a politically-gerrymandered system, approved by the sheeple.
Newsom needs to be held accountable for his slickery. I personally am for CEQA, the coastal height limit, the California Coastal Commission and reining in our rapacious public utilities. Where is Gavin on these issues? We expect more from him than pure political expediency.
I guess we just disagree. I am defending Newson from charges of being a “crook” and am raising the crucial issue that he has defended California and the nation from trump. How can you ignore that? Ignoring that is the impossible stretch.