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by Michael J. Stepner and Mary Lydon / Times of San Diego / Feb. 4, 2026

For decades Paris, Barcelona and Brooklyn have been held up as models for humanely scaled, mid-rise housing neighborhoods.

This density is created by four-to-six story residential buildings. These communities have high rises and retail woven throughout, with pleasant walkable, tree-lined streets.

Here in San Diego, the award winning, 230-acre Civita urban village in Mission Valley stands in as our local model.

Mid-rise housing is part of Mayor Todd Gloria’s “Neighborhood Homes for All of Us” initiative. This type of housing is both necessary and appropriate — but it must be in the right location and provide the type of housing that affordable to those who need it.

The city’s 1979 General Plan stated in its urban design section that “the quality of the community is of overriding importance to the individual, since the most basic human needs must be satisfied close to home.” This is as true today as then.

Currently there is a lot of mid-rise housing being built. It is being built along commercial corridors and in the older neighborhoods.

By Shane Harris / Times of San Diego / Feb. 5, 2026

I live near Balboa Park, and I want to be clear about something from the start: my opposition to paid parking has nothing to do with convenience — mine or anyone else’s. This isn’t about saving a few dollars at a meter for me.

It’s about who gets pushed out when we turn one of the last truly public spaces in San Diego into a revenue stream. It’s about foster youth on group trips, families stretching every dollar, seniors on fixed incomes, volunteers who give thousands of hours to the museums, and working people whose livelihoods depend on foot traffic in the park.

Balboa Park was never meant to be City Hall’s cash register. For more than a century, it has served as San Diego’s shared civic commons — a place intentionally gifted to the people with the understanding that access would be open, equitable and free. That promise is now under threat, not because the park failed, but because the city chose to use it as a shortcut to address a budget problem it created for itself.

On Feb. 9, the City Council will once again take up the issue of parking fees in Balboa Park.

By Sue Taylor

Dear San Diego City Council Members:

I was born in the City of San Diego and graduated from Point Loma High School. I worked for the City of San Diego for 41 years, and I am also a volunteer with the San Diego Police Department. I now live just outside the City limits, about two and a half miles from Council District 9.

I want to directly challenge the claim that only City residents “pay for” Balboa Park. That claim may be convenient, but it is not how the City’s finances actually work.

Yes, only City residents pay property tax to the City. But what is consistently left out of this discussion is that most of any property tax bill does not go to the City at all. It goes to schools and the county. For a typical City household, only a few hundred dollars a year from their property tax actually ends up in the City’s General Fund. At the same time, a very large share of the City’s General Fund comes from sales tax and the hotel tax. Those taxes are paid heavily by non-City residents and by visitors.

By Jennifer van Grove  / San Diego Union-Tribune / Feb. 1-2, 2026

Nearly two years after submitting an initial application to build a mixed-use tower in Pacific Beach, the developer behind the project, sometimes referred to as Project Vela, has made little progress in convincing the city of San Diego that its unconventional application of local and state laws to breach, by an order of magnitude, the neighborhood’s height limit is lawful.

The parties appear at an impasse.

City staff maintain that the project, which calls for 139 hotel rooms and 75 apartments atop ground-floor shops on a 0.67-acre site, is not legal in its current form, primarily because the developer plans to treat the visitor accommodation units as long-term rentals.

In a Dec. 23 letter, San Diego’s Development Services Department said it could not approve the fourth iteration of the project from real estate investment firm Kalonymus Development Partners LLC, citing insufficient and conflicting information.

Matt Awbrey, a spokesperson for Kalonymus, said the developer plans to resubmit the project for a fifth time.

By David Garrick / SD Union-Tribune / Feb. 5, 2026

San Diego leaders are backing away from paid parking at beaches as a solution to the city’s budget crisis, opting instead for more internal audits that can lead to big savings and slashing middle management jobs.

Other ideas discussed Wednesday, Jan. 4, as ways to help close a projected $119 million deficit for the coming fiscal year include a hiring freeze and renegotiating under-market leases of city buildings and properties.

City Council members stressed their opposition to cuts that would affect neighborhoods equally, urging Mayor Todd Gloria to prioritize sparing low-income neighborhoods when he releases a proposed budget April 15.

by Niko Padilla / The Daily Aztec /  January 29, 2026

Along Newport Avenue in Ocean Beach lies The Harp, where you can often hear live music before you even see the bar, as the sounds of funk, rock and reggae music fill the street with life.

As the OB Farmers’ Market takes place over the street on Wednesday nights, you can often see a crowd gathered at the window, listening to the music, as customers, friends, family and sports fans have a drink and play a game of pool inside. These nights offer special opportunities for connection. They are more than just people coming together for a drink, but a unity between the music and the listener.

The Harp is owned by Miles Doughty, lead singer of Slightly Stoopid, Jeremy Diem, CEO of Hodad’s and long-time friends Tyson Green and Steve Ashton, who are familiar faces behind the bars in Ocean Beach. The four friends have taken over the legacy of this longtime local spot for just over a year, as they continue to improve upon what it once was.

“What we’re cooking up over here is something to be enjoyed for years to come,” said co-owner Green. “A quality music venue that people can come, hang out with their homies, and enjoy some intimate music.”

The American citizenry have to withstand a daily barrage of stupid, crazy and frightening declarations that emanate out of the White House — but none are more scary than a recent statement by Trump on a conservative podcast Sunday, Feb. 1, when he said Republicans should “nationalize” American elections.

“We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places.The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

Trump was on the podcast of former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

In a MS NOW report of the broadcast from earlier today, writer Steve Benen wrote:

Partway through the interview, Bongino briefly referred to crime rates, to which Trump responded with a meandering rant across a variety of unrelated subjects, including his bizarre beliefs about election administration.

by: Amber Coakley / Fox5 San Diego / Feb 1, 2026 

A surfer was rescued Saturday morning, January 31, after being swept off the rocks by powerful waves at Sunset Cliffs in Point Loma, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue officials.

At about 8:55 a.m., the surfer was attempting to enter the water from the cliffs when a wave struck her, knocking her into the ocean. Additional waves then pushed her back into the cliff and surrounding rocks, officials said.

Two surfers who were already in the water immediately came to help her. The Good Samaritans helped move the woman into a safer area and placed her on a surfboard while waving for help. Meanwhile, bystanders on shore called 911, prompting a response from San Diego Lifeguards.

By Marina Dunbar  / The Guardian / Feb. 1, 2026

Government documents have identified the two federal officers who fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis as Jesus Ochoa, a border patrol agent, and Raymundo Gutierrez, an officer with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to ProPublica.

According to those records, Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, were the agents who fired their weapons during the confrontation last weekend that resulted in Pretti’s death. The shooting sparked widespread demonstrations and renewed demands for criminal inquiries into federal immigration enforcement actions. Immediately following Pretti’s killing, the Trump administration repeatedly pushed false claims about the shooting.

At the time of the incident, both agents were participating in Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement initiative that launched in December. The operation deployed numerous armed, masked agents throughout Minneapolis as part of a citywide sweep.

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings February 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th .

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine:

The San Diego River Park Foundation has volunteer opportunities in Ocean Beach:

February 4th Wednesday 7 pm – 8:30 pm Celebration of Black Joy February 5th Thursday 5 pm – 6:30 pm Basic Dignity Coalition

The only planned protest so far is San Diego County is one located at 40th Street and Orange in City Heights at 2pm

In response to recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity, as well as the deaths of four people shot by federal agents, activists are encouraging a “shutdown” on Friday.

The “National Shutdown” calls for supporters to stay home from work and school, and not to go shopping in an effort to “stop funding ICE.”

“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country — to stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN. On Friday, January 30, join a nationwide day of no school, no work and no shopping,” organizers wrote online.