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Ongoing:
Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings.  October 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. Keep up to date on climate issues and Climate Action events. To register email Jon Findley at jon@climatemobsd.org.  More info: https://www.facebook.com/SDClimateMobilization/

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine: Advocate for Peace and Justice in Gaza and Everywhere Join CODEPINK SD, San Diego Veterans for Peace, and Palestine Pals every Saturday at 10:00 am at Ocean Beach Gateway Plaza, on the corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd. and W. Point Loma Blvd.  Wear pink and bring a peace-related poster if you have one!  More info: https://www.codepink.org/sdvigil and https://www.instagram.com/codepinksd/

For updates on Friendship Park, a place where families and friends unite, transcending borders. Let’s make Friendship Park a park, not a prison, and stop the construction of 30-foot walls through the park. More info:  https://www.facebook.com/FofPark

For Border Angels monthly caravans of Love and Water Drops and other events:  https://www.facebook.com/BorderAngels

San Diego FixIt Clinics Event by San Diego Fixit Clinic Bring your broken, non-functioning things:

Turquoise Tower Update: Peters, CalCities & Community Outreach

From Neighbors for a Better California / September 30, 2026

Community Update Meeting: We will not meet on the first Tuesday in October or November. We expect to reconvene in mid-November, when we hope to have more information to share. We’ll send the new meeting date and details as soon as they are confirmed. Thank you for staying engaged.

Scott Peters on Turquoise Tower: From Pacific Beach to YIMBY Democrats

At the August 26 Pacific Beach Town Hall hosted by the Pacific Beach Town Council and Pacific Beach Planning Group, Congressman Scott Peters made clear that he supports building more housing, but does not believe Turquoise Tower, or Project Vela, represents the kind of housing policy San Diego should be pursuing.

Peters said San Diego has to do two things at once: build enough housing for workers, students, families and people experiencing homelessness, while making sure new development is “a credit to our neighborhood, not a detriment.” On Turquoise Tower, he was unequivocal: “This project doesn’t meet our standards.” He criticized the project’s use of visitor accommodations alongside housing incentives and called the proposal “a charade.”

Public Gets Kicked in the Gut- Part 3

By Donna Frye

Here is Part 1- and here is Part 2–

On Tuesday, September 30, 2026, Governor Newsom signed SB 344, a gut-and-amend bill that eliminated the public’s ability to file a civil lawsuit and challenge in court any unmitigated environmental impacts that may be caused by the Midway Rising project. Specifically, SB 344 “Declares the City of San Diego’s Midway Rising Specific Plan Subsequent Environmental Impact Report (SPSEIR), which is pending certification by the City, fully complies with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).”

That means the San Diego City Council will be the final deciders of whether the environmental analysis for the project is adequate and what mitigation measures will be required.

To say that this gut-and-amend legislation reached the governor’s desk in record time is a gross understatement.  Here’s a condensed history of the approximate six week “public process” for SB 344.

On February 12, 2025, SB 344 was introduced as legislation related to the disposition of human remains and the scattering of the ashes at sea. For some reason, on July 17, 2025, SB 344 was placed in the inactive file where it remained for over a year.

By Paul Krueger

I take serious issue with the Union-Tribune’s latest story on Midway Rising, (see image above) and the paper’s  failure to include a response from any of the numerous, very credible opponents of two new “special interest” state laws that allow the city and Midway Rising’s developers to ignore established environmental review.

It’s also beyond my comprehension that the UT’s reporting lacks any response from the equally well-informed critics of the Midway Rising project, as currently proposed.

Sen. Weber-Pierson’s introduction of her special interest legislation (Senate Bills 344 and 958) was immediately met with a well-documented backlash from San Diegans who objected to what they saw as a blatant attempt to thwart legitimate legal challenges to Midway’s Rising negative and irreversible environmental impacts.

Both of the reporters who wrote this story cover housing issues as part of their important and influential work at the Union-Tribune. I must assume they’ve followed the very public debate about the merits and drawbacks of special state legislation that allows developers of a specific project to skirt established environmental reviews.

In San Diego, the sources for an informed, intelligent, and credible criticism of SB 344 and 958 are obvious, starting with attorney Everett DeLano, who successfully challenged the city’s failure to complete an adequate environmental impact study

by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Sept. 29, 2026

It’s sunrise for a brand-new Ocean Beach business: Sunset Marketplace.

Sunset’s owner-operator Monique “Mo” Sapia, a San Diego native who operated businesses in Riverside County, is no longer retired. She’s moved to Ocean Beach and opened a new vintage resale and oddities business at 4979 Newport Ave.

The space previously housed Sunshine Daydreams, a hippie, tie-dye, and boho clothing boutique which operated there for many years.

The changeover is a perfect fit for both Sapia and the beach community, which she is already winning over. “We made our floors a tagging project,” noted Sapia while kneeling on her concrete floor flagrantly scrawled with numerous public well wishes. “We would love it if the community would come down and see our community art project.”

Of her avant-garde art project, Sapia noted, “everybody from little 6-year-olds to 80-year-olds from all parts of the world” left their marks on her floors. She pointed to her favorite message proclaiming, “Some heroes wear capes, mine wear vintage clothes.”

Sapia chose Ocean Beach because it was, as she describes it, “the most iconic beach, groovy hippie town in the United States. Where else do we have this type of eclectic ‘60s mindset still?

Latest UC Berkeley survey: Democratic candidate has 58% support among likely voters, while Republican Steve Hilton receives 33%.

Por SanDiegoRed / September 26, 2026 

Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor with roots in Tijuana, is holding a wider lead over Steve Hilton in the race, according to the latest survey from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

The poll puts Becerra at 58% among likely voters, compared with 33% for Hilton. That gives the Democratic candidate a 25-point margin and marks a seven-point increase from the difference recorded in Berkeley’s August survey.

The new numbers also come as another California poll released in September showed a similar gap between the two candidates.

by Dorian Hargrove / Peninsula Beacon / Sept. 29, 2026

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 344 into law on Tuesday, clearing Midway Rising’s path to begin construction on a massive redevelopment of the former San Diego Sports Arena.

The plan, to convert the land around the arena into a project with 4,250 housing units, 130,000 square feet of retail, a new 16,000-seat arena and 14.5 acres of park space, has long been challenged by residents citing coastal height limits.

The bill, proposed by State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, declares the environmental reports studying the impacts of the redevelopment as sufficient, allowing city officials to grant approval of the project.

The bill states that because the Midway Rising project includes 2,000 affordable units, the environmental review approved by the city is enough and should not be held up by any further litigation.

With the bill now law, the Midway Rising project will soon go before the San Diego City Council for final approval. It also likely ends all legal challenges which thus far have thwarted progress on the redevelopment of the site around Pechanga Arena, as it is now known.

The project, proposed by local developer Brad Termini and his company Zephyr, is mostly owned by billionaire Stan Kroenke, who owns the Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Angels, Arsenal F.C., Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets sports teams.

Kroenke is said to be the largest private landholder in the country.

The Alternative: Bring Housing and Business Back to El Cajon Boulevard.

By Laura L. Henson

San Diego is once again considering dramatic increases in residential density throughout Mid-City as the primary focus of the Mid-City Communities Plan Update. Before assuming that greater zoning capacity automatically produces better neighborhoods, we should examine our own history.

Because San Diego has tried this before, with decidedly mixed results.

In 1965, the City adopted the Mid-City Development Plan during an era of increasing multifamily development. Over the following decades, portions of Mid-City originally developed with modest single-family homes changed parcel by parcel to make room for apartments and condominiums.

The transformation did not occur in isolation.

Freeway construction divided neighborhoods, while Mission Valley and Fashion Valley emerged as regional shopping destinations.

by Tessa Balc / Times of San Diego / Sept. 29, 2026

The two Candidates vying to represent San Diego’s District 2 — which covers Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach and Clairemont — faced off Monday over how to address city spending and homelessness, two reliable parts of any city debate.

But at the evening candidate forum they also  jumped in  on the recently re-ignited debate over automated license plate readers.

Both Nicole Crosby, a deputy city attorney, and Richard Bailey, the former mayor of Coronado, rehashed their respective positions on topics like the proposed Midway Rising development and Liberty Station leasing at the forum, hosted by the Point Loma Association and League of Women Voters at Liberty Station Conference Center. This time around, though, as the two candidates who survived the primary, they had more opportunities to take direct shots at one another ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

The first question of the night, about where the budget should be cut, provided Bailey the opportunity to repeat a mantra from his campaign: The city has a spending problem not a revenue problem. The solution, he says, does not necessitate cuts to programs, but significant trims to personnel  – as in back to 2015 staffing levels.

“We have to restructure City Hall, starting with cutting back personnel across most departments, so that we can actually do more with less instead of doing less with more.”

For Crosby, this line of reasoning was an opportunity to question if it is effective to compare two different decades in city government, whether based on nationwide inflation or the city’s specific circumstances.

“If we’re looking at a 2015 baseline number that Mr. Bailey would like you to look at, we need to remember that we were operating with a shoestring budget,” she said.

“Proposition B and the pension decimation and salary freezes in that era destroyed (the) city infrastructure we had, and I mean human capital as opposed to the longstanding infrastructure we have.”

By Paul Krueger

In their recent, pay-wall protected analysis of City Council District 4 candidate Martha Abraham’s campaign, Voice of San Diego editors opined that “conservatives” constitute a significant base of Abraham’s support.

I responded by email to VOSD editor Scott Lewis and assistant editor Will Huntsberry, and acknowledged that some “conservatives” do in fact support Abraham’s campaign.
But that one-word description overstates their influence, ignores important political differences among those supporters, and understates the non-partisan nature of the support for Abraham’s challenge to incumbent Henry Foster.

It’s true that Abraham’s supporters include some political activists who skew to the political “right.” Some of them are outspoken — even vitriolic — critics of some Democratic officeholders, including Todd Gloria and Gavin Newsom. And, yes, some also support Republican candidates.

They also helped organize “San Diego United Communities,” and have prominent — if not outsized-roles — in that group’s actions.

(For the record, while I share their posts and respect their opposition to the Mayor’s hyper-development policies, I’m not a member of San Diego United Communities. That group was formed by activists who were disillusioned with the apolitical, non-partisan and non-confrontative stance taken by the San Diego Community Coalition, which Kate Callen, Frank Gormlie, and I organized.)

I support Martha’s campaign. I’ve known her since she made her first public comments during council meetings opposing the controversial “Footnote 7” policy that enabled developers

‘I Should Know — I’ve Been Trying to Find Out for Over a Year’

Originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune on June 26, 2026

By Danna Givot

If San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council care — or even just wonder — why they’ve lost the public’s trust, they need look no further than their so-called “Technical Working Group” for Neighborhood Homes for All of Us.

What is the Technical Working Group? A secret group of “experts” hand-picked to develop site plans and four building designs (with up to 10 units each) for “single-family” zoned lots in San Diego’s neighborhoods.

[Please go to the original for any links here.]

Three years ago, the planning commissioners rejected San Diego’s Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) proposal, which would have allowed single-family homes to be replaced by 10-unit apartment buildings. To their credit, the commissioners recommended that community stakeholders have seats at the working group table when crafting the next iteration of infill housing in our single-family neighborhoods. I asked the Planning Department to give Neighbors For A Better San Diego a seat at that table but received no response. This was after two members of the Technical Working Group told me they were in the group, although the city’s deputy planning director told me days later that it had “not been formed.”