Author: Staff

A 29-year-old man is in critical condition after losing control of his motorcycle on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, on Sunday, March 16.

The unidentified biker sustained severe injuries, including multiple abrasions, a spinal fracture, a skull base fracture and a laceration to his leg. He was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police suspect alcohol to be a factor in this collision.

By Colleen O’Connor

One of the two fires, “still under investigation,” started at Liberty Station in one of the undeveloped buildings earmarked for an aquatic center. Close to High Tech High.

The proposed design (before the destructive design) included an expansive piece of outdoor space, one fifty-meter swimming pools and a smaller twenty-five meter one and a splash pool. Add to that a water slide.

By Kate Callen

Todd Gloria wants you to know he spotted defects in the Bonus ADU program and he acted quickly to fix them.

And he insists he was appalled that the City’s Land Development Code had a footnote targeting Southeastern San Diego. He used his executive power to remove it at once.

He also invented Taco Tuesdays. He came up with the idea for Zoom meetings. And he personally recruited Manny Machado to sign with the Padres.

We expect politicians to fabricate. They desperately need public approval. That often means twisting the truth to make a loss look like a win.

But there comes a point where spin curdles into farce. Our mayor appears to have reached it.

By Kate Callen

The City Council’s March 4 hearing on Bonus ADUs was riveting. It didn’t deliver concrete action — at City Hall, the can never stops skittering down the road — but it did alter the political landscape. Some takeaways:

Henry Foster III Is In the House. After just 10 months representing District 4, Foster is the Council’s most powerful voice and its resident status-quo disrupter. Councilmembers who catch flak about ADUs typically bob and weave. Foster went into the Encanto community, saw the blight himself, and returned with a righteous anger and an audacious plan. If he stays on this path, he could be a formidable contender for mayor in 2028.

The Ocean Beach Planning Board is holding their current elections, and anyone who is qualified and interested in voting, must do so by March 4.

It’s important for residents and owners to vote in these annual elections, as community planning boards and groups have been under attack of late by development-aligned lobbying groups and the City of San Diego itself.

To vote, you must reside, or be owner/agent for a property or business within the Ocean Beach boundary to qualify (generally west of Froude street).

The City of San Diego’s Bonus ADU Program will be on the minds of many as residents across the city will be attending the City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 4. They will be urging the Council to restore the vote to eliminate the ADU Bonus Density Program—a decision they unanimously supported on January 28, 2025 before later rescinding it due to a procedural problem involving the Brown Act.

Here is some background provided by the group Neighbors for a Better California:

On January 28, 2025, the City Council voted unanimously to end the San Diego ADU Bonus Density Program, but a [possible] Brown Act violation means it’s still in place. On March 4, 2025, Footnote 7 and Bonus ADUs will be discussed, but this Item 330 only impacts footnote 7 in Southeastern San Diego—not the full citywide bonus ADU repeal we want. We need to keep fighting to formally get the Stop Bonus ADU officially on the agenda!…

San Diego International Airport published a statement earlier this month that marked “2024 as its busiest year ever with 25.24 million passengers recorded traveling through the airport’s terminals. This record-breaking year surpasses the previous busiest record of 25.18 million passengers served in 2019.” That was pre-Pandemic.

Said Kimberly Becker, President and CEO, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority: “Each year following the pandemic, the numbers of travelers recorded at our airport has increased.” She added this was a sure sign or recovery.

The airport says there are some main reasons for this growth.

One is the addition of two new airlines, Breeze and Porter Airlines who have service to nine new nonstop destinations.

There will be nothing but talking trash at the City of San Diego’s 10 community forums to get feedback on the proposed monthly trash fees. They’ve actually begun and the first one was last night, Monday, Feb. 24th at the Otay Mesa Nestor Library.

Will the feedback help determine whether the city follows through on plans to add several new services and features to its trash and recycling program that would push the fee higher than it could otherwise be, or not? There’s been plenty of irate responses to the proposed fees in “letters to the editor” in local papers and at town hall budget forums held of late.

List of Forums

The fourth and final City of San Diego 2025 Budget Review Town Hall forum in Mira Mesa was the largest and angriest gathering of the series. Hot-button issues included the contentious trash fee proposal, inadequate road repair, city salaries and pensions, and the obscure management of developer impact fee (DIF) revenues.

Nearly 100 people gathered for the February 20 forum at the Mira Mesa Senior Center. There were no representatives from the Mayor’s office nor from any Council District office.

Throughout the two-hour forum  which began with a slideshow from Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, community members expressed outrage at City Hall’s persistent stonewalling of constituents.

They traced the erosion of public trust in local government from the still-murky 101 Ash Street debacle to the trash fee analysis that began with modest payments and ended with costly assessments.

The following excerpts from public comments provide highlights.

A San Diego City Council committee wants to lower speed limits on a number of commercial streets, including Newport Avenue.

The committee met last Thursday, Feb. 20, and advanced a proposal to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on Newport Ave, as well as on a handful of blocks in Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Old Town, Hillcrest, North Park and City Heights. The full city council will probably vote on the lower speed limits sometime in March.

See this map:

By Colleen O’Connor

Canon to the right of them.
Canon to the left of them.
Canon in front of them
Boldly they rode and well.

These lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” accurately describe the atmosphere of Friday night’s town hall meeting, Feb. 21, fighting to Protect Point Loma.

The overflow crowd at the Point Loma Assembly Hall charged (verbally) against the Mayor, the City Council, and the developers supporting the destruction of many San Diego “neighborhoods.”  Not just Point Loma, but Ocean Beach, Encanto, Mission Hills, Clairemont, Park Boulevard and others.

Some in the audience want them all to join ranks. After dodging canons on the right of them, the left of them and in front of them, these fighters are defending not just their own neighborhood, but the whole city and have begun to succeed.