Category: Civil Rights

The following is a published Letter to the Editor at the San Diego U-T by College area resident Danna Givot, printed in the U-T on November 8.

Community Planning Groups are official, elected bodies representing their planning areas.

When they speak to the Planning Commission, Land Use & Housing Committee or City Council regarding Community Plan Updates, they deserve time to present their community’s position on the plan.

These official representatives should not have to struggle to get the public to attend to cede time to them—usually 60 seconds apiece — for the privilege of presenting the official CPG position on their Plan Update— the job they were elected to do. This is wrong.

By Kate Callen

San Diego Planning Commission Vice Chair Matthew Boomhower has a visceral dislike for people who don’t share his zeal for densification. At every meeting, whenever public speakers push back on development overreach, he looks like a powder keg. He glares and fumes. He rails against what he calls “the anti-housing crowd.”

But Boomhower has never resorted to threatening a speaker with retaliation – until last Thursday, November 6.

The agenda item was the City’s “Preservation and Progress” program, which would empower developers by weakening standards for protecting historic structures.

Bruce Coons of Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) warned that the measure could create new legal hurdles to projects because “anybody could appeal an historic designation.”

“Take the real-life example of 101 Ash Street,” said Coons. “If anybody had an ax to grind with the new proposal, they could appeal the designation, which would set the project back at least six months.”

101 Ash was an appropriate example to cite. It was also a shrewd choice. Its development team is headed by Boomhower’s colleague, Planning Commission Chair Kelly Moden.

Was Coons speculating that the Chair’s own project could be jeopardized by the new historical designation process? Yes. Was he threatening to block the development? No. In fact, SOHO supports Moden’s project.

By Csaba Petre

Living in a coastal community such as Ocean Beach raises questions about environmental conservation, sustainable use of resources, and equity of coastal access in San Diego. Given the scope of these issues, one may question the efficacy of individual contributions toward the conservation of threatened habitats and other environmental endeavors. These questions have been sharpened in the present Trumpian era of pro-industry sentiment wrapped in climate change denialism at the national level.

Clear answers are hard to formulate alone; it takes a community to tackle pressing environmental concerns. Recently, Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas facilitated this global yet local conversation, featuring two environmental documentaries as part of their Farm Film and Music Series: Faka’apa’apa & Out of Mined, as well as an informative panel discussion. The event took place on a recent, chilly late October night on the farm’s property. It had the feel of a summer family movie night in the park, but with a message of pressing urgency.

The panel was made up of: Mayela Manasjan (moderator), executive director of the Association of Women in Water, Energy & Environment; Dr. Greg Rouse – Marine Biologist at Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Coach Jackson – Founder and executive director of Coastal Defenders; and Amber Sparks – Marine Biologist and Co-founder of the Blue Latitudes Foundation.

San Diego Planning Commission Nov. 6th Meeting: Progress and Preservation Package A

By South OB Girl

San Diegans from throughout San Diego gathered in the meeting room for the Thursday November 6th meeting of the San Diego Planning Commission. The meeting began at 9 am and after approximately 2 and half hours of staff report, public comments and questions and deliberation by the Commissioners, the Planning Commission voted unanimously in support of Progress and Preservation Package A.

As the opposition to Package A gathered outside the meeting room afterwards, Rag editor Frank Gormlie tried to boost morale when he said, “Two more rounds to go!”  This was just the first round.  San Diegans had seven days including Saturday and Sunday to prepare for public comment at this meeting amending existing municipal code.

Attention shifted to the City Planning Department.  The City Planning Department stated that it concluded its public hearings on the annual report on homes with an “informational presentation” to the City Council this past Tuesday 11/4.  The City Planning Department then gave a presentation about Package A which would be voted on by the Commission.  The goals of Preservation and Progress Package A are:

Those in support of Package A gave public comment first.  Speaking time was reduced from 3 minutes to 1 minute by the Chair so all parties were adjusting the ceding of minutes. This included a speaker from the Historical Resources Board, Rami Cortez, who gave a report about what had occurred at the recent meeting that focused on this Package A.  Her comments indicated that to some degree the board ran out of time to address everything at their recent meeting.  She stated that they were indecisive in October.

By Grace Chaves / The Point – PLNU /  Nov 5, 2025

In an email to Point Loma Nazarene University’s student body from President Kerry Fulcher, it was announced that the Associated Student Body (ASB) rejected a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) student club at PLNU. According to the email, a motion to establish the club was brought to a vote within the ASB Board of Directors, but it failed to pass.

Fulcher said that the primary reason for its rejection was ASB’s concern regarding TPUSA’s “Professor Watchlist,” a list sourced by news stories that detail instances of “radical behavior” among college professors, as described by ProfessorWatchlist.org.

By Shelby Huffaker, MPH / San Diego Americans for Safe Access / November 2025

California Assembly Bills

AB-8 Industrial hemp.

Expands the definition of cannabis to include all products containing natural and synthetic cannabinoids (excluding CBD isolate and FDA-approved cannabinoid products), subjecting such products to the same regulatory requirements as cannabis (including — but not limited to — laboratory testing, taxes, track-and-trace requirements, etc.). Inhalable hemp products, including hemp pre-rolls and hemp flower intended for consumption, are prohibited. While cannabis retailers are permitted to sell manufactured cannabinoid products that meet state requirements, tobacco/cigarette retailers are prohibited from selling any form of cannabis or cannabinoid product, except for CBD isolate.

By SOHO / November-December 2025 Newsletter

The City of San Diego claims that changes to the Historical Resources Board (HRB) are needed because it “struggles to fill vacancies” on this all-volunteer body. But what the city doesn’t say is that the shortage is entirely of its own making.

Over the years, city officials have quietly rewritten and manipulated the rules governing the HRB—rules that do not seem to apply to other city boards or commissions. Each change has chipped away at the board’s expertise and authority, leaving it less effective as the guardian of San Diego’s historic resources and more susceptible and malleable to development interest.

One of the most damaging policies prohibits local historic preservation architects and landscape architects from serving on the HRB as they might one day have a project come before the board. For every other city board, a simple recusal from discussion or voting is sufficient to manage potential conflicts of interest. But not for the HRB. Here, some of the most qualified professionals are simply barred from service altogether. And yet, they do have other architects serving.

By Bruce Wolpe / The AlterNet -The Conversation / November 05, 2025 

One year and a day after Donald Trump won a second term as president – and on the 35th day of the US government shutdown, which has tied a record for the longest in history – the Democrats swept to victory in key races across the county.

Democratic candidates won the governorships in the states of Virginia and New Jersey, while Zohran Mamdani became New York City’s next mayor.

The Democrats may have just become the winners of the fight to reopen the government, too.

Trump’s ratings dropping sharply
Sixteen years ago, then-President Barack Obama was staggered by Republicans winning the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey in the 2009 elections.

The message was indelible: voters wanted to put a check on Obama and his wide-ranging agenda, from health care to global warming. Many Americans wanted him to cool his jets, including on what would become his signature achievement, Obamacare.

The following year, in the 2010 midterm elections, the Democrats lost more than 60 seats and their majority in the House. For the next six years, Republicans had a veto over whatever bills Obama wanted Congress to enact.

With Democrats now winning the governorships in those two states, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have just been sent the same message: you need to be checked, too.

By Paul Krueger

On Sunday, November 2, I asked Rag readers to join me at City Hall the next day in asking the City Council why an item about a reckless legal appeal had been abruptly pulled from that day’s closed-session agenda.

It was a fair and legitimate question. But I wasn’t allowed to even ask it.

Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Heather Ferbert are determined to fight a ruling by California’s 4th District Court of Appeal against the voter-approved 30-foot height limit west of Interstate 5. The judges unanimously decided that the city failed to produce an adequate environmental study of the negative impacts of high-density, high-rise development throughout the Midway District.

An item was put on Monday’s agenda to discuss Gloria and Ferbert’s determination to mount a truculent appeal to the State Supreme Court. A day later, the item was removed.

Food banks located in and around San Diego County:

City of San Diego

San Diego Food Bank, 9850 Distribution Avenue, San Diego.
Feeding San Diego, 9477 Waples Street, #100, San Diego.

Bayside Community Center – Food Distribution Center, 2202 Comstock Street, San Diego.
Serra Mesa Food Pantry, 2650 Melbourne Drive, San Diego.

Mama’s Kitchen, 3960 Home Avenue, San Diego, CA – 92105 (619) 233-6262 mama@mamaskitchen.org

Concerns Also Expressed About Threats to OB’s Cottage Emerging Historical District

By San Diego Monitor News Staff / San Diego Monitor / November 4, 2025

The Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) has voiced strong opposition to elements of the City of San Diego’s proposed Preservation and Progress Initiative, urging the Planning Commission to delay approval of “Package A” until further public review and documentation are provided.

In a formal letter addressed to Planning Commission Chair Kelly Modén and the commissioners, SOHO commended the City’s stated intent to make the preservation process “clearer, more equitable, and more accessible.” However, the nonprofit argued that several of the proposed revisions would instead “introduce new procedural obstacles, restrict public participation, and reinforce existing inequities.”

One of SOHO’s key objections centers on new appeal procedures outlined in Sections 123.0203(a) and (b) of the Municipal Code. The organization contends that the amendments create unequal appeal rights, allowing property owners to challenge non-designations of historic resources, but limiting others—such as community members or preservation advocates—from doing so. “…

The group also expressed concern over a proposed amendment applying the Complete Communities Housing Solutions Regulations to the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District. SOHO argues that the area’s historic cottages serve as a form of “naturally occurring affordable housing” (NOAH) and that the City should instead designate the neighborhood as a traditional historic district.

The OB Planning Board meets tonight, Tuesday, November 4, and their Action Item #1 is to review San Diego City Staff’s efforts to change the code around the OB Historic District. They will evaluate the language proposed by staff and make their recommendation(s). This issue has been percolating around OB of late because of the city’s machinations to undercut the district’s impact.

Here is what the Rag reported on Monday:

Formerly entitled the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District — which has been around since 1999 — it was on the chopping block as a city staff recommendation because a little over a year ago, the San Diego Planning Commission voted to spare OB from a horrendous development project of 24 ADUs on Point Loma Avenue precisely because of the existence of OB’s historic district. And at the end of the hearing on August 29, 2024, one of the commissioners turned to staff and urged them to change the city’s Municipal Code to get rid of the district as a basis for exempting OB from some of the worse housing policies of Todd Gloria’s administration, called “Complete Communities.”