Category: Economy

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 10, 2026

Seven candidates seeking to represent Clairemont and Point Loma on the City Council clashed at a recent forum over bike lanes, ADUs, Balboa Park parking, the city’s budget deficit and a proposed empty homes tax.

Mike Rickey, a Merchant Marine from Clairemont, was the most vocal critic of new bike lanes being created across San Diego to encourage people to use cycling to commute and get around. “The money that we’re spending on these bike lanes and removing street parking is absurd,” Rickey said.

Jacob Mitchell, a chemist from Point Loma, said the biggest problem with new bike lanes is that they often don’t connect well with other safe areas to cycle.

Mandy Havlik, a Point Loma neighborhood leader, said the need for a safe cycling network should be balanced against the impact on businesses of removing street parking. “A lot of small business owners feel like they’re competing with a bike lane to stay open,” Havlik said.

Nicole Crosby, a deputy city attorney who lives in Clairemont, said bike lanes don’t make a lot of sense in communities like Clairemont where hills and canyons are a major challenge. “It’s putting the cart before the horse,” she said.

Richard Bailey, a former mayor of Coronado who now lives in Point Loma, said the city’s nearly $8 billion backlog of infrastructure projects means bike lanes must be a low priority. “Bike lanes are more of a nice-to-have, not a must-have,” Bailey said.

Tessa Balc at the Times of San Diego dropped a stunning article on Sunday the 8th of March, by declaring there soon could be a Walmart at the former RiteAid property in Ocean Beach.

The new owner of the property is seriously considering putting in a Walmart Depot — but it wouldn’t be a “walk-in” store to buy anything but a location for delivery drivers to pick up wares and products to distribute nearby.

An application to install one was submitted to the City of San Diego recently and, as Balc reported:

“describes Walmart Depots as non-branded facilities, stocked with high-demand delivery items. Based on the description, it would not be open to the public, instead serving only authorized delivery “drivers/shoppers.” [Rag emphasis.]

Let’s back-up by returning to Balc’s article.

She reports that Murfey Construction Company is a developer who bought the RiteAid property in January, whom she also describes as “a well-known developer in the beach neighborhoods ….” (See below.) Balc in addition stated the company “is also considering a housing development.”

Balc also maintains the City staff is on board with this idea, having already reviewed the idea and reported back to Murfey that it did not run afoul of any development restrictions.

By Rene Kaprielian / Op-Ed SD Union-Tribune / March 6, 2026 

Once again, the city of San Diego faces financial upheaval as it attempts to backfill a huge budget deficit caused by historically poor management and misguided priorities.

Our mayor and City Council remain focused on two predictable but ultimately futile strategies: raising fees and taxes and/or cutting services, including hours at libraries and park and recreation centers.

Regrettably, our elected representatives rarely question the financial giveaways to large entities and industries that contribute to the imbalance.  Whether it’s long-term franchise agreements with SDG&E or bad real estate deals, these commitments translate to higher rates and taxes for residents and less money for needed existing infrastructure improvements.

San Diego State University is a major recipient of this misplaced generosity. The city has given SDSU carte blanche in its expansion in the College Area and is silent on the lack of progress in developing the former Qualcomm Stadium site. As a state university, SDSU is not required to adhere to local land use laws on land it owns. When the city deeds land to SDSU it can no longer collect property tax, development impact fees, or control the size and scope of the project, while saddling taxpayers with substantial infrastructure costs. These subsidies include fire protection and major improvements to intersections and streets.

By Alana Coons / SOHO March-April 2026

At the City of San Diego Historical Resources Board meeting on February 26, 2026, the Newman Building project in North Park was on the consent agenda. In thanking the applicant, board member Rammy Cortez repeated a familiar refrain—that historic resources require applicants to “jump through hoops,” and that preservation reform in Package B of the preservation and progress Initiative would streamline projects like this one.

However, as this case demonstrates, the record does not support that narrative.

When Newman Building developer Nate Cadieux responded during this public meeting, he made something very clear: The historic review process was not the problem. In Cadieux’s words, the historic component to obtain a building permit was “streamlined, not scary, not complicated.” He described working with the HRB Design Assistance Subcommittee as collaborative and constructive. He credited Heritage Architecture, and preservation advocates, noting Bruce Coons of SOHO, for providing helpful, clear guidance.

By Tanja Kropf / Clairemont Explore / March 4, 2026

Questions about trust in City Hall, including whether residents believe their leaders are listening, dominated a March 2 Linda Vista town hall with San Diego City Council Member Raul Campillo, who represents District 7.

Campillo recently held a series of town halls in his district, in the neighborhoods of Linda Vista, Serra Mesa, Navajo, and Tierrasanta.

From the failed one-cent sales tax measure to trash fees, parking fees, bonus ADUs, fire safety laws, and e-bikes, the evening revealed a consistent theme. Residents are skeptical of San Diego’s government, a concern Campillo says he doesn’t take lightly.

Hot Button Items That Lead San Diegans to Distrust City Hall

Voters Rejected Sales Tax Increase

Campillo began the evening by reflecting on the failed one-cent sales tax ballot measure, which he had supported.

“As many of you know, in 2024, I was pushing hard for the one-cent sales tax on the ballot,” started Campillo. That measure failed.

“What that told me was San Diego voters are not ready to trust the city with more money, and so we need to listen accordingly,” he said. Campillo said that view was not widely shared by his fellow council members or by Mayor Todd Gloria.

Attorney Represents Point Loma Residents Increasingly Alarmed at Coming Gridlock

By Jennifer van Grove / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 3, 2026

A letter sent last week to San Diego leaders asserts that the environmental analysis for the Midway Rising project is legally flawed, and will, if approved, not only lead to additional gridlock in the area but force taxpayers to bear the brunt of infrastructure needs because of the limited scope of study.

The legal letter, addressed to Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego City Council members, identifies six areas where the project’s state-mandated environmental impact report is described as substantially deficient. The most severe omission is said to be the report’s failure to evaluate the cumulative impacts of the anticipated redevelopment of the Navy’s nearby NAVWAR property.

The letter comes in the weeks leading up to the report’s presumed certification by the council members, which would pave the way for the city’s sports arena real estate in the Midway District to be remade with thousands of apartments and a new entertainment venue.

The letter was written by Kathryn Pettit, an attorney with Chatten-Brown Law Group, on behalf of her clients, J. Keith Behner and Catherine Stiefel of Point Loma. The couple hired the law firm, as well as a traffic engineer, during the environmental review process to study the documents as they became increasingly alarmed about the project’s long-term implications for congestion, Behner told the Union-Tribune.

By Lori Weisberg / San Diego Union-Tribune / March 4, 2026

In a near-unanimous decision, the San Diego City Council agreed Tuesday to let voters decide whether a hefty tax should be imposed on thousands of second homes that are sitting empty most of the year.

The proposal, which will appear on the June ballot, is a divisive one and drew scores of people on both sides of the issue eager to voice their feelings on a tax that council members believe will be a key step forward in expanding the supply of rental and for-sale housing in San Diego.

The “empty homes tax,” as it is being called, would impose an initial annual tax of $8,000 on more than 5,000 homes unoccupied for more than half a year — plus a $4,000 surcharge for corporate-owned dwellings. In subsequent years, the tax would rise to $10,000, with the surcharge increasing to $5,000.

It is the brainchild of Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who just a month ago failed to win support from his colleagues for a far broader measure that would have also taxed whole-home short-term rentals.

By Lisa Mortensen

Well, the city has concocted another tax proposal to inflict pain on San Diegans and divert attention from the real issue of ballooning staff and salaries that has created an ever-increasing deficit.  The city asks for your input on surveys of community projects that you may want to have implemented, but this is a diversion tactic to take your eyes off of the true culprits; our exploding deficit that is the making of our elected officials at city hall.

These ‘surveys’ are disingenuous and will lead us to be forced to create community foundations to pay for projects on our wish lists; all the while robbing the city’s taxpayer-funded accounts.  This indirectly is a double payment for what we have already paid for in our property taxes and sales taxes. 

by Debbie L. Sklar / Times of San Diego / Feb. 20, 2026

In 1916, the sands of Mission Beach were dotted with striped canvas tents and cabana-style shelters, forming a temporary seaside neighborhood known as Tent City. Visitors and a handful of longer-term residents pitched their lives on the shoreline, enjoying the Pacific breezes, the surf, and a rare chance to live directly on the sand.

Tent City was located in:

• Old Mission Beach, generally west of present-day Mission Boulevard.
• Near Redondo Court, site of the former bathhouse.
• Beachfront parcels that later became permanent residential lots.

Promoted as an affordable coastal retreat, Tent City offered rental sites and small lots for sale, appealing to families and vacationers who wanted more than a day trip to the beach. The settlement reflected a broader early-20th-century trend in Southern California: transforming open beachfront into planned, accessible recreational communities.

By Erwin Chemerinsky / Los Angeles Times Op-Ed / Feb. 20, 2026

The Supreme Court’s decision invalidating President Trump’s tariffs sends a clear and crucial message: The justices will not be a simple rubber stamp approving presidential actions. In the first year of Trump’s new term, 24 challenges to presidential actions came to the court, almost all on its emergency docket. In 22, the justices ruled in favor of the president. But Friday’s 6-3 decision striking down his tariffs is a huge victory for separation of powers and the rule of law.

The importance of tariffs to Trump, and their consequences for the world, cannot be overstated. The president said that their invalidation “would be a total disaster for the country” and “would literally destroy the United States of America.” In its petition to the Supreme Court, Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer said “the tariffs are promoting peace and unprecedented economic prosperity” and “pulling America back from the precipice of disaster, restoring respect and standing in the world.”

Trump has treated tariffs as something he can impose or rescind at will. But not anymore.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, February 23: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Items 201, 202: Convention Center Expenditures

Why it matters: After a court ruling cleared the way for the City to start collecting higher transient-occupancy taxes under Measure C, a spigot of money is opening to fund Convention Center upgrades. Given the City’s recent history of financial mismanagement, these new allocations deserve scrutiny.

Tuesday, February 24: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

by Calista Stocker and Myckenzie Smith / Daily Aztec / February 17, 2026

On the first day of CSU Unit 6’s Unfair Labor Practice strike, members were met with support, administrative attention and some police pushback.

From 5 a.m. to 12 p.m., more than 50 skilled trades workers — including facilities services, electricians and technicians — showed up at SDSU to fight for unpaid contractual raises and step increases that were promised to them in July 2025.

As a facet of the Local Teamsters 2010, CSU Unit 6 represents more than 1,100 skilled trades workers systemwide. From now until Friday, union members are withholding their labor across CSU’s 22 campuses.

For the striking members, the campus disruption is a necessary evil and a last resort to obtain their overdue raises.