Category: Economy

By Lu Rehling

And now, for your holiday shopping displeasure …

Used to be, we had a business- and consumer-friendly policy regarding holiday shopping: In the past, from Thanksgiving to New Year, San Diego restricted construction in city rights-of-way near major shopping centers.

Well, bah humbug to all that, and bring on the traffic jams surrounding a mall near you!

The city recently announced that restriction will “no longer be implemented.” Why? Projects over people (and retailers!) is the way holidays will roll this year and years forward, by order of Mayor Gloria and his Director of Engineering. Reasons given: “timely completion” and “efficiency.”

Notably, this change doesn’t just apply to publicly-funded projects (such as sewer repairs), or affordable housing projects, or any other at least arguable priority. Nope: ALL construction projects, including the full range of those submitted by private owners for building permits get the benefit of this restriction. Just as the longstanding moratorium on summer beach projects (which once lasted three months) rolled back like waves at high tide earlier this year (as reported here), the holiday moratorium now also is just a memory. So much for honoring the spirit of the season.

And what’s the reason given by a representative at the Development Services Department for treating public and private projects the same?

By Donna Frye

On November 18, 2025 at 2 pm the San Diego City Council will be having a hearing to discuss their budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

It is Item-331 on the agenda.

There are many very important issues related to the budget and I am only focusing on one of them right now, which is Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s proposal to charge a non-resident vehicle entry fee to use Mission Bay Park. The proposal includes fees for parking a vehicle, mooring a boat or launching a boat.

This is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know just where to start.

First, we all know that if this proposal is supported it will only be a matter of time before residents are forced to pay to use Mission Bay Park too. All one needs to do is look at what’s happening at Balboa Park with the proposed parking fees to understand how this works.

Rents are declining across the country according to the Zumper National Rent Index. In fact, it’s the fourth straight month of declining rental prices across the United States.

Yet, what does that mean for renters in San Diego?

The national average price for a one-bedroom rental apartment is $1,650, according to both Zumper and Apartments.com—a price that Californians are hard-pressed to match, with a median rent price of $2,059.

At the top of the rental market in California, sits San Francisco with an average rental price of $3,110 per month, which is 91% higher than the national rent price.

Yet, in Southern California, the rental market “is facing a surge in supply, giving renters a bit more leeway, according to Zumper. Both Los Angeles and Orange County are seeing declining rents. This is due to “massive rental developments have been built and are opening along the I-15 and I-215 freeways in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.”

Proposed Regulation Attempt at Reining in and Taxing Uncertified Pot Delivery Businesses

By Alex Lai / CBS8 / November 9, 2025

San Diego city leaders say some cannabis businesses are evading local rules, and they’re preparing to step in.

A new proposal at City Hall aims to create fair regulations for cannabis delivery businesses operating in the city. Legal dispensaries argue that competition with the unregulated market has gone on for years, prompting one shop, A Green Alternative in Otay Mesa, to sue the City of San Diego over enforcement.

Right now, legal dispensaries pay the city a 10% tax, putting untaxed delivery operations at a financial advantage.

Plastic in your green bin? Batteries in the trash? City inspectors are checking to see if your garbage is in compliance

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / November 11, 2025

San Diego has begun sending teams of trash inspectors to neighborhoods across the city to gauge whether people are using the proper bins for trash, organics recycling and traditional recycling of glass, metal, plastic and paper.

The inspectors — code compliance officers who’ve been nicknamed “lid lifters” — aren’t issuing fines or punishing city trash customers who mistakenly put the wrong items in either their gray, blue or green bins.

Focused on education instead of punishment, the inspectors place either “oops” tags on bins that contain improper materials or “do not collect” tags on bins with dangerous materials like propane tanks or lithium batteries.

Customers who get a “do not collect” tag must remove any dangerous materials and then call the city to send out a trash crew to handle the container.

By Ezra Klein / New York Times / Nov. 10, 2025

Back in September, when I was reporting an article on whether Democrats should shut down the government, I kept hearing the same warning from veterans of past shutdown fights: The president controls the bully pulpit. He controls, to some degree, which parts of the government stay open and which parts close. It is very, very hard for the opposition party to win a shutdown.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that Democrats were winning this one. Polls showed that most voters blamed Republicans, not Democrats, for the current shutdown — perhaps because President Trump was bulldozing the East Wing of the White House rather than negotiating to reopen the government. Trump’s approval rating has been falling — in CNN’s tracking poll, it dipped into the 30s for the first time since he took office again. And last week, Democrats wrecked Republicans in the elections and Trump blamed his party’s losses in part on the shutdown. Democrats were riding higher than they have been in months.

Then, over the weekend, a group of Senate Democrats broke ranks and negotiated a deal to end the shutdown in return for — if we’re being honest — very little.

City Still Pushing for Answers While NFABC Closely Monitors Situation

From Neighbors for a Better California Board

The proposed 23-story Turquoise Tower project in Pacific Beach remains under review as the city continues to press the developer for additional documentation. On September 24, the City Planning Department issued its second round of questions to the developer.

A project of this size and complexity typically goes through at least six full cycles of questions and responses between the city and the developer before any approvals are considered, so Turquoise Tower is still in the very early stages of review and remains far from final approval.

These cycle reports are one of the tools the city uses to clarify issues directly with the developer. They focus on technical and code-related questions about the project’s design and incentives and do not yet include reviews of public safety, traffic, or other community impacts.

Please see an update in a newer post here. 

Basically, faced with tremendous pushback, city staff now recommends $150 a year for residents. 

By David Walters

We have learned that Mayor Todd Gloria’s office has proposed setting annual rates for parking in Balboa Park at $300 for residents and $375 for non-residents. This is an outrageous increase and far above the $150 annual rate proposed by Councilmember Marni Von Wilbert and others as fair and reasonable.

I attended the Balboa Park Commission meeting this week. The Commission, which serves as an advisory body to the Mayor’s Office, voted to recommend annual passes be priced at $99, with discounts for seniors and low-income families.

The final decision on parking fees will be made by the City Council, which is expected to meet and vote on this issue on Monday, November 17, or Tuesday, November 18.

A recent survey of our Redwood Bridge Club members showed that most of them cannot afford parking permits at these prices — and the same holds true for most San Diegans. If the City intends to monetize parking in Balboa Park, it must do so in a way that keeps the park accessible and welcoming to all.

Editordude: The following report by David Garrick has been edited to focus mainly on entry fees for Mission Bay Park and the idea of paid parking at the beach.

By David Garrick / SD Union-Tribune / Nov.2–4, 2025

San Diego City Council members are proposing entry fees at Mission Bay Park, taxes on vacant storefronts, a rental-car tax and other new efforts to boost revenue as they continue an ongoing struggle with the city budget. …

The new ideas come just as debate begins on a new budget for the fiscal year that begins next July…. The council struggled to close a roughly $350 million deficit last spring for the ongoing fiscal year with a variety of cuts, including to library hours, and with new revenues from things like fees to park in Balboa Park and doubling parking-meter rates.

San Diego was also facing a potential deficit of about $10 million during the fiscal year that ended in June. That projected deficit — which could have eaten into the city’s $207 million reserve just when it’s become particularly crucial — was wiped out by a late spring surge in sales tax revenue and some lower-than-expected city expenses.

By Lori Weisberg / The San Diego Union-Tribune / November 6, 2025 

Paradise Point resort, a popular vacation destination on Mission Bay for decades, secured approval Wednesday, Nov.6  from the California Coastal Commission to move forward with a long-delayed renovation that is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars.

The commission’s action comes more than two years after the resort ownership abruptly pulled its plans from commission consideration in the wake of strong opposition from local leaders and longstanding public access violations of the California Coastal Act.

Months of negotiations with the commission’s enforcement staff ensued, leading to a landmark settlement that not only called for removing multiple impediments to public access around the island resort and shoreline, but also extensive new signage and other improvements

The Federal Aviation Administration is forcing airlines to cut 10% of their flights at 40 of the busiest airports across the nation to reduce pressure on air traffic controllers during the ongoing government shutdown and ensure that flying remains safe. The airports have been ordered to cut 4% starting Friday, Nov.7 with the remaining cuts to come next week.

Travelers should check with their airlines to see if their flight has been cut. Here is a partial list of airports affected, mostly local West Coast ones — :

West Coast Airports

California

• San Diego International
• Los Angeles International
• Oakland International
• Ontario International in California
• San Francisco International

Other West Coast

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.