Category: Economy

Gloria, Elo-Rivera, La Cava Expected to be Subpoenaed

By Rag Staff

A Superior Court judge ruled Friday, October 10, that plaintiffs challenging the City of San Diego’s bait-and-switch trash fees can make their case in an expedited trial.

Under the decision handed down by Superior Court Judge James Mangione, the City can proceed with collecting the fees. But the three elected officials most responsible for the new fee collection – San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, and Council President Joe La Cava – are likely to be subpoenaed to explain under oath how they devised the program.

“We are going to have our day in court,” said plaintiff’s attorney Mike Aguirre.

“We’re ready to go to trial and ready to prove our case that the City is attempting to collect an unconstitutional fee by illegal means. And they are doing this to cover a hole in the budget because they didn’t get passage of the 1-cent sale tax increase ballot measure.”

Low and Moderate-Income Housing Lags

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / October 10, 2025

A new report shows that the city OK’d 8,782 new homes for construction last year, well above its annual average of 5,100 new home approvals between 2014
and 2022.

The total fell short of the 9,693 homes approved in 2023, which was the highest total in a single year since at least 2005. Officials say they don’t believe the city
has approved that many in any single other year since the 1980s.

Despite the two-year surge, San Diego remains far below pace to approve a state-mandated 108,036 new units between 2021 and 2029.

The new numbers bring the city’s four-year total to 34,240, which is 73,796 short of the 2029 goal. That means the city would have to approve an average of
14,760 new homes every year over the next five years to meet it.

“It’s positive, but also a good reminder that there’s a ton of work still to do,” Councilmember Kent Lee said of the new report, which was presented Thursday
to the council’s Land Use and Housing Committee.

Councilmember Vivian Moreno was more discouraged.

“This report is sobering,” said Moreno, adding that the numbers would have been far worse without the city’s aggressive incentives. “More people are finding it difficult to find a home to live in that meets their needs.”

By Sue Garson / The San Diego Reader / March 31, 1988

Thousands of dollars’ worth of floral arrangements filled the sanctuary of St. Agnes Church in Point Loma. Below the statue of Our Lady of Fatima were anchors and nautical wheels made of blue and white carnations. Floral replicas of tuna vessels were laid beneath Our Lady of Good Voyages, whose plaster arms held the infant Jesus and a tuna clipper. A blanket of white orchids covered the casket containing the remains of a ninety-three-year-old fisherman, and when members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit filed past the cherrywood coffin, each placed a single red rose on top.

After hymns were sung in English, a Portuguese choir sang songs of the sea. The president of the American Tunaboat Association extolled the deceased as a pioneer in San Diego’s tuna industry – Manual Oliver Medina was responsible for starting the high-seas tuna fleet in the United States, and he was first to build and skipper ocean-ranging tuna clippers, the speaker noted. “M.O. was first to use radar and first to install refrigerated holds and radios,” he added in tribute. On this March Wednesday in 1986, Medina’s body made its final voyage to Holy Cross Cemetery, where it received the last blessing. Afterwards, hundreds of mourners paid their respects at Medina Castle, the hilltop mansion on Point Loma’s San Elijo Street, where they had often sought the padrinho’s counsel.

By Kate Callen

A proposed ballot initiative to create a San Diego Vacation Home Operation Tax that would fund general services will be put before the City Council’s Rules Committee on October 22 by District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera.

A fact sheet about the proposal says it “ensures that those who own a vacation home or a STVR [short-term vacation rental] pay their fair share for taking limited housing stock off the rental or for-sale market.”

Revenues from the tax would be earmarked for housing, homelessness prevention, and infrastructure services. The measure would not apply to homes lived in by San Diego residents. Renters or homeowners who use their home as their primary residence or rent to long-term renters also would not be affected.

The Rules Committee will consider Elo-Rivera’s measure at its October 22 meeting. A press conference on the proposal will take place that morning.

Black Rages Against Planned Fort Stockton “Monstrosity” Across the Street from Her Property

By Kate Callen

A scorching Facebook post by Democratic powerbroker Laurie Black has been ricocheting around San Diego this past week. Community activists who oppose rampant upzoning have been reading Black’s missive with a sense of astonishment. Here is a transcript:

“I have no words!!! Or maybe I do!!!

“As the developer 2004-2007 of the property across the street from this eyesore, 1Mission, along with my late husband Bob Lawrence of R.S. Lawrence Development, we worked WITH the Mission Hills community to develop a project that received more than 5 awards for DESIGN, SMART GROWTH, HISTORICAL DESIGNATION, etc. 20 years later [it] is still a wonderful example of smart growth and design. Mark Steele designed a stunning project!

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa San Diego / October 3, 2025

A local drywall installation company that systematically underpaid its workers on two local affordable housing projects has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit filed by the US Department of Labor by paying $790,000 in back wages and fines.

Escondido-based Innovative Wall Systems, Inc., doing business as Alta Drywall, was sued in San Diego federal court for underpaying 580 employees who worked more than 40 hours a week, including weekends, without receiving the required overtime rate or minimum wage as mandated by federal law.

The Department of Labor and Alta Drywall entered into a Consent Judgment and Order on September 12, 2025, over 580 employees who were not paid overtime on two affordable housing projects; the 200-unit Columba project in Chula Vista’s Millenia development, and the 309-unit Mt. Etna St. complex in San Diego.

SD Union-Tribune Editorial Board / October 5, 2025

The City Council’s decision this week to put off a vote on a 62% water rate hike and a 31% sewer rate hike to be phased in over the next four years was welcomed by the many San Diegans who live paycheck to paycheck.

But there’s bad news ahead for anyone counting on genuine relief from Mayor Todd Gloria and council members. In coming weeks, final approval still looks inevitable for the massive rate increases beginning in January. The case that rates have to go up to sustaincurrent levels of service hasn’t been challenged, and there is no appetite for budget cuts elsewhere to cover the bills.

And nothing in the council’s recent history suggests that most members’ message-we-care rhetoric at Tuesday’s meeting is meaningful. These same politicians depicted their crusade against digital-only grocery store coupons as a bold defense of elderly constituents — even as they forced constituents of all ages to pay sharply increased trash fees — and approved first-ever parking fees at Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo — and imposed punitive “dynamic” parking rates that will hammer families visiting downtown.

Couple Hundred Local Residents and Supporters at Town-hall Meeting at Pt Loma Assembly

By Jillian Butler
A proposed 56-unit apartment complex at 1004 Rosecrans has sparked fierce opposition from Point Loma residents, who say the project violates zoning rules, threatens public health, and endangers the neighborhood’s historic character.With residents of other San Diego neighborhoods faced by the same issue, and former Coronado Mayor turned policy advocate Richard Bailey given a platform, this meeting of a couple hundred folks at the Point Loma Assembly on Tuesday, September 30 served as a rallying cry to fight for the interests of the citizenry and against the push of shadowy developers and their political backers.

Protect Point Loma is a grassroots 501c4 organization which aims to protect the often overlooked interests of Peninsula residents and preserve the rich history and heritage of the Point Loma area. Their mission is “making certain that our community projects are built with responsible guidelines and community input.”

By Doug Poole

The proposed 12-story project at 820 Fort Stockton Drive is nothing short of a looming disaster for Mission Hills. This isn’t smart growth or thoughtful planning — it’s a reckless gamble that will scar our neighborhood for decades.

The design is physically ugly, completely out of scale, and wildly out of character with the historic charm of Mission Hills. Let’s be honest: it will look like a 12-story prison dropped into the  middle of our community. No thoughtful design. No respect for the neighborhood. No consideration for the people who live here.

Developers are exploiting loopholes in the City’s Complete Communities program, fast-tracking this project while silencing community voices. City officials want you to believe their hands are tied — that “ministerial approval” leaves them powerless. That’s simply not true.

Even within Complete Communities, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn has the ability to demand a higher level of review and public accountability. But so far, he has refused to stand up to the developer. Instead, he hides behind process and lets a flawed project sail through without the scrutiny it desperately needs.

by Robert Montana and Rene Kaprielian / Times of San Diego /  Sept. 26, 2025

In 2019, in anticipation of the city’s upcoming College Area Community Plan update, the College Area Community Planning Board started to develop its own community-driven, 30-year growth strategy. The planning board believed that if it could show where to place new housing density that hit similar growth targets approved for other San Diego communities, the city would give strong consideration to its plan.

[Please see original here for important links to documents.]

After a year of meetings and working groups, the board’s finished plan called for creation of an urban village around San Diego State University adjacent to the campus trolley station. It envisioned high-density housing along College Avenue, Montezuma Road and other major thoroughfares with access to the existing bus system.

The plan anticipated adding approximately 11,300 dwelling units to the current 8,100 units — 137% more — and increasing the area’s population by 112% from 19,700 to 42,200. These increases are in line with recently approved community plan updates for Mira Mesa, Hillcrest and Clairemont.

In 2020, the City Planning Department started its formal multi-year College Area Community Plan Update. After an open house and initial comment period, the department put forth four plan alternatives, completely ignoring College Area Community Planning Board’s earlier effort.

The city’s current version of the community plan update calls for increasing the College Area’s population by nearly 300% from 19,700 to over 74,000 people, with no major infrastructure improvements.

By Geoff Page

A proposed project on Locust and Ingelow Streets, in the Roseville-Fleetridge neighborhood, plans to pierce the 30-foot height limit by 14 feet using the Affordable Housing Density Bonus. Fourteen feet.

An explanation of that 14-foot figure first. The building will be 44 feet high when measured from the existing grade. However, the city made a decision some years ago about how to measure height that, for unknown reasons, was never legally challenged.

That decision declared the earth inside a planter – that the new developer builds – is “finished grade.” The 30-foot height limit is measured from “finished grade.” By building a five-foot tall planter, the developer gains another five feet immediately.

After working for forty plus years in the San Diego construction industry, this writer can say with confidence that no one in that profession would agree that the earth inside of a planter qualifies as finished grade. No one at all.

The other nine feet above the 30-foot height limit consists of the thickness of the roof, a parapet, and an elevator bulkhead. The elevator bulkhead is the main intrusion.

By Rachel Becker, Kristen Hwang, Alejandro Lazo, Cayla Mihalovich, and Jeanne Huang / CalMatters / September 29, 2025

John Lauretig remembers the filthy bathrooms, the overflowing trash cans and the community of people who rallied to clean up Joshua Tree National Park the last time the U.S. Government shut down.

For more than a month from December 2018 through January 2019, thousands of National Park Service employees were furloughed nationwide — but the Trump administration kept many national parks open.

Unsupervised, visitors drove through wilderness and historic sites, camped where they weren’t supposed to, and vandalized plants and buildings at parks across California. The trash — and the feces — piled up. In the days after the shutdown ended, park staff found at least 1,665 clumps of toilet paper littering Death Valley alone, where an estimated half-ton of human waste had been left outside the restrooms.

“It was insane to leave the gates open and tell the staff not to show up in the park — for our public lands, and all of our special places in this country, to be unprotected,” said Lauretig, a retired law enforcement park ranger and president of the Friends of Joshua Tree nonprofit.

Now, facing the prospect of another imminent shutdown, conservation groups and retired park service employees including Lauretig are calling to keep the gates locked at national parks and historic landmarks.

They’re among many Californians bracing for the shutdown, which is expected to begin Wednesday unless Democrats and Republicans can make a deal by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.