Category: Economy

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.

The 30-foot height limit is one of San Diego’s most successful examples of community-driven planning

By Mandy Havlik

San Diegans know that our city’s coastline isn’t just a postcard view, it’s our identity, our economy, and our shared responsibility to future generations. The recent Court of Appeal ruling striking down the City’s attempt to bypass the voter-approved 30-foot coastal height limit wasn’t a setback, it was a reaffirmation that the people’s voice and environmental law still matter in San Diego.

When voters passed the Proposition D height limit in 1972, they weren’t trapped in the past, they were protecting the coastline from the same forces of overdevelopment that have erased the character of so many other coastal cities. They knew that the ocean belongs to everyone, not just to developers or investors who see dollar signs instead of waves and wetlands.

The 30-foot height limit is one of San Diego’s most successful examples of community-driven planning. It preserves our coastal beauty, sustains property values, protects public access to beaches, and prevents the shadowing of our natural open spaces. That’s not arbitrary geography, that’s thoughtful stewardship.

By City News Service – Times of San Diego / November 4, 2025

The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit challenging the recent approval of the Harmony Grove Village South development based on its potential fire risks.

The environmental organization argues in the suit, filed last Friday, that the planned community in North County will be located in a high fire-risk area with only one evacuation route in the event of a wildfire.

The case is the latest challenge to the 111-acre project, approved Oct. 1 by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors over the objections of many residents who already live in the area.

The location is a little less than one mile west of the city of Escondido, south and east of San Marcos and north of the Del Dios Highlands Preserve.

Plans include 453 residential units, 5,000 square feet of commercial/civic space, four acres of private and public park

The proposal comes as the city’s cannabis tax revenue continues to slump.

By David Garrick / San Diego U-T / November 4, 2025

A new proposal would give San Diego more tools to crack down on illegal cannabis delivery services, which officials blame for worsening budget deficits by hurting legal dispensaries’ business and costing the city tax revenue.

The proposed policy changes would make enforcement more rigorous by raising the penalties for any illegal cannabis activity in San Diego and strengthen the ability of legal dispensaries to sue illegal operators and recover damages.

San Diego would also seek more aggressively to regulate delivery services from outside the city by requiring them to get a new kind of permit and disclose detailed information about their operations in San Diego.

While the new permit wouldn’t affect delivery services operating completely outside the law, industry officials say a big part of the problem is legal delivery services from areas outside the area operating in San Diego but declining to pay local taxes.

Here’s the definitive story — from the SD Union-Tribune:

A 24-year-old driver was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fatally striking a woman sitting on a sidewalk in Ocean Beach and then running away, San Diego police said.

The collision occurred shortly before 4:45 p.m. on Santa Monica Avenue near Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Police said the driver, who was parked facing the north curb of Santa Monica, for unknown reasons accelerated forward while attempting to leave and struck a 59-year-old woman sitting on the north sidewalk.

The man got out of the truck and ran off, abandoning his vehicle, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run by officers about three hours later when he returned to the scene where he had left his 2002 Toyota Tundra, police spokesperson Officer Colin Steinbroner said.

The woman was transported to a hospital, where she died. Her name has not been released.

That’s the U-T report as of about 5pm Wed. Nov. 5.

In the meantime, the community has identified the woman as Tracy Condon. There’s a Moment of Remembrance for her on Wed, Nov 12 at 4:55 pm at Veterans Plaza (sunset), Ocean Beach Veteran’s Plaza.

Let’s Help Her Through This Tough Time — Visit the GoFundMe Page

Friends,

Judy Forman, “Judy the Beauty on Duty” of The Big Kitchen, urgently needs our help. The past five years have been incredibly challenging for small businesses everywhere, and while The Big Kitchen thankfully remains open, Judy has faced a difficult road.

Following the pandemic, Judy suffered a heart attack. Her recovery has been long and difficult, and impacted her ability to manage the business. This led to unpaid taxes and mounting penalties, which recently resulted in funds being taken directly from her bank accounts – money she desperately needed for essential expenses like rent.
As a friend and someone who has personally benefited from Judy’s incredible generosity over the years, I believe it’s time for us to step up.

More Than a Restaurant: A Lifeline

For over 45 years, Judy and The Big Kitchen have been a cornerstone of the San Diego community. It’s far more than just a place to eat; it’s an unofficial social service agency without the benefit of non-profit status! Judy has consistently fed the hungry, providing meals to the poor and homeless.

by Will Huntsberry / Voice of San Diego / November 5, 2025 

Midway Rising is an ambitious plan to build 4,254 new apartments, 14 acres of public space and a new Sports Arena on 49 acres of city-owned land in the center of the Midway District. That won’t entirely transform the whole area overnight, or maybe ever, but it is currently the city’s only hope for bringing housing and vitality to one of San Diego’s most soul-crushing neighborhoods.

Recently, an appeals court seemed to deal a death blow to the project when it overturned a decision by city voters to remove Midway’s height limit of 30 feet. But surprisingly, the developers behind Midway Rising say that isn’t the case at all. They say state law provides all the legal ground they need to go forth with the massive multi-billion-dollar project.

Now that Midway’s 30-foot height limit is back on the table, Midway Rising promises to be – both literally and in principle – the largest test of the state’s density bonus laws in all of California.

“This recent court ruling does not affect mixed-use housing development projects, such as Midway Rising, which proceed under state density bonus law,” wrote Jeff Meyer, a spokesperson for the Midway Rising team. “State law controls local height restrictions, and applies to all aspects of Midway Rising, including the new arena.”

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

President Donald Trump hosted a “Great Gatsby”-themed Halloween party just hours before millions of Americans lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

This party was hosted by the president in the midst of and during the longest shutdown of the federal government.

The Friday night fête at Mar-a-Lago was themed “A little party never killed nobody,” according to the White House, referencing the song from the 2013 film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.

By Ian Rodney Lazarus / SFGate / Nov 3, 2025 

Few structures evoke such varied emotions as the sight of a weathered lighthouse standing firm against an incoming tide. Without these tall, circular towers set along the shore, California wouldn’t be what it is today.

But these iconic coastal features have lost almost all their original function, replaced by modern technology, and simultaneously face threats from age and environmental degradation. They’re some of the oldest structures still standing, largely due to their sentimental value, even as they come under increasing financial strain. For all the pride and pleasure we get from seeing these monuments up close, many visitors remain unaware of the challenges they face today.

Part of California’s history

As a staff officer for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in San Diego, I’ve been lucky enough to explore California’s lighthouses in ways others aren’t able to. Walking on grounds that retain original structures approaching two centuries old, it feels like walking right out of a time machine. Very little has changed, even inside the homes that were occupied by the original keepers and officers more than 150 years ago.

By South OB Girl

Dear San Diego Planning Commission and City’s Development Services Department:

I would like to know how many of the new apartment buildings along highway 8 are full and have no vacancies.  I am curious if construction is complete for all of the buildings being built to replace what was formerly the golf course in Mission Valley.

Is construction of those buildings complete and are all of the dwelling units now occupied?  How many of those units are expected to facilitate solving the housing crisis?  I recently saw some new apartment buildings off Clairemont Drive.  Are they full to capacity?  How many of all these new structures throughout the city – in Mission Valley, Clairemont, and elsewhere – qualify as affordable housing?

The City’s answer in response to most new plans for construction and ADUs these days is that there is a housing crisis.  The City and developers believe they are creating housing solutions and promote the mission that their plans are providing housing solutions in response to the housing crisis.  So in support of that mission, is there a status report somewhere? Some quantitative data?

Like any federal, state, or city project, there should be a status report or something that resembles a status report detailing how far along we are as a city

By City News Service – 7NBC / October 28, 2025

Water rates for San Diegans will rise 14.7% next year and 14.5% the following year after the San Diego City Council Tuesday passed an amended water and wastewater rate hike.

A staff proposal before the council was to increase water rates by 63% through 2029 and wastewater rates by 31% in the same period. The much-reduced, two-year plan passed by a 5-4 majority Tuesday was proposed by Councilman Stephen Whitburn.

In a back-and-forth with Lisa Celaya, executive assistant director for the city, and Jordan More of the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst, Whitburn repeatedly tried to figure out the lowest possible rate increase to keep water flowing amid increased costs from the San Diego County Water Authority and asked the consequences of not meeting that number.