Category: Economy

By Geoff Page

Ocean Beach will soon have a big empty eye sore right on Sunset Cliffs Blvd. The Rite Aid store, with an address of 4840 Niagara, will soon be a shuttered shell. A very big shuttered shell. Its closure was confirmed.

Rita Aid has filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the first was in 2023. The result this time appears to be liquidation or sale to another company. These proceedings can take a long time so, until it all shakes out, the building will eventually end up closed and empty.

Rite Aid has said it is committed to keeping the stores open during the bankruptcy process. The pharmacies will keep operating in-store and on-line for now. But, the remainder of the available inventory in the store will slowly disappear and not be restocked.

Long time OB residents may remember when the building was a grocery store, the Mayfair Market. It was one of only two large scale grocery stores in OB at that time. The other was the Safeway on Santa Monica and Cable, later the Apple Tree Market, before it became CVS.

For years, construction projects were not conducted in San Diego’s coastal communities from Memorial Day to Labor Day to reduce potential impacts during the busy tourism season.

But now it’s over.

The summer construction moratorium in beach areas was considered an annual reprieve from building-related noise and traffic interruptions.

According to a memo from the city Engineering & Capital Projects Department to the Development Services Department, the summer moratorium will “no longer be enforced by the city for private and public construction,” starting this year.

Now, the construction ban is being discontinued to allow for “timely completion of projects.”

The memo stated:

“The primary objectives of removing this [summer moratorium] policy within the city’s jurisdiction is twofold: to allow for timely completion of projects and to increase efficiency in project completion in these areas. This change is intended to streamline project delivery within city rights of way while minimizing disruptions to the community by avoiding prolonged construction timelines.

Upwards of a thousand San Diegans rallied and marched on Thursday, May 1, for International Workers Day, shining light on a number of local unions involved in fights with management and on the contributions by immigrants to the nation. They rallied in Hillcrest, Balboa Park, at Chicano Park and at the Waterfront Park at the bay.

Nearly a 1,000 demonstrators marched in the morning through the streets from UC San Diego Hillcrest Medical Center to Balboa Park. Later in the day at Waterfront Park, dozens protested and then at night, hundreds rallied at Chicano Park.

Demonstrations occurred across the country — and the world in honor of workers.

The U-T reported:

At the hospital in Hillcrest, hundreds of UC San Diego Health system employees — including tech support specialists, pharmacists and patient ambassadors — gathered around 10 a.m. near the hospital’s entrance to demand better pay and work conditions during a one-day strike.

By Todd Walters

May Day is a global day of action to recognize and uplift working people. Here in San Diego, it’s a moment to reflect on our progress and renew our fight for fairness, respect, and dignity on the job. At UFCW Local 135, our members are standing strong and united— whether they work in grocery stores, healthcare, cannabis, or anywhere else.

They’re ready for the fight. And they’re rising together.

Our grocery members—more than 7,000 strong—are currently in contract negotiations with Vons/Pavilions, Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater Bros. These workers kept our communities fed through the pandemic and beyond. Now, they’re demanding a contract that reflects their hard work and the rising cost of living. Alongside our sister locals across the region, we are part of a powerful 65,000-member strong Southern California grocery bargaining unit. Together, we are demanding real raises, improved staffing, and better benefits. We’re not backing down—Grocery Workers Are Rising.

Unfortunately, we’re also facing major roadblocks at the bargaining table with one of the grocery companies: Stater Bros.

by Kate Callen and Paul Krueger / Times of San Diego / April 30, 2025

The San Diego Community Coalition will make its public debut May 1 by addressing the San Diego Planning Commission when it discusses proposed changes to the controversial “Bonus ADU” ordinance.

The coalition is a citywide network of neighborhood activists focused on two interconnected issues:

Overbuilding in residential neighborhoods — from mid-rise towers to giant multi-unit ADU complexes — which erodes our urban infrastructure and produces minimal affordable housing.

City Hall’s disrespect for constituents, its refusal to engage the public in open dialogue, and its suppression of community planning groups.

So far, the coalition includes activist leaders in 15 communities: Bay Ho, City Heights, Clairemont, College Area, Encanto, Golden Hill, Linda Vista, Middletown, Mission Hills, North Park, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Pacific Beach, Talmadge and University City.

The Community Planners Committee (CPC) is an officially-recognized body of leaders from all of San Diego’s official community planning boards. It now has jumped into the fray of reforming the city’s Bonus ADU Program with the following recommendations expressed in this letter addressed to the San Diego City Council, dated April 24, 2025, and signed by Andrea Schlegeter, chair of the CPC.

To San Diego City Council

When setting out to provide recommendations for changes to the Bonus Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Program the Community Planners Committee (CPC) followed three guiding principals: adhere to state law, treat all development applicants equally, and find a way to address the lag in affordable housing at the lower end of the Area Median Income (AMI) scale.

To follow the first guiding principal, the City and the State should be held at their word and to the reasoning for increased density. SB 9 is the overriding state legislation for single family lots (RS zone), which allows for lots to be split. Pairing this with the state ADU regulations every RS zoned lot can have a primary residence, an ADU, a Junior ADU (JADU), and a bonus ADU.

Thus the CPC has come up with a “4 means 4” proposal. This is the simplest way of adhering to state law, while clarifying what the max density in RS zones is.

There are many good arguments in favor of capping density in RS zones at four.

Well, we’re finally here. The first hundred days of Trump’s authoritarian regime. What do we have?

Amidst falling stock markets and his “Day of Liberation” of tariffs, Trump’s poll numbers on just about every issue are crashing. And crashing badly.

An average of different polls on his job approval rating at 100 days has Trump at the lowest level of any other president in 70 years. That average has him at a 43% approval rating with a 54% of disapproval. Some polls, like the recent Washington Post / ABC / Ipso poll, have him down to a 39% approval raring.

Economists are predicting empty shelves in markets across the country within a couple of weeks, especially if the tariff war with China continues; some are predicting a recession by summer. On trade and tariffs, the poll averages have 39% of Americans approving and 61% disapproving.

He’s under the water on every issue.

By Lisa Mortensen

Here is a copy of the 8-page notice that will be delivered to all property taxpayers who receive city trash service in San Diego.

Please read the highlighted portions of information that will provide the basic instruction and where to deliver the protest vote.  You can mail it or hand-deliver to:

Office of the City Clerk
202 C Street – MS 2T
San Diego, CA 92101

~The protest slip is on page 7 of the material you will receive.  It appears in tear off form but you may want to use scissors to remove it.

~It requires your name, property address (that will be on the envelope of the 8-page notice) and your signature.

~All protest ballots must be received by the City Clerk by 2pm (PDT) on June 9th, 2025.

In her State of the County speech last week, San Diego County Supervisor and acting chair Terra Lawson-Remer took on the Trump administration and all his cut-backs to local programs that benefit a lot of vulnerable residents.

She declared:

“Right now, the federal government is slashing programs we rely on for health care, housing, clean air and water, public safety and disease prevention. Every decision Washington makes impacts our ability to serve you.”

Yet her solution was to propose a new tax ballot measure that could raise $1 Billion a year. The San Diego U-T reported:

Lawson-Remer said she will propose a local tax ballot measure to offset federal cuts and boost services.

“We can raise the money ourselves, right here at home,” she added, “not by waiting, or begging for D.C. to do its job, but by taking the wheel of our own destiny and steering our own San Diego County ship through this storm.”

This funding, she said, would help the county adhere to an ambitious plan, introduced last month, to double behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment slots from 16,000 to 32,000 by 2030. …

Lawson-Remer had floated the idea of a ballot measure in February but pulled the discussion from the board’s agenda.

A supervisor-led tax increase would require the support of two-thirds of county voters, but there are ways to structure a ballot measure so as to require only a majority vote, she said.

In her address, Lawson-Remer said such a measure could generate $1 billion a year.

What? What was she thinking? Was she here when city voters rejected Mayor Gloria’s tax measure last year? (And Gloria has been punishing San Diegans ever since with high trash fees, increased fees for parks and facilities, higher parking rates and now cut-backs to police, libraries and rec centers and the arts.)

This is NOT the answer, Terra! It’s absolutely DOA – dead on arrival.

Reporter Robert Vardon at the OB-Point Loma Monthly (which is a publication of the Union-Tribune) picked up our story about Corey Bruins, the former head of the OB Town Council forced to resign in early 2024, and now facing 9 felonies.

Based on his reporting, here are more details of the Bruins’ affair.

Bruins is 34. At his arraignment on March 28 where he pleaded not guilty, he was ordered by the court not to possess any “personal identifying information” about current board members Jenny Brengelman, Shelly Parks and Stephanie Kane of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation, which succeeded the Town Council after the board decided last year to drop the Town Council name after nearly six decades because of the scandal.

It’s deja vue all over again. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget cuts resonate with history and closely resemble the cuts that then-Mayor Jerry Sanders wanted back in 2008. Today, our Democratic mayor sounds like the former Republican mayor, 17 years later.

Earlier this week, Gloria unveiled his proposed budget which included slashing funding for arts, libraries and recreation centers, among other targets.

He proposed to close all 37 city branches every Sunday and Monday, and proposed cuts to recreation centers by slashing hours from either 60 or 65 down to 40 a week. And Sanders years ago, wanted to some similar cuts. As we reported :

Three years into his first term as mayor, Sanders … (was) faced with a huge budget crisis — wanted to solve it by making substantial cut-backs to key public services. And he chose San Diego’s libraries. In order to balance the city’s budget, he threatened to close all San Diego libraries — including the OB Library, of course — or seriously cut back their hours.

From KPBS – City News Service

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday, April 22nd, approved a contract with nonprofit Jewish Family Service of San Diego to continue running the city’s Safe Parking Program, including the new H Barracks site.

The barracks site, near San Diego International Airport, is intended to have 190 spaces for people using the program. Tuesday’s approval by the council is a one-year contract with Jewish Family Service.