Category: Politics

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa San Diego / September 22, 2025

(Pictured at right: Jesus Cardenas)

A local nonprofit created by a political consultant convicted of felony grand theft last year and run by his former workers claims to be a community group but is actually connected directly to the owners of a controversial development project in North County the group publicly supports.

The “San Diego Housing Coalition” is the only community group supporting the proposed 453-home Harmony Grove Village South project in the unincorporated area west of Escondido, but state and federal documents show the group is connected to political consultant Jesús Cárdenas who has been paid by the developer behind the project since at least 2021.

Although the group’s website promotes it as “a collective of community voices and organizations, educators, experts, non-profits, lifelong advocates,” the group does not list the names of its staff, boardmembers, or collaborators, and lists no phone number, address, or contact information besides an Admin email address.

The group’s Facebook page has only 180 followers and shows just one post of a news article in October 2021 and an announcement of a forum held in Chula Vista in July 2021. There is no social media profile for the group on X.com.

OB Staff Report / September 30, 2025

Former San Diego state senator Toni Atkins has withdrawn from the crowded race for California governor, saying in a statement Monday that “there is simply no viable path forward to victory.”

The decision comes just one month after a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll ranked Atkins 11th out of 12 gubernatorial candidates, with 1 percent of respondents choosing her as their first-place choice, and 38 percent undecided.

The three top-ranked candidates were Democrat Katie Porter, chosen as first by 17 percent, Republican Chad Bianco, chosen by 10 percent, and Democrat Xavier Becerra, chosen by 9 percent.

OB Staff Report / September 29, 2025

Campaigning for San Diego’s June 2 primary election is already underway. Given the City’s deplorable state of affairs (101 Ash, predatory development, bait-and-switch trash fees, paid Balboa Park parking), voter interest in the four Council races on the 2026 ballot will be unusually intense.

To help voters make informed choices, the Rag will provide investigative coverage of the most important 2026 races. We will scout campaign finance reports and document where candidates get their support. We will study the fine print on campaign mailers and tell you which powerbrokers and special interest groups funded them.

The best indicators of a politician’s real agenda aren’t their promises or their platforms. It’s the money. When you know who is backing a candidate, you can pretty much predict what that person will do in office.

Let’s say we publish a list of the top 20 donors to Candidate X, and we identify many of them as players who have been close to Mayor Todd Gloria. Their support for X means they believe X will follow in Gloria’s political footsteps.

If you think Gloria has been a great mayor, you might want to give X your vote and even your money. If you think Gloria has been a disaster, you might want to back one of X’s opponents.

By Jeff McDonald / The San Diego Union-Tribune / September 27, 2025

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has withdrawn his effort to declare three commercial parcels in Mission Bay Park surplus property, a declaration that would have opened them to developers.

But city officials have not given up on redeveloping the Marina Village conference center, the Dana Landing marina and the nearby Sportsmen’s Seafood restaurant.

Instead of employing the Surplus Land Act, which would require prioritizing affordable housing projects on the properties, San Diego officials are working with state housing officials, the Governor’s Office and at least one state lawmaker for exemptions to the law.

“We’re still waiting to hear back,” mayoral spokesperson Rachel Laing said by email.

The decision came two months after the City Council declined to approve a request to declare the Marina Village conference and banquet center, Dana Landing marina and Sportsmen’s Seafood restaurant surplus land.

By Kate Callen / September 26, 2025

As expected, the San Diego Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the Midway Rising proposal after in-person public comments were dominated by speakers who will directly benefit from the development.

But there were a few surprises. Five commissioners seemed dubious about transportation issues, especially plans to develop now and upgrade transit later. And an observation from one of the newest commissioners could be the most shockingly honest remark a San Diego public official has ever made.

Jeana Renger questioned future traffic projections for the notoriously congested Midway district and said this: “Transit-oriented development is only successful if there is a whole system of buses and trolleys and also ridership. Just because you build it doesn’t necessarily mean they will ride it.”

(If anyone wants to thank Ms. Renger, an executive vice president at Ferguson Pape Baldwin Architects, for having the courage to speak a truth too long denied, her email address is jrenger@fpbarch.com.)

By OB Rag Staff / September 25, 2025

It’s showtime.

The Office of the San Diego City Clerk has a “2026 Election Information” webpage which shows the candidates who have publicly declared their intention to run for a City Council District seat. Their names are listed here. Hyperlinks will take you to the active websites of those candidates.

Council District 2

Josh Coyne

Nicole Crosby

Mandy Havlik

By Mike James / September 25, 2025
Tom Homan built his public image as America’s tough-talking “border enforcer.” But between government stints, he was something else entirely: a private consultant selling access to the very machinery he once commanded.

On its now-archived website, Homeland Strategic Consulting (HSC) spelled out its value proposition in blunt language unusual for Washington:

“Political connections are important, and no consultancy has a more solid and extensive network than Tom Homan… For qualified candidates, we open doors to the right people in the right departments… Without our insights and introductions—on every rung of the ladder—your best-laid plans will hit the wall.”

This wasn’t about policy advice. It was about access—about leveraging the revolving door between government and business to deliver results measured in contracts and dollars. The firm even bragged of helping clients win “tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts.”

OB Staff Report / September 24, 2025

With fewer than 24 hours before the San Diego Planning Commission considers the bait-and-switch Midway Rising proposal, only a handful of comments have been posted via the Commission’s web-based Public Comment Form. A Public Comment Spreadsheet revised yesterday shows five comments, and four of them support the project.

So let’s get to work! The link to the Public Comment Form is:

https://www.sandiego.gov/planning-commission/agenda-comment-form

Fill in the Contact Info blanks — red asterisks indicate required fields — the Meeting Date is 09/25/2025, the Comment type is Agenda Comment, Agenda Item Number is 2, and Position is Opposition.

By Eric Law / September 23, 2025

Everyone needs a place to live. We are bombarded with the idea that there are far too few houses, the available housing is very expensive, and we need to build a great deal more to drive prices down and availability up. Everyone agrees that housing affordability is a problem, even if they don’t agree on why.

But how much is enough? How many new dwellings do we need to build to get the housing market stable, where supply and demand reach an equilibrium?

The answer is surprisingly achievable and likely far less than the city, county and state assert.

Using data from the US Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey and housing market measures from the economic analysis firm Moody’s, San Diego has a current shortfall of about 25,200 housing units. Using expected population growth figure from the state, San Diego needs to build about 42,600 units over the next decade to reach a housing market equilibrium on par with that across the remainder of the country.

While that may seem like a great deal of required building, it’s very achievable at a normal building pace. To place this requirement in context, San Diego issued over 9,000 residential building permits in 2023, many for multifamily dwellings with multiple units. This means that the city will reach a balanced housing market in 5 years at this building pace.

SOHO Newsletter /  September 4, 2025

It’s true that historic preservation has, at times, and in different eras, played a role in gentrification. In certain neighborhoods, restoring older homes and buildings made these areas more desirable, which attracted investment, drove up property values, and contributed to the displacement of long-standing residents. That history needs to be acknowledged.

But it’s just one part of the story, and it’s not at all the story today. Today, the preservation movement stands as one of the few consistent barriers against displacement.

What we’re seeing now is a new wave of gentrification, one far more aggressive and less tethered to community values. It’s driven not by the careful restoration of old homes, but by the widespread demolition of existing neighborhoods with their naturally occurring affordable housing and their replacement with massive, market-rate developments. Executed under the banner of “housing solutions,” this new housing is often unaffordable to the very people the builders claim to serve.

When a majority rules without offering a rationale, we can’t know if they are following the law.

By Erwin Chemerinksy / Contributing writer Los Angeles Times / July 23, 2025

“Because I said so” never is persuasive or satisfying. And it certainly should not be regarded as acceptable when it is the Supreme Court resolving important issues — up to and including matters of life and death — without the slightest explanation. Yet, that has been the pattern in recent weeks, as in a series of significant cases the court has handed down rulings without opinions or explanation.

For example, on June 23, in Department of Homeland Security vs. D.V.D., the court majority lifted a district court order that prevented individuals from Venezuela and Cuba who were in the U.S. from being deported to South Sudan. The district court had issued a preliminary injunction against so-called third country deportation, finding that the individuals were not given due process: They were not provided sufficient notice or a meaningful opportunity to challenge their deportation based on their fears for their safety. The judge was understandably concerned the individuals could be subjected to torture or death upon arrival. Federal law is specific on where people can be deported to, and there is a strong argument that the Trump administration would violate the law in sending these individuals to a country where they had no prior contacts.

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego / July 22, 2025.

The City Council gave its final approval (second reading) of the revised ADU regulations. While the amendments could have gone further, they do provide meaningful reductions in the scale of Bonus ADU projects, as well as recognize and clarify that ADU developments have other legal constraints, such as limits on building on steep hillsides and in fire hazard zones.

The vote was 5 to 1 in favor**, with three Councilmembers not present.

For more details on the changes, click here.

What’s next?: The ordinance next goes to Mayor Gloria. Given that the Mayor highlighted the adopted regulations in his June 23 newsletter, we expect that he will sign them without undue delay.