Category: Politics

By Kate Callen / July 22, 2025

An extraordinary case of seller’s remorse surfaced last weekend when French Gourmet owner Michel Malecot posted an anguished statement about a boycott of his Pacific Beach businesses.

Malecot did not seem sorry that he sold his property to Los Angeles developer Kalonymous for $6.5 million. He claims he was taken by surprise when the buyer announced plans to build a 23-story tower on the site. But he offered no apology to the Pacific Beach community for the blight the project could cause.

The restaurateur expressed one regret. Loyal customers who are furious about the sale no longer walk through the doors of his French Gourmet Restaurant and his Froggy’s Bar next door. That is costing him a ton of money.

In a July 19 social media post, “A Letter from Michel to our French Gourmet Community,” Malecot said he had planned to close the restaurant early this year, but “due to the love for my profession and responsibility to my longtime faithful employees, I chose to keep the French Gourmet open for another year.”

It never occurred to him that his devoted French Gourmet Community wouldn’t be on board with that.

By Kate Callen

More than 100 Golden Hill residents filled all but four seats at a surreal June 30 Zoom briefing about an eight-story complex that will tower over surrounding homes.

The four empty chairs were placed at the front of the room behind a table bearing four name cards: Todd Gloria, Stephen Whitburn, Chris Ward, and Toni Atkins.

No one expected the four YIMBY Democrats to attend. But the event’s organizers, Preserve Greater Golden Hill, wanted to send a message: These elected officials sold out our community to serve the interests of the building industry.

The Golden Hill meeting was the second time Chicago-based developer CEDARst presented plans for its 180-unit project at 2935 A Street. The firm’s principals showed up in person for the first meeting on May 20. It didn’t go well. A broken wi-fi connection disrupted their slideshow, and an angry crowd shouted down their remarks.

Technical difficulties on June 30 were far worse. But the CEDARst team were in offsite locations at a safe distance. “They hid behind a Zoom platform that they controlled, and they selectively heard questions from the audience,” said Susan Bugbee, a long-time member of the Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee.

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego / June 27, 2025

On Tuesday morning, July 1, at 10:00 a.m., there will be a second reading of the amended ADU ordinance, adopted by the City Council on June 16, 2025.

While Neighbors For A Better San Diego (NFABSD) would have liked the Council to adopt our “Four is Fair” proposal, that motion was rejected on a narrow 5-4 vote, leading to the compromise that is before the Council for final approval.

NFABSD supports adoption of the amended regulations and will remain vigilant to ensure that the new regulations and other existing Municipal Codes are rigorously followed.

We have received inquiries regarding the difference between the adopted regulations and state law. Unfortunately, that target has changed since NFABSD started in 2021. As a result of state laws enacted after 2021, California requires cities to permit 2 ADUs and 1 JADU on every single-family lot:

By Kate Callen / June 27, 2025

In 2022, when San Diego Councilmembers Joe La Cava and Sean Elo-Rivera pushed for Measure B to levy trash fees on single-family homes, they sought to assure the public that all would be well.

They said the new fees would be an affordable $23 to $29 a month. They said this wasn’t a scheme to raise money for a cash-strapped city because the real aims were “responsible governance, local innovation, and world-class service.” They promised that the public would be fully engaged in every step of the process.

That was all false. Fees will be nearly twice the estimates, and they will get higher. The public was shut out of the process – and no, ushering people into conference rooms to look at table-top exhibits of tiny trash bins doesn’t count as “community engagement.”

And when they voted in the fees June 9 at a meeting packed with angry constituents, weary councilmembers finally spoke the truth: They felt they had to do this because they were desperate for money.

By Lisa Mortensen

While I encourage research on housing policies in order to find solutions for the chronic need for affordable housing, going to Austria to find out about government subsidized housing programs that work in that country appears a bit untimely. 

At a time when the County of San Diego, the City of San Diego, and our State all have deficits, this junket seems to be a pipe dream.  In addition, the urgency of this announcement made now is perplexing since next week is the County Supervisor election which would bring all 5 members into the discussion on this further.

However, what is really saying the quiet part out loud that calls this trip into question is the fact there is a $15,600 payment to Jennifer LeSar’s academy which is sponsoring this junket.

By Madeline Nguyen / Times of San Diego / June 23, 2025

San Diego City councilmembers slammed Mayor Todd Gloria Monday afternoon for improperly spending millions in city dollars, even as he vetoed funding for homeless services and other aid organizations to tighten the city’s budget.

Councilmembers Kent Lee, Sean Elo-Rivera, Henry Foster III and Joe LaCava unloaded on Gloria for cutting funding to key community services and urged the council to overturn all of his vetoes during that afternoon’s vote.

It’s the latest development in the city council and the mayor’s tug of war over San Diego’s budget for the upcoming year as the city works to solve a $258 million deficit.

“(Gloria) labeled community investment, like cultural events and nonprofit support as a ‘discretionary slush fund‘ for the council,” Councilmember Foster said. “The council has not paid for employees that were not identified in the budget.”

“That has been the practice of this administration, the practice of this mayor and it’s time for that to end.”

By David Garrick / SD Union-Tribune / June 23, 2025

Cash-strapped San Diego’s aggressive search for more revenue includes a new plan to generate $3 million a year by allowing controversial digital billboards for the first time.

In addition to generating revenue, the plan would allow the replacement of dozens of static, old-fashioned billboards with a much smaller number of digital billboards in more strategic locations, city officials say.

Critics say digital billboards — which have been rejected by La Mesa and several North County cities in recent years — could make parts of San Diego look like an amusement park or a miniature Times Square.

Digital billboards, which are typically two-sided, feature bright electronic images that change as often as every four seconds as they cycle through various ads or public service messages.

Members of the public — who helped defeat similar proposals in other cities by packing public hearings and leading petition drives — will get a chance to weigh in, because city regulations now prohibit digital billboards.

But city officials are proposing to have the necessary rule changes approved in a way that has been criticized for reducing public scrutiny.

By Kate Callen / June 23, 2025

If you are furious because City Hall intends to get out of the fiscal mess it created by charging you unlawful trash fees, Mike Aguirre wants your help.

Aguirre is the lead attorney on a lawsuit seeking to block the trash fees on state constitutional grounds. He and co-counsel Maria Severson outlined the key legal issues to a packed forum on June 21 at the Mission Hills Library.

The 70 people who attended expected to be asked for donations. But Aguirre and Severson weren’t there for money. They wanted volunteers.

“To the extent you want to help us,” Aguirre said, “I want to use the Public Records Act to dig into the public records that are available to build a mountain of evidence to present to the judge. … We can’t take [the city] at their word. We need to find out all the particulars.”

By Jeff McDonald / SD Union-Tribune / June 21, 2025

Earlier this year, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria fired Chief Operating Officer Eric Dargan and personally assumed those day-to-day city responsibilities.

At the time, Gloria was confronting a $258 million budget deficit and said the restructuring would slash the bureaucracy and better position San Diego going forward. He also promised more changes to come.

Dargan did not see his firing that way. The next month, he filed a lawsuit accusing Gloria and the city of racial discrimination and of targeting him because he is Black.

In his lawsuit, Dargan said the mayor and the city had failed to provide three months’ notice of its plans to part ways and — perhaps most important — the three months’ severance called for in his contract.

City officials rejected the allegations, saying he had been fired for cause, and pledged to fight.

But on Tuesday, the City Council is scheduled to consider a $146,000 settlement with Dargan — more than it would have cost to honor the severance agreement.

By The Prebys Foundation / June 22, 2025

What happens in Washington doesn’t stay there.  It reaches all the way into San Diego’s labs, hospitals, and classrooms.

Proposed federal cuts to medical research threaten the life-changing work happening right here at home. From childhood cancer breakthroughs to ensuring diverse voices shape the future of medicine, local researchers are at risk of losing the support they need to keep pushing science forward.

To explore these impacts, the Prebys Foundation and the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network are hosting a public forum on “This Affects All of Us: The Real Impact of Cutting Medical Research Dollars” on Thursday, June 26, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Neil Morgan Auditorium, San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Boulevard.

Chris Poblete of Linda Vista brought his three children to Monday’s City Council Bonus ADU hearing. The four of them waited nearly 4 hours until he was called to speak. If you were there, you will remember him. Here is his testimony:

By Chris Poblete / June 20, 2025

I took time off work to be here. I’ve never been to a Council meeting. I wouldn’t know most of these wonderful people here if it weren’t for this issue that’s affecting me that I heard about five weeks ago.

Let me be clear. I am an ADU builder. I’ve built ADUs on two of my properties. Each ADU has two parking spaces. All my ADUs have below-market rental rates. It’s possible.

I encourage all my colleagues at work to do the same thing: Buy a house. Build an ADU. Help solve the housing crisis. You don’t have to be greedy about it.

This issue is affecting my cul-de-sac. It’s a safety concern because there is no parking. Christian Spicer of SDRE is building 10 units on a single-family lot. I didn’t know about this until four weeks ago when the excavator showed up and started digging for the construction.

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego / June 18, 2025

The City Council has amended the ADU regulations. Here’s what that means.

While the changes didn’t address all resident concerns, the Council’s action represents the first meaningful revision of the Bonus ADU program since the program went into effect in 2021.

Given the interest in potentially pushing San Diego’s regulations statewide, Monday’s outcome will hopefully send a message to the City Council and the California Legislature to stop using the “housing crisis” as cover for deregulatory policies that benefit developers at the expense of San Diego’s families.

The changes to the ADU regulations are summarized below. The Council will need to do a second reading in two weeks before the regulations are officially adopted.