Category: San Diego

Voice of San Diego / June 10, 2026

The City Council unanimously approved a budget on Tuesday to send back to Mayor Todd Gloria. Gloria can now approve it, veto it or use his line-item veto.

Even though the budget passed unanimously — it didn’t happen without some controversy and disagreement.

Flock contract stays in place: Four councilmembers supported the cancellation of the city’s $2 million per year Smart Streetlights contract. The controversial Smart Streetlights, operated by a company called Flock, provide “AI-powered video surveillance,” as well as license plate reader technology. The councilmembers attempted to pass a budget that eliminated the contract, but it didn’t have the fifth vote it needed to pass.

By Shawn Styles / CBS8 / June 4, 2026

San Diego’s coastal beauty offers endless opportunities for photographers, but capturing the perfect shot often comes down to timing, preparation, and a bit of luck. Local photographer Jim Grant knows that balance well.

Grant gained national recognition in 2024 when his image of a rare “Green Flash” sunset earned the grand prize in the American Meteorological Society’s annual photo competition. The photo featured a sailboat perfectly aligned within the glowing sun as a green flash shimmered above it.

“It was a shot of the green flash, setting sun with the green flash on top with a sailboat right in the middle of the sun,” Grant said.

The award-winning image was not entirely accidental. Grant had been tracking weather patterns and positioning himself between Ocean Beach Pier and the Mission Bay channel, where evening boat traffic increases the chances of capturing a dynamic foreground.

“If I can get at least a good sunset, the sailboat in the image was strictly a bonus,” he explained. “I was just there at the right place at the right time.”

In Dual Decisions, California Courts Strike Down Unpopular San Diego County Sprawl Project

From Center for Biological Diversity / June 8, 2026

Two California courts have rejected a dangerous housing project proposed in the wildfire-prone hillsides of Santee. The latest rejection is the fifth time a court has ruled against Fanita Ranch since the risky development was first proposed in 1999.

[Please go to original for important links]

“It’s about time the city of Santee listens to its own residents. Poorly planned projects that increase wildfire risks can no longer be justified given our climate reality,” said John Buse, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The latest court opinions are a strong rebuke against cities and developers who try to skirt the state’s zoning and environmental laws. San Diego County deserves safe and sustainable development. I’m hopeful this finally puts an end to Fanita Ranch.”

By Margot Sheehan / San Diego Reader Archives / Republished June 6, 2026

The Frontier Homes Housing Project — 3500 “temporary” dwellings constructed in the first nine months of 1944. One of the largest developments of its kind ever built in the USA — Designed to last for two years and enduring (parts of it, at least) for 20. Was there ever such a project, so grand, so ghastly, and so successfully erased from civic memory?

Don’t look for Frontier in the Journal of San Diego History or in any of those big picture books that Neil Morgan used to crank out. The only people who really remember the project are the people who lived there. Old timers who didn’t live there, even folks who drove past Frontier every day, will give you all kinds of cockeyed answers when you ask about it. “Oh, yeah, you mean those military barracks.” “Frontier? That was Navy housing.” Someone might even offer that 1950s misconception that Lait and Mortimer provide in USA Confidential: “a low-income housing project for Mexicans and Negroes.”

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, June 8: City Council, 10:00 a.m.

Agenda:

Items 600, 601, 602, 639, 643, 644: Proclamations

Why it matters: We must ask again for an explanation of how and why honorees are chosen. The last three were added to a very packed agenda in the last few days. The last two (including a Scripps Health administrator who is a Rotary Club officer) have no supporting documents. Everyone agrees that Council meetings run too long. These performative agenda items add extra time but little civic substance.

Item 613: 2026 Update to the San Diego Municipal Code (Land Development Code)

Why it matters: Staff report notes that one of the amendments “would increase … the City Council appeal fee [on project and environmental appeals] from $1,000 to $2,380,

 Developer HomeFed’s 3,000+ Project Halted After Its Appeal Denied

by Dorian Hargrove / Times of San Diego / June 4, 2026

An appellate court on Thursday denied an appeal from the developer looking to build a massive, 3,008-home project in Santee known as Fanita Ranch.

In the ruling, the appellate court said that the city of Santee and developer HomeFed pushed the project through despite knowing it violated state planning and environmental laws.

The ruling now puts the massive residential development, which was first proposed in 2017, on hold, once again, and likely for good, barring any petition to the California Supreme Court.

The appellate court judges found Santee and HomeFed improperly tried to push the project through without the city amending its General Plan. The plan had allowed for the construction of 1,395 homes on 2,638 acres in Northern Santee.

By Katherine Clements / the Log / June 4, 2026

Tucked along the north end of San Diego Bay near Point Loma, Shelter Island continues to serve as one of the region’s most active centers for recreational boating, marine services, and waterfront culture. While longtime boaters still recognize the area for its marinas, sportfishing fleet, and working waterfront atmosphere, the harbor district continues evolving through new upgrades, changing boating trends, and increasing demand for marine services tied to modern boating lifestyles.

For many boaters, Shelter Island functions as far more than a place to dock a vessel. It has become a full-service boating ecosystem where owners can outfit, repair, provision, upgrade, launch, and maintain their boats within just a few blocks of one another.

That concentration of marine businesses continues making Shelter Island one of the busiest boating corridors in San Diego Bay.

Recent years have brought growing interest in electronics upgrades, stabilization systems, lithium battery conversions, modern navigation equipment, and comfort-oriented improvements designed to support longer stays aboard. Local marine businesses increasingly are seeing boaters invest not only in performance and reliability, but also in onboard livability.

As more owners use their vessels for extended cruising, overnight trips, and remote work flexibility, demand has expanded for upgraded interiors, refrigeration systems, air conditioning, solar integration, and connectivity improvements.

Reporter David Garrick at the Union-Tribune today wrote an article entitled, “Public displeasure with San Diego City Hall boils over in early election results.”

He wrote that the primary results “show notable voter backlash against San Diego City Hall, with outsiders leading in three out of four council races as some well-funded insiders struggled and incumbents fared worse than usual.”

He’s right, of course, as ‘public displeasure’ with City Hall has been building dramatically over this last year or two. All one has to do to survey this building displeasure — or even rage — is to peruse the pages of the OB Rag. From the devastating San Diego extremist rules for bonus ADUs, the increased fees for paid parking, the trash fee debacle to the paid parking in Balboa Park quagmire, the budget crisis and threats to libraries and rec centers, the cuts to arts funding, to the general sense by the San Diego public that city hall is trying to “nickel and dime” them to death.

This “displeasure” with downtown San Diego political leaders has finally surfaced in results that the establishment can recognize — voting tabulations and results.

By Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF / June 2, 2026

People around the world are pushing back against the mass surveillance that undermines privacy and free expression for everyone.

One of the people who joined the fight for digital rights is EFF client Will Freeman. Will created the website DeFlock.me to reveal the dangers of automated license plate readers (ALPRs)—cameras that collect location data on every vehicle they see and upload that to a massive nationwide police database. Deflock.me turns the tables by enlisting ordinary people to track the locations of tens of thousands of ALPR cameras.

But when the police spy-tech company Flock Safety went after Will’s website with legal threats citing trademark law, he saw it for what it was: an attempt to silence critics and dim the light on mass surveillance.

Help Make Sure Gloria’s “Homes for All of Us” Includes “All of Us”

By Paul Krueger

The Mayor’s Planning Department is hosting a June 9 “community input” meeting on his “Homes for All of Us” initiative on Tuesday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the Malcolm X Library at 5148 Market Street in Valencia Park.

If you care about the impact of new housing development on your community, please plan on attending. And be prepared to cut through the bureaucratic spin by asking pointed questions.

Gloria says Homes for All of Us “…will create clear pathways to build townhomes, duplexes, and small-scale multiple homes … and provide more homeownership opportunities.”

Such a program would be a positive step towards providing much-needed for-sale housing, as opposed to the high-rise, cookie-cutter, $2,750/month studio and one-bedroom apartments (with no parking) that are blighting our neighborhoods.

But there’s a very real danger that this potentially valuable initiative will morph into yet another program that serves developer and investor interests by ignoring community input,

With the clarity of the morning after, the California Primary results of 2026 show that Xavier Becerra — the top Democrat in the slugfest that was the gubernatorial race — will be the first Mexican-American to be elected governor of the state. This will be the first time since 1846 when the last Mexican governor, Pio Pico, fled to Baja as American military forces swarmed into Alta California after war between the U.S. and Mexico began.

A bold assertion? Just look at the numbers. Steve Hilton, the top Republican, received 27.8% of the total vote to Becerra’s 25.4%. But if one adds up the percentages for Tom Steyer, Katie Porter and Mike Mahan — you get 28.3%, and coupled with Becerra’s, you have 53.7% of the vote available for Xavier. That smashes Hilton even with Bianco’s numbers — a total of 39.1%. (A Republican has not won a state-wide race in California for years.)

Absent some unforeseen upset or crisis or calamity, Becerra will journey to the General Election in November — and win it.

This victory 6 months away will result in the first Mexican-American elected as governor for California — the first time since the state has been in the Union.