Category: San Diego

From Mission Hills Heritage

Just recently, we learned that the City of San Diego has scheduled a “Preservation & Progress” Virtual Workshop for Wednesday, October 8 at 2pm.

We are uncertain whether this meeting will be a genuine “workshop,” given that staff has indicated it will be presenting pre-determined proposed changes. And they are not waiting for the independent consultants at PlaceEconomics to release their fact-based report with crucial information that would inform the City and the public.

The City’s proposed changes are as follows:

• Proposed changes to the Historic Preservation Element of the General Plan
• Updates to the Historic Designation Appeal Process
• Amendments to the Complete Communities Housing Solutions program
• Proposed changes to the use of the Historic Preservation Fund

On Saturday afternoon, October 4, a 58-year-old man riding an electric scooter was injured when he lost control of the vehicle and was ejected. He sustained an open fracture to his fibula, necessitating immediate transportation to a local hospital for treatment.

Both news stories on this incident reported it occurred in “Point Loma Heights.” But it wasn’t — it occurred in Mission Valley. The accident happened at approximately 3:22 PM along 2100 Hotel Circle South. Both reports mentioned this address.

The headline from 10News: “58-year-old man injured, ejected from electric scooter in Point Loma Heights”.

The headline from Hoodline San Diego: “Man Suffers Serious Leg Injury in E-Scooter Accident in Point Loma Heights, San Diego”.

Most observers can tell right away that the 2100 block of Hotel Circle South is not in Point Loma Heights.

By Arturo Castañares / La Prensa San Diego / October 3, 2025

A local drywall installation company that systematically underpaid its workers on two local affordable housing projects has agreed to settle a civil lawsuit filed by the US Department of Labor by paying $790,000 in back wages and fines.

Escondido-based Innovative Wall Systems, Inc., doing business as Alta Drywall, was sued in San Diego federal court for underpaying 580 employees who worked more than 40 hours a week, including weekends, without receiving the required overtime rate or minimum wage as mandated by federal law.

The Department of Labor and Alta Drywall entered into a Consent Judgment and Order on September 12, 2025, over 580 employees who were not paid overtime on two affordable housing projects; the 200-unit Columba project in Chula Vista’s Millenia development, and the 309-unit Mt. Etna St. complex in San Diego.

SD Union-Tribune Editorial Board / October 5, 2025

The City Council’s decision this week to put off a vote on a 62% water rate hike and a 31% sewer rate hike to be phased in over the next four years was welcomed by the many San Diegans who live paycheck to paycheck.

But there’s bad news ahead for anyone counting on genuine relief from Mayor Todd Gloria and council members. In coming weeks, final approval still looks inevitable for the massive rate increases beginning in January. The case that rates have to go up to sustaincurrent levels of service hasn’t been challenged, and there is no appetite for budget cuts elsewhere to cover the bills.

And nothing in the council’s recent history suggests that most members’ message-we-care rhetoric at Tuesday’s meeting is meaningful. These same politicians depicted their crusade against digital-only grocery store coupons as a bold defense of elderly constituents — even as they forced constituents of all ages to pay sharply increased trash fees — and approved first-ever parking fees at Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo — and imposed punitive “dynamic” parking rates that will hammer families visiting downtown.

By Kate Callen

Golden Hill is stepping up its fight against a monolith apartment complex by mounting a legal battle to block a construction that is proceeding at a beat-the-clock pace.

Land use attorney Everett Delano is filing the lawsuit on behalf of Preserve Greater Golden Hill against Chicago-based developer CEDARst, which is building a 180-unit, 8-story rental housing complex at 2935-2961 A Street. Upon completion, it will be the largest high-rise structure directly under the final approach into Lindbergh Field.

More than 30 Golden Hill activists gathered for an October 2 news conference to announce the suit. It took place near the Albert Einstein Charter Academy, which is directly across from the development site and will be overshadowed by the tower.

Golden Hill has traditionally been one of San Diego’s most affordable and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. As speakers pointed out, a surge of extensive Golden Hill upzoning is pushing out elderly residents, residents of color, and low-income families. They are being replaced by people who are richer, whiter, younger, and more amenable to living in studios and one-bedroom rentals.

By Dani Miskell / 10News KGTV / Oct. 2, 2025

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Harmony Grove Village South development on Wednesday, October 1.

Harmony Grove Village South will build 453 homes and businesses in unincorporated San Diego near Escondido, despite fierce opposition from residents who say the project puts lives at risk during wildfires.

The development will be built on open land off Country Club Drive, but longtime residents argue the new homes could block their only evacuation route during a fire emergency.

At Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors land use meeting, Supervisor Jim Desmond pressed Rancho Santa Fe Fire Chief Dave McQuead on fire evacuation safety concerns.

by Trena Turner / Cal-Matters / Sept. 19, 2025

As a California redistricting commissioner, I have witnessed firsthand the careful, deliberate and transparent process that drew our congressional lines to reflect the real people of our state. The work was not easy, but it was honorable — and it safeguarded the principle that every community deserves fair representation.

Which is why I am both alarmed and deeply disappointed at the way conversations around Proposition 50, California’s mid-cycle redistricting measure, have often been reduced to a single, shallow question: “What will it cost?”

Yes, this special election carries a financial cost. But if we view it only through dollars and cents, we ignore the greater risks. An estimated 3.4 million Californians stand to lose health care coverage due to Medicaid cuts, and another 3.1 million people — children, veterans and families — face the loss of vital nutrition assistance through SNAP.

There are measurable consequences of this moment that will reshape the health and stability of our state, while steadily eroding the foundations of our democracy.

We cannot ignore the reality that this year’s map-redrawing in Texas and other states, at President Trump’s urging, has been widely challenged as racial gerrymandering. This continues a generational pattern in many states where lines are drawn to weaken Black, brown, immigrant and working-class voices so politicians can pick their voters.

A Plea for Residents of Other Neighborhoods to Stand With the College Area at the Upcoming Planning Commission Hearing — Oct. 9

By Robert Montana

With San Diego’s proposed update to the College Area Community Plan, we are witnessing the complete negation of professional urban planning in the City of San
Diego. And this proposal on our eastern edge matters mightily to all citizens throughout the city because if appointed and elected officials don’t come to their senses, this
updated plan will become the blueprint for all future ‘planning’ efforts from city staff.

The College Area Community Planning Board (CACPB) needs the assistance of everyone who believes that good urban planning matters to us today and to those who
will come to our region in the future with hopes of a brighter destiny for themselves and their children. Specifically, the San Diego Planning Commission will hear the proposed plan update on October 9, 2025, in their new location at 7650 Mission Valley Road in Mission Valley. And the CACPB needs people from all the communities within San Diego to stand, speak and declare that growth is important, but that it must be accompanied by improvements in basic infrastructure that meet expected demand in a timely manner. The glaring problem with the proposal is the lack of any nexus between development and infrastructure.

Let’s dive into some specifics.

Every Saturday at 10:30 am. San Diego Climate Mobilization Coalition Meetings October 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th.

Every Saturday 10 am – 12 pm Peace Vigil for Palestine

Every Thursday  10 am ICE out of San Diego Event by San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council

The San Diego River Park Foundation has volunteer opportunities in Ocean Beach:

October 1st Wednesday to October 8th Wednesday  Climate Week

October 1st Wednesday 4 pm – 5pm Resist Trump Flash Banner Action –

October 1st Wednesday 6 pm AAPI Immigration Panel Event by The Asian American Pacific Islander

October 2nd. Thursday 6 pm – 8 pm Local Climate Action at a Crossroads:  Accountability, Activism, and People Power

October 3rd Friday 2 pm – 4:30 pm Rally and Press Conference Event by San Diego Veterans For Peace

October 3rd. Friday  2:30 pm – 5:30 pm  Exploring Ecosystems and Water Pollution at the Tijuana River Estuary

October 4th Saturday 9:30 am – 4 pm Walter Munk Day

October 5th Sunday 2 pm Rise up for Gaza International Day of Action

October 6th Monday 6 pm- 8:30 pm EARTH’S GREATEST ENEMY

by Robert Montana and Rene Kaprielian / Times of San Diego /  Sept. 26, 2025

In 2019, in anticipation of the city’s upcoming College Area Community Plan update, the College Area Community Planning Board started to develop its own community-driven, 30-year growth strategy. The planning board believed that if it could show where to place new housing density that hit similar growth targets approved for other San Diego communities, the city would give strong consideration to its plan.

[Please see original here for important links to documents.]

After a year of meetings and working groups, the board’s finished plan called for creation of an urban village around San Diego State University adjacent to the campus trolley station. It envisioned high-density housing along College Avenue, Montezuma Road and other major thoroughfares with access to the existing bus system.

The plan anticipated adding approximately 11,300 dwelling units to the current 8,100 units — 137% more — and increasing the area’s population by 112% from 19,700 to 42,200. These increases are in line with recently approved community plan updates for Mira Mesa, Hillcrest and Clairemont.

In 2020, the City Planning Department started its formal multi-year College Area Community Plan Update. After an open house and initial comment period, the department put forth four plan alternatives, completely ignoring College Area Community Planning Board’s earlier effort.

The city’s current version of the community plan update calls for increasing the College Area’s population by nearly 300% from 19,700 to over 74,000 people, with no major infrastructure improvements.

By Donna Frye / October 1, 2025

On July 9, the OB Rag published an article by Geoff Page that alerted us to a city staff report that linked surplus lands with Mission Bay Park.

My initial reaction is the same now as it was then- Mission Bay Park is not “surplus land”.

The June 23, 2025 city staff report summarized the steps the city council was being asked to take to declare three properties in Mission Bay Park as “surplus land” so the city could seek new long-term leases. However, if the city council declared the properties as “surplus land” it would trigger a requirement in the Surplus Land Act that would allow housing development on our public parkland.

According to information published on the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s website, “The purpose of the Surplus Land Act is to connect local agencies with developers who are interested in building more affordable homes on surplus local public land that is both available and suitable for housing development.”

Mission Bay Park is neither available nor suitable for building housing because it is a dedicated public park.

Unfortunately, the Land Use and Housing Committee heard the item on July 2 and supported the “surplus land” declaration. Thankfully, at the July 29 city council meeting, the city council majority voted to continue the item until September due in large part to the public opposition.

And because of the continuance, the Mission Bay Park Committee was able to hear the item on August 5 at their regular meeting

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.