Category: San Diego

By Richard Bailey

How much will the new paid parking at Balboa Park, the Zoo, and the increased meters rates actually generate for the City? More importantly, will it even make a dent in the city’s structural deficit?

San Diego just raised parking rates on two fronts: (1) higher rates and longer hours at existing meters including $10/hour “special event” pricing around Petco Park, and (2) the start of paid parking in Balboa Park, including the zoo lot under a pending lease amendment.

City budget documents and the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) say the meter changes are expected to add $18.4 million in FY26 (about $9.6M from doubling the base rate, $6.3M from special-event pricing, and $2.6M from extended hours/Sundays). The mayor’s FY26 budget message also plugs about $11.0 million more from launching paid parking in Balboa Park.

Together, that’s $29.4 million in new revenue for FY26.

By Paul Krueger / Special to the OB Rag

The more we learn about the new parking fees at downtown meters and in and around Balboa Park, the angrier we get.

It’s bad enough that Mayor Todd Gloria is balancing the city budget on the backs of families and working people. But it’s worse that the Mayor deliberately distorts how those new revenues will be spent.

And his exploitation of the public’s love of Balboa Park is especially craven.

In a July 28th news release the Mayor misleadingly states that parking revenue “will go far toward much-needed upgrades to further beautify and preserve the park.” Those words created the false impression that revenue from new parking fees in and around the Park would fund deferred Park improvements over and above what’s already allocated in the general fund.

That’s patently false. But the Mayor’s purposely misleading comments were amplified by local reporters whose coverage of the Mayor is consistently uncritical.

by Geoffrey Hueter / Times of San Diego / Sept. 6, 2025

Despite recent revisions, Senate Bill 79 should not be approved without further meaningful changes.

SB 79 is a solution in search of a problem. Its goal is supposedly to enable transit-oriented development, but most California cities — especially those with significant transit investments — have already zoned for this.

In addition to adding housing capacity through general plan and community plan updates, regional transportation planning agencies and municipalities, including SANDAG and cities throughout the San Diego region, have maximized their transit investments by creating and funding specific plans for transit-oriented development — by increasing densities, eliminating parking, and streamlining permitting.

That these cities have housing plans that have been certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development is proof that cities have already “made it legal to build housing near transit” as proponents of the bill are fond of saying.

SB 79 is too expansive to be transit-oriented. The bill’s one-half and one-quarter mile tiers should be defined by walking distance, not straight line (“as the crow flies”) distance,

By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / September 7, 2025

A new growth blueprint for Clairemont — the oldest and largest of San Diego’s suburban neighborhoods — calls for 17,000 new homes, mostly in new mixed-use villages or along a trolley line.

The blueprint, which is slated for City Council approval before the end of the year, aims mostly to preserve Clairemont’s suburban character by concentrating the new housing in existing commercial areas.

Clairemont’s sprawling shopping plazas would be transformed into densely built mixed-use villages with high-rise housing above the shops. The area’s neighborhoods of single-family homes would remain mostly untouched.

One of the most important networks of San Diego residents to emerge over the last 6 months is holding its general public monthly meeting tomorrow, Saturday, September 6. It’s the San Diego Community Coalition – a network of over two dozen communities and their leaders and activists.

As they state on their facebook page:

A network of San Diego community activists and leaders from 25 neighborhoods riled up about over-development and its consequences plus the disrespect shown to residents by City Hall.

The Coalition is having its meeting in Clairemont, at the Northminister Presbyterian Church at 4324 Clairemont Mesa Blvd (92117) and it starts at 10am and runs to noon.

Cutting its teeth on pushing the City Council to enact reforms to the disastrous so-called Bonus ADU program, the Coalition works to share knowledge, give support to and help to coordinate all the myriad different neighborhood groups that have formed recently explicitly to push back on City Hall’s housing policies.

There is so much going on right now across the city’s neighborhoods, that one needs a program to keep track of everything.

For example, check all these out:

By Richard Santini on behalf of Preserve Greater Golden Hill

Greater Golden Hill is one of San Diego’s most historically rich and culturally diverse neighborhoods. Nestled just southeast of Balboa Park, it has long stood at the intersection of San Diego’s past and future. From its earliest days, Golden Hill attracted artists, working families, civic leaders, and immigrants drawn to its proximity to downtown, its walkable streets, affordable housing, and sweeping views of the bay and Coronado. Two areas of its graceful 19th- and early 20th-century homes are city designated historic districts, but the character of the neighborhood extends far beyond the district’s’ boundaries. What defines Golden Hill is the coexistence of history, architecture, and cultural diversity that gives the community its unique soul.

Today, that soul is under threat. In the rush to meet housing targets, developers are forcing through projects that are out of scale, out of character, and out of touch with neighborhood realities. These are not the “gentle density” promised in planning documents. They are large, profit-driven complexes shoehorned into spaces meant for smaller-scale housing. This unchecked growth poses risks to safety, affordability, and livability—placing profit above people.

Compromised Public Safety

Mayor Gloria’s Complete Communities Executive Order 2024-1 allows expedited approvals only if “expedited service maintains protections for public health and safety.” Yet projects are being advanced without those protections.

SUNDAY, SEP. 7, 2025, 11:30 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.
28th STREET PLAYGROUND, SAN DIEGO, CA
Preserve Greater Golden Hill to Host “March & Roll” in South Park
Family-Friendly Event Aims to Spark Conversation About Housing Policies

On Sunday, September 7 at 11:30 a.m. at the 28th Street Playground in South Park, neighbors from the South Park and Golden Hill communities will gather for a “March & Roll”—an inclusive, lively, family-friendly walk-ride-and-roll event designed to bring neighbors together, raise awareness, and start conversations about how current state and local housing legislation is affecting the safety, affordability, livability, and future of San Diego’s neighborhoods.

The event will begin in South Park, where participants can meet, mingle, and decorate their walking shoes, strollers, scooters, bicycles, and wagons. At noon, the group will follow a set route through the neighborhood, showcasing community spirit and solidarity while enjoying South Park’s tree-lined streets and historic charm.

San Diego Veterans For Peace, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7420, and supporters and friends will be hosting a rally and press conference in front of the LaJolla VA Hospital, 3350 LaJolla Village Drive, SD, CA 92161 from 3 to 4 PM on Friday, Sept 5th.

One-Way Sunset Cliffs Blvd, Removal of Parking and Creating Protected Walk-Way on Deck for Approval

The San Diego City Council will vote on Tuesday, Sept. 9 on a plan proposing to save Sunset Cliffs and the coastline from sea-level rise and ongoing erosion. The Council will be voting on its budget item.

The plan is the Coastal Resilience Master Plan which proposes turning a section of Sunset Cliffs Blvd into a single southbound lane and removing parking along Sunset Cliffs.

Besides re-configuring Sunset Cliffs Boulevard from a two-lane, north-south major collector road to a single southbound lane, it proposes creating a protected walkway for pedestrians and cyclists. The Rag has run numerous articles of late on the Master Plan including questions and issues about the functioning of its board and consequences of the plan itself. (For starters, go here.)

So, here’s another take. This one by Times of San Diego involves questions and answers between Peter Kelly, public information officer in the city’s Communications Department, and Times writer, Dave Schwab. (We’ve edited for brevity and focus.)

Times: What is the city’s Coastal Resilience Master Plan, and what does it propose doing?

Protests against the Trump regime took place Monday, Labor Day, across San Diego County with the largest and most significant event in downtown San Diego at Waterfront Park.

San Diego’s protests joined “Workers Over Billionaires” demonstrations throughout the country in cities that included Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and New York in a nationwide Labor Day effort organized by labor unions and other groups. Other demonstrations in the county included those in Chula Vista, La Jolla, Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, Carlsbad, and Escondido. Local members and allies turned out to demand investment in schools, health care, housing, and climate action over corporate wealth. The Service Employees International Union and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council were among the local event organizers.

Organizers using a scientific approach to crowd counting, determined that close to 10,000 attended the rally and march at Waterfront Park. Event spokesman Mark Sauer said, “Considering it’s a holiday for working folks, (turnout) was encouraging,” said Sauer, who added the rally was peaceful as no counter-protesters materialized.

The downtown crowd was estimated to be 1,200 to 1,500 people according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. NBC7 reported the Waterfront event drew between 2,000-3,000 people, a San Diego police official told the station.

Along with promoting the importance of organized labor, Sauer said speakers focused on the November special election for Proposition 50 — an effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom to redraw California’s congressional districts to negate a similar move in Texas — Trump administration policies’ effect on working families, and how the 2026 midterm elections will be a way “to put some serious checks and balances” on them, organizers said.

By J.S. Whaldo

Every Labor Day, I see cookouts and long weekends. This year, I found myself thinking about something else entirely: the people whose work built the world we enjoy, and one man who reminded me why that matters.

The Origins of Labor Day: From 1882 to a National Holiday

Labor Day began in 1882, when workers in New York City set aside a day to march together and demand fairer hours and safer working conditions. The idea spread, and by 1894, it became a national holiday. Most of us now see it as the unofficial end of summer, but at its core, it is a day to honor the people whose labor built the railroads, bridges, farms, and cities that shape this country.

Meeting George Jackson: A Story of Hard Work and Dedication

As I thought about that, I remembered a man I met on a Mediterranean cruise the previous year. His name is George Jackson. We met at the rock and roll music venue. My husband and I were listening to the band, and during the intermission, we struck up a conversation with George. George is an easy-going, likable man. He is soft-spoken, but quick to join the conversation. I’ve thought about him many times since that cruise, about his life and how different it was from mine.

By Kate Callen / August 28, 2025

When Mayor Kevin Faulconer challenged San Diegans in 2019 to ditch their cars and take public transit, I invited him to join me on my weekday MTS #2 bus ride from North Park to downtown.

In an op-ed published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, I began by assuming that because Faulconer promoted mass transit vigorously, he must be a regular transit user. But in case I was wrong, I gave the mayor a tutorial on the challenges of commuting by bus. And I offered to pay his fare if he rode with me. He never responded.

I’m extending that same invitation to Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Campaign after reading her August 28 U-T commentary, “Housing Policies Sabotage Families, Climate Goals,” an argument for pro-density Senate Bill 79.

As Capretz tells it, the passage of SB 79 will stack more housing “near transit,” and then commuters will switch from cars to buses and trolleys, traffic will diminish, greenhouse gases will dissipate, and our lives will be happier and healthier.

That’s a tidy scenario. But the reality of mass transit in San Diego is tangled. The only way to learn that is to navigate the cat’s cradle of buses and trolleys to go from Point A to Point B – or, if you must transfer to reach your destination, from Point A to Point B to Point C.