Category: San Diego

By Caitlin Rother / Substack / Sep 22, 2026

Until I found a flyer on my doorstep about a community meeting last night, I was not aware that the city of San Diego was updating the 1998 community plan for my neighborhood of Kensington-Talmadge and several others that are nearby but have completely unrelated interests and socio-economic demographics. Because I covered City Hall for many years when I was still a working investigative reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune, I took my notebook to the meeting.

After we listened to two city planners present the highlights of the community plan update, Neil Winner, chairman of the Kensington-Talmadge Community Planning Group (KTCPG), summed up his group’s very measured response like this: the plan update “is not compatible” with the historic nature or the infrastructure and fire safety needs of our community. He said the KTCPG submitted an alternative plan to the city, but was told that it did not comply, without any discussion or the ability to challenge or resolve that conclusion.

Here’s my view: First, don’t hold back. What the city is proposing is a nightmarish crush of increased density, to fill our cute, historic neighborhood of well-maintained single-family homes in South Kensington with garrish apartment complexes looming six to eight stories, and three to five times the number of people living in that space as they are today. The plan allowing these new complexes, which would all be squished into the few square blocks surrounding my house, is envisioned to triple the community’s overall population and yet developers will not be required to provide any additional parking spaces because they will be built just blocks from a couple of bus routes, some of which are now slated for reduction or elimination.

Just take a minute to process that ridiculous lapse of common sense and logic.

By Angelo Haynes

On Thursday evening, Sept.24, challenger Martha Abraham and incumbent Henry Foster III met at a community forum at the St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Paradise Hills to engage in a moderated discussion on the issues affecting voters in District 4. The forum was organized and coordinated by the Paradise Hills Foundation (PHF), a non-profit organization dedicated to the beautification of the Paradise Hills neighborhood and to improving residents’ quality of life.

Projects for PHF include: neighborhood cleanup and hauling efforts, arts funding (e.g. public murals), improvements to the main street of Paradise Hills (Reo Dr.), garbage cans, signage improvements, and home exterior assistance to elderly or indigent neighbors.

Nichelle A. Wentz, the president of the PHF, was on hand and stated that while many other community concerns affecting District 4, such as policing, Foot note 7 and small business development seemed to garner greater attention, issues affecting the Paradise Hills neighborhood were neglected. The Paradise Hills branch library for instance hasn’t had a capital improvement from the city in over 40 years. For Wentz, this forum was an opportunity to bring attention to her neighborhood and give residents a chance to ask candidates questions before the election.

All public questions participants had at the venue were to be written down and submitted to forum organizers in advance; these questions would then be read to the candidates at the end of the session. PHF organizers stated that this method of questioning was intended to screen for repetitive questions and to organize community concerns into topics to ascertain any patterns or themes for voters in the community.

by Cody Dulaney / inewsource /  September 23, 2026

Jay Goldberg swears he’s a capitalist.

It’s a Thursday afternoon and the 42-year-old Hillcrest homeowner is seated at his kitchen counter, scrolling through lines of code he wrote to analyze multiple datasets on his laptop. He’s a Google engineer by trade, but his workday is over, and now he’s hunting through the local real estate market.

His target? Properties that he calls “apartment hotels” — or entire complexes that have been converted from long-term housing to short-term rentals.

He’s a capitalist, he says, but he’s a capitalist with guardrails, driven by one guiding principle: What’s good for one person shouldn’t come at everyone else’s expense. And he’s become convinced that’s exactly what’s happening in San Diego.

Earlier this year, inewsource revealed a glaring loophole in a San Diego law that allows property owners to obtain a short-term rental license even after carrying out an illegal eviction. It works like this: Investors buy up multi-family properties, clear out the long-term tenants with buyouts or no-fault evictions, and post the units on short-term platforms, such as Airbnb.

Goldberg has spent years working to identify these properties.

He gathers data from short-term rental platforms. He combs through active licenses and property records. And when he thinks he’s identified an apartment hotel, or really any short-term rental violation, he turns over what he finds to San Diego officials.

Then he waits.

by David Alvarez, Brian Jones and Darshana Patel / Times of San Diego / Sept. 17, 2026

The area known currently as the closed San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park belongs to the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians. That is the first thing to understand about Assembly Bill 2770, a bill we authored which is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

It is not a new idea, but rather the fourth attempt by the tribe, spread across nearly two centuries, to secure what was already theirs.

The San Pasqual people have lived in the valley northeast of San Diego for generations, long before any government drew a line around it. In 1835, the Mexican governor of California formally recognized that fact, establishing San Pasqual as a civil pueblo: a self-governing industrious community with unique skills.

When a San Diego landowner named Bonifacio Lopez tried to take the valley in 1845, he dismissed its residents as “lazy and disreputable.” Yet the Mexican government refused his request.

The tribe’s second attempt to secure its land came after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848. The tribe’s leader, Panto Duro, presented American officials with the documents from Mexico confirming the San Pasqual people’s title to the valley, and in 1852 he signed a treaty guaranteeing the land under American authority. Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate rejected that treaty under pressure from Gold Rush settlers.

From Neighbors for a Better San Diego

We Asked.
The City Refused.
Now We’re Suing.
San Diegans deserve to know who the Mayor’s secret housing advisors are.

Earlier this year, we asked a simple question:

Who is helping shape the housing and density policies that could dramatically change San Diego’s neighborhoods?

By Kate Callen

Andy Kopp wants to make a name for himself, and he has chosen Balboa Park as the place to do it.

Kopp, a former Navy intelligence analyst, is spearheading the “Balboa Park Restoration & Community Improvement Act,” an initiative aimed for the 2028 ballot. If voters approve $1 billion in general obligation bonds, that debt would be paid by an additional tax assessment of between $3.50 to $23 per $100,000 of assessed parcel value.

The proceeds would clear the Park’s deferred maintenance backlog, expand the Museum of Art (cost: $250 million), restore the Old Globe and the Starlight Bowl, renovate the Morley Field Sports Complex, and build a pedestrian bridge from Golden Hill to Inspiration Point.

With his proposal, Kopp has become a player in Balboa Park advocacy circles, where people don’t know much about him but are impressed by his chutzpah. He took the stage at a September 19 Friends of San Diego Architecture Park forum like a prizefighter entering the ring.

Trump Approval on Handling the Economy at 26%

From American Research Group

A total of 29% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 68% say they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. In August, 30% of Americans approved of the way Trump was handling his job and 66% disapproved.

In September 2018, 37% approved of the way Trump was handling his job as president and 59% disapproved.

When it comes to Trump’s handling of the economy, 26% of Americans approve and 71% disapprove. In August, 28% of Americans approved of the way Trump was handling the economy and 69% disapproved.

In September 2018, 39% approved of the way Trump was handling the economy and 55% disapproved.

By Marty Graham / Special to the OB Rag

Our worst fear about the city trash fee being placed on the tax bill came true this week.

The city bungled the numbers provided to the county, which then billed the mostly higher fees (though a small number were lower) on the county property tax bill – and my mortgage company got the numbers.

Councilmembers Joe LaCava and Sean Elo Rivera fought the public and insisted on putting this service fee on the tax bill issued by the county tax collector – while saying it’s not a tax – at the June 24th, 2025, city council meeting. The council voted 7-2 in favor with only council members Henry Foster and Raul Campillo voting no to tax roll billing.

Those councilmembers approved this mess – pushed by LaCava and Elo Rivera, despite 46,000 protest votes and dozens of written and spoken comments. Tax roll billing would save money, they said, agreeing to pay the county and setting us up for unpaid tax liens if we don’t pay in full.

So we have this error in front of us now. We knew this would happen, we just didn’t think it would be as widespread – with current estimates of 87,000 wrong bills.

By Debbie L. Sklar / Special for the OB Rag

There was a time when Mission Valley was measured in acres of farmland rather than shopping centers, freeways and stadiums.

Along the San Diego River, fields stretched across the valley, cattle grazed and family farms produced vegetables for San Diego markets. Dairies became an important part of that landscape, but they were only one piece of a much larger agricultural community.

Before World War II and the wave of urban development that followed, much of Mission Valley was farmland. Farmers of different cultural backgrounds operated family businesses, raising crops and livestock on land that eventually would become one of San Diego’s busiest commercial areas.

A Valley of Family Farms

The city of San Diego’s historic research identifies dozens of agricultural and dairy operations that once occupied the valley, including the Ferraris, Allens, Guglielmettis, Jepsons, Obres, Gibsons, McDermotts, McCreadys and others. The same historical record identifies vegetable gardens and nurseries, showing how varied the valley’s agricultural economy was.

SB 79 and Budget Cuts in Letters to Editor

Sometimes the truth is more forthright and evident in the Letters to the Editor than in the news articles — or lack of — themselves.(I always check them out in both the U-T and LA Times daily.)

Here’s two from today, Wednesday, Sept. 23, that speak volumes; they both are responding to the news that San Diego’s Metropolitan Transit System may have to make budget cuts that would eliminate over one-third of the current bus routes, force cut backs on another third, and less frequent trolley trains on all four lines. The letters make the case that with drastic, even draconian budget cuts to MTS, the foundational logic for Senate Bill 79 and other pushes for high-density near transit has been lost. Despite this, our politicians are not taking note of these potential heavy-weight changes to our urban landscape.

Let’s say that again, as it’s very important and immediately stands out amid this news.

The grim news of potential major service cuts— including eliminating a third of bus routes and reducing trolley frequency due to projected $100M–$150M deficits by fiscal year 2030—has intensified criticism that building high-density, low-parking housing near transit stops under laws like Senate Bill 79 is losing its foundational logic.

Here’s the first from RC of Sunset Cliffs:

What an eye-opener. After years of the “build, baby build” housing policies of the YIMBYs, Todd Gloria, our City Council and the state Legislature — pushing the building of high-density housing along transit routes — we learn that MTS is going broke and may need to cut back bus routes and trolley service. Yet our politicians keep wanting to build high-density housing with minimal parking requirements.

Lawsuit Seeks Release of Details on City of San Diego Housing Initiative

By Paul Krueger

A lawsuit filed by advocates for sensible planning seeks the immediate release of important information about Mayor Todd Gloria’s “Neighborhood Homes for All of Us” initiative.

For more than a year, El Cerrito resident Danna Givot has asked the City Planning Department to disclose membership information about the initiative’s “Technical Working Group.”

Input from that “Working Group” will have a significant impact on proposed changes to zoning, density, and design prototypes that would be imposed on San Diego’s neighborhoods under the mayor’s controversial land-use program.

The City repeatedly ignored Givot’s informal requests for that public information, and has now failed to comply with her formal requests for disclosure under the California Public Records Act.

Budget Crisis Could Force End to One-Third of Bus Routes and Less Frequent Trolleys

David Garrick at the U-T reported on a scary scenario for San Diego’s mass transit system. Garrick stated “a looming budget crisis” could “eliminate one-third of bus routes,” — and “reduce service on another one-third” and force “San Diego trolley’s four lines [to run] less frequently.”

This is certainly a doomsday outlook as Metropolitan Transit System officials attempt to deal with “annual budget deficits of $100 million to $150 million” but not until fiscal year 2030.

It’s all a “rough draft”, Garrick says. But it could “wipe out 33 of the 95 MTS bus routes….” That’s a lot of bus routes. Garrick must get his info from MTS and he reports the wipe out could include “the end of service to SeaWorld, Cabrillo National Monument, Tierrasanta and parts of Mission Hills.”

There would be notable service reductions for another 29 routes. Like, “Sunday service could be eliminated on a route or the frequency of service could be reduced from once every half an hour to once every hour.”

All four trolley lines – blue, green, orange and copper – would also see reductions in service frequency, MTS officials said. Trains now typically run every 15 minutes on most routes.