Category: San Diego

By David Garrick / SD Union-Tribune / June 10, 2025

A sharply divided San Diego City Council voted 6-3 Monday to impose the city’s first fee for trash collection at single-family homes, despite complaints the $43.60 monthly charge is much higher than earlier estimates.

The vote came shortly after City Clerk Diana Fuentes determined that a protest against the new fee had failed to get enough support. Residents turned in just over 46,000 protest cards — well short of the 113,000 necessary.

Supporters said the fee will help San Diego close a large budget deficit, lengthen the life of the Miramar landfill by boosting recycling rates and eliminate an unfair situation for people living in condos and apartments.

By Danna Givot / June 9, 2025

San Diego’s Bonus ADU program is not producing truly affordable accessory dwelling units. Even worse, it is making single-family homes more expensive.

Let’s start with the single-family homes that developers are buying up for their high-density Bonus ADU projects. They prey on starter homes, especially smaller homes on larger lots where they can build the most ADUs for the lowest investment. The developers are willing to spend more than a first-time home buyer can afford because they are valuing the property based on its investment potential, which is the maximum rent they’ll charge for those studios and one-bedroom units.

These developers – often backed by out-of-town investors – offer cash up front for the property, while most home buyers need a mortgage, which requires time-consuming inspections, appraisals, and lots more paperwork for the seller.

Almost invariably, the developers secure the property, and the market reflects these new, higher prices for future buyers.

By Joni Halpern

“Go ahead and take my place in line,” said the old man in front of me as we stood recently in a long queue of people waiting to enter a local Social Security Administration (SSA) Office.  “I’ve been here since 7 o’clock this morning,” he told me.  “I can’t take it anymore.”

He had just climbed out of the ground cover into which he had fallen after one of his bandaged legs had finally given way.  He had been waiting in line to schedule an appointment so he could return at some later date to resolve a Social Security problem of which he had been notified by mail some weeks earlier.

Americans who need help from SSA staff members cannot enter an SSA office without an appointment.  The trick is to schedule the appointment.  In the long line of people I met that day at the SSA office, every single one had tried to get an appointment by calling the highly publicized phone number listed on the SSA website and on every other communication issued by SSA.  Most had also tried to get an appointment by going online.  When that failed, their last resort was to go in person to an SSA office to wait in line to schedule an appointment.

By Marty Graham / Times of San Diego / June 8, 2025

San Diego is broke and its leaders have convinced voters that people who live in less dense housing should pay more into city coffers.

Elected leaders’ efforts targeting people who live in single-family homes and fewer than four-unit condo or apartment buildings will come to a head on Monday when the City Council may approve fees of nearly $600 a year for some residents — fees that will rise rapidly to nearly $800 over the next three years.

To sell those fees, the city hired Bay Area consultants known for setting the highest trash collection rates in California (including Long Beach, Oakland and San Jose) and spent no less than $4.5 million to hold the least scientific survey ever — aimed at raising the cost of service from the $73 million in the city’s request for proposal to the $155 million the consultants arrived at. And despite requests, city officials so far won’t release the consultants’ underlying data.

Ocean Beach, San Diego — On Sunday morning, June 8, more than 300 people came together at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach to form a bold human banner spelling out the phrase “NO KINGS.” Organized as a peaceful visual demonstration, participants stood shoulder-to-shoulder to send a powerful message in defense of democracy and the Constitution.

Set against the natural beauty of San Diego’s iconic coastline, the banner was captured from above by drone photography, creating striking aerial images and videos now available for media use.

Protect Point Loma will hold a Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, June 11, at 6:00 p.m. at the Liberty Station Conference Room, 2600 Laning Road.

The meeting will feature an update on controversial plans for a four-story, 56-unit (8 affordable) apartment building at 1004 Rosecrans Street at the intersection of Rosecrans and Talbot.

Protect Point Loma, a 501c4 non-profit, has organized opposition to the project, which would sit on an active fault line on a site where a previous gas station left hazardous waste on the property.

By OB Rag Staff / June 6, 2025

In a decision that has received international “only in California” news coverage, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that San Diego’s 2024 ban on teaching yoga at shoreline parks and beaches is unconstitutional.

The judgement, which reversed a lower court ruling that yoga instruction is not protected by the First Amendment, clears the way for plaintiffs Steven Hubbard (aka “NamaSteve”) and Amy Baack to resume their free oceanfront yoga instruction.

By Michael Smolens / San Diego Union-Tribune / June 6, 2025

Not long after President Donald Trump was sworn in to his second term, there was plenty of advice from law firms and analysts on how businesses should prepare for increased immigration raids.

Among the highlights: recheck employee documents, advise workers of their rights and tell them who to notify should immigration enforcement officials show up.

One thing that didn’t appear on many lists: Get ready for a SWAT-like operation.

By Neighbors for a Better San Diego / June 5, 2025

Senate Bill 79 (SB 79) narrowly passed the California Senate vote with a bare minimum number of votes (21 out of 40).

The San Diego County delegation was split: Catherine Blakespear and Brian Jones voted against the bill, while Steve Padilla and Akilah Weber Pierson voted for it.

Now, we must focus on our local Assembly members. It’s important to let them know that you oppose SB 79!

CA State Assembly members who represent residents in San Diego County are:

By Arturo Castañares, Editor-At-Large, La Prensa San Diego

The Mayor of Imperial Beach made a false claim against the Mayor of Chula Vista as the two city leaders face off in a special election to fill a vacancy on the County Board of Supervisors.

Paloma Aguirre posted on social post this week that  John McCann was “at the center” of a school district political corruption scandal that saw 18 people indicted in 2012, including six school board members, but McCann was the only sitting Board member not charged with any crimes in the investigation that included three school districts.

McCann, who had previously served two four-year terms on the Chula Vista City Council before being elected to the Sweetwater Union High School District in November 2010, later returned to the City Council in 2014 and was elected Mayor in 2022.

In early 2012, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis charged 15 individuals in a years-long corruption ring that included the Superintendents of three school districts, school board members, and a private company executive who conspired to direct lucrative construction contracts to companies who had provided campaign contributions and expensive dinners to officials.

But the majority of the corrupt acts occurred before McCann was even elected to the school board.

By Kate Callen / June 3, 2025

San Diegans who feel the strain of overdevelopment in older neighborhoods won’t recognize the halcyon city in Wesley Morgan’s May 31 Times of San Diego commentary, “Opinion: Privileged Homeowners Like Me Shouldn’t Resist New Housing.”

Morgan, treasurer of YIMBY Democrats of San Diego, describes how he and his wife bought a Mission Hills home 11 years ago where they “raised our daughters surrounded by great schools, walkable streets, and reliable city services.”

Over time, Morgan writes, “it became painfully clear how few others had that chance and how little our neighborhoods were doing to welcome others.”

The rest is a story of virtue and evil. Virtuous people like Morgan want to see a lot of new housing bring a lot of new residents into their flourishing communities. Evil people want to keep new residents out because they are mean and they hate strangers.

Morgan’s essay reads like a fairy tale because it is. Let’s look closely at some of his assertions and see how they square with reality.

By Geoff Hueter / June 4, 2025

San Diego’s Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) program has been successful in enabling greater housing density within single-family and multi-family zones. However, the Bonus ADU program in single-family zoned neighborhoods, which allows an unlimited number of ADUs on parcels designated within the Sustainable Development Area, has had a profound negative impact on neighborhoods, with predictable community backlash.

In response, the City Council on March 4 asked the Planning Department to present revisions to the program to address the over-sized scale of some projects in single-family zones. The Planning Department’s proposals have been reactive and convoluted, in no small part because the Planning Department has not provided a comprehensive public input and review process.

A real revision of the Bonus ADU program would start with a foundational question — what role do we want single-family neighborhoods to play in providing new options for infill housing?

Proponents of the Bonus ADU program reflexively cite that we have a housing crisis that justifies building any kind of housing anywhere in San Diego. However, San Diego’s affordable housing needs are more nuanced than that. San Diego’s focus on total units rather than type of units means that San Diego struggles to provide family-sized housing.