Category: San Diego

By Kate Callen

Neighborhood activists from across San Diego came together April 12 to launch a San Diego Community Coalition that will be a platform for coordinated citywide action on two interwoven issues: massive overbuilding in residential areas and City Hall’s disrespect for the public.

Leaders from 14 communities, many meeting in person for the first time, were already active in pushing back against predatory development and elected officials’ dismissive treatment of their constituents.

The new Coalition will empower them to join forces, mobilize residents and business owners in their individual communities, turn out large numbers at public meetings, and flood city offices with constituent messages.

Communities represented were:

By Lisa Mortensen

On Tuesday, April 15th, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria will present his budget report to the city council.  It will be interesting to learn if he is going to address the needed staffing cuts with a shredder or electric buffer at the podium. It’s obvious Todd needs to perform major surgery on the bloated city staffing but we realize he isn’t capable of plugging in the needed power tools.

We all know Todd is very adept at political speak but we must read between the lines and connect the dots

By Eric S. Page / 7SanDiego / April 10-11, 2025

Nobody seems to know when, exactly, a stretch of towering Mexican fan palms were planted along one of San Diego’s most iconic streets in one of its most iconic neighborhoods, but most would agree that the gently swaying giants, visible to the east as far away as the runway of San Diego International Airport, have come to be identified with the community of Mission Hills.

On Wednesday, April 9, the city of San Diego took steps to protect the trees for the future, placing 33 soaring fan palms under Conserve A Tree status after prodding from one local historian and the San Diego Community Forest Advisory Board, which recommended such an action at a meeting last month.

“Trees under protection status are meant to deter damages and tree removal by adjacent private property owners and identify the importance of the tree(s) to the community,” city spokesman Anthony Santacroce said in an email to NBC 7 on Thursday.

With the designation, the trees are believed to be the first examples of palms — of 400 or so historically designated trees in the city — to be offered the protections by the city in the two decades or so of the program.

By Bruce Coons / Op-Ed San Diego Union-Tribune / April 10, 2025

Ricardo Flores’ recent opinion piece calling for the elimination of the Mills Act in San Diego, citing the city’s budget deficit and arguing that historic tax relief unfairly benefits wealthy homeowners, is an argument based on misleading claims and a fundamental misunderstanding of both the Mills Act and the role of historic preservation in our city’s economic and cultural vitality.

Preservation strengthens, not weakens, the city’s economy. The Mills Act is a proven tool that stimulates local economies by increasing property values, attracting visitors and generating jobs in restoration and tourism. It incentivizes the preservation of historic structures, which are essential to San Diego’s identity, economy, and quality of life. Far from being a drain on city resources, historic preservation drives long-term economic growth.

The tax adjustments granted through the Mills Act are modest compared to the economic benefits these historic properties provide over time. Eliminating the program would not solve the city’s financial challenges — but it would weaken neighborhood stability and undermine a key sector of San Diego’s economy.

No One in Charge at City’s Trash Fee Open House for District 2

By Kate Callen

Which is more dismissive? Someone who ignores you? Or someone who pretends to listen but clearly doesn’t care what you think?

If you’re okay with synthetic respect, the City’s Trash Fee Open Houses have been pleasant in a quaint sort of way.

The April 7 event for District 2 residents (including OBceans) felt like a high school science fair. Environmental Services staffers were friendly. Display tables featured toy-sized trash bins in three colors and giant photographs of the latest in trash trucks.

It would have been a worthwhile event if community members wanted to learn the finer points of top-notch waste management. But that’s not why they came.

Melanie and Bob Sherman of Point Loma were hoping someone in charge at City Hall would explain why trash fee estimates are so high. And they wanted assurance that new fees wouldn’t be skimmed for “administrative overhead.”

From Voice of San Diego / April 8, 2025

Two South Bay mayors will race for the open seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre will appear on the runoff ballot July 1.

With 11,000 votes still to count, McCann, a Republican, had won 44 percent of votes. Aguirre had gotten 32 percent of votes counted.

Two other Democrats in the race, San Diego City Councilmember Vivian Moreno and Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, garnered too few votes – 13 percent and 8 percent – to overcome the frontrunners’ lead. Three other lesser-known candidates split the remainder of the vote.

McCann will come up short of the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright.

The artists toiling away in their studios and workspaces, and the environmental advocates encouraging others to join their work, believe in the power of art to nudge people to care a little more about nature. Locally, that power will be on display during a new exhibition at Grossmont College’s Hyde Art Gallery, “One River, Many Stories.”

The San Diego River Park Foundation and the San Diego River Artists’ Alliance are partnering in this display of the stories of the San Diego River and its ecosystem, with an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. March 25 (the exhibit is open March 24 to April 24; the artists will also meet with the public again from 2 to 4 p.m. April 10).

David Garrick at the U-T announced this morning that the City of San Diego is knocking 10% off its proposed trash fee as a response to all the push back from residents. But is that enough to placate angry residents?

Garrick:

The revised proposal announced Wednesday suggests a monthly rate of $47.59 for full-service customers — more than $5 less than the initial proposal of $53 per month that the city announced in February.

The fee would still rise in coming years when the city adds new services like bulky trash pickup. But instead of rising to $65 in July 2027, the fee would rise to $59.42 at that time.

After the dust had settled from the thousands, even millions of Americans who protested Trump and Musk this past weekend, I discovered that a protest “alert” from Yahoo was in my email box.

Upon a close reading, however, of the so-called alert, I had to wonder how many would-be protesters had been fooled by it.

Here’s a screen shot:

If you can’t read it, here’s what it says verbatim:

“You’re reminded to prepare for the ‘Hands Off! San Diego Fights Back’ event against COVID-19 on Saturday, Apr 5, 2025, at 12pm PDT at Civic Center Plaza, 1200 Third Ave, San Diego, CA 92101 ….”

Noticing the baldfaced misinformation in the email, I clicked on the accompanying icon and learned:

“Yahoo Mail uses AI to summarize the most important information from you message. This technology is new and may make mistakes. View Terms”

By Roberto Camacho / Times of San Diego / April 7, 2025

A controversy about an op-ed in The San Diego Union-Tribune by a student at UC San Diego in the wake of violent responses to pro-Palestinian protests has stirred a conversation about free speech, its limits, and who has a right to speak — and about what.

For decades, universities have held themselves out as boundary-pushers at the forefront of societal metamorphosis and have served as conservatories for challenging ideas and conversations.

However, some ideas appear to be more palatable than others.

When “Mia,” a 21-year-old anthropology major at UCSD and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, was invited to contribute an op-ed to the Union-Tribune to share the perspectives of Jewish students in support of Palestinians, she was elated.

However, a few days later Mia’s op-ed was removed from the U-T’s website without explanation, sparking a local outcry from educators, activists, and community members.

KPBS / April 7, 2025

At least five UC San Diego students had their F-1 visas “suddenly” revoked by the federal government, and a sixth student was allegedly detained at the border, denied entry and deported, Chancellor Pradeep Khosla said over the weekend.

Khosla said the university received the notification “without warning,” and that the federal government has not explained the reasons behind the terminations. The students have been notified and the school is working directly with them to provide support, he said.

Looks like Corey Bruins, the former president of the Ocean Beach Town Council, is in very big trouble. The DA’s Office filed felony charges in Superior Court on March 6, 2025, and at his arraignment on March 31, Bruins plead not guilty.

He is currently out on his own recognizance. By one account, Bruins has an upcoming preliminary hearing sometime in May 2025. According to the Superior Court website, Bruins’ case number is CD307110.

Bruins, as OB observers and local activists know, was forced to resign as OBTC president in January 2024, throwing the Town Council into turmoil and crisis.

As the Rag reported then:

The immediate upshot, as interim president Cameron Reid explained in the statement he read to the some 60 people in the audience, is that president Corey Bruins has been ousted and that the group’s financial accounts have been turned over to an independent auditor. The former treasurer, Connor Harrington, has also resigned. (See full BOD statement below.)