OB Rag

The long, contentious 5-hour city council meeting that ended Monday night, Nov. 13, ultimately witnessed a rejection of Mayor Gloria’s current Housing Action Package because of its controversial give-away to affordable housing developers.

Ultimately, by a 5 to 3 vote, the council turned down the entire package (Councilmember Raul Campillo was absent for the birth of his first child). Councilmembers Stephen Whitburn and Marni von Wilpert made the initial proposal. So, Councilmembers Joe LaCava, Jennifer Campbell, Monica Montgomery Steppe, Kent Lee and Council President Sean Elo-Rivera opposed the proposal with Whitburn, von Wilpert and Vivian Moreno supporting it.

I could be imaging things, but today’s — Monday, Nov. 13 — San Diego Union-Tribune was the slimmest I have ever seen it. (Actually, I view the U-T online, so it was “short”.) 32 pages online.

Now, it’s true that the Monday edition is slimmer than most days as it follows the blockbuster Sunday edition. But still … it’s a sign that it’s getting bad.

Other San Diego media outlets have raised recent concerns about the future and direction of the U-T after its purchase last July by the New York-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital from biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

By Joni Halpern

Let’s look at the facts. Every housing project in the portions of San Diego that can be considered affluent or wealthy can yield maximum market-rate rents for a developer. Adding market-rate units in a city that contains part of the “American Riviera” can only increase profits.

So first things first — the developers gain the right to build hundreds and later thousands of new units, promising to help the City accommodate households up to 60% Area Median Income (AMI), or 80% AMI, or preferably 120% AMI.

Is this the right technology for San Diego, with the right partner companies, at the right cost, with the right protections?

by Seth Hall /Op-Ed Voice of San Diego/ November 10, 2023

San Diego’s streetlight surveillance drama is about to come full circle.

Over the years, the community coalition I am part of has attempted to work with members of the police department, the mayor’s office, the Privacy Advisory Board, and all members of two different City Councils to create sufficient protections for streetlight-mounted surveillance cameras to be used transparently and responsibly, if they must be used at all. I

A dark-colored sedan struck a side of the fast food restaurant Power Plant Sunday night, Nov.12. No one was injured. The well-known veggie fast food place is at the northwest corner of Sunset Cliffs Blvd and Voltaire Street.

The San Diego City Council will discuss — and most assuredly vote on — the Mayor’s controversial  “Housing Action Plan 2.0” as part of its afternoon agenda, this Monday, November 13, at 2 pm.

Please take a few minutes to read this analysis of the Mayor’s proposal submitted by Neighbors For A Better San Diego.

Originally posted on 9/29/23. But now the government will shut down on Friday, Nov. 17
The federal government will shut down Sunday at 12:01 a.m. if lawmakers do not act.

What will it mean for San Diego County?

• Most federal employees would be immediately furloughed without pay.
• the shutdown could hit 64,000 civilian workers
• it will affect the roughly 115,000 military personnel in San Diego County
• Nearly 380,000 people received food assistance in the county in September.

Writer Dave Rice at San Diego Reader lets us have a peak at how the other 1% live.

The 5-bedroom “Chateau Beau Soleil” at 889 Sunset Cliffs Boulevard is 7500 square feet and owned by a trust is on display:

About a week ago, the San Diego online news platform, inewsource, announced that former San Diego U-T cartoonist Steve Breen was joining its staff.
In its announcement, inewsource stated:

Steve worked for the San Diego Union-Tribune for more than 20 years, practicing an art form that explained, questioned and poked fun at newsworthy occurrences, from local to global. He left the paper as part of the exodus when Alden Global Capital bought it a few months ago.

There’s a strong move afoot by Mayor Gloria to give developers even more incentives in building affordable housing as it supposedly would give developers wider flexibility.

There’s  just one catch: Gloria’s proposal will allow developers to build affordable  housing off-site and in poorer communities. This will lead to a new type of “redlining” say critics of the proposal and will reduce economic diversity across the city.