OB Rag

Letter to City of San Diego & Mayor Todd Gloria 

By Shannon Greenlee

My April property tax bill increased by over $500 due to the added trash fee — and that’s only one of two annual payments.

If I refuse to pay the portion related to the trash fee increase (more than $1,000 total), I face penalties and even the risk of losing my home.

Today, we’re having fun and games with Richard Bailey, a candidate for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.

First, a new PAC for Bailey has just been announced. This is serious stuff. But it’s also a game. Steven Richter, a semi-retired tax attorney, is the principal officer for ‘SD Policy over Politics’, the new PAC.

Here’s Arturo Castañares’ write up about the new PAC, published April 13. Castañares is the editor at large of La Prensa.

A longtime Point Loma resident has launched a new political action committee (PAC) to support a candidate in the upcoming election for San Diego City Council, according to documents filed with the California Secretary of State last week.

By Mandy Havlik, Candidate for San Diego City Council District 2

I didn’t decide to run for City Council sitting behind a desk or at a political event. I decided to run after years of standing and advocating with neighbors asking, why is this still not fixed?

After watching people I care about feeling ignored by a system that’s supposed to serve them. And one of those moments that really stayed with me happened at my kids’ school. As a new parent and the elementary school garden coordinator at Ocean Beach Elementary, I started noticing traffic safety issues along Santa Monica and Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. Cars moving too fast. Lack of signage. No designated pick and drop off area. Kids walking and biking through an area that didn’t feel designed to protect them and keep them safe.

It wasn’t something difficult. It was about protecting my kids and other children in the neighborhood. So I did what I’ve always done, I spoke up. I went to the school administration, thinking this would be something we could work on together. Protecting children shouldn’t be complicated or controversial. But instead of support, I was met with hesitation. Questions about liability. Deflection. A sense that this wasn’t really the school’s responsibility, that it belonged somewhere else.

By Kate Callen

On April 14, 2025, activists from 14 San Diego communities gathered at a South Park pizzeria to explore how they might band together in their common fight against citywide saturation density.

A year later, the San Diego Community Coalition has doubled in size to represent 28 communities – from Encanto in the south to University City in the north and from the College Area in the east to Ocean Beach in the west.

Its mission has expanded as well. When Frank Gormlie, Paul Krueger, and I invited community leaders to gather last spring, the impetus was City Hall’s push for predatory development. We were all struggling with multi-story Bonus ADUs and mid-rise towers in neighborhoods where parking was scarce and fire risk was high.

That is still a problem, and it will continue so long as builder-supported YIMBY politicians run the city. But the political pendulum has begun swinging back because communities have demanded more responsive local government. Going forward, we must intensify that effort.

At the start, the Community Coalition was inspired by Neighbors For A Better San Diego (NFABSD), the most effective local grassroots organization in recent history.

The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

By Rebecca Solnit / The Guardian / April 12, 2026

The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries.

Across the branches of government, the services that are supposed to protect us – nuclear stockpile monitoring, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism – are being undermined, understaffed or trashed. A different kind of protection that consists of public health, vaccination programs, food safety, clean air and water, social services, civil rights and the rule of law is also under attack. The federal government that serves us is being starved while the federal government that serves the Trump agenda and the oligarchy is glutting itself on taxpayer money, including the grotesque sums dumped on the Department of Homeland Security and the US military now being warped into Pete Hegseth’s twisted vision of a ruthless mercenary force. Hegseth has reportedly stood in the way of promotions for more than a dozen Black and female officers.

Watchdog group says number of middle managers in San Diego city government exploded by 461% over 15 years

By Jeff McDonald / San Diego Union-Tribune /  April 13, 2026

The San Diego city workforce has grown by 2.2% a year over the past decade and a half – more than four times the rate of the general population, according to a new report from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

At the same time, capital-improvement needs across the city have reached $7.8 billion and the cost of deferred maintenance is at least $1 billion, researchers said.

But the most alarming finding from the tax-conscious group may be this: The number of middle managers at San Diego City Hall has increased from 70 positions in 2011 to 393 – a 461% increase.

While Mayor Todd Gloria and the City Council grapple with a budget deficit of at least $120 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the taxpayers association is sounding the alarm over the fraught state of San Diego finances.

The 21-page analysis lays out case after case in which city officials approved new positions, new programs, salary increases and other spending with too little consideration to maintenance, capital projects and needs.

In all, the report noted, San Diego is confronting budget deficits for each of the next five years between $91.5 million and $139 million in its general fund alone. The total general fund deficit in fiscal years 2027 through 2031 is estimated at $540 million.

From The Linda Vista Update / April 9, 2026

San Diegans are following news of the City’s desperate quest for more tax revenue. Various solutions have been either implemented or planned in order to come up with the cash necessary to balance our local government’s balance sheet.

Paying for parking at Balboa Park, and special event parking rates around the Petco Park area are already in the implementation phase, while the idea of taxing homeowners who own vacant second homes (vacant for more than 183 days) is still being debated, and will probably be placed on the June 2 ballot for a City-wide vote.

This “vacant second home” tax proposal, advocated by Councilmember Sean Elo Rivera (4th District) is based on the concept that threatened by more taxes, homeowners will be more likely to rent out these homes and thereby help alleviate the rental home shortage. This may seem like an unfair tax to pay, but as Councilmember Kent Lee (District 6) has said…”If someone can afford to own a second home and not use it for any purpose, they can absolutely afford to pay that tax, and they should.” (If you think that’s a wild concept, wait till you read our suggestions listed below)

We at the Linda Vista Update understand the importance of tax dollars. … Accordingly, we spent the past week hard at work in numerous brainstorming sessions, coming up with even better ways to reach into our San Diego citizens’ wallets and take their hard earned money.

We took the underlying idea of taxing homeowners with “vacant” homes, and the concept of penalizing citizens for leaving things empty or unused, and blended this into our own proposals, which are ready to be shown to our readers to get their opinions. While keeping an open mind, we invite all readers to take a look at these tax revenue proposals and imagine how effective they might be. Pick your favorite ones and then write your elected representatives and advocate for their adoption.

Tax Idea # 1: Vacant Space in Garage – Property owners who do not park their cars in the garage and leave vacant space, or who only have one car and a two-car garage will be taxed. It is hoped this tax will encourage property owners to stop using their garage space to store clutter, and free up parking space on the street.

Editordude: We offer this update on the billionaires bidding on the San Diego Padres as a way to introduce the crazy idea that perhaps the San Diego public ought to have some say in the future of the team. It’s not an unworldly idea; just look at the Green Bay Packers, a football team described this way:

a publicly owned, non-profit franchise in the NFL, owned by over 539,000 stockholders rather than a single individual or private group. Organized as Green Bay Packers, Inc. since 1923, the team is governed by a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee.  

National Today – San Diego / April 11, 2026

The sale of the San Diego Padres baseball team has turned into a high-stakes bidding war among billionaire investors, with four groups still in the running to acquire the franchise. The final bids are expected in April, and the winning bid could shatter the MLB record of $2.42 billion set by Steve Cohen’s purchase of the New York Mets in 2020.

Why it matters
The Padres sale reflects a broader trend of sports teams becoming prized assets for global investors looking to diversify their portfolios and build media and real estate empires. This raises questions about the future of sports ownership and whether local communities will have a meaningful stake as teams become global commodities.

By Gary Wonacott

A few years ago, the city’s contractor completed undergrounding work in South Mission Beach — originally planned in the 1970s.

The contractor tore up Mission Boulevard and the alleys.

More disruption is scheduled soon, so it would be wasteful to install expensive concrete paving now.

Yet the contractor left Mission Boulevard in terrible shape.

The San Diego Community Coalition publishes this email bulletin to keep our members and the general San Diego public informed about important Council and Planning Commission hearings and other city public meetings.

Monday, April 13: City Council, 2:00 p.m.

Agenda:

Item 200: Performance Audit of the Mission Bay and San Diego Regional Parks Improvement Funds, FY2024.

Why it matters: City audits should be performed in a timely manner. This item was heard at the Audit Committee meeting on November 12, 2025, and the City Auditor reported they “could not confirm that all Mission Bay Lease Revenue payments in FY2024 have been applied appropriately and the correct amount of funds were transferred…” There does not appear to be any updated information since then.

Item 251: Propositions for the November 3, 2026 Ballot Forwarded for 2nd Committee Review

Mission Bay Park is Not Surplus Land

By Donna Frye

A little over nine months ago, the issue of whether three properties in Mission Bay Park would be declared “surplus land” was being discussed at the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee. The committee voted to support that declaration and within a week, the public was informed about it by Geoff Page in the OB Rag.The three properties were Marina Village banquet and conference center, Dana Landing Marina and Sportsmen’s Seafood restaurant.

The reason cited by the city for the surplus land declaration was the State Surplus Land Act which required the city council to declare the properties “surplus” in order to request proposals for leases for a period longer than 15 years.

By declaring the land as surplus, first priority would be given to housing developers who could force the city into negotiations to build housing in Mission Bay Park.

The problem is that Mission Bay Park is dedicated public park land and San Diego City Charter Section 55 prohibits housing development in Mission Bay Park.

The public opposition to declare Mission Bay Park “surplus land” was instantaneous and unanimous. When the proposal made its way to the full city council for a vote on July 29, the item was continued instead of being approved.