When a municipality creates a redevelopment area like the one in downtown San Diego, it captures a greater share of the tax money generated in that area — public revenue that would normally go to the rest of the city, other parts of the county, school districts and the state.
This week, the San Diego City Council will decide whether to take the first step in extending the life of redevelopment downtown, and the amount of taxes it hopes to sequester. Proponents say that’s the only way they can pay for the dreams they have for downtown, including a new stadium for the Chargers.
But it would mean yet more sacrifice for other local agencies and potentially other neighborhoods’ dreams. And what happens if football fans pressure the county to lift the cap but no deal is made and the Chargers end up leaving anyway?
- Do you have questions about how sewage could end up being our next source for drinking water, but fear the conversation would degrade into childish potty humor jokes? Rob Davis answers the call (no, not the call of nature) with a handy guide.
Davis explains how sewage gets purified for drinking in a nutshell. From the yuck factor, to the pharmaceutical concern, to the cross-town rival: desalinated seawater.
- Spotted in the North County Times is more news on county food stamp participation. The hope is that the county will develop better practices to avoid misplaced paperwork, long wait times and other unnecessary anti-fraud measures. Our continuing investigation will shed a heck of a lot of light on the whys and hows of the whole story.
Elsewhere:
- There have been lots of plans for the waterfront span stretching from Seaport Village to Lindbergh Field. But after so many years, the Union-Tribune explains why only one project — a cruise ship terminal — is actually under construction.
- The LA Times writes that authorities hoped prosecutions in the United States would deter drug violence in Mexico. Those prosecutions are happening at a steady clip. “In the last few weeks in San Diego alone, four cartel figures were convicted of leading organizations that smuggled tons of the drugs into the U.S., carried out assassinations and spent millions of dollars bribing Mexican authorities.”
But there’s little sign the effort is much of a deterrent.
- The OC Register’s OC Watchdog blog just decided to sink its teeth into Proposition 16, a measure that Pacific Gas and Electric is pushing but that would also benefit San Diego Gas and Electric. To help you understand the measure’s logic, the blog uses the analogy of a tapeworm. Yes, a tapeworm — they really didn’t hold back on this.
“If you totally love the giant, for-profit, monopolistic utility that provides your electricity – and if you want to make it essentially impossible for anyone else to get into the electricity business ever again, as long as we all shall live – then Proposition 16 is the ballot measure for you!”
- Not everyone is satisfied with a solid weekend consisting of chores, half-off sales and mending your gym socks as I am. It’s apparent that some of you ventured out to soak in some culture at Little Italy’s Art Walk, which drew a sizable crowd, as the U-T reports. If you weren’t there, you were in La Jolla for “what is arguably San Diego County’s toughest half marathon,” via the North County Times.
At least I will have the satisfaction of knowing I have a clean house and awesome, intact socks. I could have totally finished a marathon, I just didn’t feel like it.
— SARAH JOHNSON