The signs of Sherman Heights’ shift are evident: In the shadow of Petco Park, rundown Craftsman and Victorian homes are being restored. The jingle of the popsicle vender is drowned out by the pop pop pop of a nail gun.
Welcome to one of the few San Diego neighborhoods where the white population grew in the last 10 years. As downtown’s boom has spread eastward, a traditional center of San Diego’s Latino community has seen its Latino population dip and its white population boom.
“We’ve seen the changes happening,” said a worker at the local community center. “But when you see the numbers, it’s like, ‘wow.’”
Adrian Florido continues his neighborhood-level storytelling of the new Census figures, telling a tale that’s in startling contrast to one of the more prominent trends coming out of the Census, which showed Latino growth across the city, county and state. In North County, for example, Latinos and Asians fueled nearly all the region’s population growth, says the North County Times.
‘Didn’t We Just Resegregate Ourselves All Over Again?’
As more white families move into Barrio Logan, it doesn’t mean they’ll send their children down the street to the neighborhood school.
A system that gives parents a choice on where they send their kids, designed to integrate San Diego’s school children, is actually segregating some poorer schools even further, our Emily Alpert finds. She set out to answer a question: What if all of San Diego’s students went to their neighborhood school?
The results have surprising implications for a district looking to move back to more neighborhood schooling.
“There was a great groundswell of hope that we could solve our racial problems through integration,” said the head of the Urban League. “Now a lot of people are asking, ‘What have we accomplished? Didn’t we just resegregate ourselves all over again?’”
Add Another Heavyweight to the 2012 Mayoral Battle?
The 2012 mayoral race is shaping up to be quite the battle. On the Republican side, DA Bonnie Dumanis, Councilman Carl DeMaio and Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher are early frontrunners.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have struggled over the last decade-plus at putting up a credible challenger for the entirety of a campaign. That might change this time around. Congressman Bob Filner told an audience Sunday that he’s in, says an SDSU grad student via Twitter (via CityBeat).
There’s some debate over what he actually said but it’s been well-known in political circles for a while that Filner was planning on running. (Apparently that debate has been cleared up.) The next domino to fall: Will state Sen. Christine Kehoe run, adding another high-profile Dem to the race?
Water, Money and Marijuana
• San Diego County’s water use has precipitously dropped in recent years, but that seems to be leveling off. “A central question is whether water-wise strategies adopted during three years of drought will last or if they will fall by the wayside once the heat hits, the economy picks up more and conservation mandates are removed,” says the Union-Tribune.
• That economy might just be picking up: Sales tax revenue rebounded big time in North County in 2010, the NC Times says. Governments there rely heavily on it for public safety and other services, the paper notes, but the revenues are still far below the record years of 2006 and 2007.
• As medical marijuana dispensaries have popped up around town, San Diego hasn’t had rules in place to decide where they can and cannot go. The City Council is set to hear proposed rules today that would limit the dispensaries to commercial and industrial areas, the U-T says. We went inside one dispensary last year to break down the issue for this San Diego Explained.
VOSD Radio
On VOSD Radio this week we discuss the troubles facing San Diego’s newest big biz behemoth and teacher layoffs, and we hand out our Hero and Goat of the Week.
For another weekly rundown, check out TijuanaPress.com’s English-language summary of the big news out of Tijuana. This week: A WikiLeaks scandal and questions for San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders.
Wonks Unite!
Redevelopment is still alive. But how long has it got? Why did Governor Brown move to eliminate it? And why are Republicans protecting it?
Would you like to talk about it with all of the depth it deserves? Join us this afternoon, from 3-5 p.m. for a discussion about redevelopment and affordable housing. Our panel, moderated by Scott Lewis, is not going to shy away from terms like “tax increment” and “offsets.”
The discussion is happening today at 2508 Historic Decatur Road, in the San Diego Foundation building at Liberty Station in Point Loma.
Redevelopment is a complicated program and we have invited the thinkers, both critics and supporters, who can describe it best. We know the afternoon is a tough time to come to an event like this, but we hope you can make it.
The 3 Pension Questions
Liam Dillon has three questions on the dueling pension proposals that appear headed for the 2012 ballot: How much money does the mayor’s save, should police and fire be special and are there really going to be two different pension proposals for voters to sift through?
Leonard’s Decision
San Diego really started to like this whole March Madness thing.
And SDSU’s best hope for a repeat of this year’s success lies on the shoulders of young star Kawhi Leonard. The 19-year-old has a decision to make: Head to the NBA or come back for another year as an Aztec. The New York Times says he would likely be a mid-first-round pick. He’ll have to make a decision soon.
It’s a tough decision to make. In other news, I’ve declared myself eligible for the draft this year the 14 straight year. Here’s to hoping gangly, out-of-control point guards come back into fashion one of these years.
Do you have questions? Do you run an NBA team? You can reach me at andrew.donohue@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0526. Follow me on Twitter: @AndrewDonohue.