It looks like southeastern San Diego will be getting a Walmart, representing a major retail investment in a place that has struggled to bring private retail investment to town.
The deal to bring Walmart to the Chollas View neighborhood, at Market Street near 47th Street, isn’t final. But a nonprofit that owns land in the area is working out the details. Target also had its eye on the land, but the nonprofit decided to work with Walmart instead.
Recently, Walmart successfully fought the city’s attempt to restrict certain kinds of superstores.
A Glimpse of a Slain Cop’s Generosity
A surveillance video at a McDonald’s restaurant captured police officer Jeremy Henwood as he “performed one last act of kindness” — buying food for a young boy. The officer was shot to death minutes after leaving the store, just six blocks away. (NBC San Diego)
“He held his gun holster like he was ready for anything,” the 13-year-old boy told Speak City Heights, a news collaborative in which voiceofsandiego.org is a partner. The officer bought cookies for the boy after the child asked for 10 cents to help him buy them himself. They ate together. “He told me, ‘Hard work in life will do you well,’” the boy said.
No, She’s Not Regis and You Can’t Call a Friend
County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, a member of the county pension board, is raising questions about why the agency hired an outside public relations firm when it has its own communications staff to handle things like dealing with the media, the Union-Tribune reports.
The U-T reported earlier that the pension agency spent more than $76,000 “for advice about answering questions from the newspaper, responding to stories in the paper and other issues.” It also spent more than $2,500 to prepare a board member and its CEO for a chat with the U-T editor. The agency’s communications director said the expenditures helped it get its message out.
Jacob didn’t want the outside PR firm to help the CEO respond to her concerns, the U-T reported, saying she asked that it “not be retained to answer her memo.” That suggests she thinks he didn’t need outside help to respond to an inside question.
Urban Renewal and Stadium Dreams
Mayor Jerry Sanders is going on a road trip to visit Indianapolis, Denver and Kansas City and learn how they use stadiums as anchors for sports, entertainment and business districts, NBC San Diego reports.
• Also in stadium news, Sanders earlier sent this statement to a TV station about the prospects for a new football stadium: “Our discussions have been complicated by the elimination of redevelopment funds.” San Diego Fact Check finds the claim is mostly true. The state hasn’t completely eliminated funds for the form of subsidized urban renewal known as redevelopment; there’s a way for cities to get the money back.
• Curious about how our Fact Check feature works? Check the answers to frequently asked questions, including “Why did VOSD start the San Diego Fact Check?” and “How do you choose which claims to Fact Check?”
Understanding Whether Teachers Are In or Out
In fashion, as they like to say on Project Runway, one day you’re in, the next day you’re out. Teachers know the feeling more than those in some other lines of work. Their jobs can vanish when budgets get tight, especially if they’re rookies. Union rules give precedence to seniority, creating a “last in, first out” system that’s especially hard on poor and struggling schools.
We’ve long been helping readers understand the process that schools use to decide who stays and who goes. A new post offers a back-to-school guide for which teachers end up in where in San Diego schools, including a video explainer for you visual learners (lookit me using education lingo!) and a recap of our three-part 2009 series about San Diego’s flawed teacher placement system.
How Sweet Are the Symphony’s Sounds?
As the San Diego Symphony has made its way to firmer financial ground, some people are saying its musicians sound great too. What do you think? Let us know.
• The Morning Report and the Arts Report (whose weekly edition just came out) don’t have any sibling rivalry. None at all, even though the Arts Report gets to go to lots of plays and performances while the Morning Report sits at home on Saturday nights and organizes its stamp collection. But the Morning Report digresses, as is its wont.
Where the Republicans Roam
San Diego may have a Republican mayor and three leading GOP candidates in the race to succeed him, but new statistics show that there are still many more registered Democrats than Republicans in the city. In fact, the GOP has more registered voters than the Democrats in just one of the eight districts, the Reader reports.
Almost 41 percent of registered voters are Democrats and less than 29 percent are Republicans. The most Democratic districts are those that serve parts of mid-city and southeastern San Diego (their City Council members are Todd Gloria and Tony Young). The most Republican district, with more Republicans than Democrats, serves the northern parts of the city. It’s represented by mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio.
Fukushima Radioactivity Observed Here
Researchers at UCSD have seen an increase in atmospheric levels of a radioactive isotope of sulphur related to the massive Japanese earthquake that occurred earlier this year. They’re using these measurements to study how radioactivity spreads. The increased levels are not called harmful. Ars Technica has an analysis of the paper as well.
Homes Galore in Future and Cheap-ish Now
San Diego is a star when it comes to the potential for newly built homes in the future, the Barclays Capital firm has announced. Once cities work their way through their existing “distressed inventory and excess supply,” new homes in the region have a potential value of $3.3 billion. Only Phoenix and Washington D.C rank higher among 16 metro areas. (Bloomberg News)
If you’re thinking about buying a house now instead of later, the real estate site Trulia says you may be wise to do so: San Diego ranks among the 37 cities that are deemed to be places where it’s “Much Less Expensive to Buy Than to Rent,” according to a report released yesterday. It’s “Less Expensive to Rent, But May Make More Financial Sense to Buy” in Los Angeles and six other cities, while San Francisco is one of six cities where the “Total Cost of Homeownership (Is) Much Greater Than Renting.”
Take-home message: If you’ve a renter who’s enjoyed the last few years of gloating to homeowners about smart you are, you’re going to have to move to keep on annoying people. Hey, need a roomie?
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.