The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
We’re highlighting some of your thoughts on homelessness, a project in Carmel Valley, health care woes for families that include U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants, and more.
Check out these five comments from the week and join us in discussion if you haven’t already:
• Michael McConnell on “Counting Down to the Downtown Homeless Shelter’s Big Reveal“:
It is not thorny math, we are just comparing the wrong things. It is not about how many beds but rather how many successful outcomes. How many people will leave the winter tent into permanent housing vs those that leave Connections’ interim beds into permanent housing? Until more people solve their homelessness every year vs those that enter it, the homeless numbers will do nothing but increase. Investing in the programs with the best outcomes is the only way to solve homelessness.
• Jose Martinez on “Beyond the Border Backlog: How Tijuana and SD Can Strengthen Ties“:
I was born in Tijuana, raised and educated in San Diego and Oceanside schools. Tijuana used to be known as “The Most Visited City in the World.” But now, waiting two, three, four hours to return to the U.S. makes visiting Tijuana a real chore. However, I have family in Tiuana and in San Diego and I don’t have a choice. We live in one of the ”world’s largest metropolitan binational regions” and better reciprocation will be beneficial to all.
Sometimes outsiders aren’t aware of the real economic impact each city has on each other or how cultures intertwine and influence each other to become something new. I have always felt special having been born in Tijuana, and moreover consider myself a native Sandieguino.
I know I speak for the more than ”30 million pedestrians and passengers” that cross the border yearly: PLEASE CUT DOWN ON THE BORDER WAIT!
• Jason Lindquist on “One Paseo’s Fate Looms in 2013“:
1) Why does Carmel Valley need another 200,000 feet of retail space? Right across the street is the Del Mar Highlands Town Center. The Piazza Carmel center sits at 56 and Carmel Creek. Are there really needs left unfulfilled in these locations? Has demand finally filled all the vacancies they’ve had?
Does Kilroy expect to lure retailers away from, or to profitably compete with (vacancy-plagued) University Town Center, just a couple exits down I-5? If not, why is a rapid transit bus connection relevant?
2) Is there such a housing shortage in Carmel Valley that just 608 units would ameliorate? This sounds almost like an afterthought.
3) Where does this fit with the retail planned for the east end of Del Mar Heights Road?
The drawings look pretty, but this doesn’t sound like a project for Carmel Valley. Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, but not now.
• Frances O’Neill Zimmerman on “3 Takeaways from the Explosive City Council Meeting“:
For a change we the people can see what’s happening at City Hall. Conflict. Debate. Contention. The opposite of false civility masking backroom deals.
No way should strong Mayor Bob Filner allow someone else to make the SANDAG appointments. As La Playa Heritage points out, chapter and verse, the City Charter says it’s the mayor’s job.
• Oscar Ramos on “Multi-Status Families Brace for Health Care Reform“:
If we just focus on the U.S. citizen children in this story, I think we have to consider what good it does to allow them to be raised by parents who can’t access resources to stay healthy and who could be deported. These kids are far more likely to grow up in poverty because of the barriers their parents face, and this will surely affect their educational attainment. Considering that the birthrate in this country is dropping and there will be fewer young people working to support our elderly, we should be investing in these children, if only for the sake of ensuring that they grow up to be contributing members of society instead of being a drain.
What are the alternatives? We deport the undocumented immigrants, including the parents of U.S. citizen children. Then what? Do we deport the children along with the parents? Those children, being citizens, will have every right to return to the U.S. as adults and they will have completely missed out on the educational opportunities and acculturation process necessary to assimilate and be productive members of our society. Do we put them into foster care instead? Or do we give the parents some kind of pathway to legal residency so they can work, get health care, and raise their children?
Both my parents were illegal immigrants, and my brothers and I were born in the U.S. At one point, my parents were ordered to self-deport, but they received amnesty in 1986. This allowed my dad to keep his job, which gave our family health care coverage. My brothers and I weren’t uprooted, and we became the first generation in our family to graduate from college. One of my brothers is a doctor and I’m a teacher. Again, if we only focus on costs, the state is surely getting more from us in tax revenue than if we had been raised as U.S. citizens in Mexico, only to return to the U.S. as adults, unable to speak English.
My taxes just went up as well. If my money is being used to give people access to health care and education so that they can achieve their potential, then I’m all for it.
Comments have been slightly edited for typos and spelling.
Want to contribute to discussion? Submit a suggestion to Fix San Diego.
Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
Like VOSD on Facebook.
Disclosure: Voice of San Diego members and supporters may be mentioned or have a stake in the stories we cover. For a complete list of our contributors, click here.