And Mayor Bob Filner became former Mayor Bob Filner at 5 p.m. Friday. The end of his short term came not with a bang but with a stop-use order issued to a controversial Jack in the Box restaurant in North Park.
CityBeat’s Dave Rolland got a hold of the order, which prohibits the Jack in the Box from operating its drive-thru.
It’s unclear what else Filner did this week. Lisa Halverstadt tried to figure it out and his top aides had little to offer.
The moment Todd Gloria took over as interim mayor, he rescinded that stop-use order.
• Gloria did a Q-and-A about being the new sort-of mayor with the U-T. And he got a glowing little profile in Bloomberg Businessweek.
The Search for a New Mayor
We have more from Liam Dillon’s Q-and-A with Nathan Fletcher. The first part of Dillon’s interview had as many tough questions about Fletcher’s switch to the Democratic Party as Dillon could muster. Today’s edition is all about the downtown vs. neighborhoods tension.
Fletcher threw a bone to Filner’s framing of the situation.
“I think one of the best conversations we’ve been having over the course of this year that has to continue is the one about neighborhoods and neighborhoods that have been neglected for a long time and I think that’s clearly we have to do a better job,” he said.
• Labor leader Mickey Kasparian does not seem impressed with Fletcher. At a speech yesterday, according to NBC 7’s Wendy Fry, Kasparian said, “We are not going to elect a used car salesman as our mayor.”
Kasparian tweeted Dillon’s Q-and-A with Fletcher along with a thought: “Many questions asked, few answers given.”
I took the opportunity to remind Kasparian of a tweet he issued months ago when Fletcher became a Democrat. He was pretty stoked.
And lo, there appears to be enthusiasm in labor for someone like Councilman David Alvarez to jump in the race.
Police union official Jeffrey Jordon threw some cold water on that: “… Progressives don’t have a candidate who can win, the sooner they realize it the better for labor groups.”
• Carl DeMaio seems all but certain to run for mayor. Would love to get an interview with Republican congressional leadership as he moves away from his push to unseat Scott Peters in California’s 52nd District.
• And finally there was this: former City Attorney Mike Aguirre is jumping in the race, according to NBC 7.
“God help us,” tweeted attorney Gil Cabrera.
It appears every man in San Diego is running.
• Matt Romney (Mitt’s son) told the Los Angeles Times that he was not running for mayor of San Diego. He is a man. But his residence is just outside of city limits. The Times claims he “could have moved.”
• What do San Diegans want in their next mayor? Pollster John Neinstedt asked 481 potential voters and put together a word cloud of their answers. “Integrity” and “honesty” were the most frequently mentioned attributes.
• VOSD member Ben Katz doing some polling of his own. Katz created a wiki of questions for mayoral candidates, and he’s hoping fellow readers add theirs to this list. His goal is to bring those questions to the candidates and track their answers in key areas, including public safety, small business needs and open government.
Comments of the Week
Our reader comments of the week post leads with an idea on how community planning groups can improve without being “taken over.”
Future San Diego
San Diego’s population is changing. Dramatically. Our Andrew Keatts shows you just how it’s projected to change in three charts.
Fact Check: Film Commission Power
The former leader of the San Diego Film Commission, which was just disbanded, claimed that the group helped bring in $100 million in production company spending in San Diego each year.
Lisa Halverstadt checked out that claim with a fact check and found it mostly true.
Veterans’ Education Sticker Shock
Returning veterans are finding out that the generous new GI Bill, which pays for higher education for them, does not actually cover many out-of-state tuitions. Twenty-nine states, including ours, have residency requirements that are forcing veterans into out-of-state tuition.
In partnership with News 21, we published a story featuring a San Diego veteran trying to handle out-of-state tuition at UC San Diego.
Other News
San Diegans with coveted SENTRI passes that allow them to bypass long lines at the U.S.-Mexico border will no longer get decals on their cars because of complaints that the stickers made them vulnerable to drug traffickers, KPBS reports.
NBC 7 San Diego says the county is struggling to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in overpaid fees, property taxes and more.
Quote of the Week
“It’s very difficult, especially when you have to do these things in the public and in the open, to admit that you’ve changed. It’s a hard thing to do because you face intense criticism and you face criticism that you’re a flip-flopper. But I can’t stay in a place that I think is wrong and pretend to be there when I know that it’s not what I believe.”
— Candidate Nathan Fletcher, explaining his evolution from Republican to Independent to Democrat
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