The word “drone” evokes images of missile-toting miniature planes. But they come in many more varieties, we found, and plenty of San Diego companies are churning them out.
Some drones dive underwater or traverse on land. Others are small enough to fit in a backpack or your hand. Pop star Lady Gaga even wore one at her latest album launch party. (Yes, you read that right.)
I looked into the myriad types of unmanned systems in my latest post in our quest on San Diego’s drone industry.
What You Need to Know About DeMaio
City Councilman-turned-congressional candidate Carl DeMaio has gotten lots of national press recently.
Fox News and The Daily Beast both detailed underhanded campaign attacks DeMaio endured in past political races from LGBT groups and much of the political left, both of which aimed to highlight his homosexuality.
But a lot of the national coverage we’ve seen thus far fails to mention DeMaio’s Republican foes. A new reader’s guide overviewed the run-ins he’s had with some on the right, how DeMaio made his money and more.
Revamping the Civic Process
A town hall about a proposal that would have raised the height limit in Clairemont devolved into open hostility last week, reaching its peak when a young woman said she wanted easier access to public transit and affordable housing.
Such heated exchanges have no place in productive discussions about community development, BH Kim wrote in a new commentary.
Kim, who leads the Malin Burnham Center for Civic Engagement, suggested involving key community hubs, such as local universities, which could help survey residents and promote two-way conversations instead of fights.
What We Learned This Week
• The San Diego Police Department doesn’t score many transparency points in a San Diego State professor’s review of more than 300 city and county police departments.
• San Diego is a major hub of the drone industry and many types of unmanned systems have local ties.
• The city’s delayed bike-share program puts more emphasis on where bicyclists might want to go than the neighborhoods where residents might really need the wheels.
• Substitutes are filling in for San Diego Unified teachers more often these days while the primary educators go through Common Core trainings.
• Opponents of the Barrio Logan community plan, which appears on the June ballot, argued that the neighborhood’s development blueprint had citywide impacts. Now some folks are making a similar argument about Clairemont’s controversial plan.
Quick News Hits
• John Gennaro explains why you should be excited and not-so-excited about Chargers draft pick Jason Verrett in our weekly Sports Report.
• A new waterfront park is opening in the Embarcadero area today. (NBC 7)
• The San Diego Opera reached its $1 million crowdfunding goal on Friday. That means the company raised more than half of the cash it said would be necessary to rescind the vote to shutter the opera. (LA Times)
•San Diego law enforcement officials announced the results of an online drug dealing crackdown on Friday. (KPBS)
Quote of the Week
“I want us all to think of the deeper questions – like how do we teach kids that it’s OK to fail? And how to learn from those failures instead of curling up in a fetal position? How do we teach their parents that it’s okay to fail?” – Thurgood Marshall Middle School principal Michelle Irwin, on creating a culture of excellence in schools.