Last year, San Diego wound up competing with Ventura County for a shot at becoming an FAA drone testing site. Both California bids lost out.
Now, the FAA is looking for a handful of regions to become centers for drone research, and San Diego wants to redeem itself.
Leaders across the state are working together to form a bid this time – no competing regions from one state – and some of the officials involved believe UC San Diego could be a front-runner to lead the effort.
The ABCs of Props. B and C
Props. B and C on next week’s ballot are both related to Barrio Logan’s community plan update.
But what happens if one passes and the other doesn’t? Turns out they’re not dependent on each other, Andy Keatts explains:
“If only Prop. B, which addresses the new community plan, passes, things like the increased fees for developers who build homes in the area, guidelines for urban design in the area and a new priority list of public projects like parks and libraries, will stay in place.
“If only Prop. C, which includes the changes to the city and community’s zoning restrictions, passes, the buffer area between the shipyard and residential area will go into effect, as will changes to the amount of housing that can be built in the part of the neighborhood closest to downtown.”
• Beyond those propositions, it’s been a pretty quiet election. Still, there’ve been a few weird moments – like the time Lorie Zapf compared herself to a warthog (sort of?).
Maya Angelou’s San Diego Stint
People poring over remembrances of beloved poet and author Maya Angelou this week might’ve noticed a peculiar tidbit: She worked as a madam in San Diego in the 1940s.
Randy Dotinga unearthed some more details in Angelou’s 1974 autobiography: She took local dance classes, read at the library and worked at a nightclub on top of her other salacious gig, apparently.
What Can Brown Do for You (Padres Fans)?
Our sports blogger John Gennaro knocked down the weird justifications Padres ownership has given lately for keeping the team’s colors blue and white.
A group of vocal fans wants a return to brown and yellow, one of the team’s old color schemes.
What We Learned This Week
• Attorney Cory Briggs files more CEQA lawsuits than any other lawyer in the state. And the City Council is not a big fan.
• Chargers players, police officers and city attorneys get a pass on traffic tickets from SDPD, according to a disgraced former cop.
• District attorneys do more than usher criminals into the prison system.
• It’s worth breaking down the two measures that’ll determine Barrio Logan’s community plan update.
• Candidates for county assessor do not need to be certified property appraisers before they run for the office.
• City Council candidate Sarah Boot does not support a home retrofit mandate included in the proposed citywide Climate Action Plan. But before she said so this week, her position was almost impossible to decipher.
Quick News Hits
• U-T San Diego profiles Bill Mason, the San Diego Opera’s new artistic adviser and former general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Lyric Opera takes some bold risks with its work. We discussed opera’s future with Anthony Freud, the Chicago company’s director, a few weeks back.
• When the Carlsbad Desalination Plant opens, it could be the first in a series of such plants up and down the California coast, the San Jose Mercury News reports: “Fifteen desalination projects are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay.”
Quote of the Week
“I can’t provide the right type of life for my family/ Cause man, these goddamn food stamps don’t buy diapers.” – Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, quoting Eminem as she pushed AB 1516, a CalWorks supplement for diapers.