Fresh off of unveiling his first progressive initiative since taking office – that’d be the enforceable mandates in his Climate Action Plan draft released Tuesday – Mayor Kevin Faulconer might be in a position to surprise San Diego for the duration of his administration.
Faulconer joined Scott Lewis on stage at VOSD Live, our podcast recording in front of an audience at Luce Loft in downtown San Diego Tuesday night, for a one-on-one interview about the state of the city. Lewis asked the mayor what went into his decision to give the Climate Action Plan some teeth.
“What’s the right thing to do?” Faulconer said. “We all live here, this is our city, this is our environment. … Are those absolutely gonna be stretch goals to attain? Yeah, it is. But I think we have the opportunity to reinforce a leadership position that I think this city already has, particularly when it comes to sustainability, the areas of solar and others, to buttress that.”
Lewis also pressed Faulconer on what alternatives Republicans might put forward instead of the minimum wage hike many of them vocally oppose. He was a bit less clear on that front.
“You have to have a strong economy,” Faulconer said. “I’m always gonna make sure that we’re putting an emphasis on those policies that help put people back to work to create that.”
In the second half of the show, Troy Johnson of San Diego Magazine and Rebecca Smith of the city’s arts commission sat down with Lewis, Andrew Keatts and me to riff on the latest in restaurateurs’ battle against raising the minimum wage, and whether “normal” people actually care about media news. Don’t miss our “What’s the Deal” bit toward the end – especially if you’re confounded by the plethora of hookah lounges in this town, or your neighbor’s habit of washing his sidewalk during the drought.
Download the show below. Jump to 9:43 for Lewis’ interview with Faulconer, 33:02 for our roundtable chat and about 1:04:40 for What’s the Deal.
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