City officials like to declare that San Diego is on track to turn municipal dumps into ghost towns by the year 2040. The idea is to recycle and reuse all waste — clothes, food, washing machines and all the rest — instead of sending it to the landfill.
Is that even possible? VOSD’s Ry Rivard put the plan through the buzz saw of a reality check. Turns out there’s some fuzziness built in. Even in its own planning documents, the city’s ambitious “zero waste” goal is just that — a goal. “The ‘zero’ is almost always in quotation marks,” he writes.
The city has more plans to boost recycling and diversions of things like food waste (a big topic in the national dialogue this week) away from the dump.
• The Helix Water District, which serves part of East County, tried to force customers to save water by banning them from using more than 30 units — 22,440 gallons — every two months. A 15 gallons per shower, that’s 1,496 showers, or 25 a day.
The district’s board and some customers rebelled, and now the order has been withdrawn. (Union-Tribune)
• An Imperial Valley cooperative is fighting to export more renewable energy. (Union-Tribune)
Politics Roundup: Is Anderson Serious
Last spring, I examined the weird, high-stakes race developing in Republican-dominated East County, where longtime Supervisor Dianne Jacob is facing a challenge from inside the house: A bid from state Sen. Joel Anderson, who’s peeled off support from the construction business and some (but hardly all) prominent Republicans.
Jacob, who’s spent six terms on the Board of Supervisors, doesn’t appear to be weak. So what is Anderson doing? U-T columnist Logan Jenkins wonders if he’s putting up a faux campaign, perhaps with an eye on replacing Jacob when she’s termed out in 2020. Anderson wouldn’t talk to the columnist, who quoted a VOSD article from way back in 2006.
• Assemblyman Brian Maienschein won’t run to replace embattled County Supervisor Dave Roberts, the only Democrat on the board. Republicans are salivating at the chance to take back the seat, but only one — controversial Escondido Mayor Sam Abed — has announced a bid. (Inewsource)
• “Gov. Jerry Brown, speaking at a conference hosted by Pope Francis, on Tuesday denounced climate change skeptics as well-financed ‘troglodytes’ determined to ‘bamboozle’ local leaders.” (L.A. Times)
Culture Report: Meet The Radvocate
A local literary ‘zine called The Radvocate is heading for a higher profile thanks to a partnership with the So Say We All people, which supports San Diego storytelling. VOSD’s weekly Culture Report has the story along with links to stories about the fuss over a canceled art show, a surprise departure at New Children’s Museum and a big movie house destined for Liberty Station in Point Loma.
• KPBS offers “a look at how the five-year-old Balboa Park Conservancy plans to preserve and maintain San Diego’s ‘crown jewel’ now that there’s a new CEO leading the charge.” We took a look at the new chief in an article last month that examined similarities to his previous work in New York state.
Department of Miracles
• Union-Tribune sports writer Kevin Acee went “28 days virtually Chargers-free” and survived. He says so in the first sentence of his latest column. There’s more: “I found out I can live without the Chargers. I can even thrive. We all can.”
• Sports Illustrated has trouble finding people in L.A. who care about football.
News-a-Palooza: Quavering at Qualcomm
• Trouble is brewing for Qualcomm, which is facing a possible breakup and potential massive layoffs. The Union-Tribune has details.
• San Diego State University’s president will get a 2 percent raise along with some other employees of the California State University system. Elliot Hirshman remains the most well-paid university president in the system, the Union-Tribune reports, making more than $420,000. His high salary has been controversial; he’ll make almost as much as the chancellor of the entire system.
• A new report says California’s children rank 38th in the nation when it comes to a measurement of “well-being,” with 25 percent of the state’s children in poverty. We did beat Oklahoma, however. (KPBS)
The Day Online
• Seth Hall, fellow Morning Report scribe and himself an IT professional, digs into that devastating Poway technology report and talks about it in a conversation via Twitter. Hall said Poway schools are “a great example of how an IT team in poor shape can infect your entire org, like patient zero of next epidemic. They touch everyone/thing.”
• VOSD’s Sara Libby finds an antidote to the usual flood of “San Diego brotos” — photos of San Diego leaders surrounded by men.
• Is San Diego really home to 91,000 adultery-minded people whose identities could become public thanks to a hack of Ashley Madison’s affair-friendly dating site? You might think so if you read the U-T. But the reality’s different.
The number is based on a claim that Ashley Madison has 37 million users worldwide. But Vocativ says the truth is more like 2.3 million active users total. This means the number for San Diego is more likely to be far less than the population of La Mesa and Lemon Grove combined.
If those cities ever do connect, by the way, we need to make sure they stay away from the Ashley Madison site. We all know how Santee likes to flirt.
Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego and national president of the 1,200-member American Society of Journalists and Authors (asja.org). Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.