San Diego’s biggest homeless services agency is in the midst of a big transformation.
Father Joe’s Villages, which operates St. Vincent de Paul Village in East Village, has long been the region’s top provider of “transitional” housing programs focused on providing the homeless months of support to prepare them for a new home.
In a new story, Lisa Halverstadt writes about how Father Joe’s is increasingly shifting away from that approach to one that first concentrates on housing the homeless and then provides services they might need.
Homelessness advocates prefer this approach and the federal government is handing out money to agencies that make the changes.
Father Joe’s shift hasn’t come without tensions.
Earlier this week, Halverstadt wrote about how San Diego’s been slower to dial back its transitional housing offerings than other U.S. metros.
What’s Standing in the Way of a Cross-Border Bike Lane?
Groups are trying to make it easy to bike between Mexico and the United States.
It’s difficult, though, and not just because building anything across an international border is tough. Bike unfriendliness in San Ysidro and Tijuana is a big hurdle, too,
“What we want to see is the expansion of bike infrastructure to create a South Bay open space bike network,” one bike advocate tells Maya Srikrishnan. “Our whole stake is getting people out into open space and experiencing the Tijuana River Valley.”
Another big issue bike lane advocates are running into: No one really knows how many people would use the lane – that’s a big problem when it comes to convincing border agencies that there should be one.
Sacramento Report: Labor Sitting Out Atkins-Block Race
The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council has started to roll out some early endorsements for 2016.
But one marquee race isn’t on the list: The showdown between Assemblywoman Toni Atkins and state Sen. Marty Block for the seat Block currently holds. Mickey Kasparian, the Labor Council’s president, told me “there’s no bad decision” to be made in the race, so it plans to sit out.
Also in the Sacramento Report: Lisa Halverstadt breaks down a big win for fans of solar power this week, and Sara Libby details a new bill from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez that would help workers in the so-called sharing economy organize.
A Climate Wonkfest
On this week’s podcast, co-hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts were joined by a panel to talk about San Diego’s recently adopted Climate Action Plan, a bundle of policies meant to cut the city’s carbon footprint nearly in half by 2035. On the show: Monique López from the Environmental Health Coalition, Nicole Capretz of the Climate Action Campaign, David Gatzke from Community HousingWorks and Sean Kerafin with the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.
News Roundup
• St. Louis Alderwoman Sharon Tyus makes a grand point about all of the desperate cities falling all over themselves to provide stadium subsidies to the football industry but then finding the teams demanding more corporate welfare from taxpayers: “We’re like at the strip club … and the stripper is throwing the money back at us.” That’d be quite the night at Cheetahs, though, because St. Louis said it will throw $150 million at the Rams to build them a new stadium to keep them in town. But the NFL would have to pony up twice that much, which is unacceptable to Commissioner Roger Goodell. All that said, even if you are now fed up with this racket or even if you’ve never been much of a Chargers fan, Union-Tribune sports columnist Kevin Acee — who could soon be a man without a team to cover — pens a eulogy for the Chargers, who may play their last home game ever in San Diego this weekend.
• Fifteen years ago, about 25 antique stores thrived on Adams Avenue. Just one will soon remain. Uptown News explores what happened — namely, gentrification.
• Isis Pharmaceuticals announced this week it would change its name to Ionis Pharmaceuticals. It will also change it stock market ticker symbol to IONS from ISIS. The reason, for anyone following the news, is obvious: ISIS, also the name of an Egyptian god, is now associated with terrorist activity across the world.
Weekend Things
I asked Kinsee Morlan, the editor of our Culture Report, for things a person could do if they’re sick of shopping or don’t want to see “The Nutcracker” again. For the invigorated “Star Wars” fan, there’s a lightsaber battle tonight in Embarcadero Marina Park North. If you prefer sitting and peace, the Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa is in town Sunday night for a show at the Jacobs Center.
This Week’s Top Five
Here is a link to the Top 10 most-read stories of the week at Voice of San Diego. And here are the Top Five:
1. Google Fiber and the Race to Bring Warp-Speed Internet to San Diego
A recent announcement that ultra-fast Google Fiber internet service may be coming to San Diego got a lot of attention. The potential for a new entrant to the market has many hoping more competition will mean faster internet service for everyone. (Jennifer McEntee)
2. ‘No Person … Can See That Video and Come to the Conclusion That My Brother Was Attacking a Police Officer’
For the first time, the family of Fridoon Rashawn Nehad is speaking out about the circumstances surrounding his death in a disputed police shooting. (Liam Dillon)
3. San Diego Airport Has a Plan for Terminal 1 — Now it Just Needs $1 Billion
San Diego International Airport leaders have settled on a $2.2 billion plan to rebuild Terminal 1 and part of Terminal 2. How they will pay for it all or even half of it, though, is still unknown. (Ashly McGlone)
4. San Diego Unified’s Most Absurd Visual Aids, Ranked
Schools and school districts tend to have their own language – and usually it’s clunky and convoluted. To its credit, San Diego Unified seems to recognize this and tries to translate its ideas into something close to English so that when officials talk about them at public meetings, everyone is on the same page. That’s the idea, at least. Most of the time, the very aids meant to explain government jargon to the public only make things more confusing. (Mario Koran)
5. DA Dumanis Shuns Employee and Only Republican in City Attorney Race
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is keeping her views on the city attorney race quiet for now, but she’s had plenty of public issues with her employee, Republican candidate Bob Hickey, over her failed mayoral run and successful re-election bid. (Andrew Keatts)