What We Learned This Week

Last week, I was talking on the phone with my parents as police were still in the midst of breaking up anti-Donald Trump protesters.

Because they are parents, they were worried. You’re far away from all that, right? You don’t have to go out and cover it?

No, I told them, we don’t really do national news. We don’t really do daily news events like rallies.

But … my mom said, still not quite understanding … it’s IN San Diego.

It can be hard to explain our role in elections, that’s for sure.

Here are a few things you can expect from us on Tuesday, and a few things you should not expect.

First, we shouldn’t be your source for breaking updates on who’s winning. Certainly that’s information everyone wants on Election Night, so check out sdvote.com, or our media partners at NBC San Diego.

Throughout the day on Tuesday, we’ll be publishing our rad feature Voices of the Voters, where we check in with people casting their ballots around the city about what motivated them to vote. And on Tuesday evening and into Wednesday, we’ll post takeaways and analysis on the races we’ve been covering closely over the last few months.

This will be approximately the 732nd election night I’ve covered as an editor. They have a familiar, if exhausting, rhythm to them. A lot of times, you’re seeking a sense of closure that doesn’t come until a day, or many days, after votes have been cast. So keep that in mind. And whatever happens, we’ll get to do it all again in five months.

What VOSD Learned This Week

Here’s a two-step guide for equipping yourself before you vote on Tuesday. Step one: Listen to the latest San Diego Decides podcast, where we do a lightning round on many of the big races and issues up for a vote this week. Step two: Read Andy Keatts’ election guide, which includes links to our previous coverage and the op-eds the candidates have written throughout the race.

Scott Lewis also rounded up the worst election mail pieces of this cycle – worth a read for the withering fish hook critiques alone. In his biweekly column, Keatts questions whether Democrats will fare better this Tuesday after a surge in voter registrations. Typically, Republicans own primary elections in San Diego.

And Lisa Halverstadt tried to figure out what it is that’s attracting business and other right-of-center groups to City Council candidate Anthony Bernal’s campaign.

As for the folks we already elected, they passed a bunch of bills this week.

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I’m loving Kinsee Morlan’s series on public art in the city – and why in many cases, it’s not all that public.

First, she and Tristan Loper mapped all the public art throughout the city, an effort that revealed some neighborhoods have zero art, while others are flush with pieces. Then she explains why some of the city’s “public” art is located in places that the public isn’t actually allowed, places where you have to make an appointment or just places off the beaten path where few members of the public go.

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The city’s fight with a county agency over the source of bad smells wafting through Clairemont and University City is getting a bit toxic.

What I’m Reading

• I generally try to share links from a variety of sources, but these two pieces from New York mag were too good not to include: Rebecca Traister’s profile of Hillary Clinton is, quite simply, the best single piece I’ve read on this election.

• And also in New York, Annie Lowrey makes a strong case for why Europe should see the migration of thousands of refugees to its shores as an opportunity, not a crisis.

• I’m a big fan of Stacia Brown’s writing on pop culture, and her writing on parenthood. In this piece, she combined em. (Washington Post)

• This story simultaneously examines a manhunt for a murderer in the California Redwoods, and lawmakers’ grappling with how to step in when a mentally ill person becomes dangerous. (California Sunday)

• In rural Oregon, residents keep choosing lower taxes over law enforcement. The results can be deadly. (Reveal)

• Dana Goldstein details how she shook off a debilitating dependency on migraine drugs. (Elle)

Line of the Week

“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. Although I can’t save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you can’t be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served, a small assurance that we are getting somewhere, and a big, big knowing that you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you.” – From an incredibly powerful letter from a sexual assault victim to her rapist, the latter of whom was a privileged Stanford athlete sentenced to only six months in jail after a judge expressed concern for his future.