The two candidates vying to represent the area that includes San Diego State neglected to detail issues facing the university area at a Saturday discussion that ironically took place at SDSU.
Ricardo Flores and Georgette Gomez, the two candidates running for City Council District 9, appeared at a Politifest debate to discuss various issues facing the district, especially those issues closest to City Heights.
SDSU’s neighborhood – the College Area, which sits in District 9 – usually gets less attention.
There’s a reason for this: The candidates and others often highlight the needs of low-income residents in City Heights and their neighborhood, which has lots of needs.
Flores and Gomez addressed these needs during the event, which include more affordable housing, homelessness and police-community relations.
Issues facing SDSU and the surrounding College Area, however, were scarcely mentioned.
Flores only raised one long-running issue in passing.
“We’re working with our current College Area to issue our mini-dorm issue,” he said in his opening remarks.
Mini-dorms are single-dwelling housing units inhabited by multiple adults. Houses that are undersized and over-occupied can draw complaints from both occupants and neighbors. Some students choose to live in mini dorms because the rent can be more affordable. They’ve been an issue for the College Area for many decades and still are.
Neither Flores nor Gomez mentioned anything further about the mini-dorm issue or any other issues facing the College Area during their discussion. No issues relating to SDSU are mentioned on both Gomez and Flores’ websites.
The candidates did, however, continually bring up their stances on an issue outside the district: Their positions against the construction of a new Chargers stadium.
Shortly into the discussion, Flores noted that building a new stadium for the Chargers would put the residents of San Diego at a disadvantage.
“If we start to go down that path, we cannot do the things we want to do in our city: the streets, the lights, the sidewalks, the homeless, the police,” Flores said.