The Morning Report
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Much like the city of San Diego, the County of San Diego is working to fight climate change by crafting its own Climate Action Plan. The county’s plan has already been rejected by a judge, and county supervisors think they will have another version of the plan to vote on next year. In the meantime, Maya Srikrishnan reports there are several big development projects lining up to get special permission to move ahead quickly, before a new climate plan is proposed, and those projects could make it impossible for the County to ever meet its climate goals.
“Since many of the big, pending projects aren’t along existing transportation corridors… it’s likely the new housing developments would account for even more greenhouse gas emissions,” Srikrishnan reports. More cars emitting more pollutants means developers would need to find other ways to meet climate goals. Among developer ideas: “encourage car-sharing and telecommuting,” and “subtract the carbon that would be absorbed by trees and other plants in any open space the developer plans to provide,” Srikrishan writes.
“That’s nice, but that’s not helpful,” says Nicole Capretz, head of the Climate Action Campaign. “Work commutes are where most of the emissions come from, so they need to be mitigated.”
• Planning commissioners accepted an update to the community plan of Uptown on Thursday, with one caveat. The commissioners determined the plan’s opposition to increasing density should be ignored. (KPBS)
The Learning Curve: School Choice Crunch Time
Pop quiz! Are you a parent of a school-aged child who is interested in using San Diego Unified’s school choice program to send your child to a school outside of your neigbhorhood? If so, Mario Koran reports you have precious little time to waste since the district has shortened the time period for parents to apply. “In years past, parents could submit choice applications from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15. This year, the window will stay open from Oct. 3 to Nov. 14,” Koran writes.
If you didn’t do your homework on how to apply for school choice, Koran offers that quick and easy guide to school choice at San Diego Unified.
Education Blueprint Never Constructed
It was 2009, and San Diego Unified was creating a plan to improve academic achievement among black students. The “Blueprint to Accelerate the Achievement of African American and African Students” was the product of those efforts, which focused on efforts like hiring more black teachers and increasing the graduation rates. But Rachel Evans reports on how, despite being adopted by a few schools, school officials never implemented the plan district-wide.
A group of people who helped craft the blueprint are now trying to get the district to turn over data related to its efforts on implementing the plan while urging them to “do something,” if not implement the blueprint.
Measure H and I: San Diego Explained
Two of the local ballot measures voters will be asked to consider in November are focused on our regional parks. Measure J would allow the city to continue to redirect money it earns from leases in Mission Bay into improvement projects at that park and other parks in the city. Measure I asks voters to decide whether San Diego High School, whose lease in Balboa Park expires in 2024, should be allowed to stay where it is. Both plans have critics, so Lisa Halverstadt teamed up with NBC 7’s Monica Dean to break down each measure in our most recent San Diego Explained.
Hickey: Next Steps On Human Trafficking
in a commentary for us, Deputy District Attorney Robert Hickey, who is also running for city attorney in November, notes recent changes in both law and terminology are helping to make progress on the issue of human trafficking, a term which is increasingly being used instead of calling it prostitution. The term prostitution “erroneously implies a victimless crime,” Hickey writes. “The victims are real and numerous.” This is a problem that produces 8,000 victims per year and that has infiltrated into 100 percent of 20 high schools in San Diego County that were surveyed, according to Hickey.
A law recently signed by Governor Brown treats the selling and buying of sex as different crimes. “The city attorney needs to adapt prosecution policies to use these new tools and approach the issue with the same distinction,” Hickey writes.
Cannabis Tips from the City Attorney
San Diego’s current city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, is very concerned about people buying marijuana at shops that aren’t legal, the Union-Tribune reports. Unpermitted shops offer a lower quality experience compared to shops formally permitted by the city where customers can enjoy better security and more potent, higher quality marijuana. Goldsmith thinks the city ought to allow more of the permitted shops to open up in San Diego. He unveiled this new insignia that shoppers can look for to feel comforted that their chosen store is a legal marijuana dispensary.
Lightning Round
• Thousands of desperate Haitian migrants are sleeping in the streets of Tijuana and hoping to get into the United States but the AP reports many of them don’t know about a change to U.S. law that will make that much more difficult than it was after that country’s terrible earthquake six years ago.
• Ready to talk Padres? Our sports podcast partner, The Kept Faith, is out with a new episode, talking to their rival Padres podcasters and gabbing about the possibility of a new football stadium next door to Petco.
• Measure A, which proposes a sales tax increase to pay for infrastructure, has Republicans supporting a tax increase, Democrats building freeways, and cats and dogs living together in general. (KPBS)
• The Union-Tribune has this remembrance of local restaurateur and minority Chargers owner George Pernicano who died Thursday.
• inewsource finds we are flush with empty hospital beds in this town.
• Good riddance to twerking, freaking, and grinding. Chances were better on Thursday that you knew what “dabbing” was than they were on days previous, after Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez performed the dance move on stage during a debate against Kamala Harris on Wednesday. (Union Tribune)
Local Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez wants the world to know her and Loretta Sanchez are different people.
Seth Hall is a local writer and technologist. You can email him at voice@s3th.com or follow him on Twitter: @loteck.