Another round of decisions on how San Diego deals with the cannabis industry are coming on Tuesday when the City Council meets to consider proposals on how to regulate the legal, adult-use of cannabis. Maya Srikrishnan reports the two sticky issues facing the council are how to deal with delivery services and whether San Diego wants to allow companies to engage in cultivation and quality testing of cannabis.
“Delivery services… have gone essentially unregulated in the San Diego,” Srikrishnan writes. While the City Attorney’s office spends its enforcement time on illegal dispensaries, the small time delivery business has flourished. “The proposal that will come before the City Council Tuesday would regulate delivery services by tying them to existing permits for dispensaries.” Good for permitted dispensaries, not so good for the delivery services.
“The city is considering banning activities like cultivation or growing, manufacturing and testing” as well, Srikrishnan writes. But even the city’s own planning commission is against that idea, since it would cost San Diego jobs and tax revenue.
• The Union-Tribune’s David Garrick brings forth a breakdown of how San Diego neighborhoods voted on Proposition 64 in November, which proposed legalizing recreational use of cannabis and won approval. 57 per cent of San Diego county at large voted to approve the proposal, and 62 per cent of the city proper approved of it. “Four of the seven neighborhoods where voters rejected the measure [were] located east of Interstate 15: Rancho Bernardo, Miramar Ranch North, Rancho Encantada and San Pasqual,” Garrick writes.
The Learning Curve: Thinkin’ About Lincoln
Mario Koran often ponders the predicament facing Lincoln High School when writing his column The Learning Curve, and this week he writes about what specific options exist for turning a troubled high school like Lincoln into a successful school. But first: mo problems. “A program created to give Lincoln High School students access to community college courses left the majority of its students with failing grades last semester,” Koran writes. It’s another example of the school district failing to turn Lincoln around. There’s a few ideas that could work, though.
Fixing troubled schools often involves bringing in an enthusiastic principal who sets a course through the storm and stays aboard long enough to realize the plan. The district could hope for that, or it could allow a charter school to partially (awkward!) or wholly (difficult!) takeover the school. Then there’s that last option: throw in the towel. “Closing a school is one of the most explosive and unpopular decisions a school board can make,” Koran writes.
• In other San Diego Unified woes, it looks like an incident where a teacher denied a high schooler’s request to go to the bathroom and instead directed the student to urinate in a bucket may end up costing the district $1.25 million. (Union-Tribune)
• On our newest episode of Good Schools For All, we talk with a student and leaders from a program called Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID. The program focuses on preparing students for what happens after graduation, whether its college or career. We also catch up on those online remediation courses that have helped San Diego schools reach record graduation levels.
The Homeless Plan: San Diego Explained
Mayor Kevin Faulconer said recently that creating a plan to address homelessness in San Diego should be the city’s No. 1 priority. He’s readying a proposal to raise taxes to increase funding for homeless services and he wants to open another shelter. Meanwhile, other regional leaders on homeless services are teaming up to fight the issue through policy and planning. Lisa Halverstadt joined NBC 7’s Monica Dean to cover what’s next in the fight against homelessness in our most recent San Diego Explained.
Drought On Last Legs
We recently tried to get a handle on what “drought” actually is and found there’s different kinds of drought. One of those kinds is a regulatory drought, where we are in a drought because a political body declares it to be so. On Thursday, the San Diego County Water Authority decided to declare the drought is over, NBC 7’s Samantha Tatro reports, and it thinks Gov. Jerry Brown should lift emergency restrictions for the entire state. “Telling the public to continue extraordinary, emergency conservation measures when the drought emergency no longer exists undermines the credibility of state and local water agencies,” the SDCWA’s chair said.
Trump Moves On Border
In another rubber-meets-road moment for San Diego and the new Trump administration, Thursday saw the president’s staff floating an idea of a tariff or border tax for incoming goods from Mexico, perhaps to the tune of 20 percent, the Washington Post reports. This ostensibly will help pay for the $12-15 billion wall Trump has envisioned building on the U.S.-Mexico border. Some, like CNN, are pondering whether taxing Mexican goods means Americans will end up footing the bill for the wall, or not.
The next Trump move many San Diegans are watching is what new rules the administration will lay out for the U.S. refugee program and what could happen to existing refugees. (KPBS)
Lightning Round
• Summer Stephan, hand-picked by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to succeed her in the event she retires early, has officially announced her candidacy. (Union-Tribune)
• The University of California regents announced they will raise tuition across their campuses by 2.5 percent. (KPBS)
• The San Diego Venture Group is close to opening up an office in Silicon Valley to try to lure startups and tech talent to San Diego. (Union-Tribune)
• With the Chargers gone, 1,000 people will be laid off from Qualcomm Stadium’s concessionaire. (Union-Tribune)
• A new fossil fuel-burning power plant in Carlsbad that beat out competing clean energy proposals by promising to open by 2017 won’t open by 2017. (inewsource)
• The Union-Tribune reports that your dog is likely a fan of the music of Matisyahu and Lionel Richie. You have a weird dog!
Seth Hall is a local writer and technologist. You can email him at voice@s3th.com or follow him on Twitter: @loteck.