Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher’s AB 805 would reform SANDAG with a series of oversight measures.
The bill was written after Voice of San Diego’s Andrew Keatts revealed that the regional transportation agency misled the public by knowingly relying on flawed revenue forecasts and also failed to disclose an $8 billion project cost increase.
On top of the reforms, though, the bill would also make the votes on SANDAG’s board proportional to each city’s population, which would give bigger cities more power.
Small cities don’t like that part of the plan, and as Keatts reports, they’re now lining up to oppose Gonzalez Fletcher’s bill.
Gonzalez Fletcher isn’t fazed. She told Keatts that she doesn’t expect the votes to influence the Legislature. She also said she has Gov. Jerry Brown’s ear on the issue. And while she’s open to making some tweaks to the bill, she said she’s going to keep pushing for SANDAG reform.
“It’s San Diego – it’s the epitome of the old boy’s network,” she said. “They’ve maintained their personal power for decades, and this upsets that.”
• In an op-ed for East County Magazine, Miriam Raftery says that while SANDAG needs to be investigated, Gonzalez Fletcher’s bill would create a San Diego- and Chula Vista-controlled SANDAG that would leave rural communities voiceless.
Homelessness Came to a Head
If you’re looking for a concise summary of San Diego’s spiking homeless problem and the most current efforts to solve it, look no further than Dan McSwain’s newest column.
“There is fresh reason to hope that San Diego really can solve its homeless crisis,” McSwain writes.
He goes on to describe all the biggest conversations about solving homelessness happening right now, both inside and outside of government. Many of them are topics VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt has written about in her ongoing coverage of homelessness in the region.
Blocking Bronze Along the Bay
The Port of San Diego’s arts advisory committee said thanks, but no thanks to two brothers who offered to donate a piece of public art.
The U-T reports that real estate agents Mark and Frank Powell proposed funding the creation of a bronze Holocaust liberation memorial to be placed in Tuna Harbor Park.
So why did the Port say no to free public art? The reasons are similar to those of the airport’s public art committee, which last year said no to a bronze sculpture of famed San Diegan Bill Walton.
In short, agencies that already have established plans for how they want to approach and display public art don’t want what’s called “plop art” (the big “Unconditional Surrender” statue is often brought up as an example of that), which happens when public donations are accepted without being vetted by arts experts.
Speaking of public art, there’s a new mural protesting the proposed border wall at Chicano Park.
Border Stories
Two writers for the Associated Press drove the length of President Donald Trump ‘s proposed 30-foot-high border wall, criss-crossing back and forth between the international border and writing about their experiences along the way.
“We have talked to anyone and everyone who was willing to open up to us,” write Christopher Sherman and Rodrigo Abd in their latest entry, which takes them on a journey through Tijuana. “Mostly, we found a culture that is neither exclusively Mexican nor American but distinctively both.”
Weekend News Roundup
• Rep. Darrell Issa is one of the rare Republicans in Congress who calls himself a gadget geek. In the past, he’s voted to protect online privacy and freedoms. But he recently voted for a bill that lets internet service providers continue to sell or give away their customers’ information, which is confusing for the pro-digital privacy organizations that thought Issa had their backs. (U-T)
• Plenty of white, moderate, Republican men have run the city of San Diego and gone on to do vastly different things. The U-T’s Michael Smolens wonders what post-mayoral path Kevin Faulconer will take.
• San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott joined NBC 7’s Politically Speaking segment to discuss her new gig.