It’s Pride Weekend in San Diego.
Our contributor Randy Dotinga dove into some census data to map out where gay families live throughout the county and why it matters.
For one thing, where gay residents and families are clustered “affects politics — the heavy LGBT presence in San Diego’s Council District 3 gives the gay community a larger voice in city politics,” Dotinga writes. For another, “gay geography also reflects the progress — or lack of it — that the LGBT community is making in American society.”
Not all gay families live in Hillcrest, the data makes clear. When it comes to lesbian couples, “The hottest spots … are the gay-friendly Mid-City San Diego ZIP codes of 92116 (Normal Heights), 92103 (Hillcrest) and 92104 (North Park) and 91901 (the East County town of Alpine). The census estimates that a bit more than 1 percent of households in all these ZIP codes are unmarried same-sex female couples.” For gay couples, Hillcrest is where many live, as well as the nearby neighborhoods of North Park and Bankers Hill.
Airbnb Exec Comes to the Podcast Studio
Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s head of Global Policy is the guest this week on the Voice of San Diego podcast. He spent all of Thursday talking with San Diego City Councilmembers about the future of short-term vacation rentals.
San Diego is paralyzed on the issue right now. The city attorney decided all vacation rentals are illegal. It was an effort that, she conceded, was meant spur the mayor and Council to come to a compromise on the issue. But the mayor decided not to enforce the ban and no measure has come forward since then.
So either people who are renting out their whole houses are blatantly breaking the law and the city is helpless to do anything about it or the city attorney’s word on the matter has no significance.
Lehane told our Scott Lewis that there seems to be broad consensus the city needs to step up enforcement of “party houses.” Also council members seem to largely agree people should be able to rent out rooms of the homes they live in. After that, there’s a big gulf about what to do with those who rent out their whole homes as permanent investments. Lewis pressed him on neighborhood concerns and they talked about what other cities have done.
Lewis and Andy Keatts also discussed the latest SANDAG shoe to drop.
Sacramento Report: Police Accountability Efforts Move Forward — Slowly
In the Sacramento Report, I looked into two of San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber’s efforts to rein in police misconduct: Her bill to reform the notorious state gang database, and the implementation of a law passed in 2015 requiring police to collect data on who they pull over.
• Another big piece of state news: The Legislature will likely be deciding Monday whether to renew cap-and-trade, the state’s landmark climate change-fighting program. Gov. Jerry Brown is urging lawmakers to vote yes, and said the stakes couldn’t be higher: “This is the most important vote of your life,” he warned them, according to the Associated Press.
Assemblyman Randy Voepel, who represents East County, wrote on Twitter that he’s voting no, which really isn’t much of a surprise given his, uh, interesting views on climate change.
• Brown also rejected the parole of Jesus Cecena, the man who, at age 17 in 1978, killed San Diego police officer Archie Buggs.
Quick News Hits
• Since announcing his campaign for county supervisor earlier this week, Nathan Fletcher has been steadily rolling out endorsements. The latest one is from SEIU Local 221, which represents county workers. The union made up its mind pretty quickly. It said on its Facebook page that it was interviewing all the candidates on Thursday night.
• San Diego Unified School District lost its urgent bid to get a judge to stop the College Board from invalidating hundreds of Scripps Ranch High School Advanced Placement tests. The Board had determined the district administered the tests improperly and students would need to take them. The judge would not agree to a temporary restraining order to stop that.
• Here’s a pic of Reggie Bush and Mercedes Lewis at Bush’s Helix High football training camp, because this is what happens when I’m in charge of the Morning Report.
Top Stories of the Week
These were the most popular Voice of San Diego stories for the week of July 7-14. For the full top 10 list, click here.
1. San Diego Unified Has an Overwhelming List of Problems, and the District Should Lean Into Them
San Diego Unified, under Superintendent Cindy Marten, has been obsessed not with fixing its problems but with denying they exist. (Scott Lewis)
2. SANDAG Misled Voters on 2004 Tax Measure, Showing Pattern of Deception Goes Back at Least 13 Years
SANDAG knew a year before the 2004 election that TransNet wouldn’t collect $14 billion, but it didn’t tell voters. This is now the third instance in which SANDAG either knowingly overstated how much money it could collect to pay for transportation projects, or understated how much projects would cost to complete. (Andrew Keatts)
3. Meet the Public Defender Who Wants to Be San Diego’s Top Prosecutor
Public defender Geneviéve Jones-Wright, in her career history and perspective, would change direction from the law-and-order, tough-on-crime mindset that has dominated district attorney races not just in San Diego, but around the country. (Andrew Keatts)
4. City Says Plaza de Panama Overhaul Is Moving Forward, But Opponents Are Digging in
The plan to transform Balboa Park’s core was supposed to begin this fall, but is now set for March 2018. The city insists it will happen, yet opponents are just as confident in their efforts to thwart the plan. (Lisa Halverstadt)
5. San Diego Could Provide Cheaper, Greener Energy Than SDG&E, Study Shows
Anger builds over Chinese Historical Museum director’s ouster, neighbors aren’t fans of the Observatory North Park, Suzie’s Farm calls it quits and more in our weekly roundup of the region’s arts and culture news. (Ry Rivard