There are fewer and fewer school buses taking kids in San Diego to school.
That creates all kinds of problems, from issues involving who has access to quality institutions to safety concerns for families who live in neighborhoods with unsafe streets and sidewalks.
Some cities have addressed this problem by providing free bus and transit passes to students. San Diego was even one of these cities for a short time, thanks to a 2013 pilot program that gave some high school students transit passes, as part of a program funded by the city and San Diego Unified.
But the program was “a mess,” according to one of its proponents, and it eventually ended.
As he continues to examine school busing in San Diego and how it impacts families, Mario Koran delves into what went wrong with the transit pass program and what would have to happen in the future for a similar program to exist.
SDSU Outlines Vision for Mission Valley
San Diego State University leaders released a draft vision and a couple renderings of the new development they would like to see at the stadium site in Mission Valley.
It would have more than 4,500 housing units, space for university needs, some commercial office buildings, two hotels and, of course, a new 35,000-seat football stadium.
It’s similar to the plan outlined by SoccerCity. However, one big difference is the amount of retail: SoccerCity would put up more than 700,000 square feet, and much of that would constitute an entertainment district. The SDSU vision would have only 95,000 square feet of retail, just enough to serve some of the people living in the new development.
It’s important to keep in mind the distinctions between the players in this story. SoccerCity is run by a group of investors and their partners. They have a measure already on the November 2018 ballot.
Another group, Friends of SDSU, is right now collecting signatures to put their measure on the same ballot. It is much shorter and simply directs the city to sell the land to SDSU, which will decide what to do with it.
SDSU is not allowed to use resources to support that initiative. Wednesday’s press conference was SDSU saying what it would do with the land if it got control of it. Thursday, its athletic department leaders will go into more depth about the stadium plan.
• Here’s the U-T’s first read on it. And our Scott Lewis was back on sports radio for a bit, spending 20 minutes on the whole issue with the Mighty 1090’s Darren Smith.
• SoccerCity’s political hope relies on its connection to Major League Soccer. San Diego isn’t included among the four finalist cities for an expansion team named by MLS – but it doesn’t mean we’re out of the running. (Union-Tribune)
Both Sides in Oceanside Debate Claim They Want to Save Farming
Oceanside is the latest North County city flirting with a slow-growth measure – an effort to make it harder for the city to change zoning requirements.
“The slow-growth initiative making its way through Oceanside would require a city-wide vote on zoning changes to agricultural land, and support for the bill seems to be a question of whether – and how much – you farm,” Ruarri Serpa writes in this week’s North County Report.
Both supporters and opponents of the measure claim they’re trying to “save” farming in Oceanside – owners of large farmers want to be able to sell off land to stay afloat; smaller farmers say they want to preserve farmland by making it difficult to sell off.
Another Pregnant Woman Claims Mistreatment at Otay Mesa
NBC San Diego spoke with a pregnant woman who said officers at the Otay Mesa immigration detention facility made inappropriate gestures toward her that left her “humiliated.”
It’s the latest in a string of incidents involving women detained at Otay Mesa and other immigration facilities. Earlier this month, more than 20 women became ill, with some fainting and vomiting, after exposure to a floor-stripping chemical, Buzzfeed reported. At least one of those women was pregnant.
In September, the Huffington Post reported that a pregnant woman who reported pain and bleeding to officials inside the facility wasn’t allowed to see a doctor for several days — at which point she’d already miscarried.
“A 2016 memo states that pregnant women should only be locked up in immigrant detention centers in ‘extraordinary circumstances,’” HuffPost reported. “Despite this, the agency acknowledges detaining hundreds of pregnant women annually.”
Quick News Hits
- California’s attorney general is suing for-profit college Ashford University, and its owner, San Diego-based Bridgepoint Education, alleging they used misleading tactics to enroll low-income students, Buzzfeed reports. As VOSD has reported, Bridgepoint has been in regulators’ crosshairs for years.
- Qualcomm has been locked in a long legal battle with Apple. In the latest chapter of their feud, Apple alleges that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile phone chips infringe on Apple’s patents. (Reuters)