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San Diego’s long-running struggle to enact vacation-rental rules continues.
The City Council on Monday voted 8-1 to pull back restrictive regulations it approved in July amid the specter of a well-funded referendum led by vacation-rental operators that would have halted the new rules from kicking in for as long as two years.
It was a dramatic shift for a City Council majority that just months ago hailed the rules, which limited vacation rentals to primary residences.
Lisa Halverstadt breaks down the reasons behind the shift and what might be next in the vacation-rental saga that’s paralyzed city leaders for years.
Mayor Mayor Kevin Faulconer and City Council members are now expecting to get another crack at the divisive issue in 2019.
The ‘Warriors’ Fighting for Pregnant Detainees
VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan has been following the stories of several Central American migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a caravan that arrived in the spring. The most common outcomes for members of the caravan, she’s found, include members who decided to stay in Tijuana, some who are still in detention and some who are living in the United States as they await asylum hearings.
Three women awaiting their asylum hearings share a particularly horrible experience: They were pregnant while they were detained at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, and said they were subject to horrific treatment. One suffered a miscarriage.
Now, they’re out of detention and are fighting to help other pregnant women still inside.
“That’s how the three women came to form Las Luchonas, or the Warriors,” Srikrishnan reports. “They wanted to raise money for the people inside, who have to pay to make phone calls or to buy things, like additional food or toiletries, at the detention center’s commissary. Detainees who don’t have family, friends or advocates on the outside to add money to their accounts often work for up to a dollar a day to earn money to buy those items. That system is at the center of a lawsuit alleging forced labor at immigration detention centers.”
- Tijuana shelters housing migrants who are awaiting the chance to seek asylum in the United States are growing increasingly full, reports the Union-Tribune.
It’s Not Just SDSU Facing a Spacing Crunch
In a VOSD op-ed, Chamber of Commerce CEO Jerry Sanders argues that Measure G, the SDSU West plan, makes the most business sense for the region.
He reiterates supporters of the measure’s claim that SDSU has nowhere to grow on its current site, a claim that both KPBS and the U-T found misleading.
But SDSU isn’t the only university in town dealing with growth issues.
The U-T reports that the University of San Diego is also nearing capacity, and is aiming to cut operating expenses to avoid further tuition hikes.
It’s a similar story at UCSD: Enrollment there is surging, and a new complex to house more students is still about two years away.
Climate Plan’s Impact on Disadvantaged Communities Isn’t Clear
A new report says it’s not clear what the city’s lauded Climate Action Plan has done to help so-called environmental justice communities, which are essentially low-income communities disproportionately impacted by pollution, Ry Rivard reports in this week’s Environment Report.
“Since the CAP is supposed to increase the use of public transit, reduce air pollution and cause more trees to be planted, the authors of the report are hopeful they can shape policy that will correct systemic problems here,” Rivard writes.
In Other News
- A dubious distinction: “Muslim advocates say Rep. Duncan Hunter is running the most anti-Muslim campaign in the country,” reports Politico.
- Agencies that help resettle newly arrived refugees might be forced to close since so few refugees are making it to the United States under the Trump administration. (Union-Tribune)
- The city’s storage center for homeless people’s belongings that opened in June is full. Now the city must give 72 hours’ notice if it decides to perform cleanup activities in the public right of way. (KPBS)
- There are 11 school bond measures on the ballot in San Diego County, and KPBS has created a guide to make sense of them.
- National City renters are facing sudden eviction after a property owner decided to sell of a handful of apartment buildings before voters can enact rent control next month, the Union-Tribune reports.
The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby, and edited by Andrew Keatts.