Morning Report: The Rise and Fall of Civic San Diego

For the last seven years, if you wanted to build a big project downtown you went not through the city of San Diego but a city-affiliated nonprofit called Civic San Diego.

The agency was unique in San Diego and across the state in that it had the power to regulate private development downtown, which boosters argued could speed along development faster than City Hall. From the start, unions and activists alleged the agency was too cozy with developers and rife with conflicts of interests.

That’s all over, now that a pending settlement is set to strip the agency of most of its powers.

In a retrospective of the agency’s long and dramatic history, Lisa Halverstadt looks back at why Civic San Diego was created in the first place, as well as the accusations and tensions that have dogged it along the way.

Civic had already begun exploring functions it could take on outside of permitting – it’s been seeking out and securing federal New Markets Tax Credit funds, for example, and is working to support middle-income housing development.

“Now Civic San Diego is likely to perform those functions as a private nonprofit rather than an arm of the city,” Halverstadt writes.

How the U.S. and Mexico Could Work Together to Keep Each Other Safe

The United States and Mexico both have significant security and public health issues: the opioid crisis continues to rage in the U.S., and criminal violence is a top concern in Mexico.

A group of cross-border security experts believes the election of Mexico’s new president offers a good chance to assess how the two countries could better work together to address their interwoven challenges.

In the latest Border Report, VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan breaks down the group’s recommendations and how they’re moving forward to make them happen.

• President Donald Trump is reportedly set to visit the border fence in Calexico Friday.
• San Diego Magazine profiled a first-of-its-kind program at Cal Western School of Law that trains students and attorneys from all over Latin America.
• If you don’t care about how a shutdown of the U.S.-Mexico border would disrupt people’s lives and livelihoods, perhaps you at least care about ensuring a steady, secure guacamole supply: Experts say the United States would run out of avocados in a few weeks under an extended shutdown, Reuters reports.

In Other News

• The death of a man who died in Sheriff’s Department custody last year was ruled a homicide, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office, which released its report more than a full year after the death and wouldn’t explain the delay. (Union-Tribune)
• The City Council is facing continued pressure to repeal a law that limits where sex offenders can live. The state Supreme Court has already said such measures are illegal; now the city’s facing a lawsuit against its law. (KPBS)
• Joe LaCava is taking another shot at running for City Council District 1. (Times of San Diego)
• The sales tax in Oceanside is officially 8.25 percent now that an increase approved by voters in November has kicked in. (10News)

The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby.