Three days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure into law capping rent hikes in California, one North Park area resident got a notice that her rent would be increasing far more than the cap allows once it kicks in on Jan. 1.
“I kind of took the letter as, ‘I want you gone,’” the woman told VOSD’s Lisa Halverstadt. The woman is moving out later this month.
And she’s far from alone. Halverstadt spoke with a number of tenants who are facing uncertainty, big rent hikes and other challenges in the lead-up to the new state law.
Despite those challenges, some attorneys think San Diego is better off than other cities in the state because of existing protections for renters.
Still, the rent hikes and other changes some landlords are trying to implement underscore how important it is for tenants to be aware of their rights and what the new law requires, one attorney said.
“There’s no landlord-tenant police,” attorney Christian Curry said. “Your rights are procedural. You have to stand up for them, or they don’t exist.”
Gloria’s One Big Unforced Error
Just over 100 days from the primary election, Assemblyman Todd Gloria formally pulled his paperwork to run for mayor Wednesday.
He’s already a comfortable frontrunner in the race after piling up endorsements from labor unions, the Democratic Party, and virtually every major elected official in the region.
Gloria has run into just one big problem so far: a flash scandal in August over the fact that he opened an Assembly re-election committee for the same cycle in which he was ostensibly running for mayor. He also failed to file proper paperwork for that committee at the time.
The issue has gone quiet, but it’s still concerning to supporters who think it could come back to bite him. A local resident filed a lawsuit over the issue – after asking the city attorney and district attorney to prosecute him for money laundering – alleging campaign finance violations. The FPPC has not yet issued any fine, and it’s not clear when or if it will.
We revisited the controversy and spoke to an election law professor who said it mostly falls in the category of legal behavior that doesn’t look so good under scrutiny. That includes the fact that three consultants for Gloria’s mayoral campaign have been paid out of the Assembly account of a campaign that Gloria says he isn’t running.
The expert thought it could be a problem that Gloria cleaned up his paperwork error by telling the government he was running for an office he insists he isn’t running for.
MTS Data Shows San Diegans Prefer Bolstered Trolley Service to New Routes
Early results from Metropolitan Transit System outreach meant to help shape a 2020 tax measure reveal San Diegans are more interested in extended hours on existing transit routes than a major expansion of the trolley system — at least, once they learn how much new projects cost.
The Union-Tribune reports that an online tool that about 2,260 people used in its first month showed San Diegans prefer longer-running buses and trolleys than either the long-wanted Purple Line Trolley between the U.S.-Mexico border and Kearny Mesa or the envisioned express route to the Blue Line Trolley between the border and downtown San Diego.
Previous outreach efforts that didn’t account for the cost of building new projects suggested residents craved the new trolley lines.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, who chairs the MTS board, told the U-T that he believed it was too early to draw firm conclusions from the survey results.
- MTS reported Wednesday that it saw a spike in transit ridership during the third quarter of the year, including a 9 percent increase in September alone. Times of San Diego noted that the agency suggested a free ride day and higher gas prices may have helped fuel the uptick.
In Other News
- Nine San Diego County cannabis retailers and distributors were among almost 400 such businesses suspended last week by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. (KPBS)
- The city has hired its first immigration affairs manager. (Union-Tribune)
- A seven-acre Topgolf facility could be coming to Harbor Island. (10 News)
- The Federal Communications Commission, Sen. Ted Cruz and other government officials are zeroing in on cell service issues along the border – including in the South Bay – since a new wireless network was launched in northern Mexico. (Union-Tribune)
- County health officials say flu cases are escalating, leading to the death of a North County man last week. (City News Service)
- Columnist Michael Smolens has seized on false claims County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar made after it became clear her attempt to keep the county from proceeding with temporary satellite elections offices was failing. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Andrew Keatts, and edited by Sara Libby.