It was a good week for Assemblyman Todd Gloria, and … not so much for San Diego developer Doug Manchester.
Last week, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce announced its endorsement of Gloria for mayor of San Diego. We covered the endorsement in the most recent Politics Report. This marks the first time in collective memory that the Chamber, the Democratic Party and labor unions were on the same side of a contested race for mayor.
Meanwhile, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby discussed the latest development in the saga over Manchester’s ambassadorship to the Bahamas. His nomination was pulled a few months ago, and a recent CBS News story alleging a pay-to-play scheme to secure the role was the reason.
Keatts laments that San Diego’s wealthy hotel developer Trump insider isn’t doing big things like Portland’s wealthy hotel developer Trump insider, Gordon Sondland, although it turns out he’s not having a great week either.
SANDAG’s Routine Reminder
For three years now, the regional sales tax measure known as TransNet has been embroiled in scandal.
The half-cent sales tax that voters approved in 2004 came with a bevy of promised infrastructure projects.
But in recent months, the staff of the San Diego Association of Governments has made sure to drive home just how bad the financial situation has become for those projects. SANDAG’s chief economist recently projected that by 2048, when voters will stop paying the tax, only half of the promised improvements could be finished.
Lewis, Keatts and Libby discuss what that means for SANDAG’s board who have tried to cobble together enough money from other sources to make the proposed projects into reality.
Rev. Shane Harris on Race, Foster Care and Homelessness
On the second half of the show, Keatts sat down with Rev. Shane Harris, founder of the People’s Alliance for Justice, a civil rights organization based in San Diego.
Harris was born and raised in San Diego County and grew up in various foster homes in the region. He has since become a minister who often makes media appearances to discuss social and racial matters; in his short career, he has worked with figures like Rev. Al Sharpton for the National Action Network on civil rights issues.
Keatts spoke with Harris about his background, how he found his way to activism on a national scale and the connection between race, foster care and homelessness. Harris said the Alliance is calling for the Regional Task Force on Homelessness to survey the homelessness population specifically to determine how many came from foster care, in order to better address how they became homeless.
The county recently added two two seats to the Child and Family Strengthening Advisory Board, which advises the Board of Supervisors on the county’s child welfare system, reserved for people with personal experience in the foster care system, following advocacy from Harris’ People’s Alliance for Justice this summer.
The interview with Harris starts at minute 24 in the podcast.