The Morning Report
Get the news and information you need to take on the day.
San Diego is on the verge of getting a new electoral map.
Every decade, an independent group reviews Census information and sets about redrawing the lines. The changes this time around are likely to be less dramatic than in the past, there will be changes nonetheless on account of demographic shifts in recent years.
In a new story, Maya Srikrishnan explains who the commissioners are and how they’re chosen. She also walks through the variables that help commissioners determine the shape of each City Council district and identifies a few things that readers should keep an eye on going forward.
For starters, San Diego is behind on the redistricting process thanks to the pandemic and decisions made by the Trump administration — a delay that’s causing confusion in District 6, which will be the only open seat next year. The deadline for the new map is mid-December and the primary is in June 2022.
Some neighborhoods, in the meantime, are campaigning to be included or excluded from particular districts.
Carlsbad City Councilwoman Resigns
Carlsbad City Councilwoman Cori Schumacher resigned Friday. She announced that she has been attending school part-time and decided to attend a university outside San Diego County after consulting with her family. Schumacher emphasized her time on the City Council overseeing the city’s first lifeguard program, an expanded homeless response program and the launch of a Clean Energy Alliance.
The news dropped late in the week as a recall effort — which would have forced a special election against her — appeared to be gaining momentum.
According to the Union-Tribune, the recall was based in part on “Schumacher’s decision to file restraining orders against three Carlsbad residents … who frequently criticize her council actions in social media and at public meetings. A judge dismissed her complaints and order[ed] her to pay court costs.”
Conservatives were also angered by her push for stronger enforcement of COVID-19 rules and regional efforts to expand public transportation.
More Politics News
Although Gov. Gavin Newsom has put his signature on California’s next budget, he and lawmakers continue to iron out some of the details.
There are plenty of San Diego-specific projects already included. Research into coastal bluff collapses is a go, for instance, and the symphony is getting millions for capital improvements. The city attorney’s office is also getting a funding boost to show peers how to use gun violence restraining orders to seize firearms from people who might be a danger to themselves and others.
Meanwhile, the attorney general is floating changes to the way stop data is collected, so that it includes insight into which people interacting with police are homeless.
Over on the podcast … Will Huntsberry interviewed Carlos Turner Cortez, the new San Diego Community College District chancellor. Cortez, who will oversee roughly 100,000 students and 8,000 employees, noted that while enrollment is down the district’s non-credit division, which provides short-term, intensive training, is “popping at the gills.”
Podcast hosts Scott Lewis and Sara Libby were also joined by Lisa Halverstadt, who helped untangle the never-ending drama around 101 Ash St. The city agreed to lease (and eventually own) the downtown high-rise a few years ago but is now trying to walk away from that and another building.
In Other News
- Father Joe Carroll, a San Diego icon, has died. (City News Service/NBC San Diego)
- San Diego is on its way to offering pensions for new hires again, following the invalidation of the Prop. B pension reform measure. (Union-Tribune)
- California political observer Joe Matthews says Californians exasperated by the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom have a culprit to blame: San Diego. (Zocalo Public Square)
The Morning Report was written by Jesse Marx, and edited by Sara Libby.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the date of the 2022 primary. It is in June.