The Morning Report
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After years of devouring coverage about the Chargers leaving, and waiting to see what happened with the Mission Valley stadium site, many sports fans turned their sights to the Sports Arena redevelopment. Maybe, perhaps, someday, we’d attract another sports team.
Well, don’t get your hopes up. Our Scott Lewis checked in with the three teams bidding to redevelop the site, and it doesn’t seem like a new arena will draw another big-league team.
Lewis writes that all three bidders (HometownSD, Midway Village+ and Midway Rising) are working under the assumption that the arena will have to pay for itself because it’s likely there won’t be a subsidy for it. Sans subsidy, the chance of building an appropriately sized arena that could accommodate an NBA or NHL team is small. And without a team actively looking to move to San Diego, that chance gets even smaller.
The bidders will likely take out loans to build their arenas and focus on it being an entertainment-first venue that could pay off the debt.
Click here to read more about what the teams vying to redevelop the area had to say.
The Triple Threat
When you’re dedicating time, money and energy on a campaign strategy, why stop at a single “vote no” push when you can do two, heck, three.
That’s what the Associated General Contractors, or AGC San Diego, the more conservative of the construction contractor alliances, is planning on asking voters to do come November: Vote no on three new measures. Their main priority is protecting 2012’s Proposition A from a new initiative the San Diego City Council has put on the ballot.
But this strategy has put them at odds with a traditional ally, Councilman Chris Cate, writes Lewis in the latest Politics Report. Cate is not happy. But AGC San Diego says their strategy is nothing personal against one of the measures the councilman is pushing, it’s just a strategy. Per them, “if there are ‘no’ votes out there, why not hit them with a ‘triple no’ appeal?
Read more about the measures they are asking voters to turn down.
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Pod to The People
The San Diego City Council decided last week — with the mayor’s urging and the city attorney’s opposition — to settle its lawsuit against Cisterra and CGA Capital.
This $132-million-dollar decision paves the way for the city to buy its two most problematic buildings that were caught up in the suit and kick off what could be its most ambitious development project ever. (And it looks egg-ceptional!)
In the latest VOSD podcast, our intrepid editors discuss what went down in the council meeting before the decision and all of the lofty ideas that are getting packed into this project.
Plus: Crotty’s new COVID notes. South Bay politics. Andrea’s fear of flying.
Hear the full show here. And subscribe wherever you listen.
In Other News
- A San Diego judge dismissed a long-shot attempt to sue the NFL over the Chargers leaving for Los Angeles in 2017. (Union-Tribune)
- The death of another resident of a rehab center for veterans, Veterans Village of San Diego, has prompted an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. (inewsource)
- ICYMI our MacKenzie Elmer wrote about how the mayors of Imperial Beach and Coronado want the county to ditch its new water quality test. Supervisor Nora Vargas, whose district includes Imperial Beach and the border, told Elmer last week that it was advocates like the mayor of Imperial Beach who asked the county for improved pollution monitoring. Vargas shared some more words about this issue on social media.
- A historic downtown hotel has a new owner, again. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Nate John.