A San Jose councilman, who had long contemplated repealing his city’s ban on automobile cruising, was closely watching National City.
He was excited to see a city pursuing similar efforts. But San Jose lifted its ban in June and National City’s remains.
National City’s elected officials agree the city’s cruising ban needs to go. Yet it’s still in place.
As Andrea Lopez-Villafaña observes in a new report, that’s because city leaders haven’t been able to separate the law from concerns over events. The fear is that without a ban, lowriders could create a strain on the city’s police resources and significantly affect traffic and residents.
Mixing those two issues – the challenge of large events and the old law nobody wants – has paralyzed the city from carrying out a reform that other cities, once inspired by National City, have been able to do.
Politics Report: One More Week to Go
If you haven’t sent your ballot in, the campaign pros know and they’ll keep sending you mailers to the last moment possible.
And, if you’re a voter in the city of San Diego, you’re likely to get mailers about Measure D.
No, Measure D is not the one that would dramatically change the more than 100-year-old law that has forced the city of San Diego to pick up the trash of many residents without a special fee. That’s Measure B.
No, Measure D is not the one that would remove the height limit for buildings in the Midway area, making an amendment to another once sacrosanct part of local public policy: the coastal height limit. That’s Measure C.
Measure D is the complicated initiative that construction unions really want and some contractors without union workers do not want. The measure would reverse a 10-year-old ban on the city of San Diego requiring project labor agreements for major construction projects. The ban explicitly says the city can require those deals with unions if it must to access state funding but it presents a hassle. The unions clearly want the city to require more of them for big projects on the horizon.
So even though it doesn’t address a pillar of local policy like Measures B or C, Measure D is attracting far more spending than B and C, as the Politics Report revealed this week.
More on mailers: Andrew Keatts and Scott Lewis also highlight some new mailers (and their lack of clarity on who paid for them) along with a response from a leader of the opposition to Measure B to last week’s Report.
The Politics Report is only for Voice of San Diego members. You can find it here.
VOSD Podcast: This week the hosts discuss a theory Lewis has been piecing together that there’s a vast gulf between the commitments and policies local elected leaders are making and what the public understands about them. But every so often, we see the worlds collide and it’s getting very interesting what happens when they do, especially on climate change measures.
Other Chisme
- The Union-Tribune started a series on no-fault evictions. These occur when renters are current on their payments and in good standing but a landlord has some other reason to push them out, often to rejuvenate the home and charge higher rents for it. San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera would like to severely limit no-fault evictions. Last week, we summarized his proposal.
- Well-known jeweler Leo Hamel got one year probation and up to 100 days home detention for his role in a firearms trafficking scheme. (10News)
- The San Diego River is kind of a hidden resource. Now there’s a $700 million plan to restore it, make it accessible and attractive. The Union-Tribune reports that infrastructure financing districts will be the big drivers. That’s sort of the same thing the developer of Seaport Village wants to do.