Journalism won’t die if you donate. Support Voice of San Diego today!
“No is not an acceptable answer.”
Just before we recorded our podcast on Thursday, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilman Stephen Whitburn unveiled new tactics to curb homelessness: More safe camping options, more supportive services and new bans on vehicle habitation and camping on public property.
These big moves wrap into an ordinance Whitburn plans to bring to the Council, with Gloria’s blessing, which puts the camping ban in effect when shelter beds are available.
So if a homeless encampment sweep is happening and there’s shelter space ready, “no” ain’t gonna fly, according to Gloria.
This, of course, prompted our hosts to ask, “What if someone says no?”
This week on the VOSD Podcast, hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña ask “what if?”, explain how this announcement iterates on current illegal lodging law, discuss the angst that fueled these moves and preview a potential 2024 ballot measure to further address our foremost crisis.
(Speaking of cracking down and enforcement: The San Diego Police staff shortage is projected to last a long time.)
La Jollexit
It’s not you, it’s us.
That’s the word from La Jolla, according to Keatts’ latest Politics Report. Some residents of the coastal community are trying to break up with the city of San Diego and start doing their own thing. Maybe get that septum piercing they’ve always wanted.
On the pod this week, Keatts breaks down the latest with details from the Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCO) — an entity charged with sussing out government boundaries. Word from LAFCO is this latest effort should be taken seriously.
In this segment, we review La Jolla’s current special designations, the financial implications of a municipal break-up and the best song to listen to after you’ve been dumped (“Good 4 U”).
Learning Loss
Chronic absenteeism is up and test scores are down according to the latest data from our San Diego Schools Guide. The pandemic crippled education and the effects prove long lasting.
The strong school indicator of chronic absenteeism — when a student misses more than 10 percent of a school year — is not looking good for San Diego schools. But a glaring trend in that dataset is how the worst scores are clustered, according to education reporter Jakob McWhinney.
Of the 15 San Diego Unified schools with the worst scores, 14 are south of Interstate 8. And a majority are one ZIP code.
McWhinney’s got a killer newsletter to help you keep up with school news: vosd.org/learningcurve.