Cup of Chisme: Low, Slow and Legal

It’s legal to cruise in National City.  

The City Council on Tuesday voted to repeal a 1992 law that banned car cruising on all city streets. The Union-Tribune has more on the response from advocates who have long-fought to lift the ban.  

Now, remember: National City adopted its anti-cruising law in 1992 because police and some business owners were concerned that weekly car cruises were draining police resources and attracting crime and gang activity. Lowrider advocates long argued that the law was racist and had no place on the books of a majority-Latino city in south San Diego.  

There were multiple efforts over the years to get the City Council to scrap the ban. Other cities in the state had already done it. But National City could not because officials couldn’t separate the conversations around lifting the ban with the city’s ability to control large-organized events.  

Last fall I wrote about this specific dilemma. It was apparent that joining those two ideas — the decriminalization of cruising with police resources — was holding the city back; in fact, a San Jose city councilman who watched from afar made sure not to do that and successfully lifted the ban in his city. Read my story here. 

It Took a ‘Tiny Bit’ But Chula Vista Is Finally Opening a Homeless Shelter  

On Thursday, an agenda item for a special meeting of the Chula Vista City Council caught my attention. I had just emailed the city about its plans to open a homeless shelter – and was told that “in the near future” they would announce the opening date of the city’s first shelter, which will provide 66 individual units for homeless individuals.  

Here’s why I was curious: Our Lisa Halverstadt checked in with Chula Vista Mayor John McCann in December 2022 on the status of the project. He told her then that the city planned to open the bridge shelter in January 2023. But several months into the year, we hadn’t heard much about it.  

Other opening dates had been thrown around before and reported in the news, but the city had not met those deadlines. McCann said at the meeting that he was constantly asked when it would open and acknowledged that it took longer than the city had anticipated.  

The ‘million-dollar question’ answered: After staff played a drone video of the bridge shelter located between 27th Street and Broadway, a councilmember asked, “So, when does it open?” to which staff responded, “that is the million-dollar question.”  

The shelter will begin accepting clients on May 15. The city will host a ribbon-cutting event and tour on May 11.  

So, why did it take a “tiny bit” to open it? A city spokeswoman told me, “COVID presented manufacturing and supply issues with some of the equipment needed due to the impact to workforce in the industry.”  

Meanwhile in San Diego …  I told you last week that a proposed ban on camping on public property will make its way to the City Council. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria had a message about his approach to the city’s growing homeless crisis: “I will not house the homeless population for every other city in the county of San Diego. A part of this enforcement ordinance is about making sure we are taking care of our people, because we are compassionate folks, but I’m not gonna be mopping up the messes in other people’s cities.”  

The VOSD Podcast hosts break down what this all means and how the mayor’s stance on homelessness has shifted. Listen to the episode here.  

Bonus: We’ve started uploading short clips of the VOSD Podcast to our YouTube channel for those who like watching the show. You can watch those here. 

Other Chisme to Start Your Week  

• Jesse Marx and Lisa Halverstadt teamed up this week on an insightful story about San Diego’s proposed tenant protections. This is the proposal that would bring the city’s tenant protections up to and beyond what the state of California provides. So, what did they find? Well, a lot of groups representing landlords and tenants have beef with the proposal. Marx and Halverstadt write that some are already talking about amendments, litigation and a ballot measure. Read the story here.  
• Will Huntsberry had a story on three North County charity executives who have repeatedly cut deals that have allowed them to make a lot of money. Grab some coffee and read the full story here.  
• The board of the Metropolitan Transit System can’t agree on who should lead it. The board put forward three candidates to serve as the board’s chair, but none got enough votes. We rounded up what happened in the Morning Report. Read about the vote here and subscribe if you aren’t already to stay on top of the latest news.  
• Voice of San Diego contributor Sandra Dibble wrote about the ever-tense topic of narcocorridos for Tijuana. The norteño ballads that narrate the exploits of drug traffickers are more popular than ever, despite efforts to curb the music. Read the Border Report here.