Mayor Todd Gloria is working to get support for a law that would ban homeless encampments in most public spaces. He’s asking residents to sign a petition. He’s speaking about the ordinance at press conferences.
The latest push happened Tuesday at Perkins K-8 school in Barrio Logan. He has talked about the plight of children who walk past homeless encampments before. CBS 8 had a story on Perkins students who have to do that very thing to get to school.
The message: In recent months, Gloria has made it clear he’s not OK with the current level of visible homelessness. His plan would rely on city police to enforce the ban on camping in certain areas.
As we previously reported, police are already responding late or not at all, to potentially dangerous situations that involve homeless San Diegans.
A Voice of San Diego reporter asked Gloria how police would be able to take on new enforcement duties. They are already are not keeping up with their current calls for service.
“This is not going to be an overnight thing. I’m not standing here saying that overnight this is going to make tents go away,” Gloria said.
What to expect: The City Council is set to vote on the proposed ordinance on June 13.
Gloria emphasized that his pitch for more enforcement coincides with a push to open two safe campsites. Those campsites could hold as many as 500 tents.
Gloria said he expects one of the sites to open soon after the vote and another sometime in the fall.
The Latest on San Diego’s Downtown Restroom Shortage
For the fifth time in two decades, the San Diego County Grand Jury last week panned the city for failing to provide enough public restrooms downtown.
“Despite recommendations of Grand Juries in 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2009-2010, and 2014-2015, and some attempts by the city of San Diego to address the adequacy of public restrooms, a person walking through the downtown area can still be confronted by the unmistakable sight and odor of human waste,” the grand jury wrote in its latest report. “Finding an open and well-maintained public restroom remains difficult in many parts of downtown and surrounding areas, especially in evening hours.”
The report also questioned Gloria’s goal to install restrooms within five minutes of any area downtown, a target the city has yet to meet.
The release of the report calling for the city to etch out a plan – complete with benchmarks and a budget – for “adequate public restrooms” downtown and in nearby Balboa Park coincided with the city’s addition of 13 temporary public restrooms to deal with a spike of hepatitis A cases concentrated among the city’s downtown homeless population. The new downtown restrooms were installed following a directive from County Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten, who has noted that hepatitis A is fueled by sanitation challenges.
The county last week reported 29 hepatitis A cases so far this year, including 19 in the homeless population.
- City spokeswoman Nicole Darling said the city has also increased the cleaning of some sidewalks in several corridors identified by county officials to twice a week based on county tracing of hepatitis A cases.
In Other News
- Tuesday was it. The Padres will no longer broadcast their games through Bally Sports San Diego. Diamond Sports Group stopped paying the team for rights to broadcast the games and now the Padres are reclaiming those rights. Major League Baseball will handle the broadcast for now. The team and league could sell rights to other providers directly. (Sports Business Journal)
- And more Padres news. The team plans to give Gallagher Square a $20 million makeover after the 2023 season. The new amenities include an off-leash dog park, pickleball courts, a large playground for kids, public art and more. (CBS 8)
- Back in March the Politics Report wrote that a movement to incorporate La Jolla had reached a point that it needed to be taken seriously. As the authors explained, it’s not a new idea, but this time it’s “more real” because of the steps supporters had taken in raising and spending a lot of money. The Union-Tribune has a story on how supporters believe the effort to secede would benefit the entire city of San Diego.
- Carlsbad High School students on Tuesday protested their school district’s refusal to raise a LGBTQ+ Pride flag at its headquarters. (Fox 5 San Diego)
- The CEO of North County’s community energy program is stepping down. (Union-Tribune)
- Last Thursday, Mayor Todd Gloria signed the tenant protection ordinance approved by the City Council in April. It’s now set to go into effect on June 24 barring any legal or referendum challenges. Here’s a review of what’s in the new ordinance.
- The Union-Tribune dug into a charity created to back causes supported by Gloria that has made few public disclosures. (Warning: This one is only for subscribers.)
Correction: Tuesday’s Morning Report has been updated to correct a typo in the section, “Politics Report: The Law Shaking Up Political Fundraising.” The political lobbying law is SB 1439.
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Scott Lewis.
It not camping people it’s where they live. Let’s get together with pitchforks and tiki torches and destroy the dwellings they call home. Let’s throw away their belongings. The person readi g this wouldn’t want a dozen or so cops waking you up and throwing you away. WOULD YOU. Open minds create open solutions. What’s next line up all these “Campers line them up near a large ditch and discharge them . It’s not camping out .