North County Report: A Big Year Ahead 

It’s the first North County Report of 2024, and I’m excited to see what this year will bring. 

Here are some of the stories I’ll be paying attention to in the coming months. 

The Point-in-Time Count 

In just a few weeks, more than a thousand volunteers will take to the streets to count and survey homeless people in each city across San Diego County.  

The annual homeless census, called the point-in-time count, is a federally-mandated program with the goal of tracking homelessness across the United States to inform policies and programs at every level of government. 

This year in San Diego, it will take place on Jan. 25, and the region’s leaders and homelessness experts are expecting to find that overall numbers have risen. 

For more than a year, the number of people falling into homelessness has far outpaced the number of people finding housing, according to monthly reports by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness. 

Last year’s homeless census counted a record high of more than 10,200 homeless people countywide. 

North County had the third-largest homeless population in the county with a total of 1,436 people, making up 14 percent of the region’s homeless population, data shows.   

Reminder: The point-in-time count is a minimum count. Voice of San Diego has previously reported that the numbers likely represent a bare minimum of San Diego’s homeless population. And other data by the Regional Taskforce and other organizations has proven that this count is only a snapshot of the growing homelessness crisis in the county.  

Last year, I went out with a volunteer group in Vista, and I saw firsthand the various factors and circumstances that can lead to undercounting. Still, the count gives the region’s leaders and service providers an idea of the problem’s extent. 

Election Season Is Upon Us 

This year is also a highly anticipated election year, where candidates across the county will be vying for various seats. 

Here are the races to watch.  

District 3 supervisor: Kevin Faulconer, a Republican who was San Diego mayor from 2014 to 2020, will battle Terra Lawson-Remer for her seat representing the county’s north coastal communities in District 3 of the County Board of Supervisors race. 

State Assembly: Republican Carl Demaio, another familiar name in San Diego, is facing off against fellow Republican Andrew Hayes, an aide to state Sen. Brian Jones, for 75th state Assembly District, which covers inland North County and East County. 

Oceanside mayor & city council: One of the more crowded races in North County will be for the District 3 city council seat in Oceanside, which has five candidates vying for the spot. The seat is currently held by Councilmember Ryan Keim, who has decided not to run for reelection for his seat and instead run for mayor against incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez.  

All Things Escondido 

Big things are on the horizon for Escondido this year. Decisions around its budget issues, a potential cannabis program and (possibly) another sales tax measure are all things I’m anticipating in the coming months.  

No money, more problems: Escondido has been facing a structural budget deficit for the past several years, and the city has run out of one-time funding sources that have helped close the budget gaps in the last several budget cycles. 

Moving forward, the deficit is expected to average $10 million for the next five years, and $18.2 million annually for the next 15 years.  

The biggest impact, so far, has been on the city’s maintenance and public works. But residents could see larger impacts and cuts to city services and operations in the next few years if something doesn’t change, according to city officials. 

Cannabis: City officials will soon begin exploring the possibility of a cannabis program and other possible tax ventures to bring in more revenue. 

A taxed cannabis program would allow cannabis businesses in some form in Escondido and establish a cannabis business tax. Escondido is one of nine San Diego County cities that still does not allow any cannabis business for retail storefront or delivery, testing, manufacturing, distribution or cultivation. 

Another sales tax measure? A citizens coalition called Escondido Citizens for Safety held two public workshops late last year to discuss the possibility of putting another sales tax measure on the 2024 ballot to help address the structural budget imbalance. 

Escondido has had similar ballot measures twice before, which were both projected to raise around $20 million annually. The first one failed at a City Council meeting in 2020, and the second failed at the ballot box in 2022. 

This time though, Escondido City Council doesn’t want to revisit the measure, which means residents would have to put the measure on the ballot on their own. 

The coalition plans to begin collecting signatures this month to put a sales tax measure on the ballot. To qualify for the November 2024 ballot, it would require supporters to gather at least 7,700 signatures from Escondido residents. 

The Contentious Underground Train Tunnel 

I’m also hoping to see some progress this year on plans to move the train tracks that run along Del Mar’s bluffs into an underground tunnel. 

The tunnel is part of a larger $160-billion regional plan created by the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG. The idea is to move the train tracks that run along the fragile Del Mar bluffs into an underground tunnel by 2035.  

The tunnel itself will cost an estimated $4 billion or more and would run a couple hundred feet underground and at least a mile inland from the tracks’ current, precarious location.   

The LOSSAN corridor, which is the 351-mile railroad route from San Diego to Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, is the second busiest rail corridor in the United States. It serves more than 8 million passengers a year, according to SANDAG.  

Almost two miles of that corridor runs seaside along the Del Mar bluffs, which have been slowly eroding for years, causing multiple bluff collapses.  

There are still a lot of questions and controversy surrounding the plan – the biggest question being where exactly this underground train tunnel will be located.  

In Other News 

• ICYMI: For our beginning-of-the-year “It’s Gonna Blow” series, I wrote about North County leaders making plans for various new homeless services in the new year. In a region that has historically lacked homeless resources, leaders’ ability to deliver will determine whether North County will start to see more progress. (Voice of San Diego) 
• The producer of a failed Del Mar horse show accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill her husband pleaded guilty last week to solicitation to commit murder. (Union-Tribune) 
• Oceanside’s dune project, which will install low fences and stakes to hold wind-blown sand and create dunes and habitat for native plants, is raising concerns from residents that the project could restrict public access to the city’s widest beach. (Union-Tribune)