What Mayor Gloria Had to Say About the State of the City

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It was an everything-is-awesome speech.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria yesterday delivered his annual State of the City address before a crowded Balboa Theater in downtown. Drawing inspiration from his tenth-grade algebra teacher, who told him to show his work, he kicked off the evening by showing how he is addressing the city’s greatest challenges. 

The speech featured a long list of accomplishments from miles of roads repaired to housing reforms.

Gloria was most emotive and passionate when he conveyed a tough-on-crime message and reviewed the city’s efforts to improve public safety and recruit and retain police officers.

He claimed the days of cops leaving for other cities and counties are over and now they’re leaving those places to come here.

We may need to fact check that.

The biggest news of the night: Gloria came out as a critic of California’s Proposition 47 and said he would support a statewide initiative to reform it.

There must be consequences: Proposition 47 reclassified certain crimes — theft and drug-related crimes — as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Gloria said he plans to support amending Prop 47 because while it made sense at the time that voters approved it, criminals are taking advantage of the reform. 

“We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” Gloria said. “We will not accept this as our new normal.” 

Why it matters: Proposition 47 has become a go-to reference for conservatives describing the fundamental flaw of progressive political leadership in California. They argue a lenient approach to property and drug crimes left police without a tool to force people into drug treatment or face prison time. And because of that crime has festered and led to open-air drug markets and organized theft rings.

But Proposition 47 was part of several responses to the crisis of prison overcrowding and a system of mass incarceration that itself helped trap people in cycles of crime. Defenders of the law point out how it transferred resources from jails to community services and say prosecutors can still crack down on organized retail theft. It’s just a scapegoat of people looking for something easy to blame for bigger systemic failures.

So it’s a big deal for Gloria, a Democratic leader of a major city, to join those who say Proposition 47 is the source of major problems and needs to be changed.

On Homelessness

• Gloria wants the city to deliver at least 1,000 additional homeless shelter beds by early 2025, a total his team said would be “above and beyond” existing beds that the city needs to relocate. The mayor said the new shelter options – specifics TBD – will be at new sites including H Barracks near Liberty Station.
• He said the city plans to create additional shelter spaces and hundreds of homes for low-income and formerly homeless San Diegans at the old Central Library downtown. The site is set to shelter homeless women in the meantime, though that operation has been on pause for the past six months.
• Gloria launched a new campaign to allow San Diegans to financially support the city’s homelessness efforts. He’s calling it San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness.

Here’s a copy of his prepared speech. 

Related: San Diego’s chief operating officer has asked each city department to submit a budget with 2 percent reductions for the coming year. The city is facing a $172 million deficit. (CBS 8)

And: With the city’s hefty budget problems, the pension board will consider ways the city can cut payments on its $3.4 billion pension debt. (Union-Tribune)

Lisa Halverstadt contributed reporting.