Victims displaced by the Jan. 22 floods gathered Wednesday in Barrio Logan to share heart-wrenching stories of survival and neighbors rescuing neighbors. They also expressed anger at the city for falling behind on stormwater infrastructure maintenance.
“They didn’t do their job, I had to do their job,” said Jesse Preciado, a Shelltown resident who dove into the flood waters to unclog a street drain. “All my neighbors did lose their houses for this reason, just because the city didn’t want to come check the drains.”
We reported that more than 1,000 families were displaced by the floods. Both government and nonprofit organizations have put people up in motels, but that money is quickly running out.
The Jackie Robinson YMCA placed Ana Ramirez and her two daughters in a hotel. The organization gave the family a 14-day hotel voucher, she said. Ramirez is just one of many families affected by the floods. She accepted assistance last week, but she says she doesn’t know what to do next.
“We are confused, we are angry,” Ramirez said.
She echoed many in attendance who questioned why the city didn’t do more to protect them. One woman blamed the flood for her mother-in-law’s death. She said her mother-in-law begged for help, but by the time the family made it inside the house, she was dead.
The residents and community activists marched around Barrio Logan to demand accountability from San Diego’s elected officials for neglecting the storm canals.
Escondido Mayor Shuts Down Downtown Homeless Shelter Proposal
The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposal by Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer to look into several county-owned properties that could potentially serve as emergency homeless shelters.
One of the locations listed was a 2-acre lot in Escondido, but it was removed from the resolution after the idea received criticism from Escondido Mayor Dane White, Supervisor Jim Desmond and other Escondido officials and residents.
They argued that county leaders should have given Escondido more notice and worked with the city to identify a location together. White said the proposed site, which is located in the city’s downtown business district, isn’t the right fit for a shelter, but that city leaders are willing to work with the county to find a different site.
Lawson-Remer ultimately agreed to remove the specific location site from the resolution and replace it with a proposal to evaluate all possible sites in Escondido.
Reminder: Escondido currently has the highest unsheltered homeless population in North County, according to last year’s point-in-time count.
And last August, the city controversially stopped contributing funds to one of the city’s two homeless shelters – Haven House run by Interfaith Community Services.
At the time, city officials told Interfaith they were concerned that the shelter was serving too many homeless people that weren’t from Escondido. White indicated at the Aug. 9 City Council meeting that he would be pushing for the city to open its own shelter, one that is run by the city.
The Learning Curve: New Rules for How School Districts Spend Covid Dollars
The state has settled a lawsuit brought forward by families with children in Oakland and Los Angeles schools that may change how schools statewide spend Covid dollars.
Background: The lawsuit alleged that students of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds fell further behind during the early days of the pandemic. These are groups that are already prone to educational disparities. The state has settled the suit at $2 billion.
This doesn’t mean new money will flow into schools, writes Jakob McWhinney. This means school districts awarded Learning Recovery Block Grant monies will need to put $2 billion of what they’ve been allocated toward strategies that will help catch students up. They will also need to track the results.
What that will look like for local schools isn’t entirely clear. A San Diego Unified Board trustee told McWhinney that the district has already invested in strategies, so it may mean they just need to keep doing what they are already doing.
Read more in the Learning Curve here.
In Other News
- Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked President Joe Biden to declare a major disaster to help San Diego County address the aftermath of the Jan. 22 storm. (Fox 5 San Diego)
- The city is proposing a slew of land use policy reforms, including changes to make it easier to turn shopping malls into housing projects and to open behavioral health facilities. (Union-Tribune)
- A San Diego County Office of Education program aiding homeless families is set to run out of funds soon. (KPBS)
- Five challengers are seeking to oust indicted Chula Vista City Councilwoman Andrea Cardenas, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. (Axios)
- San Diego County housing officials are now checking to ensure Section 8 landlords aren’t increasing rents more than the state’s rent cap allows. (inewsource)
The Morning Report was written by Juan Estrada, Tigist Layne, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña and Lisa Halverstadt.
Which former San Diego mayors and city council members were so eager to win the support of developers that they voted to upzone a well-known flood plain along Chollas Creek for new housing subdivisions? VOSD should do its homework, identify them, then interview them to find out why they thought that was a good idea at the time, and if they still think its a good idea?