Two weeks ago, I watched as a group of residents I met with vibrated with energy. “They can’t figure it out,” someone said. The others nodded in agreement. “San Diego is facing a deficit. This could bring millions,” another person added.
We met at a park in Spring Valley to talk about cannabis equity. The group was frustrated with the city of San Diego’s failure to get a program off the ground that would help people charged with crimes related to cannabis enter the legal weed market. Everyone I met that day fit that description. They knew first-hand what it was like to lose fathers, brothers and years off their lives to the criminal justice system for doing something that’s now legal.
“We’ve been waiting years and years,” Vincent Stalcup said. “We had to grow up in fatherless homes due to the war on drugs. Generational wealth will be built off this social equity program and we really need generational wealth when we’ve been dealing with generational curses.”
Grab some cafecito and let’s get into it.
A Hit of History
When California’s voters legalized marijuana in 2016, they also recognized that some communities had been disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs. So, the idea of cannabis equity policies was to give those individuals a chance to enter the market legally. The state has invested millions in this effort. And municipalities have rolled out programs.
Over the last two years, the city of San Diego published a study on cannabis equity, engaged community members and presented a policy proposal for an equity program. The City Council also delayed a plan to expand the number of cannabis business permits until the equity program was in place.
Many of those who had gone to prison for selling cannabis, saw the equity program as a form of reparations for the war on drugs and as a way to build wealth in underserved neighborhoods.
“If we had this wealth, maybe my neighborhood could come to me and ask me to build a teen drop off center,” MEgain McCall told me. McCall, a Paradise Hills resident, went to jail in 2009 for having cannabis-infused candy in her car. The candy belonged to someone else, she said, but she took the fall. That decision followed her for years.
The news: Two weeks ago, when Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled his proposed budget, he announced he was proposing to kill the cannabis equity program. As I reported, killing the program also means the city will need to return an $880,000 grant it got from the state.
Related: My pal Andrew Keatts reports for Axios San Diego that revenue from tax on cannabis businesses isn’t as great as city officials expected. The Union-Tribune had previously reported that businesses were struggling to compete with illegal delivery services.
Big Shelter Plan
Mayor Todd Gloria earlier this month announced big plans for a mega homeless shelter north of Little Italy. We wrote about it here, if you need to catch up.
But this big idea also raised some big questions that forced the Mayor’s Office to hit pause. Our Lisa Halverstadt reported late last Friday that his office was set to bring the proposal to the City Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee on April 18, but instead they postponed that hearing.
Here’s why: Independent Budget Analyst Charles Modica, who reports to the City Council, told Halverstadt that an outside consultant flagged some concerns after an initial review of the proposed lease.
“We do have some significant questions about the lease, about some smaller terms as well as whether or not the actual rent payments are consistent with market, so we have been asking for some additional time to review those,” Modica said. “Given that this has now been pulled from committee next week, we should now have time to do it.”
Related: The mayor wants the San Diego Housing Commission to help fund homeless services. But Halverstadt reports, that the housing agency says it doesn’t have extra funds to do that. Here’s what’s going on.
More Chisme to Start Your Week
- Our Sacramento reporter Deborah Brennan followed up on how State Farm’s insurance cuts affect San Diegans. She spoke to experts about what’s at play and what homeowners can do. Plus, she has some updates on bills she has been following. Read the Sacramento Report.
- Education reporter Jakob McWhinney reports that San Diego Unified has taken an important step to building affordable housing at the former Central Elementary campus. Read the Learning Curve here.
- We have been writing a lot about tax hike proposals in San Diego. Our MacKenzie Elmer reported on which measures a City Council committee wants to back. Read more here.
- Have you ever been influenced by a TikTok or Instagram influencer? It happens to me all the time. The city of Escondido didn’t need social, to find inspiration though. Our Tigist Layne tells the story of how Escondido officials were inspired by the city of Huntington Beach’s approach to homelessness and how it influenced recent policies. Read the full story here.