Vended water is much more common in San Diego County than other parts of California. But why?
Though San Diego’s tap water is treated and highly regulated, the trend of San Diegans buying filtered water elsewhere is concentrated in lower-income areas.
A lack of trust in the government to provide clean water supplies from the tap. Cultural tendencies to drink bottled over tap for individuals hailing from other countries. Fear from renters to challenge their landlords over poor-tasting tap water. All these things could be why San Diegans are opting to spend 30 to 50 times more per gallon on filtered water than what flows from the tap, reports Amy DiPierro for Voice of San Diego.
Another issue – water quality reports from local utilities may not reflect true tap water quality once it transfers from municipal lines to private pipes maintained by property owners.
Related: Ever wonder how vending machines work and if you’re really getting the best water your money can buy? DiPierro put together a helpful guide on water vending machines. Read more here.
Why Three North County Cities Passed New Sales Taxes
San Marcos, which boasts more traditionally tax-averse Republicans than Democrats, somehow passed a new sales tax with 60 percent voter support. What gives?
Our Tigist Layne writes that its citizens trust their city council and recognize the city needed more money to maintain San Marcos’ quality of life. Escondido passed a sales tax increase with 62 percent of the vote. That’s probably due to city leaders’ ability to effectively communicate how badly Escondido needed the money. What began as a citizens’ initiative quickly gained signatures and traction.
And Oceanside’s residents poured out for a half-percent sales tax with a whopping 70 percent in favor. It’s an extension of a previous sales tax increase and financial documents show the city has so far kept its original promise to voters on how it’d be spent.
So, name of the game here is trust in government folks.
City Council To Review Updated Mega-Shelter Pitch
Mayor Todd Gloria’s team is taking another crack at a mega-shelter deal as the city faces a $258 million budget deficit for next year.
The City Council is set to get a closed-door briefing Monday on updated “price and payment terms” for the warehouse at Kettner Boulevard and Vine Street where Gloria envisions a large shelter campus. The discussion will come months after the City Council punted on the controversial Middletown lease amid a slew of concerns about the deal points and the city’s plans for the facility.
Gloria spokesperson Rachel Laing said Thursday the updated draft terms and lease address concerns raised by the City Council, city attorneys and city budget analysts earlier this year but declined to elaborate on the changes.
Gloria and Doug Hamm, the real estate and hospitality investor who owns the warehouse, argue it is uniquely suited to house a large shelter campus.
A spokesperson for Hamm also declined to elaborate on tweaks to the proposed deal but said he remains hopeful.
“Doug Hamm continues to believe in this partnership and is happy to see talks continue,” spokesperson Margie Newman Tsay wrote in a statement. “He has never given up on the potential of this site and remains hopeful that it can be part of the solution to address homelessness.”
Meanwhile: As the Union-Tribune reports, the City Council’s budget committee got a bleak overview of the city’s five-year budget outlook earlier this week and began to grapple with the significant cuts ahead. Multiple councilmembers raised concerns about the administration’s decision to plug in planned spending on a 1,000 bed shelter despite the lack of City Council approval for the project.
“We can’t just say we’re going to tighten the belt with one hand and then just let the belt loose with the other hand,” Councilmember Vivian Moreno said.
Laing said the mayor’s team included the planned 1,000 beds because the City Council included funding for them in the budget it approved in June. She argued that not providing additional homelessness solutions would translate into other costs during the city’s tough budget times.
“As Mayor Gloria frequently says: Addressing homelessness is expensive, but nowhere near as costly as not addressing it,” Laing wrote in an email. “Not providing shelter to get people off the streets and help them end their homelessness has a host of financial consequences the taxpayers have to bear — along with the considerable negative health and safety impacts to their community.”
About those 1,000 beds: Advocates and community leaders were critical of the plan to open 1,000 beds at the Middletown site. Gloria’s office now seems to be shifting from that initial commitment.
“We’ve been saying for some time now that it’s not certain to be a 1,000 bed shelter, even though that’s the building’s total capacity,” Laing wrote in an email. “As it’s developed further, the plan is for this to be a campus with multiple shelters/supportive services that would be completed in phases.”
What about other shelter sites? Laing said city and Housing Commission officials continue to evaluate other options.
In Other News
- Costs swelled on a bikeway project in Mission Valley as bids from contractors rolled in at least 20 percent higher than the region’s transportation planning organization anticipated. (inewsource)
- A few residents are still fighting evictions from an RV-park after a homelessness services group bought the land. Seven of the 30 families that made up Green Oak Ranch RV community remain, who with the help of fair housing attorneys, successfully argued evictions from the city of Vista were invalid. (KPBS)
- The city of San Diego’s stormwater crews poured boulders into an area of the polluted Tijuana River Valley to stop splashing from a place in the river where local researchers reported elevated levels of toxic gas. (NBC 7)
- San Diego Unified School District aims to cut its $176 million budget deficit by next June. (NBC 7)
- San Diego County’s CFO warned this week that the county’s budget outlook is “not rosy” and that a projected $138.5 million budget deficit for next year is expected to grow substantially in coming years. (City News Service)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.