For decades, South San Diego County residents have felt alternately dismissed, ignored or left behind by their wealthier, whiter neighbors north of Interstate 8. Now, they’re working diligently to turn the tables.
In the first installment of our annual What We Learned This Year series, South County reporter Jim Hinch unpacks what he’s learned since taking on the South County beat in September.
As Hinch discovered, South Bay leaders are growing increasingly bold in their predictions that their once-struggling cities soon could catch up to, and maybe surpass, some of their North County peers.
“This will be Chula Vista’s decade,” predicted city Mayor John McCann at a recent swearing-in ceremony for two newly elected Chula Vista City Councilmembers. Pointing to a series of recent high-profile developments in his city — including a 1,600-room luxury resort slated to open next year on the Chula Vista waterfront, a forecast rise in the number of mega-yachts dry-docking near the resort as part of a recently designated maritime free trade zone, and advances in establishing a four-year university near an already flourishing Olympic athlete training center — McCann said that longstanding efforts to make Chula Vista “blossom” are finally coming together.
But the fruits of those development efforts, including rising home values and rapid population growth, come at a cost. Hinch also found that lower-income renters are getting priced out by out-of-town apartment developers in Imperial Beach. And National City, one of San Diego County’s smallest and lowest income communities, continues to battle what they say are bullying tactics by more powerful neighbors.
“I am hopeful we’re going to build this vision together,” newly elected Chula Vista City Councilmember Michael Inzunza said in a speech during his swearing-in ceremony. Whether he and other leaders can realize that hope without leaving people behind remains an open question.
More to come: Our reporters are spending this week recapping what we learned this year. They’ve spent all of 2024 reporting on education, scandals, the housing crisis and more.
Sacramento Report: Avoiding Holiday Civil War
With state lawmakers heading home to their districts for the holidays, our Sacramento correspondent, Deborah Sullivan, took a break from legislative updates to think about the personal implications of this fall’s tumultuous election season.
Her advice, gleaned from conversations with experts: “Try to recharge and use the holidays to rebuild friendships across political divides.”
Sullivan recounts her own anxiety as she joined her extended family for Thanksgiving. She steeled herself for political arguments and rehearsed strategies for changing the subject.
Thankfully, Sullivan’s Thanksgiving went smoothly. But it’s a good bet some holiday meals won’t. Carl Luna, director for the Institute for Civil Civic Engagement and a visiting professor of political science at the University of San Diego, gave Sullivan some tips for calming the waters.
Easiest of all, he said, is simply to avoid politics altogether. “Put it all on the backburner until January,” he said.
Next up: Remember that you’re talking to human beings just as vulnerable as you are. “The biggest danger we face is for groups of us to start dehumanizing the other side,” Luna said.
And so: Find common ground. Feeling self-righteous is a constant temptation. But Luna said pivoting to topics everyone can agree on goes a long way toward bridging differences.
Lastly, Luna challenged readers to commit themselves to speaking out against political violence if anticipated tension between the incoming presidential administration and California leaders escalates.
“Have that personal conversation with yourself: What is the line that you would not cross?” Luna said.
Also in the report: Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre was recently appointed vice-chair of the powerful California Coastal Commission. And San Diego is putting the brakes on new electric battery storage facilities, citing the risk of fires.
Read the Sacramento Report here.
Politics Report: Good Luck, Council President
For the latest Politics Report, our editor Scott Lewis unpacks the first test that newly appointed Council President Joe La Cava will face. We pulled a few graphs here from his newsletter. Here’s what Lewis writes:
The San Diego City Council chose Joe LaCava as its new president Tuesday.
It was a recognition of LaCava’s decency and his efforts to position himself between the poles of this all-Democratic City Council. And it was a win for Mayor Todd Gloria. Gloria told us on the podcast that he didn’t have a preference for who got the Council president role. Maybe, but Gloria’s team sure did and they were pleased with LaCava.
LaCava’s first test is coming right up. Gloria’s returning to the Council with what seems like the last best and final lease terms for his mega-shelter plan at Kettner and Vine. It’s time to either kill or do this deal. The homeless crisis is too pressing, the other problems too big to dither with this any longer.
The Politics Report is available exclusively to Voice of San Diego members. To get access, become a member here and subscribe to the weekly politics newsletter. Read the Politics Report here.
In Other News
- Paul Parker, the leader of San Diego’s Commission on Police Practices, abruptly resigned last week after six months on the job. The former police officer and forensic pathologist said he quit the oversight body because he found it “unwieldy.” (Union-Tribune)
- San Diego’s workforce is still more likely to work remotely than the rest of the United States –but the number of remote workers is falling, Axios San Diego reports. Sixteen percent of San Diego employees worked at least one day per week at home last year, compared to 13 percent nationwide, according to recent Census data. In 2021, more than one-fifth of area workers were remote.
- The Marine Corps announced last week that it had relieved of duty the commander of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, known as the Flying Tigers, nine months after one of the squadron’s helicopters crashed near Pine Valley, killing all five Marines onboard. An investigation into the crash, which occurred in inclement weather, is ongoing, the Marines said. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.