San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is set to deliver his State of the City speech this week.
We’re expecting something very different from a year ago. The city is facing a roughly $350 million budget deficit, ongoing crises in housing and homelessness and a significant infrastructure backlog. The change of venue alone – he’s giving his speech from City Hall not the Balboa Theatre – is a representation of what Gloria has declared “an era of austerity.”
You can watch it online at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. We’ll have a recap in the Morning Report.
But first, a look back at how things turned out.
On cracking down on crime. Gloria announced last year that he would support reforms to Proposition 47, a measure that reclassified certain crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. This was the line he delivered at the time, “We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent.”
He took his time, but he eventually got behind Proposition 36, which turned some misdemeanor thefts and robberies into felonies. Voters passed it in November.
On homelessness. During last year’s speech, Gloria pledged to deliver at least 1,000 new shelter beds by early this year. He didn’t keep that resolution.
Gloria’s controversial proposal to open a 1,000-bed shelter in Middletown stalled – and though his team remains committed to opening a large shelter, it may never come to fruition. The city also lost hundreds of contracted shelter beds following closures last year.
What he did get done: The city opened a roughly 160-bed domestic violence shelter, added new beds for families and expanded its safe sleeping sites. The city and its housing agency are also ramping up new offerings to replace the beds it lost at the end of 2024.
Gloria also launched a campaign to raise millions of dollars to end the homelessness crisis. KPBS reported in December that the initiative only raised $1.3 million and its only expenditure at the time was $2,400 on t-shirts.
On speeding up housing permits. Last year, Gloria launched the Complete Communities Now program, an extension of the Complete Communities program, which incentivizes housing near transit.
Complete Communities Now requires the city to complete the permitting process of eligible Complete Communities projects within 30 days. As of July 2024, 10 projects totaling 625 homes have received expedited approval under the program.
Interfaith And Escondido Are Burying the Hatchet
For most of last year, leaders of Interfaith Community Services and officials at the city of Escondido were at odds.
Interfaith operates the only homeless shelter beds in Escondido. And Escondido, which has the highest number of homeless people in North County, depends on those shelter beds.
So, the beef between the two parties was less than ideal.
The tension started when Escondido stopped contributing money to one of Interfaith’s homeless shelters. Then, things escalated when Escondido officials put the permit for one of Interfaith’s locations under review. And at the same time, Escondido started making big changes to the way the city addresses homelessness.
It all led to Interfaith’s leaders feeling threatened, and Escondido’s leaders feeling like Interfaith wasn’t being cooperative.
But after several months of working to find common ground, Interfaith and Escondido are back on track, and the nonprofit is hoping to receive the city’s support in its new effort to expand detox services.
‘They Were Fed Up with Both Parties’
San Diego’s Democratic voters slipped away from the party in this last election.
As part of the Public Matters partnership with inewsource and KPBS we set out to understand what happened.
Why did so many choose not to vote? Why did some communities, which had previously voted for the Democratic candidate, show up for Trump?
Amita Sharma with KPBS spoke to voters in southeast San Diego where Democrats lost just under 11,000 votes between November and the last presidential election. On the other hand, Republicans gained 2,000 votes in that part of the region.
ICYMI: Yesterday’s story provided an overview of the voter trends we saw in San Diego. Read that story here.
Environment Report: About Those Not-So-Compostable Bags
A few months ago, our MacKenzie Elmer revealed that many compostable and biodegradable products that companies say can help people compost more efficiently are not considered compostable by San Diego’s standards.
For example, HippoSak, whose parent company is Crown Poly, claimed to have a certification from a European organization verifying that it is compostable, but it did not, in fact, have that certification.
Now, Crown Poly wants everyone to know that it has re-upped its certification with that European company, TÜV AUSTRIA, to produce compostable plastic bags. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t mean Crown Poly’s products (including HippoSak) are safe to compost with.
San Diego, Waste Management and others don’t accept products like these as compostable.
Also: San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava has done a lot for the environment over the years, including guiding San Diego Community Power, chairing the council’s Environment Committee and more.
Elmer details LaCava’s behind-the-scenes involvement in environmental issues since he joined the City Council, as well as the issues he’s looking forward to tackling.
Read the Environment Report here.
Rendering Alert: City College’s Future Affordable Housing Complex
For well over two years, San Diego Community College District officials have been eyeing building housing on their campuses. The first project to get off the ground will be an 800-bed affordable housing complex on City College’s downtown campus. Now, thanks to a snazzy video rendering, we have an idea of what it will look like.
The 16th and C Street complex will include 283 units split between studios, two-bedroom and four-bedroom apartments. Rent is estimated to be $500 per room below market rate and the building is slated to feature everything from a dog grooming station to a food pantry.
Demolition on the site began more than a year ago, but the complex isn’t slated to open until 2028. Its construction will be funded in part by the proceeds from last year’s Measure HH bond, which voters approved with about 60 percent support. The $3.5 billion bond program will also fund improvements to facilities across the district.
In Other News
- Op-Ed: In a new opinion piece for Voice of San Diego, Ricardo Flores from LISC San Diego makes the argument that if San Diego officials made a zoning change that would allow homes to be built on smaller lots, it would result in more affordable housing prices and more housing production. (Voice of San Diego)
- San Diego jails are failing to meet minimum health and safety standards, according to an expert hired by attorneys suing the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office over jail conditions. The specialist toured six of the seven jails in the county and found conditions to be “deplorable” and “filthy” in the first of 12 reports the attorneys plan to make public. (Union-Tribune)
- At least 495 homeless people died last year, according to data from the county medical examiner’s office, marking the region’s first drop in homeless deaths in more than a decade. However, that number is almost certainly an undercount as it only includes those who died outside or without a doctor. (Union-Tribune)
- SDG&E notified nearly 55,000 customers Sunday that their power might be temporarily turned off Monday or Tuesday as a new round of Santa Ana winds move in. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Andrea Lopez-Villafaña, Lisa Halverstadt and Jakob McWhinney. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.