A shuttered portion of Friendship Park, where people from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border used to meet, touch fingers through the fence and hold binational church services on Sundays has turned into a graveyard for dead sea birds.
Friendship Park is a strip of land near the border line between San Diego and Tijuana. The U.S. side of the park is called Border Field State Park, and it’s been closed for months because of the contaminated water polluting San Diego and Tijuana’s oceans and beaches.
But for the past month and a half, something else has been going on at Border Field State Park—it has been littered with dozens of dead sea birds. So now, instead of just the smell of polluted water filling the air, the scent of death is mixed in there, too.
One state agency told Voice contributor Kate Morrissey that it had investigated the increased deaths among sea birds and concluded that young birds have been starving because of higher water temperatures that leave less available fish for birds to eat.
Another agency said it’s “not necessarily cause for concern.”
So, if you’re wondering what ever happened to the park that once was a symbol of unity at the border, it’s still closed because of cross-border sewage and is now covered with dead birds.
Related: Times of San Diego recently wrote about the increase in dead seabirds appearing on multiple beaches along San Diego’s coast. Researchers confirmed that the cause is rising water temperatures that have pushed fish into cooler and deeper waters.
Three Killed at Islamic Center Shooting, Both Suspects Are Dead
Three adults were killed in a shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, and two suspects were found dead in a vehicle, police officials said.
Police Chief Scott Wahl said the suspects were ages 17 and 19. They were found in a vehicle nearby and appeared to have died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
He told reporters the incident is being investigated as a hate crime because of its location, the Washington Post reported. The Islamic Center is the largest mosque in San Diego, according to its website.
The mayor brings up the budget: During his remarks, Mayor Todd Gloria praised law enforcement and said, “This is what we train for, this is what we budget for, this is what we ask of our public safety professionals and they absolutely deliver in the way we ask them to do so.”
The mayor’s proposed budget increases the police department’s budget while cutting dollars to libraries and recreation centers. Councilmembers argued last week that those cuts also represented a threat to public safety, and one questioned if they could move money from the police budget to fund libraries and recreation centers.
DeMaio Fires Back at State Party
When Assemblymember Carl DeMaio got into a fight with the Republican Party of San Diego County, he and his allies ended up effectively taking it over, installing a new chair. He kept the party from endorsing candidates he didn’t support and from issuing a voter guide. Then he issued his own “official Republican voter guide.”
Now, he’s picked a fight with the California Republican Party. Last week, the party issued a letter threatening him and demanding he cease and desist from distributing the guide.
“Your conduct constitutes a knowing and willful trademark infringement under federal and state law, a direct violation of California’s Truth in Endorsements Law, an unlawful solicitation of contributions in the name of a political party, a violation of the mandatory slate mailer disclosure statute, and an act of voter deception.”
DeMaio changed its name to “Carl DeMaio’s Reform California Voter Guide for Republicans.”
But he’s ready to do to the state party what he did to San Diego’s.
In a statement, DeMaio’s spokesman Dylan Martin wrote that the state party only wrote the letter because Rep. Darrell Issa supports a “sellout” candidate for county supervisor, John Franklin and has a long-standing vendetta against DeMaio.
“The Republican Party insiders back sellout candidates – and of course they want to smear Carl DeMaio’s Reform California Voter Guide because it backs only candidates who are proven FIGHTERS,” Martin wrote.
County Budget Proposal Relies on Rainy-Day Funds
County Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton on Monday released a budget proposal that relies on belt-tightening and roughly $95 million in county reserves to maintain services and avoid layoffs.
The $9.1 billion budget proposal, which represents a 6 percent increase over this year’s budget, calls for directing more than $68 million in unlocked reserve funds to support staffing and other initiatives to help San Diegans maintain food stamps and health coverage amid federal cuts. It also counts on $20 million for Tijuana River Valley sewage solutions.
Those reserve funds were unleashed last year after board Democrats voted to change the county’s long-controversial reserve policy.
Shelton’s proposal also called for the county to take on nearly $25 million in additional costs tied to Proposition 36, a state ballot measure that cracks down on repeat drug and theft offenders. It’s unclear whether these allocations will be enough to address the spiking costs, especially for county jails. The Sheriff’s Office recently estimated it alone has spent more than $62 million to house Proposition 36 offenders while the Public Defender’s Office said it would need a nearly $2.7 million budget bump for increased employee costs alone this year.
Shelton’s budget plan also relies on the county centralizing, restructuring and modernizing some operations to deliver savings.
In Monday statements, Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe praised county staff for finding ways to balance the budget.
“We looked under every rock before asking families to absorb service cuts,” Lawson-Remer wrote. “We modernized outdated systems, tightened spending, unlocked reserves responsibly, and prepared for the first wave of federal impacts.”
Supervisor Joel Anderson, meanwhile, had a less rosy view, particularly on the plan to dip into reserves.
“This is just slush budgeting,” Anderson said.
What’s next: County supervisors will hold a public budget hearing on July 1. They are expected to approve a final budget for the year that begins in July on June 25.
Newly Homeless Outnumber Newly Housed in April
The number of people becoming homeless in San Diego County outpaced the number moving into homes in April.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reports that 1,116 people became homeless for the first time and 963 exited homelessness.
Your monthly reminder: For most of the last few years, local efforts to house homeless residents haven’t kept up with the flood of people losing their homes. That equation must change to dramatically reduce homelessness.
In Other News
- San Diego officials will install almost 300 paid parking meters in San Ysidro as early as July. (inewsource)
- Chula Vista is studying whether its sole police station can serve the growing South Bay city. (Union-Tribune)
- A portable air purifier company is suing the county, alleging that the air purifiers the county bought from another company to minimize the impact of Tijuana River pollution on South Bay residents are ineffective. (Times of San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne, Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña, Scott Lewis and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.