South Bay Democrats have a new South County vice chair after a video of a shouting match led to a resignation last month.
Hinch reports that Sherman Heights realtor and longtime party activist Rafael Perez will take the seat. Perez, who recently ran for San Diego City Council, is promising to smooth over divisions and try to keep the party focused on extending Democratic leadership and influence in South County. His appointment comes as the party tries to end a years-long lack of Democratic mayors in the region.
Also in this week’s South County Report: A Chula Vista resident is getting closer to delivering a Holocaust museum in the form of an exhibit at the downtown Central Library.
Read the South County Report here.
San Diego: Hurry Up Coastal Commission
The California Coastal Commission voted Thursday to give themselves more time to review an application to correct a zoning and land-use designation mistake in Barrio Logan.
As our Mariana Martínez Barba reported in March, the error almost cost the community a much-needed park. San Diego city officials want to correct the mistake ASAP, but they need the OK from the Commission.
The city’s planning director, Heidi Vonblum, submitted a letter ahead of the meeting urging the Commission to not delay their decision any longer. She wrote that a one-year extension, “unnecessarily stalls a noncontroversial, pro-community amendment that safeguards parkland.”
Commission staff said they don’t anticipate needing the whole year for the review. And a city spokesperson said they don’t “anticipate any development applications for the site at this time.”
“This has significant public interest from the folks in the community,” Commissioner Ariel Kelley said during the meeting. “I feel confident that we’re able to move this forward and support staff’s recommendation.”
New Report: More Success Combating Homelessness
A new report shows service providers are moving more San Diegans into homes and keeping more of them housed.
The Regional Task Force on Homelessness report reviewed three years of data on people accessing homeless services rather than point-in-time census data typically considered a minimum count of homelessness in the county.
City News Service reported that the Task Force also found fewer people fell into homelessness for the first time last fiscal year.
A dark cloud: The Task Force noted that homeless San Diegans are spending more time on the street. Over the past three years, the average length of homelessness rose from 185 to 193 days. The reality was even more stark for seniors, who averaged 234 days last fiscal year.
San Diego Politicos Dish on Yelp
An Instagram post about Los Angeles politicians leaving online reviews got us wondering about San Diego’s electeds’ takes.
Our quick-turn findings: San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno loved Coral Del Mar this spring but was not cool with a long wait at Ululani’s in Chula Vista last summer. Fellow Councilmember Kent Lee raved about Precise Garage Doors Services in March. San Diego Unified school board Trustee Cody Petterson had a beef with a La Jolla Burger Lounge back in 2022.
In Other News
- San Diego Gas & Electric wants to increase utility rates by nearly 9 percent in 2028. (KPBS)
- A San Diego City Council committee has – at least for now – punted a decision on new business fees meant to cover enforcement of wage laws after criticism from hoteliers. (Union-Tribune)
- The San Diego City Council recently signed off on a $2.2 million plan to transform an alley near the Santa Fe Depot into a pedestrian access point for the train station. (Union-Tribune) They also approved a 5,000+-unit housing development between the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa neighborhoods. Southwest Village would stretch across 490 acres of land – nearly half the size of Balboa Park. (NBC San Diego)
- Early results of a survey of more than 500 South Bay residents described nausea, brain fog and other health issues tied to the Tijuana River sewage crisis. (KPBS)
- San Diego City Councilmembers are expected to approve $3.1 million in settlement money to a Black San Diego Police Sergeant who alleged he was racially discriminated against for more than a decade. (Times of San Diego)
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Fiona Bork. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafana.