For more than 70 years, a recurring question has dominated the imaginations of some in the patrician beach neighborhood of La Jolla: How do we get the hell out of San Diego?
Over the decades, the complaints of San Diegans living in the La Jolla neighborhood haven’t really changed. The roads are crappy, they say, we contribute more in taxes than we get in services, etc. But another more intangible feeling has always been omnipresent, the sense that La Jolla just feels different.
It’s still just a neighborhood, no different than City Heights or Clairemont. Though everyone from the PGA to the United States Postal Service indulging its preferred proper noun likely hasn’t helped its identity crisis.
For the latest story in our Beef Week series, Jakob McWhinney explored the beef between La Jolla and San Diego. The secessionist baton has been passed to a group called the Association for the City of La Jolla. It is gathering signatures and has taken some concrete steps toward declaring independence. But the hoops to jump through and the questions to answer make building an affordable housing complex in Bird Rock or returning the Children’s Pool to the children seem easy.
If the secessionists accomplish the improbable, however, the final question isn’t theirs to answer. Instead, a majority of voters in San Diego would have approve. Are we all willing to let La Jolla leave?
Hungry for more beef? Read more stories in our Beef Week series here.
San Diego’s Tragic Homelessness Math Problem
Countywide data shows hundreds more formerly homeless San Diegans moved into housing than the previous year.
Yet new year-over-year data from the Regional Task Force on Homelessness shows that thousands more people became homeless for the first time last year.
The bottom line, as our Lisa Halverstadt reports: Between October 2023 and September 2024, 14 people accessed homeless services for the first time for every 10 formerly homeless residents who were housed.
Read the full story for more takeaways.
Related: During Mayor Todd Gloria’s State of the City speech earlier this year, he announced a bold plan to tackle homelessness: raising $370 million through an initiative called San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness. Thus far, however, the city has only raised $1.3 million. The initiative’s only expense so far has been $2,400 on t-shirts for a volunteer event. (KPBS)
Forced from Their Apartments, Imperial Beach Tenants Turn to City Hall for Help
Imperial Beach residents in neighboring apartment complexes say the buildings’ new owners are forcing them out of their homes. Now, they are turning to their elected officials for help.
For his latest South County Report, Jim Hinch spoke to residents of the Hawaiian Gardens apartments. At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, tenants plan to ask city leaders to adopt new rules to prevent evictions.
One woman living at the complex told Hinch she loved living there, and now, she’s not sure where her family will live. “After we got the eviction, we didn’t know what to do,” she said. “We went everywhere to look at [other] apartments but the rents are $2,000, $2,500 … It’s too much”
Also in the South County Report: Why a cemetery in National City killed a proposed mixed-use project and a proposal to regulate short-term rentals.
Read the South County Report here.
Song of the Week
Exit Party, “Sun Lux”: Exit Party’s debut single, “Sun Lux,” is a gem. There’s a bit of Real Estate-esque wistfulness both to the vibe and the music itself. The whole thing feels a bit like experiencing life through a thin pane of glass – you see and sense everything, but you just can’t touch it. Exit Party seems to know just how to deploy that sense of melancholic detachment, just how to communicate the feeling that something ineffable is missing from life. But by the time the track whittled down to just a lonely guitar strum and a gentle arpeggiator, I wasn’t any closer to figuring out what it was. Read more about the Song of the Week here.
Like what you hear? Check out Exit Party at Soda Bar on Thursday, Dec. 5.
Do you have a “Song of the Week” suggestion? Shoot us an email and a sentence or two about why you’ve been bumping this song lately. Friendly reminder: all songs should be by local artists.
In Other News
- An investigation that claimed Superintendent Lamont Jackson harassed multiple former staff members led to his firing. Now, one of his alleged victims is suing the district. (CBS 8)
- The private contractor in charge of managing the sewage treatment plant on the border between the United States and Mexico has been hit with yet another lawsuit alleging the plant has released hazardous chemicals into the water. (inewsource)
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Lisa Halverstadt and Andrea Lopez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.