Housing advocates in San Diego and across the state scored a win last week after a bill targeting a controversial law about condominiums cleared a key vote before lawmakers broke for a month-long summer recess. 

But in the push to slash regulations for building more housing, rifts surfaced among Democrats over two separate approaches to addressing California’s long-standing condo shortage.

For this week’s report, we’ll return to the fight over how to make it easier to build more condos — often considered California’s most affordable path to homeownership — and where San Diego lawmakers stand on those efforts.

A Right to Repair

State lawmakers last week OK’d a measure, Assembly Bill 1093, to change a state law that gives condo owners the right to sue developers to fix any construction defects up to 10 years after construction.

Experts and housing activists have long pointed to the policy as a major culprit for California’s condo crisis because it frequently leads to costly lawsuits.

The bill proposes to absolve developers of responsibility for defects one year after they’re fixed, although more sweeping reforms were proposed in earlier versions. It still allows homeowners up to 10 years to file construction defect claims.

Condos historically are cheaper than most comparable-sized single-family homes — about 20 percent cheaper in Southern California. However, fewer and fewer are getting bought or built.

Industry-wide issues such as skyrocketing building costs and insurance premiums are some of the reasons for the decades-long slowdown, but condo building took an even bigger hit than single-family homes after the Great Recession.

Today, California builds about 3,000 condos a year compared to tens of thousands more than two decades ago, according to a 2025 UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation study.

Called the “Right to Repair Act,” the 2003 law was meant to encourage builders to fix construction defects such as crooked roofs or incorrectly installed sliding glass doors to avoid litigation. 

But more lawsuits, not less, have cropped up in their place as an industry of attorneys who specialize in pointing out defects big and small sprang up. As many as 80 percent of new condos over the past 25 years have been sued for defects, the UC Berkeley study estimates.

And fixing defects before there’s a lawsuit often doesn’t stop many homeowners or their associations from suing anyway. 

It’s made building and financing condos more costly compared to single family homes, housing experts and backers of the bill say. The city of San Diego supports the legislation, as do San Diego’s housing commission and regional chamber of commerce.

The current system “forces the homeowners to sit with defects sometimes for years even when a simple fix would make sense for everyone,” Democratic Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, the bill’s author, said at June committee meeting.

Builders now will often wait until they’re sued to fix even simple defects so they can recoup the costs after their liability insurance policies kick in, Wicks said.

Housing and environmental groups supporting the bill say changing construction defect laws will make condo construction more appealing to developers who’ll be better able to sidestep onerous lawsuits.

Workers with Habitat for Humanity said after building 30 affordable housing condos in Fremont, the nonprofit was sued for millions of dollars after one owner noticed what the builders described as minor water damage.

“To this day, litigation has prevented us from addressing that one minor repair,” advocate Patti Wang Cross said.

While the bill unanimously advanced from the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, several consumer and real estate groups testified in opposition, alongside individual homeowners concerned they would lose the power to get major problems fixed.

“We certainly do not want to have the balcony Berkeley collapse happen in a condo or, heaven forbid, something like the Surfside condominium collapse,” California Consumer Attorneys lobbyist Nancy Drabble said at a hearing last month.

Nearly 100 people died when a Miami condo building called Surfside crumbled in on itself in the middle of the night five years ago. In 2015, six students died after the balcony they were standing on in a fourth-floor Berkeley apartment building collapsed during a birthday party. Later reports found significant structural flaws in both buildings.  

Wicks agreed to make more changes that would shrink the bill’s overall scope — such as how builders address flaws across a few units versus an entire building — before it passed unanimously from committee.

‘Favor the Little Person’

As housing reform continues to be a priority for lawmakers, Democrats walk a tightrope in seeking to balance the need to make it easier for construction companies to build while protecting the financial interests of current homeowners. 

Recent efforts to crackdown on HOA fees, for example, are broadly popular in the Legislature, but one bill proposing to cap fee increases has fractured support among Democrats, who worry about what such changes could mean for property values and for future financing.

That dynamic was on display last week when a separate approach to boost condo development from San Diego Assemblymember Chris Ward, a Democrat, died when he pulled Assembly Bill 1406 from a scheduled hearing. 

That bill sought to increase how much developers could take from the security deposits of buyers who backed out of a deal, increasing it from 3 percent to 6 percent.

Ward and San Diego housing groups supporting the bill said the changes would allow developers to access more money for skyrocketing construction costs, which would then make it easier to build condos.

But numerous Democrats and homeowner groups feared the 3 percent increase would be too much for most new condo buyers, many of whom are first-time owners, to bear.

It barely squeaked by the Assembly earlier this year, getting the minimum support needed to advance despite Democrats’ supermajority. 

Twenty Democrats, including San Diego Assemblymember Darshana Patel, a Democrat, discreetly opposed the legislation by not voting on it.

Ward said in a statement that he killed the bill once he learned the committee chair, Sen. Thomas Umberg, would not support it.

“I think they are concerned that in our move to get more housing built, that you have to be careful about tilting the balance too far” in favor of developers, senior California Realtors Association lobbyist Sanjay Wagle said on why Ward’s proposal fell flat with some Democrats.

“We are California. Our general mode of operation has been to favor the little person, in a way. The consumer against the entity with more power.”

California’s Building Industry Association has donated tens of thousands to lawmakers who sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee that approved the construction defect bill, according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database, including San Diego Sen. Akilah Weber, a Democrat who sits on the committee.

The California Association of Realtors, which opposes efforts to change the right to repair law and how much developers can take from buyers’ security deposits, also gives tens of thousands of dollars to lawmakers every year.

In Other News 

Just before breaking for summer recess, a bill to exempt a planned San Diego sports arena from state environmental rules advanced with unanimous support. 

Three Assembly Democrats — Al Muratsuchi of Torrance, Gail Pellerin of Santa Cruz and Damon Connolly of San Rafael were the only lawmakers who did not vote for it. They abstained from voting.

Senate Bill 958 awaits an Assembly vote next month.

What I’m Reading Now

ICE detention center company GEO Group agreed to pay a $100k settlement over poor living conditions in a Central Valley facility, CalMatters reports.

San Diego flip flops on street vendor enforcement as the city waits out a legal challenge against local ordinances, from KPBS.

One Covid-era relic might be disappearing soon to the dismay of high schoolers everywhere. UCs are now heavily considering requiring SAT and ACT scores for admission again, the Los Angeles Times explains.

Thanks again for reading the Sacramento Report! Please reach me at nadia@voiceofsandiego.org for any tips or comments.

The post Sacramento Report: Trying to Buy a Condo? One Bill Aims to Give Market a Boost appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

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. 

The post Dems Get New South Bay Leader appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

South County Democrats have been at war with one another. 

Now, with a crucial general election nearing, they are pinning their hopes on a peacemaker. 

Democrats in the party’s South Area region, which encompasses San Diego County’s southern cities and unincorporated areas, recently selected Sherman Heights realtor and longtime party activist Rafael Perez as the party’s new South Area vice chair. 

Perez, who last month lost a bid for San Diego City Council, will coordinate election efforts in a year when Democrats are hoping to extend their influence in numerous local jurisdictions and end their years-long shutout from South County mayoral offices. 

A self-described “firm but fair” leader, Perez said he hopes to heal divisions among local Democrats, who over the past year have engaged in seemingly nonstop feuding over candidates, endorsements and the party’s fundamental values and strategy. 

“Everyone is working toward very similar goals, and there’s not always consensus on how we get there,” Perez said. “That’s where I hope to be able to step in in this role and lead with integrity and fairness and the party’s values to help filter through the noise.” 

Perez replaces former South Area Vice Chair Jason Bercovitch, who resigned last month after a video surfaced of him engaging in a shouting match with another party activist over a controversial candidate endorsement. 

Perez said he hopes to avoid such dustups by following the rules and making sure everyone feels heard. 

“Our party has got procedures and policies and everything else,” he said. “[My] role is to be that leader who is firm but fair and brings people to a good cause.” 

A realtor for more than two decades, Perez said his experience selling houses south of Interstate 8 has given him insight into South County residents’ economic challenges and aspirations. 

He also teaches real estate as an adjunct professor at San Diego Mesa College and Cuyamaca College. 

He has served as board president of the Sherman Heights Community Center and helps to run the Sherman Cocina, which helps aspiring restaurant owners learn the food business. 

And he’s a member of the PTA at his child’s elementary school – which might turn out to be the most relevant item on his resume for leading fractious South County Democrats. 

“Peacemaking, we need that,” said San Diego County Democratic Party Chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy of the southern region where Perez is assuming leadership. 

Rodriguez-Kennedy said Perez is the right man for the South Area job at a time when key South County elections – along with a fraught national political environment – call for party unity. 

“I found him a confident officer who people like, and he doesn’t tend to be a mean-spirited operator,” Rodriguez-Kennedy said. “He tends to be [a] fair-minded [person] who is not prone to outbursts.” 

Perez said during his campaign to represent District 8 on the San Diego City Council – which he lost by roughly 1,100 votes – voters’ number one complaint was what he described as “a disconnect between what they perceived to be the focus [of elected leaders] and what [residents’] challenges and frustrations really are.” 

Voters perceive that politicians are just looking out for themselves, Perez said. 

What voters actually care about, he said, is “safety and potholes and crime and pollution.” 

Perez said he hopes to steer Democrats back to those fundamentals and keep the focus on fundraising, supporting candidates and winning important races. 

“By and large, the South Area encompasses a lot of working-class communities who need and seek voices that have their needs prioritized,” he said. “That’s who I’m fighting for and that’s who our endorsed candidates are fighting for.” 

“I think [working-class people] would be better served with Democrats in office…Hopefully we have results in line with our values and we can build upon that.” 

One More Step Toward Holocaust Museum 

Correction: We updated this section to correct that the opening of a Holocaust exhibit at the Central Library in San Diego is on Sept. 29.

For years, Chula Vista resident Sandra Scheller has been laboring to fill a glaring hole in San Diego’s cultural fabric. 

The city is one of the few large American cities without a Holocaust museum. 

Later this year, Scheller will move one step closer toward her goal of establishing such a museum when a Holocaust education exhibit she is organizing at the downtown San Diego Central Library opens on Sept. 29. 

The exhibit will feature roughly 100 items from Scheller’s personal collection of Holocaust artifacts, including a can of lethal Zyklon B gas used to execute Jews, Nazi memorabilia and life-size cutouts of Holocaust survivors, including survivors who settled in the San Diego area. 

Scheller, the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, said she hopes the exhibit will inspire San Diegans to learn about the Holocaust, internalize its implications and advocate for a permanent memorial museum. 

The exhibit is slated to run for two years in an exhibition space on the library’s second floor. 

“We [have] never answered the question, where did the hate come from for the worst atrocity in the world, the Holocaust?” Scheller said. “The importance of educating people about the Holocaust never went away.” 

Scheller recently hired an executive director for Remember Us the Holocaust (RUTH), the nonprofit she formed to manage her Holocaust collection and advocate for a permanent museum. 

For the past six years, the collection has been displayed at other regional libraries, including in Chula Vista, though never for as long as the downtown San Diego exhibit is slated to last. 

Scheller said she hopes the central, transit-accessible location of the downtown library will draw visitors from across the San Diego region and beyond, including schoolchildren. 

“The survivors [of the Holocaust] have passed on, but people are getting educated from our second and third generation youth,” she said. “That’s the importance of a Holocaust exhibit.” 

It should be noted that Scheller is a genuine South County character. Raised in Chula Vista, she went on to become a professional mime then taught theater arts to Cirque du Soleil performers. She now provides volunteer assistance to The Flying Cranes, an aerial ballet troupe. 

Describing her nonprofit’s new downtown San Diego office in the historic Marston Building on C Street, she said she was delighted to learn the building is full of lawyers and “every private investigator you could imagine.” 

She noted her nonprofit’s office space was formerly occupied by an architect who worked on the San Diego Convention Center and the Gaylord Pacific Resort in Chula Vista. 

When she moved in, Scheller said, she found an old sign the architect had led behind. 

It read: “Out of Small Places Come Great Things.” 

Scheller just might see that Holocaust museum become a reality. 

For the Record: While reporting a story this week about a possible increase in Chula Vista’s hotel tax rate, I reached out to Marcy Weaver, CEO of the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce, for comment. 

The tax increase under consideration by city officials could affect the Chamber both because it would impact local hotel businesses and because the Chamber currently handles tourism promotion in the city. 

Jose Preciado, one of the councilmembers eyeing the tax increase, said he hopes additional tax revenue will fund a new visitors bureau that would coordinate the city’s tourism efforts. 

Weaver got back to me Thursday morning and said she had been unable to respond the previous day because she had been hosting an all-day board retreat. 

She provided a characteristically diplomatic comment on the possible new tax increase: “At this time, I have not had an opportunity to discuss this matter with our board of directors or determine the Chamber’s official position,” she said. 

“We look forward to learning more as additional details become available and engaging in conversations with our board, members and community partners to better understand the potential impacts and opportunities.” 

The post South County Report: South County Dems Pin Hopes on Peacemaker  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Remember four years ago when the San Diego Unified School District asked taxpayers to pony up $3.2 billion in bond financing for urgently needed repairs to city schools?

And four years before that, when the district asked for… the same thing?

Well, we’re back again — and not much has changed.

As our Jakob McWhinney reports, San Diego Unified’s latest $3.5 billion bond proposal slated to appear on the November ballot includes many of the same old projects — including the exact same photos of decrepit facilities used for earlier bonds.

Why the broken record routine?

As McWhinney writes, “If the bond pitch ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Ironic, no?” 

Also in McWhinney’s Learning Curve newsletter: A priceless (or is it $500,000?) moment of robotic brown nosing.

Read The Learning Curve here.

Chula Vista PD Killed the Vibe

As you may have seen, the vibe in Chula Vista has been incredible after all of Mexico’s wins in the World Cup. People hit the streets to dance, cut up and have a good time. 

On Sunday, Mexico lost to England — down with the crown! — but, even after the loss, the vibes appeared just as high.

People spilled onto Third Avenue, where a general sense of celebration seemed to prevail. 

Cops told the crowd to disperse. When people didn’t leave, officers began to fire pepper-spray projectiles. You can see video from ABC 10 here.

Cops, however, say the scene wasn’t all peace and love. They say some in the crowd threw bottles, set off fireworks and blocked police cars. They also say a police car was damaged by the crowd. A picture shared with ABC 10 shows a small dent. 

“God forbid some Mexicans try to catch a vibe,” wrote Chula Vistan Nicko Savala on Instagram. 

CV Explores Hotel Tax Increase

The city of Chula Vista is eyeing hotel guests as a new source of revenue.

The city recently hired a polling firm to test support for a possible November ballot measure that would raise the city’s hotel tax rate to among the highest in San Diego County.

City Councilmember Jose Preciado, who spearheaded the proposed tax increase, said he hopes the new revenue will pay for additional police officers and a new visitors bureau to market the city as a tourism destination.

But wait: The City Council hasn’t even discussed the plan, much less decided to put it on the ballot. Yet, already there’s a deep-pocketed opponent.

A major labor union that’s sponsoring a separate ballot measure in Chula Vista came out in opposition Wednesday – in part fearing that asking voters to weigh in on two complex government-related ballot measures could cause them to reject both.

“Now is not a time for tax increases,” the union’s leader said.

Read the full story here. 

Meet the Beat Tonight

Today’s the day to meet the journalist behind Voice’s much-loved North County Report: Tigist Layne!

Join us for a discussion about Layne’s latest investigations and bring your questions for an open audience Q&A, moderated by Managing Editor Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña 

Join us today, July 9, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at La Colonia Community Center in Solana Beach. This event is free and open to the public. 

RSVP here.

In Other News 

• The San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend nearly $400,000 to buy a robotic police vehicle that police officials said they will use to de-escalate dangerous situations, rescue people trapped in buildings and safely approach active shooters. (Union-Tribune)

• In other robot news: Waymo, the driverless taxi company, plans to begin testing driverless taxis on San Diego city streets later this month. The company already has been testing driverless taxis with a driver supervising behind the wheel. (KPBS)

• Residents of southeastern San Diego on Tuesday lost a bid to block plans for 123 houses in the Emerald Hill area. The City Council rejected an appeal from community members to stop the housing development on land residents called a community oasis. (KPBS)

• The National City Council recently approved a series of projects intended to beautify and improve safety on city streets. Projects include mini traffic circles, bicycle lanes, sewer improvements and a pedestrian rail crossing. (inewsource)

• Despite a difficult budget year, the city of San Diego spent nearly $30,000 to send an emergency response helicopter to Newport Beach in Orange County to assist in a search for the missing son of a retired Fire-Rescue Department leader. The missing son was later found “chilling at his apartment.” (Union-Tribune)

• It looks like a horror movie. It’s actually folk art. Welcome to Dead Dolly Lane, a long and winding private driveway in Alpine lined with…well, you just have to see the photos for yourself. (Times of San Diego)

The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch and Will Huntsberry. It was edited by Will Huntsberry. 

The post School Construction Bond Déjà Vu appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Over the past few months, San Diego Unified officials have been ironing out the details of a new construction bond measure, set to go before voters in November. Construction bonds, if passed, raise property taxes to fund school construction and renovation.  

At a board meeting late last month, staff gave the public its first real look at the new $3.5 billion bond ask.  

Many of the features of the bond – from what officials say it will fund to how they say it will impact taxpayers’ pocketbooks – are essentially identical to previous bonds they’ve passed. That’s not entirely surprising, because that pitch has worked like a charm on previous bond measures.  

Since 2008, the district has gone four-for-four. If voters pass the latest measure, they will have approved more than $15 billion in bond funds for San Diego Unified over the past 18 years. So, essentially, if the bond pitch ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Ironic, no? 

First, a primer on general obligation bonds: For many districts, the cost of maintaining their facilities is exorbitant. Roofs begin to leak, plumbing breaks and everything just gets old. And for a district like San Diego Unified, which has more than 200 educational facilities spread out across 200 square miles, juggling those serious costs and still paying its more than 10,000 staff members is no easy task. 

Enter the general obligation bond. These are essentially loans districts take out that can only be used for physical improvements – school modernizations, new football fields, new school labs, etc. Voters, though, are the ones who pay back the loan, through increases to property taxes. 

The new (old) pitch: During a presentation to board trustees, Lee Dulgeroff, the district’s director of facilities, planning and construction laid out a pretty dire picture. Dulgeroff said the district faces $461 million a year in estimated deterioration costs meaning, despite the more than $11 billion in bond funds voters have approved since 2008, “our existing funding resources … will not keep pace with that need.” 

“Mother nature [and] wear and tear occur at the same time as we’re renovating and replacing aging facilities,” Dulgeroff said. “Many of our core building systems are reaching the end of their useful life.” 

Beyond the aging argument, a quick glance at the new bond proposal reveals that a whole slew of projects seem to duplicate previous ones promised by earlier bond measures. The district has pitched every single bond measure since 2008 as being aimed at removing asbestos and lead, repairing bathroom and plumbing and upgrading career and vocational learning centers.  

The rationale is pretty understandable. As Dulgeroff said, as soon as a project is finished, it begins aging. Even if a new roof is installed, it will need to be renovated at some point or another. But after decades of promised fixes, some schools have still been left with stifling hot classrooms and leaky plumbing. 

Like the last bond, this one also includes hundreds of millions in funding for educator workforce housing. So far, officials still haven’t announced how they’ll use the funds they secured in 2022. 

Amusingly, district officials used three identical photos of worn roofs in their 2022 presentation to the board for Measure U and their 2026 presentation for the latest bond measure. Hey, uhhh, if it also ain’t broke, also don’t fix it? 

Some wrinkly bits: District officials have always sold the bond program as highly transparent. That pitch has worked because they’ve earned high marks from their bonds’ independent oversight committee. But it’s not entirely true anymore.  

Last year, the San Diego County Grand Jury released a report criticizing elements of the district’s bond program. The report criticized the district’s commingled bond funds, which make it difficult to figure out where money for each new project is coming from. It also criticized the district’s duplicative bond priorities, which I pointed out above. 

Another main criticism from the Grand Jury was that the district’s measures sometimes obscured that they increase property taxes. Like the previous bond measure, officials say this one will not raise taxes. In fact, it’s right there in the proposed measure’s name – “San Diego Unified School District Repair, Student Safety, No Tax Rate Increase Measure.” See? 

They’re both sort of right and sort of not. Technically, the new bond may not raise the actual tax rate. That’s because, like the last one, it will likely slide into use as previous bonds are exhausted – think of the Indiana Jones scene with the statue and the bag of sand, minus the giant boulder booby trap.  

But were a new bond not passed, the tax rate may actually drop because previous bonds were exhausted. So, while the rate may not change, property owners will pay more in taxes in the form of paying decades more of debt service. The district estimates the debt service on the new proposed bond will cost taxpayers $8.1 billion.  

The new (new) pitch: One of Dulgeroff’s pitches for a new bond was a surprising one – potential district growth.  

Anyone who’s followed my reporting over the past year will know that San Diego Unified, like most districts across the state, has been shrinking for years. Since 2014, San Diego Unified’s lost more than 17,500 students.  To put that in context, the district lost one of every eight students.   

This is happening for a whole bunch of reasons, from plunging birth rates to rising costs chasing young families away and even people switching to home school. State officials project the district will lose thousands more students in the coming years.  

All this means that schools are underutilized.Earlier this year, I reported that internal district documents show that nearly half of San Diego Unified’s schools are operating at less than 70 percent capacity.  

So, what gives? The crux of Dulgeroff’s argument wasn’t necessarily “yeah, but that decline is gonna’ turn around!” Instead, he argued the city is actually still growing, just in places where the district has historically had fewer schools. Those are places like Midway, Kearny Mesa and Mission Valley, where large-scale housing projects may bring tens of thousands of more people.  

As I found out earlier this year, San Diego Unified no longer has their own demographer doing the difficult work of figuring out how populations are changing. So, they relied on SANDAG population projections. But those projections are only reason for measured optimism – if that. SANDAG projects the citywill grow by about 24,000 people by 2040 – from 1.09 million to 1.14 million – after which population will begin to decline once again.  

Dulgeroff didn’t ignore enrollment decline in his presentation, though. In fact, he floated something that district leaders have been reticent to mention thus far – school consolidation, the edu-speak phrase for school closure.  

“Bond funds can support reconfiguring campuses to better utilize these existing spaces, while right sizing and consolidating programs, where appropriate,” Dulgeroff said. 

His presentation put a finer point on it. One slide read that “facilities don’t align with current enrollment,” and to optimize for today’s needs, the district would need to “right-size and consolidate where appropriate.” 

Robotic Introductions 

A couple of weeks ago, I published a piece about how the charter network Altus Schools’ purchased two ChatGPT-powered humanoid robots for $500,000. I’ve gotten a lot of messages since then.  

Many have been from folks who were scandalized by the prospect of AI-powered robots in schools, and by the network’s decision to purchase them. A surprising amount have been from companies and PR people who seem desperate to shill their own brand of AI-powered robots.  

One of the more interesting messages I’ve gotten, however, contained a video. It’s from Feb. 2025 and shows Altus Schools founder Mary Bixby introducing one of the network’s robots on stage. The robot then returns the favor. Its introduction of Bixby, who pushed to acquire the robot, is beyond glowing.  

“Ladies and gentleman, brace yourself for the incredible Mary Bixby,” the robot says in its inhuman, Siri-esque voice. 

The robot describes Bixby as a “visionary” and “dynamic leader recognized with multiple awards.” It also describes her as a “brilliant author,” before dishing out some effusive praise for Bixby’s two books. Hey, the robot may not be all that functional – yet – but if nothing else, at least it knows how to butter up its owners.   

The post The Learning Curve: Meet the New Bond, Just Like the Last Bond appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

The city of Chula Vista is exploring a possible November ballot measure that would raise the city’s hotel tax rate by four percent to fund a new city tourism bureau along with additional public safety resources. 

The city recently hired an Encinitas-based polling firm called True North Research to gauge voters’ support for increasing the city’s hotel tax rate by four percent. 

Chula Vista’s base hotel tax rate currently stands at 10 percent for all guest stays of 30 days or less. 

Guests at hotels along the city’s bayfront, including the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center, pay a higher rate of 15.5 percent. 

If the City Council decides to place a hotel tax increase on the November ballot, and voters approve the measure, Chula Vista’s hotel tax rate would rise to one of the highest levels in San Diego County. 

The neighboring city of San Diego charges up to 13.75 percent, depending on hotel location. Other large coastal cities, including Carlsbad and Oceanside, charge slightly less. 

City Councilmember Jose Preciado, who spearheaded the potential tax increase along with fellow Chula Vista Councilmember Cesar Fernandez, said raising the hotel tax rate could generate roughly $2.8 million annually — $700,000 for each percentage point increase.

“I’m looking to have our visitors pay into the quality of life we all enjoy,” Preciado said. “I think in South County we haven’t had the same focus [on maximizing tourism opportunities] as San Diego proper or other parts of San Diego County.” 

Preciado said he hoped the additional revenue generated by the tax increase would help pay for up to 10 new police officers and a new city-funded visitors bureau to market the city as a tourism destination and plan for future tourism growth. 

The poll currently being conducted by the city proposes earmarking new tax revenue for 911 emergency response resources, homelessness services, job creation efforts and maintaining city parks. 

“As we emerge as a tourism area with different kinds of tourism amenities, our goal is to build infrastructure for that,” Preciado said. 

Poll results and a proposal for the possible ballot measure could come before the City Council later this month. 

The Council would need to vote to place the tax increase on the ballot by the first week of August to meet a filing deadline for the Nov. 3 election. 

The idea of raising hotel taxes first appeared on the city’s radar late last year, when a City Council subcommittee focused on economic growth in the city’s lower-income west side included the idea in a four-point economic development plan for the area. 

Preciado and Fernandez were the subcommittee’s two members. 

Similar to a series of subcommittees recently created by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the west Chula Vista subcommittee operated on an informal basis and did not hold public meetings governed by public meeting rules or transparency requirements. 

The two councilmembers met with Chula Vista staff and a range of economic development consultants, including New York-based HR&A Advisors and Spicer Consulting Group, a Murrieta company that, according to its website, helps cities find ways to “fund vital infrastructure and services to meet the needs of constituents.” 

The plan developed by the subcommittee proposed four strategies for growing the west Chula Vista economy. 

Strategies included expanding sports-related tourism, creating business improvement districts and “developing strategies that support tourism growth and generate transient occupancy tax revenues that can be reinvested to strengthen Chula Vista neighborhoods and assist in achieving city priorities.” 

Councilmembers in November unanimously approved the plan and directed city staff to put it into action. 

The possible hotel tax measure comes as city councilmembers already are weighing a separate ballot measure that would overhaul city government by extending term limits, raising councilmembers’ salaries and expanding their responsibilities. 

That measure is being spearheaded by a prominent local labor union representing construction workers. Union representatives sent a copy of the proposed ballot measure to councilmembers last month for consideration. 

The union’s leader said Wednesday his union would oppose a hotel tax increase, in part because it might confuse voters or cause them to reject both measures. 

“This is not a time for tax increases,” said Valentine Macedo, secretary treasurer of Local 89 of the Laborers International Union of North America. “Before asking voters for another tax increase, [Chula Vista leaders] should be clear about exactly where the money will go and how taxpayers can hold City Hall accountable…Our charter reform measure is separate.” 

As with the possible hotel tax increase, councilmembers are expected to decide later this month whether to place the government reform ballot measure on the November ballot.  

Chula Vista voters in November also will be asked to decide on a county-backed ballot measure that would raise the county’s sales tax rate by half a cent to pay for healthcare, sewage cleanup and other county initiatives. 

Preciado acknowledged the presence of so many government-related proposals on the city’s November ballot risked confusing or alienating voters. 

Still, he said he felt confident voters trusted their elected leaders enough to recognize that the hotel tax increase was needed and would fall on out-of-town guests, not residents. 

“One thing I’m very proud of in Chula Vista is voters have been able to rely on us to manage our resources well,” he said. “I want to make clear that this is not intended as a local tax. It’s intended as a tax on visitors.” 

The post Chula Vista Eyes Possible Hotel Tax Increase  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Earlier this year, our Public Matters partners at inewsource revealed how San Diego property owners can obtain a short-term rental license even after illegally evicting a tenant.

It’s happening because of a loophole in the law, inewsource reported. 

The loophole relates to an action called no-fault eviction. This type of eviction is unrelated to a tenant’s behavior. State law allows property owners to conduct these types of evictions for specific reasons, whether they want to exit the rental market or conduct a big renovation. 

One San Diegan spoke with inewsource about how they received a no-fault eviction because new property owners were moving in. But less than 90 days after their move-out date, the property owner obtained a short-term rental license from the city of San Diego.

Four months later, not much has changed. Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who led the 2023 charge to regulate short-term rentals, plans to bring amendments to a committee meeting next month. But neither her or her staff have answered questions about the loophole and how they will fix it.

Read the full story here. 

SDG&E Celebrates Its Solar Customers After Trying to Block Plug-In Systems

Less than 24 hours after we reported San Diego Gas and Electric had walked back claims its experts made before lawmakers about the safety of solar, the company published a press release celebrating rooftop solar adoption. 

State lawmakers are considering whether to legalize solar panels that are small, cheap and easy enough for renters to use on their balconies. But an SDG&E representative warned the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee about multiple incidents where solar systems had caused dangerous situations for their workers. 

When Voice of San Diego’s MacKenzie Elmer asked SDG&E to explain Monday, the company said that what the representative shared was a “generalized example” and not a reference to a specific incident.   

Then on Tuesday the company issued a press release taking credit for the high rate of rooftop solar adoption by its customers. It also pledged to make interconnecting solar to the grid a swift process – just around three days. 

“The energy system is changing because our customers are leading that change,” wrote Scott Crider, president of SDG&E. “Our responsibility is to help the grid evolve with them.”

It’s not news that San Diego County has the highest concentration of solar power in the state. It’s been that way for years. 

And many San Diegans turn to rooftop solar hoping to escape the climbing cost of energy. SDG&E’s electric prices are some of the most expensive in the country. 

SDG&E is registered against the plug-in solar bill being led by State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from the Bay Area. 

Congressional Candidate Marni von Wilpert on Cancer Surgery 

San Diego councilmember and U.S. congressional candidate Marni von Wilpert said she underwent a “successful” surgery last week, after a routine mammogram detected early-stage breast cancer.

Von Wilpert added that her prognosis “is excellent” after the surgery and “showed no further abnormalities or spread.”

She also said she will continue to campaign for Congress full-time and fulfill her councilmember duties throughout her ongoing treatment. 

Read the full story here. 

Song of the Month

Comedown Lounge, “Everything, Always”: It may be heating up, but it’s never too warm for a lil’ cry. Last month, the (appropriately named) local indie rockers Comedown Lounge released “Everything, Always,” a dirge and emo-tinged ode to just kinda’ feeling sorta’ shitty and the discombobulation of human intimacy. Lead singer Emerald Forrest’s drawling vocals really sell the tune. 

Like what you hear? Check out Comedown Lounge on Friday, July 10. They put on an excellent live show, fwiw. 

In Other News 

• The San Diego Humane Society is urging San Diegans who may have lost their pet during Fourth of July celebrations to check local shelter listings. The organization says they took in more than 100 pets as of Monday and have only reunited 22 with their owners. (NBC San Diego) 
• San Diego County has confirmed its first case of locally acquired Chagas disease. The County began requiring local reporting of the illness in 2024, but only four of 22 reported cases have been confirmed since then. (Union-Tribune)
• The San Diego City Council voted on Monday to move forward with a housing project nearly a decade in the making that would bring 5,100 units to mostly city-owned land in Otay Mesa. The approval came despite stiff opposition from local landowners. (NBC San Diego) 
• A new institute at UC San Diego will study how to integrate AI into healthcare systems. (Union-Tribune)

The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Mariana Martínez Barba and MacKenzie Elmer. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.

The post San Diego’s Airbnb Eviction Loophole appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

In the just-before-Covid-times, a majority of city voters backed a hotel-tax increase that pledged new money for a Convention Center expansion, additional homeless services and road repairs.

After years of legal wrangling over whether Measure C passed, it’s now in full effect but it’s not delivering additional homeless services or immediately funding an expansion.

That’s because Measure C money isn’t actually being added on top of the city’s existing homelessness budget – like many voters intended – it’s replacing it. In other words, the money won’t be paying for new homeless services any time soon.

It’s a prediction that homeless advocate Michael McConnell made at our 2019 Politifest. He was one of the ballot measure’s fiercest opponents back when it was preparing to go before voters. And it turns out, he was right.

It’s not a shock given the city’s budget crisis, writes our Mariana Martínez Barba. San Diego’s massive budget deficit means its existing homeless services were hanging on by a financial thread; Measure C funds are keeping those services afloat.

Also: A city spokesperson made the case that the city did technically follow the will of the voters by expanding homeless services after Measure C passed in 2020, even though the money was held up for years in a legal battle. Now, the city is using the new money to pay for those services it already expanded.

Read the full story here.

Plug-In Solar: Is It Actually Dangerous? 

Utility companies opposing a state bill that would allow people to own plug-in solar panels to generate electricity have had one central argument against it: it’s too dangerous.

Is it, though?

Companies like SDG&E obviously wouldn’t benefit from the bill because it would allow its customers to generate electricity on their own. But they say they’re also concerned about workers’ safety. An electrical worker trying to fix the grid may get electric feedback from the solar panels and get hurt, they argue.

However, our MacKenzie Elmer hasn’t been able to find or hear of one example where someone was hurt by such an incident. And some experts say the concern may be exaggerated.

Read the Environment Report here. 

Feds Now Own Otay Mesa Detention Center

The federal government now owns two of the largest detention facilities in California after private prison company CoreCivic sold them to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a deal worth $1.5 billion.

The company sold Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego County and California City Detention Facility in Kern County outright, but will keep managing the facilities under existing contracts that will be renegotiated once the contract term is up, CalMatters reported.

Remember: ICE has previously blocked local and state elected officials from visiting the Otay Mesa Detention Center. San Diego County is also suing CoreCivic for allegedly blocking health inspections.

Read the full story here. 

Politifest Is Back

We’re bringing together local politicians to go head-to-head at Politifest: Elections Showdown. 

Attendees will hear from candidates across San Diego and cast their votes for who would most effectively address the biggest issues facing our community. It’s all happening on Oct. 3.  

Get discounted tickets with early bird pricing today.

In Other News

This section has been updated to clarify that the president decided not to renew a key trade agreement.

• Last week, President Donald Trump decided not to renew the United States’ commitment to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a set of trade rules, citing concerns about trade deficits. The move could have massive impacts on San Diego’s cross-border economy, affecting the trade of billions of dollars worth of goods between San Diego and Mexico. (KPBS)
• New sleep cabins in Pacific Beach will soon house six people who are working their way out of homelessness. The group is part of a program that pays them to clean public streets, provides them with case management and houses them. (KPBS)
• Thirteen bathrooms around Mission Bay are now closed due to city budget cuts, which is almost half of the bathrooms in the park. (Axios San Diego)

The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.

The post Promises, Promises: A Measure C Status Update appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

Back in 2020, many people had their doubts about a proposed increase to the hotel tax, called Measure C, that promised new money to expand the Convention Center, help solve homelessness and fix city streets.   

Homelessness advocate Michael McConnell was one of the skeptics. He had a criticism shared by many.  

“There’s no guarantee that there will be any net increase in homelessness funding at all,” he said at a Politifest event on Measure C in 2019. “They could simply replace existing general fund money with this money.” 

Political insiders were perplexed by McConnell at the time. He sold his business in La Jolla and dropped more than $370,0000 attempting to defeat the ballot measure. He sent out mailers trumpeting his personal opposition. But after the ballot measure passed and budget time came around, it turned out his predictions had been exactly right.  

The new money – which the city only began collecting in 2025 because of a yearslong court battle – is replacing spending that had already been on the books rather than going toward new services.   

It’s not necessarily a surprise, given the city’s budget crisis – but it is exactly what critics warned.  

City spokesperson Matt Hoffman attempted to explain how the city actually had followed the will of the voters.  

City leaders did expand homelessness services after voters passed Measure C in 2020 – even though the money was held up for years because of the legal battle, he said. Now that the money finally has come through, it’s simply paying for those expanded services created since 2020.  

At the same time, he admitted the money isn’t going to pay for anything new right now.  

“Measure C revenue is not ‘replacing’ a stable, permanent baseline budget—it is preventing a catastrophic collapse of our current shelter and service network. This dedicated revenue source is what allows the City to look forward and responsibly execute the expansion of shelter beds and interventions without shrinking our existing footprint,” Hoffman wrote in an email.  

Hoffman said prior to Measure C, the city did not have a dedicated revenue source for homelessness programs, and that the city relied on the general fund and grants to fund services. 

What the Measure Said Then   

Here’s exactly what the measure said it would do six years ago: 

“The People of the City of San Diego intend that the Additional Tax Revenues will supplement, rather than replace, any existing revenue sources (as outlined in the Fiscal Year 2016-2017 budget adopted by the San Diego City Council) to the Convention Center, Street Repairs and Homelessness Programs.” 

That word “intend” is doing a lot of work. The money was intended to go to new services – but it wasn’t mandated.  

Amy Li with the independent budget analyst’s office also said the voter intent was under the assumption of the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget.  

She said the baseline of spending on homelessness services was very low at the time, and since then the city has significantly increased homelessness services and revenues. 

Voter intention, however, was laid out with great specificity. In the first five years, 59 percent of new revenue was supposed to go toward modernization of the Convention Center and 41 percent would go toward homelessness services. Over time, money would go to road repair, as well.  

But McConnell clocked this problem of intention versus requirement right away. 

“I don’t want to see sections in this measure that are there that says the City Council can change how they spend that money,” he said at the time. 

Measure C proponents said the ballot’s language was vague on purpose. In the same Politifest conversation with McConnell, Gil Cabrera, who was an attorney and board member of the Convention Center at the time, said the City Council needs to have the authority to do whatever it wants with the budget.  

“A City Council that has control of their budget – which all of them do – can move money around in a crisis,” said Cabrera.  

But Cabrera also said that city leaders should not mess around with the voters’ intent. 

He said that Measure C made it politically difficult to move money around because, “somebody like you” — he pointed to McConnell – “and, me frankly, is going to scream to high heaven if the politicians move the money from what the people told them to do it, and if they do it, then you and I will be on a similar coalition to get them the hell out of office.”  

Cabrera is now a federal judge. Both he and McConnell did not respond to requests for comment.  

Where Measure C Money Is Going  

What’s now abundantly clear is that the Measure C money won’t – and in a way can’t – help the city expand its services.  

The city went into its budget negotiations this year facing a severe deficit. Even with the new Measure C money finally on the table – the city began collecting the tax in May 2025 and couldn’t start spending it until the end of 2025 – city leaders were coming up $118 million short of keeping city services running at current levels.  

Rather than expanding homelessness services, homelessness spending will go down this year.  

Last fiscal year, city officials allocated about $105 million in total for homelessness services and programs. This year spending will shrink to about $102 million.    

Measure C is projected to bring in about $78 million this fiscal year, officials with the independent budget analyst’s office told me. Of that money, $46 million will go toward the Convention Center. Thirty-two million dollars will go toward homelessness services – but, generally speaking, it won’t be buying anything new. 

The homelessness dollars will go to backfill things like shelters, safe sleeping programs, prevention programs and more. 

The money for the Convention Center is paying off old debt instead of funding an expansion.  

The City Council also decided to do a $6 million “fund swap” to help preserve the arts and culture budget, officials with the IBA’s office told me. 

Councilmembers decided to pay $6 million in debt service for the 1998 Convention Center expansion bonds using Measure C money. That allowed them to free up the same amount that would have otherwise paid the debt service to be used to pay for the arts and culture budget. 

Mayor Todd Gloria was not happy about that and said diverting funds from the Convention Center would set up the same budget challenges for next year. 

The City Council could have gone further in using Measure C funds to backfill arts and culture costs, but councilmembers ultimately followed the recommendation of the IBA and chose not to do so.  

Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who has played a role in shaping the city’s homelessness policy, said the budget decisions were a result of compromise. 

“The Measure C funds should be used as voters intended: as additional resources to help even more people get back on their feet. I wish every councilmember would fight for that, but budgets are always the product of compromise,” he wrote in an email statement to Voice.  

“I will continue to fight in future budgets for the resources to help homelessness San Diegans get into homes.” 

Councilmember Henry Foster, who chairs the budget committee, did not respond to a request for comment. 

The ballot does require city officials to set up a citizens-led oversight committee with seven members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. The Council confirmed those members on June 23. 

The measure also calls for the mayor to pitch a five-year plan for how the homelessness funds should be spent.  

I requested further details on the plan, but city officials were not able to provide any.  

Bob McElroy, the CEO of Alpha Project, a homelessness services organization, doesn’t see the new money as a supplement to the department’s funds.  

“I’m not seeing anything down the road that I foresee as being a compliment to what we have now,” he said. “From my side of the bench, I’m seeing cuts.”  

The post The 2020 Hotel Tax Won’t Do Exactly What It Promised appeared first on Voice of San Diego.

I’ve been writing about an effort in California to legalize “plug-in solar,” small panels renters or condo-owners can install on balconies and plug directly into a regular outlet.  

Utility companies like San Diego Gas and Electric oppose the bill, which its supporters suspect is because, when people generate their own energy, there’s less need for utilities to build expensive infrastructure that generates profit for utility shareholders.  

But SDG&E’s subject matter expert on solar and batteries, Sherise Blackwood, told the California Assembly’s Utilities and Energy Committee last month that the utility is worried about safety.  

“Safety requires visibility and SB 868 removes it,” Blackwood said at the June 10 hearing.  

SB 868 would allow Californians to purchase and install plug-in solar units without having to go through a utility company’s complex application process to interconnect with the grid – work typically reserved for companies that install rooftop solar or build large-scale solar farms. Not an elderly San Diegan living on a fixed income in their condo.  

But SDG&E says it’s worried the bill means any number of small units could start generating small amounts of power and feeding that back into an apartment’s electrical wires. That effect times thousands of balcony solar panels could make a lot of power without the utility’s knowledge – they argue – and an electrical worker trying to fix the grid could hurt fixing a power line they thought had been deenergized aka, turned off.  

Solar proponents claim that concern is exaggerated.  

“For more than 15 years it’s been standard on all rooftop solar panels to shut down automatically when the grid goes down,” said Dave Rosenfeld with the Solar Rights Alliance, a group advocating for the bill. “There’s been no lineworker incident as a result.”  

I heard the same from BrightSaver, one of the companies that’s been supporting bills like SB 868 across the country with success in at least eight states.  

I asked both to tell me how they knew there’d been no incidents. I didn’t get an answer. I reached out to the California Public Utilities Commission about whether there’s been a death in California associated with a solar panel sending power back through the grid.  

I didn’t hear back.  

Then Blackwood reenergized my quest.  

During the June 10 hearing, Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, a Los Angeles Democrat, asked Blackwood to give an example of a backfeeding incident.  

“Yes, we’ve actually had a number of them,” Blackwood responded.  

She goes on to describe that SDG&E crews were out working on a power line which was supposed to be deenergized. But there was some solar hooked up to a battery and the inverter (the device that is supposed to automatically cut the power from the panel) had failed.  

“The (power) line actually was back fed by the PV which was supplying energy to the battery and it was backfeeding to our grid while the utility workers were there,” Blackwood said. 

She didn’t describe whether anyone had been injured. She said the workers had done some “due diligence” beforehand and found the line had unintentionally been energized by the solar generation.  

I reached out to SDG&E to get more information about the incident since some of the lawmakers said they would investigate what Blackwood had shared. Spokesperson Anthony Wagner got back to me Monday saying what Blackwood had shared was a “generalized example” and not a reference to a specific incident.  

“SDG&E and others across the industry — have encountered instances where customer-owned generation and battery systems did not operate as intended and created unintended backfeed conditions during outages. In those situations, energy can continue to flow onto lines that are expected to be de-energized, which is why crews follow strict verification procedures before beginning work,” Wagner wrote.  

He said those situations are rare and mitigated through safety protocols. But he said the fact that they occur underscores why permitting and sending solar through the interconnection application process is required to protect everyone.  

Bill Brooks, of Brooks Engineering who Wiener brought to the committee as an expert witness, said he helped write California’s Rule 21 solar safety standards in the early 2000s. He also said Blackwood’s reported incident of solar sending power back to a downed grid would be news to him. 

“We invented the anti-islanding technology for these inverters and that technology has been flawless over the last forty years,” he said. “So it’s very important to know if there’s an event where something doesn’t happen correctly, you can rectify it.” 

In Other News 

• CalMatters’ Deborah Brennan and photographer Adriana Heldiz bring us this beautiful story about whether San Diego’s aging fishing fleet can be saved. 
• Environmentalists are worried about a proposed project to build a sports complex near the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center near and on top of sensitive habitat. (inewsource) 
• Our Tigist Layne discovered that the U.S. military has finally decided to help the city of Oceanside restore the beach its military installations eroded – a full human lifetime since admitting it was their fault.  
• We broke the news in our Politics Report last week that San Diego Community Power’s CEO is “on leave.” Jack Clark, Burns’ chief operating officer, has taken over as acting CEO.  
• Mexican officials toured Oceanside’s Pure Water recycling facility. The city of Tijuana faces a water crisis due to reliance on the dwindling Colorado River. (KPBS) 
• Some jerk(s) illegally harvested a bunch of female lobsters carrying eggs from La Jolla’s marine protected area last month. Most of them were under legal size to harvest, to boot, even though it’s completely illegal to take anything from a marine protected area. (California Fish and Wildlife) 
• A report from the International Council on Clean Transportation estimated that every day, one person in San Diego County dies from vehicle pollution and one new child gets pediatric asthma. (KPBS) 

The post Environment Report: Is Plug-In Solar Actually Dangerous?  appeared first on Voice of San Diego.