I don’t think there is a single person in San Diego, including me, who doesn’t think he or she could run the city better than whoever happens to be running it at the moment. Doesn’t matter which party happens to be in office at any given time. And for the record, I voted for the current mayor.
Also for the record, I am a fourth-generation feminist and Democrat married to a lifelong Republican, although my husband, Olof, and I have both voted across party lines on many occasions. It’s a dynamic that feels very familiar to me. My father was a conservative Republican and my mother a liberal feminist Democrat. It made for a lot of lively, but respectful, dinner table conversation.
My husband is still fervently hoping the Republican Party will return to what he thinks of as its former glory. I, of course, think it never had one. Conversations are pretty lively at our dinner table, too, but in the current era for different reasons entirely. Olof and I have never been more politically aligned.
There are several local issues that truly puzzle me and, in my view, lack even a modicum of sense.
The Metropolitan Transit System has a significant budget shortfall and likely has to make cuts. But since the city has passed legislation that doesn’t require parking for new construction within a half-mile of a “transit route” (i.e., a bus or trolley line), considering cutting bus routes and schedules seems not the way to go.
Olof and I lived in Stockholm without a car and were so enamored of public transit by the time we returned that we attempted to use public transit whenever possible. Olof was even willing to get up an hour early every morning to take the bus instead of the 20-minute drive. It just couldn’t be done. He couldn’t be late for the 8 o’clock meetings since he was the one running them. Within six months, he was back to using his car.
And while we’re on that subject, a half-mile is a hefty hike, especially if the terrain is hilly and you’re lugging groceries and/or toddlers. One of the reasons Stockholm’s transit system works so well is that you’re rarely more than two blocks from some kind of transit. We just aren’t ever going to have that here. But making it yet harder to use public transit seems like a huge step in the wrong direction.
Moving on … given how many potholes need to be filled and streetlights repaired, I am still trying to get my head around $4,232,339 for the roundabout at Loring Street and Foothill Boulevard in Pacific Beach. OK, it does include some storm drains, too, but this project seems to have gone on for years.
And I hope someone can explain to me why it was ever a priority in the first place. (I am willing to concede that there is some pressing issue there that I and pretty much everyone on social media are unaware of.) You could do a lot of city repairs for that kind of money. Maybe even add some bus routes!
And then there’s the planned new city trash fee for single-family homes. Personally, I never buy anything that I don’t know the cost of ahead of time. Well, medical care, but you don’t have a choice.
The initially projected $23-$29 a month for the trash fee was just that: a projection. The actual proposed fee was $53 a month (roughly double the initial estimate) and projected to go up to $65 in July 2027.
The outcry has been sufficient that it was most recently proposed to come down to $47.59 (then rise to $59.42 in 2027), but still waaaay higher than the public was suckered into believing.
Customers willing to use the smallest (35-gallon) bins may get a reduced rate. A minor detail is that the city Environmental Services Department currently only has 35-gallon cans for green waste. It discontinued the 35-gallon black bins (for trash) and blue bins (for recycling) years ago.
As one who needs the smallest blue bin because of space limitations in my back walkway, I have had to buy them at The Home Depot (you have to buy a specific brand to accommodate the Environmental Services trucks) for $132.49 (including tax), plus $55 for delivery (unless you go pick it up after it is delivered to the store).
Are they planning to start supplying the 35-gallon sizes in trash and recycling colors again? If so, can I get a refund?
But the most incomprehensible issue of all is how the 22-story, 239-foot building proposed on Turquoise Street in north Pacific Beach was ever a possibility. Proposition D, passed in 1972, established a 30-foot maximum structure height in coastal areas of the city of San Diego.
Prop. D was passed largely in response to the construction of the 18-story condo complex at 939 Coast Blvd. in La Jolla and the realization that La Jolla’s waterfront would soon look like Miami Beach.
So how — why — does this 22-story, 213-unit Turquoise Street monstrosity that would only provide a few units of alleged “affordable” housing ever get considered for a nanosecond? Inquiring minds want to know. Lots and lots of inquiring minds.
Would a family needing “affordable” housing even want to live in such a building? Would any of these units be big enough?
This project has been covered extensively in the La Jolla Light and on local news stations, and the list of reasons it is a ridiculously bad idea is long. But even a five-story building is too high for that street. How did it even get this far? Why are the locals even having to spend their energy fighting such a fundamentally insane project?
The short answer is that the state (unbelievably) has allowed it to get this far. California’s density bonus law, passed in 1979 and since much-amended, provides incentives and waivers for developers to build residential units considered affordable for lower-income households.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development has said the density bonus law can supersede local restrictions, including voter-approved initiatives such as the 30-foot coastal height limit.
However, in the Turquoise case, HCD sent a “technical assistance” letter in December stating that San Diego could deny the project by proving that some or all of the developer’s requested bonuses, waivers and incentives are not necessary to create the 10 affordable housing units.
So why doesn’t the city go ahead and deny it already?
Signed,
Waiting to hear from you in La Jolla
Inga’s looks at life appear regularly in the La Jolla Light. Reach her at [email protected]. ♦
