{"id":238283,"date":"2016-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/the-state-of-san-diego-2\/"},"modified":"2016-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T08:00:00","slug":"the-state-of-san-diego-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/the-state-of-san-diego-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The state of San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

Downtown leaders weigh in on Faulconer\u2019s annual address<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Hutton Marshall<\/p>\n

On Jan. 14, Mayor Kevin Faulconer gave his second State of the City address at the Balboa Theatre in Downtown San Diego. Downtown leaders praised the Republican mayor\u2019s middle-of-the-road policy proposals and glowing portrayal of San Diego\u2019s private sector growth.<\/p>\n

Faulconer, who is seeking re-election for the first time since winning San Diego\u2019s highest office in a 2014 special election after Bob Filner\u2019s departure, looked back on San Diego\u2019s civic accomplishments and proposed several new policy initiatives in his 50-minute address.<\/p>\n

Recent successes praised by Faulconer included the city\u2019s ambitious climate change mitigation plan, continued negotiations to keep the Chargers in San Diego, and better response times for historically underserved sectors of San Diego.<\/p>\n

\"SOTC01\"<\/a>
Mayor Kevin Faulconer practices the State of the City address (Courtesy City of San Diego)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a tone similar to his previous address in 2015, Faulconer ultimately provided a very favorable view of the state of San Diego.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foundation of our city is strong,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cAnd ladies and gentlemen, the state of our city is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Faulconer diverged from last year\u2019s address, however, was in the speech\u2019s forward-looking policy initiatives, which were markedly bolder and more numerous than last year\u2019s address given 10 months after Faulconer\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n

Such policies included strengthening ties with Tijuana, merging public school education with San Diego\u2019s private science-driven economy and forging ahead with a robust infrastructure spending plan. Faulconer even declared that San Diego researchers would succeed in their long search for a cure for Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

His keystone policy announcements, however, were his ambitious plan to expand the city\u2019s park system and the \u201cHousing Our Heroes\u201d initiative, which aims to house 1,000 homeless veterans currently on the streets of San Diego.<\/p>\n

Regarding San Diego\u2019s parks, Faulconer promised to create a new master plan for the city\u2019s park system, open new green spaces in Mid-City, Mission Valley, Mira Mesa and Serra Mesa, and, most consequently, Faulconer promised the groundbreaking of 50 new or upgraded parks over the next five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, protecting our parks is the reason I became involved in public service,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cSome of my best memories growing up are the summers my family and I spent at the local rec center or hanging out at the beach. And when I became a father myself, Katherine and I wanted our children to have the same experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kris Michell serves as the executive director of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, a nonprofit business improvement organization. She said that parks fill a critical need in a hyper-urban neighborhood like Downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor an urban environment like Downtown, parks are people\u2019s front yards, side yards and backyards, so they become critically important,\u201d Michell said.<\/p>\n

Faulconer\u2019s parks expansion relies in part on converting public school parks to \u201cjoint-use parks,\u201d which would be open to the general public after school hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, there are fields and green spaces across San Diego that our communities could use on evenings and weekends, but because they\u2019re on school property, they get locked up whenever class isn\u2019t in session,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cOur communities and our school system are fundamentally linked. We shouldn\u2019t let government bureaucracy stand in the way of making our neighborhoods great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2008, Councilmember Todd Gloria has represented District 3 on the City Council, which includes Downtown. Gloria said joint-use spaces are already a welcome addition to his district.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoint-use fields have served a meaningful role in helping our neighborhoods meet their need for recreation space for decades,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cFrom Birney Elementary in University Heights to Adams Avenue Park in Normal Heights, most District 3 neighborhoods have seen and benefited from joint-use facilities. I\u2019m looking forward to breaking ground on our District\u2019s next joint-use field at McKinley Elementary in North Park later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the parks plan, the second biggest policy proposal of Faulconer\u2019s address was the \u201cHousing Our Homeless\u201d initiative, which seeks to house 1,000 homeless veterans this year, primarily by encouraging landlords to rent to homeless veterans entitled to existing federal housing subsidies and by improving the city\u2019s rapid-rehousing efforts.<\/p>\n

San Diego was one of 25 U.S. municipalities to join the \u201c25 Cities\u201d pledge to end chronic homelessness among veterans by 2016. Faulconer said he will request that the City Council approve $4 million for the initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cA successful veteran community helps drive a successful city,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cBut a relatively small group of veterans has a difficult time transitioning to civilian life. Today\u2019s unfortunate reality is that almost 1,700 veterans are without stable housing or call our sidewalks and alleys home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloria, a long-time supporter of efforts to address homelessness, praised the mayor\u2019s plan for its ability to rally resources behind existing support systems for homelessness, such as the Section 8 housing vouchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the mayor can assist in getting property owners and landlords to rent their available units to veterans and accept [housing] vouchers, 300 people could immediately transition out of homelessness, and from there I am confident we can eventually meet the goal [to end homelessness] among San Diego\u2019s veterans,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cThis sort of coordination and collaboration between the city, property owners, the county, and service providers will make a difference throughout our region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infrastructure improvement has long been among San Diego\u2019s most pressing concerns, and in his address Faulconer made it a central issue of his plans for the coming year. The mayor promised $50 million on infrastructure improvements, which includes new construction, street repair and building improvement. To accomplish this, Faulconer urged the approval of Councilmember Mark Kersey\u2019s infrastructure proposal, \u201cRebuild San Diego,\u201d which would secure as much as $5 billion for infrastructure projects over the next 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve pledged to dedicate half of the City\u2019s new revenue each year to infrastructure,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cI did it last year. I did it this year. And I\u2019m going to do it every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s no guarantee that this practice of dedicating funds to neighborhood infrastructure will continue under future mayors. That\u2019s why I\u2019m asking the City Council to place a measure authored by [Kersey] the city\u2019s Infrastructure Chairman, on the ballot so voters can guarantee funds for neighborhood infrastructure decades into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michell, who previously served as chief of staff under former Mayor Jerry Sanders, also praised the measure\u2019s ability to make an impact \u201con everyone in San Diego, including Downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat infrastructure and neighborhood investment will be directing over $500 million to rebuilding neighborhoods and filling 27,000 potholes in the first year, so Downtown\u2019s getting a portion of that just like every community,\u201d Michell said. \u201cSo really when you think about it, that\u2019s 10 million in community improvements every week, which I think is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloria, on the other hand, said that \u201cRebuild San Diego\u201d doesn\u2019t go far enough to address the systemic problems in San Diego\u2019s neighborhood services, and believes the proposal is a ticket to financial struggles down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal Mayor Faulconer is supporting sounds good on the surface but upon closer inspection is bad public policy that fails to solve San Diego\u2019s infrastructure problem,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cThe city’s nonpartisan Independent Budget Analyst has made it clear that if we hope to fix our potholed streets, broken sidewalks and outdated facilities, we need a new funding source. This proposal ducks that difficult conversation and attempts to pay for a fraction of our infrastructure needs by diverting limited resources from neighborhood services like public safety, library hours, and code enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some are telling the public they can have their cake and eat it too, the truth is that if enacted, this proposal will starve neighborhood services for up to three decades, and at the end of that exceptionally long time, will still fail to fix our roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no free lunches, and this proposal is no exception,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n

Overall, Michell said that Faulconer\u2019s address reaffirmed the positive outlook many San Diegans have for the city\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was incredibly impressed with Kevin because of two things,\u201d she said. \u201cOne, he talked in specifics about what our community would see from his office, meaning where he would spend his time, but he also had broad big vision. \u2026 And he\u2019s really the one that can tell us, \u2018are we heading in the right direction or the wrong direction?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us a very positive outlook, which is wonderful, because I feel that, I believe that, and he validated that for all San Diegans,\u201d Michell said.<\/p>\n

Along this vein, the mayor said that positive times are well on the horizon, and he continued to push his centric \u201cOne San Diego\u201d message, promising shared prosperity among all San Diegans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have laid the groundwork for building our better future,\u201d Faulconer said. \u201cNow, in 2016, we begin the next phase of One San Diego, a city where every neighborhood has the chance to succeed and every person has the opportunity to prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Hutton Marshall es un escritor independiente y ex editor de San Diego Uptown News. Cont\u00e1ctelo en jhuttonmarshall@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Downtown leaders weigh in on Faulconer\u2019s annual address By Hutton Marshall On Jan. 14, Mayor Kevin Faulconer gave his second State of the City address at the Balboa Theatre in Downtown San Diego. Downtown leaders praised the Republican mayor\u2019s middle-of-the-road policy proposals and glowing portrayal of San Diego\u2019s private sector growth. Faulconer, who is seeking […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":233372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"The state of San Diego","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}