{"id":243094,"date":"2009-12-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/todd-glorias-juggling-act-part-2\/"},"modified":"2009-12-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T08:00:00","slug":"todd-glorias-juggling-act-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/todd-glorias-juggling-act-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Todd Gloria’s Juggling Act Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"todd<\/a>Por Christy Scannell<\/p>\n

Todd Gloria completed his first year as District 3 City Councilmember earlier this month. In this conclusion of a two-part interview with Christy Scannell, he explains what influences his decisions, how some of his 2009 decisions came about \u2013 and if the man voted San Diego\u2019s sexiest politician is taken or available.<\/p>\n

Q: Most people probably would be surprised that you have no Mexican heritage.<\/p>\n

A: And that\u2019s always been a challenge for me with my last name, living here and looking like this, that people default to Latino. But the reality is my last name is from the Philippines, from the Spanish ruling there for so long \u2013 they left lots of things behind including last names, and that\u2019s where mine comes from.<\/p>\n

Q: Your heritage reflects the melting pot of City Heights, where you live.<\/p>\n

A: It\u2019s a classic San Diego story in the sense that all four of my grandparents came from different parts of the world because of the Navy and the military \u2013 so from Juneau, Alaska; Tulsa, Okla.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Manila. My grandfathers were in the service. My paternal grandmother came here because her father was in the service. My maternal grandmother came here to work in the factories. And they just all stayed.<\/p>\n

Q: What ethnic mix did you inherit as a result?<\/p>\n

A: Basically half Native American (Tlight-Haida, an Alaskan tribe), a quarter Filipino and then a little bit of Dutch and Puerto Rican.<\/p>\n

Q: How are you informed by your ethnicity and how does it shape your daily decision-making?<\/p>\n

A: I think certainly being part Native American and being very sensitive to issues of sovereignty and things of that nature is probably something that someone else wouldn\u2019t necessarily bring to the table. And a real understanding, because I think unfortunately for Native Americans the understanding of them is fairly superficial and unfortunately cartoonish. The depth of that is far more complex. We had Native American History Month in the City of San Diego in November and so I took that as an opportunity to bring some folks down (to City Hall for recognition). And yeah, sure, some (Native Americans) are gaming but the amount of poverty is pretty overwhelming. My tribe does not game and so that presents some fiscal realities for us that are not common with a lot of San Diegans\u2019 experiences.<\/p>\n

Q: Describe the Tlight-Haida tribe.<\/p>\n

A: They\u2019re from Juneau. And they\u2019re largely known for totem poles. But our livelihood comes largely from timber and a few other things. They\u2019ve been branching out in recent years. But when people hear (about his tribal ties) some seem to think, \u201cOh, you\u2019re Native American \u2013 you must have a casino or you must be really wealthy or whatever.\u201d That isn\u2019t as complex as what the reality is for the majority of our community. And the same is true for the Filipino side of me. In San Diego there\u2019s been a long-held desire for the API (Asian and Pacific Islander) community to have representation in elected office, particularly on the City Council. And while I\u2019m not full Filipino, there\u2019s been an embracing from the Filipino community, that they see someone with this last name serving in office. What\u2019s been really helpful to me is that the mix of folks has allowed me to have a broader reach and hopefully something more beneficial for the city so that when you\u2019re making those decisions you\u2019re able to bring something to the table.<\/p>\n

Q: At 31 you\u2019re the first member of the so-called Generation Y to serve on the City Council (along with Carl DeMaio, 34). How does your age influence your efforts?<\/p>\n

A: That does color a lot of what I do in the sense that I have a long-term investment in this city. I do as a native San Diegan and someone who cares, but the decisions that I make, I try and take hopefully a longer view toward them because I\u2019ll definitely be here for 50 years. And actually it\u2019s funny because a lot of what I\u2019ve done particularly with land use \u2013 when you look at SANDAG\u2019s 2050 plan, there\u2019s a high likelihood I\u2019ll be here for that. And so I\u2019m going to engage on that perhaps in a way that maybe others might not. When we talk about transit, I\u2019ve been deeply concerned about transit because when you look forward, if we don\u2019t have a robust transit system, the quality of life here is just going to be terrible. So championing that in a way that I think most elected officials would probably only look at more highways, more roads, is, I think, a reflection very much of my age. Also, my concern about affordable housing and first-time home ownership. So many of my friends are leaving San Diego. They don\u2019t see a future for themselves here. They can\u2019t afford it. They don\u2019t like the schools and they want to raise their kids somewhere else. We as a city will not be successful if we have the sort of hourglass population \u2013 not economy but population \u2013 where you have older folks who have been here for a very long time and bought when it was relatively cheaper and then the service industry who supports them. That does not make for a vibrant city, a world-class city. And so making sure that we\u2019re looking after those young families, new workers, people who really create the vibrancy of our neighborhoods, making sure they have representation at the table. Particularly with regard to city financial decisions. A lot of the mistakes that (previous city administrations) made I thought were based on a very short-sighted view of \u201cwe\u2019ll extend pension benefits because those will be paid in the out years.\u201d Well, I\u2019ll be here for the out years and I\u2019m going to make sure that we make better decisions than perhaps we have in the past.<\/p>\n

Q: You\u2019re openly gay. How much does your sexuality affect your decisions?<\/p>\n

A: Less than I think some people believe. We\u2019ve obviously had a history of electing people from the LGBT community in this council district. But when you\u2019re talking about potholes and stop signs and things of that nature, it doesn\u2019t have an orientation to it. And largely what I find is there\u2019s not a great deal of difference between what straight District 3 residents and LGBT District 3 residents are looking for. This is particularly true as same-sex couples are raising families. That said, it has been an opportunity to talk about issues that are of extreme importance. One of the things I\u2019m most proud of is I serve as the vice chair of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. (San Diego has) high unemployment, unfortunately, across the board, at 10 percent, but within the transgendered community it\u2019s particularly high for perhaps obvious reasons. That community has had a very difficult time accessing workplace readiness programs for cultural competency reasons and other things. I\u2019ve spent the last year working with the workforce partnership. We\u2019ve developed a staffing ability now to work specifically with the transgendered community. We had our first workshop last week and have gotten very positive reviews from the people that attended. As we look at unemployment, perhaps coming from this community gave me a little bit more insight to an area of population that is over-represented in the field of unemployment and we\u2019re doing something about it. So I think on the whole (being gay) doesn\u2019t really matter for my day-to-day job but there may be opportunities that I may be a bit more sensitive or open to \u2013 things that we need to talk about.<\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s the easiest thing you\u2019ve accomplished this year?<\/p>\n

A: I serve on the transit (MTS) board. They have a financial picture just as bleak as the city\u2019s. Unfortunately, you can only raise fares so much. You can only cut services so much. So they actually proposed eliminating a bus route in City Heights. And I just was incensed about it. I was able to keep it but all it was was me registering, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s appropriate, you shouldn\u2019t do that,\u201d and they didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the power of a council member or whatnot. (laughs) I think actually what it was is that it is a route that\u2019s valuable. I highlighted it as a something that really isn\u2019t discretionary, to have a shuttle that loops around City Heights. We have some topography in that neighborhood that really requires it. But more importantly, they were suggesting a sort of fallback position to eliminating that night service. Well, I\u2019m sorry, but we do need to provide people an ability to get to and from A and B safely. And having them walk some of these neighborhoods at night really isn\u2019t fair, particularly for seniors or for disabled people. And so registering that concern, they were responsive, they maintained the service, which was terrific. And that didn\u2019t require a huge battle at all to get it done.<\/p>\n

————————————————————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Q: What was your most challenging accomplishment this year?<\/p>\n

A: The pergola is an example (the city had planned to spend $550,000 to repair an 85-year-old redwood pergola at Myrtle Way in Balboa Park). I walked door to door in that neighborhood because that seemed odd to me, but if that\u2019s what the neighborhood wanted I\u2019d be a little bit more sensitive to it. But what I found was two things. One is it wasn\u2019t necessarily a high priority for the people that lived immediately adjacent. In fact, some really didn\u2019t want it back. But actually a number of people were willing to fundraise to replace it and not use our limited park improvement funds to do this. Meanwhile, we had the dome at the Museum of Man that is leaking. It\u2019s in a bad state and it needs to be repaired. It\u2019s actually affecting the collection inside the museum because of mold and what\u2019s getting through. So for that limited set of funds, what\u2019s the most important thing? It took a number of weeks or months to get there but we got there. And you look at what\u2019s been done now at the pergola site, which actually is quite lovely. I think it\u2019s in fitting with the high standards that that neighborhood has \u2013 certainly an improvement over the chain link that was there. But what we have now is a half-million dollars to contribute to the already $1.8 million that was already set aside for the dome project, which means we have enough money to do the dome. And we\u2019ll be able to say to San Diegans we renewed this important piece of San Diego infrastructure in time for the (2015 Balboa Park) centennial.<\/p>\n

Q: The Academy Our Lady of Peace\u2019s (OLP) expansion plan, which was approved by the city Planning Commission but appealed to the City Council, was the first major District 3 issue you faced this year. What did you learn from that experience?<\/p>\n

A: That you can never go wrong checking in with the community. Both sides had paid lobbyists and came in to see me multiple times. Both sides had fairly compelling arguments: the need for historic preservation and minding community character and respecting the neighborhood wishes against 21st century education, the importance of educating young women, the success of a small private school and quality education. Both sides had really good opinions. But ultimately what I chose to do is to go door to door, a method I used obviously to success in the campaign. And so in doing that with the OLP issue, what was shocking to me was that I did not find one person who was strongly in support of what the school was trying to do. And one would have thought, particularly with good arguments on both sides, that there may have been more of a split or a divide. But for the folks that live there, the best that you could hope for was people who perhaps were only mildly indifferent to it when most people were very strongly opposed \u2013 not because they didn\u2019t see the value of the school, not because they did not want the school to modernize, but because they felt as though there had not been a good relationship there. And so I thought it was in the better interest to preserve the historic resources that were there. But more importantly I think when you make such a radical change to a neighborhood there has to be at least some level of support, in which there was none. And that said to me that the school needed to do better work in connecting with the community. Because after they expand the problem will still be there and the wound will still be there. I\u2019m still convinced something (good) could happen there.<\/p>\n

Q: But OLP has filed suit against the city over the council\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

A: I think (the city has) a very, very strong case. There were plenty of findings that were possible to be made to deny the project, which are the ones that we made. (OLP has done) a lot to improve their relationship \u2026 (but) they\u2019re not there yet. They need to build some more trust. But more importantly you don\u2019t come to the table with a project that\u2019s complete. Again, door-to-door I didn\u2019t hear anyone that said, \u201cI don\u2019t like the school\u201d (or) \u201cI want the school gone.\u201d Actually, people said the opposite. They were very happy to have the school there. Which is a great basis to start from and it is a far cheaper route and a far quicker route than litigation.<\/p>\n

Q: Many people have noticed an increase in prostitution on El Cajon Boulevard. You\u2019ve been active as a resident in deterring prostitution in City Heights. What do you advise concerned citizens to do?<\/p>\n

A: They absolutely should call it in (to the police). About half the population sees (prostitution) as this victimless crime and so they don\u2019t think of it as the serious crime that it is. Whatever your feelings about prostitution, the fact is it\u2019s never just prostitution. These women are not out there because they want to be. They\u2019re out there because they have a drug habit, they\u2019re trying to support children, they may be forcibly out there. And so understand that when you\u2019re supporting this you\u2019re actually supporting something that\u2019s far, far worse. Whatever your feelings are about the crime itself, you still need to report it because other stuff will come. And so for the average constituent, absolutely call it in.<\/p>\n

Q: How does it help to call the police?<\/p>\n

A: I think people might believe that the police won\u2019t take it seriously. Actually, they do. Vice is actively working on the boulevard and other places in District 3. So we need to know where it is. Despite our low staffing at the police department, we continue to do the sweeps. And I think we\u2019ve been able to be effective at sweeping some of this stuff, but at the end of the day, of course, it is the world\u2019s oldest profession and so success is not necessarily to eliminate it, because that may not necessarily be a realistic goal, but being aggressive to make sure that it isn\u2019t growing.<\/p>\n

Q: Perhaps the most consistent accusation of you this year has been that you are soft on unions. What do you say to that?<\/p>\n

A: I would disagree strongly. You look at my vote earlier this year to impose contracts on two of our labor unions. These are folks that actually endorsed my campaign. Faced with a very significant budget shortfall, I didn\u2019t take any great joy in doing it. But I knew that it was the right thing to do for the city and for our neighborhoods because of the savings that we achieved by imposing those salary reductions and benefits reductions. If those criticisms were true you wouldn\u2019t have seen that vote. As \u2026 someone who was endorsed by labor unions, it\u2019s not surprising that people might suggest that but it\u2019s in complete contradiction to some of my voting record.<\/p>\n

Q: What do you hope to see for District 3 by the time you leave office?<\/p>\n

A: One, I want to really hold the line if not make aggressive reductions to the crime in the neighborhood. Public safety is always going to be the top priority for my office, for me, for District 3. When folks hear the helicopters, I know they don\u2019t like the helicopters, but the fact is that we are aggressively addressing crime in their neighborhood. But for the want of those helicopters you wouldn\u2019t have necessarily the enforcement. You see the vice sweeps and addressing the prostitutes on El Cajon Boulevard. Gang suppression. Curfew sweeps that we\u2019re doing in Mid-City.<\/p>\n

Two, the infrastructure stuff. What I hope is that we would not only vastly improve the infrastructure in District 3. I hope this year is really the down payment and at the end of four to eight years that you\u2019d see some pretty transformational stuff. But more importantly, some funding sources that are really dedicated and moving forward. So updating our facility financing plans, so we\u2019re charging real money for developer impacts rather than what I think are really token amounts currently.<\/p>\n

Three, from my service on these regional committees like SANDAG and MTS, to really leave a robust transit system. We\u2019re in this reactive situation where the options really are only to raise fares or reduce service. In my view that\u2019s absolute madness and it\u2019s very shortsighted. SANDAG has a 2050 strategy that envisions a lot of density in these older urban neighborhoods and that\u2019s concerning to me because their 2044 funding strategy actually does not make transit a priority. And so we have to either change that in terms of their distribution of the housing or we have to change the way that they\u2019re going to choose to fund transit. You\u2019re going to see me being very aggressive and outspoken about the way we fund transit because if we don\u2019t do this, the quality of life in these neighborhoods and really throughout the city will be less.<\/p>\n

Q: How can citizens help you to help them make District 3 a better place?<\/p>\n

A: All of it is a bit of a struggle in this budget environment. Nothing is particularly easy. But one of the best things is that Toni Atkins left things teed up well for me. My experience allowed me to pick up the ball where she left it. I think District 3 is more cohesive perhaps than most districts. We have very well organized neighborhoods that are very clear in what their priorities are. So it all works together \u2013 even if it\u2019s difficult, we\u2019re still able to deliver, which is an important thing for people to know. Yeah, times are tough for the city, but if you can be clear with me about what you need, whether \u201cnot the pergola\u201d or \u201cyes, the bus route\u201d or \u201cget that historic designation\u201d \u2013 we can get it done. When people are clear (about their needs), they help me best do my job.<\/p>\n

Q: You show up solo at most events yet one media outlet named you San Diego\u2019s sexiest politician. Are you single?<\/p>\n

A: (Laughs heartily) Yes. (Added Katie Keach, Gloria\u2019s deputy chief of staff, with a sisterly tone: \u201cAnd it had better be someone good.\u201d)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christy Scannell Todd Gloria completed his first year as District 3 City Councilmember earlier this month. In this conclusion of a two-part interview with Christy Scannell, he explains what influences his decisions, how some of his 2009 decisions came about \u2013 and if the man voted San Diego\u2019s sexiest politician is taken or available. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":225580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Todd Gloria's Juggling Act Part 2","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243094","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=243094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}