Councilman launches community outreach sessions to engage residents with city Interim District 2 Councilman Ed Harris, with his “aide” (young daughter Morgan) in tow, held an informal coffee outreach on May 31 at Coffee Method on Niagara Avenue in Ocean Beach to step up engagement between residents and city government.
\nOcean Beach librarians turned out to pitch the lifeguard-turned-councilman on a plan to expand the outdated facility at 4801 Santa Monica Ave.
\n“We have the oldest library in the city,” said one librarian, as she unrolled a floor plan done for a revision of the facility, which she said has great potential to become a meeting place for the entire community.
\nHarris directed her to contact his staff and set up a meeting to talk about how to proceed from here.
\nOne woman broke down in tears as she described a homeless man she\u2019d encountered who voluntarily does his own cleanups around town.
\n“I wish there was something you could do to help this man,” she said.
\nHarris was sympathetic.
\n“Our approach is that we need to provide as much assistance as we can, but it\u2019s not an easy solution,” Harris said. “There are big problems with mental health.”
\nHe said “We need to find a balance” regarding giving handouts versus real help aimed at improving peoples\u2019 lives.
\nHarris answered questions from all comers, thanking the dozen or so who turned out for sharing a weekend morning with him.
\nAsked if it will be hard to go back to being a lifeguard when his interim term as councilman expires in December, Harris said, “No” emphatically, with a smile and laugh.
\nMight Harris seek something in the way of higher government office at the state level?
\n“I\u2019d be reluctant to seek a position that would take me out of San Diego,” said the veteran lifeguard. “I\u2019m raising these guys (children). That\u2019s my top priority. And I\u2019ve got another five years on the beach and I plan to finish and enjoy that.”
\nHarris said he\u2019s had a fun life, traveled a lot and done some purposeful things.
\n“That\u2019s the OB way to live,” pointed out a constituent.
\nA former Marine, Harris talked about how he got involved in politics.
\n“In the Marines, you learn to take care of the people who work for you,” he said. “I had a lifeguard I guarded with for 15 years who tore his hip and had to have it replaced after a cliff rescue. The state put him on disability and took his benefits away from his family. If he\u2019d been on that same rescue as a policeman or firefighter, [the family would] be covered.”
\nThat led to lobbying and successful legislation being enacted in Sacramento to put lifeguards on par with police and fire personnel in benefits compensation. It also led to Harris becoming a labor representative to the city for 90 lifeguards.
\nAsked what his legacy will be, Harris replied, “I\u2019m here to keep the roads getting paved, pipes getting replaced and keeping utilities undergrounding moving forward.”
\nIt\u2019s the little things he\u2019ll be able to do in the limited time he has that will really matter to Harris.
\n“There\u2019s a stop sign to make crossing safer near Loma Portal Elementary that people have been trying to get since my kid was in kindergarten, and they\u2019re in fourth grade now,” he said. “We\u2019ve got that moving forward and it\u2019s on the 90-day list and will be installed.”
\nHarris said he\u2019d also very much like see a reduction of plastic bags and other single-use plastics, adding, “It\u2019s going to happen before I\u2019m out.”
\nThe councilman said the plastic “problem” hit him \u2014 literally \u2014 in the face when he swam into a black plastic bag out in the ocean recently.
\nHarris said San Diego police officers are underpaid, noting that\u2019s become a top priority being addressed citywide.
\nQueried as to whether he had a take on the controversy over the view of some that SeaWorld San Diego is exploiting orcas in its live shows, Harris replied, “I can\u2019t read a whale\u2019s mind. I\u2019m not a trainer. But SeaWorld is a huge economic contributor to San Diego and helps a lot of stray birds and marine mammals.”
\nIs it a good thing that the ethical treatment of marine mammals is in the conversation?
\n“People pushing back on all sorts of issues allows society to meet somewhere in the middle,” Harris said. “As long as we do that, I think we can keep moving forward.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Councilman launches community outreach sessions to engage residents with city Interim District 2 Councilman Ed Harris, with his “aide” (young daughter Morgan) in tow, held an informal coffee outreach on May 31 at Coffee Method on Niagara Avenue in Ocean Beach to step up engagement between residents and city government. Ocean Beach librarians turned out […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Harris keeping his finger on the pulse","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284993","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=284993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}