Councilmember Todd Gloria discusses incorporating the neighborhood into the new D3

By Anthony King | Downtown News

With city council redistricting long complete and the new lines of council District Three drawn to include Bankers Hill, Mission Hills and the Downtown communities, current District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria is set to shift his focus to include the urban neighborhood after the June 5 election. Running unopposed for the seat, Gloria will assume the new “D3,” as he is often heard saying, at inauguration in December.

The switch, he said, is exciting.

Gloria, elected to the City Council in 2008, said he has a strong connection to Downtown. The Councilmember currently has a picture of his grandfather hanging on his office wall. In it, Gloria’s grandfather is standing in front of the Horton Plaza fountain while stationed in San Diego in 1943.

“Downtown is unique because it is our Downtown,” Gloria said, “but it is a neighborhood, at the end of the day.” To reach out to the new neighborhoods, Gloria said he is keeping to similar tactics he has in the rest of District Three, similar to his Coffee with your Councilmember community meetings.

“We’ve been having supporters who live in individual buildings host events in community rooms. They’re very similar to my Coffee with your Councilmember [meetings] in that people just come and share what’s on their minds,” he said. Gloria hosts Coffee with your Councilmemberin the current District Three neighborhoods.

“What’s remarkable to me is that issues, by and large, are the same across the city,” he said. “Everyone wants to feel safe in their community; that’s just a baseline need. Discussing that is common.”

Specific concerns for Downtown, the Councilmember said, were safety, infrastructure, the Convention Center expansion and businesses complying with zoning and building codes. Gloria also said one of the biggest concerns, overall for San Diegans, was working to alleviate homelessness.

“This is a priority for me,” he said, “but more importantly, it’s a priority for our citizens. It’s, I think, a representation of how acute the problem is Downtown, but really across the community.”

As Councilmember, Gloria has worked on a number of projects to help those who are homeless, including the implementation of a permanent Downtown shelter for homeless people, called Connections Housing, and two projects in March: the opening of a supportive housing apartment complex, Cedar Gateway, and supporting the Water Man Check-in Center.

“I think the challenge that we have is painting a picture as to why [working with homelessness] is important. The goal needs to be a long-term sustainability piece,” he said.

Gloria, who served as a San Diego housing commissioner from 2005 to 2008, said, “The strategy of putting your head in the sand and hoping it goes away has proven to be widely unsuccessful. I think we’ve gotten the head out of the sand. I think the business community has really understood… and it’s critical to Downtown’s success.”

The Councilmember said he understands that homelessness is not going to disappear. “There’s always going to be people who are falling on hard times, but the trick is, if they want to get help, there’s a means to do that,” he said.

Other concerns Gloria sees for representing Downtown are related to large-scale projects, like the Convention Center expansion, potential Chargers stadium, waterfront improvement projects and the new Central Library, as well as transportation issues and the loss of redevelopment funds.

“Probably the bigger challenge, because of the major civic projects in Downtown,” he said is, “there will be a lot more attention on my particular feelings on projects because they’re in my district.” Gloria is aware, for example, that expanding the Convention Center will not only be of interest to constituents in Downtown, but to the rest of District Three and the region as a whole.

Regarding the proposal to expand the Convention Center, Gloria said Downtown residents are in support of the project because they see it as a catalyst for a thriving neighborhood. “They located in Downtown because they want to have that kind of environment, and they see that project, and others, bringing more of that experience,” he said.

“I think one of the reasons Downtown was brought into the district is that there’s a lot of commonality with my existing constituents,” Gloria said. “My existing constituents are some of the most compassionate people you’ll ever meet in your life. The reality is, they’re very urban people who understand they are living in a city environment…. I have never had a problem with folks in Downtown understanding they have a responsibility to one another.”