Editorial: 2015: leading San Diego forward

By Councilmember Todd Gloria

I have been looking forward to 2015 since I began representing District Three on the City Council six years ago. This year will spotlight the centennial celebration of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park with festivities, programs and legacy improvements like the reopening of the California Tower. It will also focus on a host of important city issues that I’m eager to make progress on with the continued participation of San Diegans.

The City’s first priority will always be the safety of our citizens. We must do all within our power to ensure the dedicated men and women of the San Diego Police Department are compensated at a level that reflects their hard work and retains their experience for the protection of our neighborhoods. This is the most significant short-term challenge facing us, and I believe we must tackle it early in 2015.

Whether I’m at the grocery store or dry cleaners or just checking Twitter, the biggest frustration you continue to share with me is the condition of our streets and sidewalks. In recent years, we have begun to chip away at this problem. Road repairs have ramped up and the first ever assessment of San Diego’s sidewalks is nearly complete, but we must do better. I have serious concerns with the lack of a comprehensive solution to this multi-billion dollar infrastructure problem that is the biggest long-term challenge facing us. As the Chairman of the Council’s Budget and Government Efficiency Committee, I will schedule hearings to draw attention to this matter throughout 2015.

Infrastructure investment, improvements to our purchasing and contracting processes, increasing our Equal Opportunity Contracting achievements, and ensuring fiscal discipline as our finances continue to improve top the list of my Committee’s priorities.

Before we have the opportunity in June 2016 to approve the minimum wage increase I championed, I will pursue the application of California’s new earned sick leave law to the hundreds of hourly City employees that do not currently have this benefit. Allowing seasonal lifeguards, library aides, recreation center staff and others that regularly interact with the public the ability to take time off when they are ill is the right thing to do for our workers and for protecting public health.

Last year I led the City to make significant reforms to our homelessness programs. The changes we made focused on reallocating our limited resources to results-oriented programs proven to move people off the streets and into housing.

In 2015, I will monitor and report on the efficacy of these programs and continue to build relationships between service providers, government, businesses, philanthropists, and the public to leverage additional resources to achieve our goal of ending homelessness in San Diego. While we still have a long way to go, we will not give up on this effort until we meet our objective.

As a new member of the Environment Committee, I look forward to the approval and implementation of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan that is based largely on the plan I authored when I served in the Mayor’s office.

In the meantime, giving San Diegans more options than driving remains critical. Making our transit system a high quality transportation option with more efficient service like the Rapid and the addition of Wi-Fi to some Rapid buses, and adding safer pedestrian and bicycle facilities throughout the City are changes I anticipate this year.

I also foresee the passage of a standardized parklet policy that will encourage development of creative public spaces in San Diego, a regulatory relief measure aimed at helping small and startup businesses, and updating the City’s non-discrimination language to ensure San Diego’s policies reflect tolerance and respect for all people.

Since joining the City Council in 2008 and through my service as Council President and Mayor, I’ve tried my best to move San Diego forward to leave the City I love better than I found it. I’m proud of the accomplishments we’ve achieved together and can’t wait to celebrate more for you in 2015.

—Todd Gloria represents the San Diego City Council’s third district. He has served as Council President and Interim Mayor and is serving in his last term as a councilmember, which will end in February of 2016. For more info, visit sandiego.gov/citycouncil/cd3.

Letters

Constructive construction criticism in Normal Heights

I was pleased to see the Uptown News report on the proposed construction projects on the Adams Elementary school campus and adjoining joint-use park space [See Vol. 7, Issue 1, “Normal Heights weighs in on new school facility”]. I am writing this letter to the editor as a private resident of Normal Heights and not in any official capacity. What I am saying here does not have the endorsement of the Normal Heights Community Planning Group, and the opinions expressed are solely my own. Because the truth is, I have a personal interest in this project. We all have personal interests in this project. The community members have an interest in shared-use park spaces, homeowners have an interest in the effect of local schools on property values, business owners have an interest in community development and usable assets, and most importantly, parents and teachers have an interest in developing a safe and welcoming learning environment for their children.

There have been at least eight public meetings concerning the proposed projects to overhaul the entire Adams Elementary campus, including those held by the school district, the Normal Heights Community Planning Group, and the Adams Avenue Business Association. I have attended these meetings wearing all my different hats, as a community member, as a property owner, as a planning group member, but most importantly, as a parent of a student on the school campus. I was personally disappointed at the level of attendance at these meetings, the whole community is affected by the local school facilities and everyone should be informed and involved in these decisions.

As noted in the article, the biggest community concerns voiced at the meetings have been with loss of already inadequate park space, be it official or de facto public space. One way to begin to remedy this deficient park situation would be for the city to complete the original plans for Ward Canyon Park, which include a 24,400-square-foot dog park [See Vol. 5, Issue 18, “Workshop prioritizes Normal Heights improvements”], increasing the park space in Normal Heights and effectively freeing up the Adams joint-use space (“illegal dog park”) for safe human use. The addition of an official dog park would also benefit our children and teachers who have to cope with off-leash dogs and their byproducts on school property during school recess time. Other concerns brought forth at the many public meetings were over the deteriorating bungalow classrooms which the school district is planning to replace, the proposed height of the fence and trying to balance student safety with a welcoming school and public environment, and lack of parking for teachers in an already parking-deficient area.

Nevertheless, I doubt anyone would argue that the Adams Elementary campus desperately needs facilities improvements. The students from both Adams Elementary and San Diego Global Vision Academy (SDGVA) are currently attending classes in deteriorating “temporary” portables, some that are over 50 years old, my own child included. The environment does not inspire learning and is not healthy for the students. The plan to replace the portables with new state-of-the-art classrooms is essential to the success of our students and, in turn, our community as a whole. There will be additional public meetings about these school construction project details, and Normal Heights residents need to come out to voice their support and concerns. While all the stakeholders involved seem to want different things from the project, in the end I really hope we all want a campus that will inspire our children, facilitate learning, and be appreciated by the entire community. Can we please all work together with the school district to make this campus a community asset for our children?

Caroline McKeown
Normal Heights Resident Homeowner and SDGVA Parent

Editor’s note: Caroline McKeown is currently serving as the Chair of the Normal Heights Community Planning Group board. Though as she elucidates above, the opinions expressed in her letter are not endorsed by the board. The following two letters are also NHCPG board members writing of their own volition.

Editor:

Thank you for your coverage of our school and parks dilemma here in Normal Heights. We constantly hear about the inadequate infrastructure in our older neighborhoods. Now, given an opportunity to address the situation at John Adams Elementary, both the school district and the city seem to have no interest. The district proposes to pile buildings onto a small and inadequate site, and the city doesn’t even choose to get involved in the discussion.

Neither seems to even be willing to brainstorm solutions, although many thoughtful ideas have emerged from the community. In the meantime, the site remains deficient for educational purposes, the little league can’t find a way to fit their games in, parking is insufficient, and government entities watch and do nothing.

We hope that we elect people to serve the community interest, but sadly, they seem to care more about their political careers than they do serving the public. The school district has cared in the past, I wonder why they aren’t listening anymore. Neither pay much attention to their own policy documents, which spell out the inadequacy of our neighborhood, facility-wise, and offer remedies. Curious.

—Gary Weber, via email

Editor:

Full disclosure: I am on the board of the Normal Heights Community Planning Group, but am writing the Uptown News as a resident, home owner, and taxpayer. I enjoyed your recent article on the NHCPG’s Ad Hoc Schools Subcommittee and would like to add my voice to the discussion. You are probably aware by now that Normal Heights is severely challenged by a lack of park space for recreation. What we do have is minuscule, and we don’t want to lose more to the construction of these two new schools. I hope every effort will be made to save not only park space but also some old, magnificent trees while still building the new school facilities.

—Suzanne Ledeboer, via email