["Let Inga Tell You,"La Jolla Light, published April 21, 2025] 2025
I don't think there is a single person in San Diego, including me, who doesn't think they could run the city better than whomever happens to be running it at the moment. Doesn't matter which party happens to be in office at any given time. And for the record, I voted for the current mayor.
Also for the record, I am a fourth-generation feminist and Democrat married to a life-long Republican, although Olof and I have both voted across party lines on many occasions. It's a dynamic that feels very familiar to me. My father was a conservative Republican and my mother a liberal feminist Democrat. It made for a lot of lively, but respectful, dinner table conversation.
My husband is still fervently hoping the Republican party will return to what he thinks of as its former glory. I, of course, think it never had one. But conversations are pretty lively at our dinner table too but in the current era, for different reasons entirely. Olof and I have never been more politically aligned.
There are several local issues that truly puzzle me and, in my view, totally lack even a modicum of sense. The city has a significant budget shortfall and has to make cuts. But if you've passed legislation that doesn't require parking for new construction within a half mile of a transit route (i.e. a bus or trolley line) then proposing cutting bus routes and schedules seems like it should be among the last items to go.
My husband Olof and I lived in Stockholm without a car and were so enamored of public transit by the time we returned that we attempted to use public transit whenever possible. Olof was even willing to get up an hour early every morning to take the bus instead of the 20-minute drive. It just couldn t be done. He couldn't be late for the eight o clock meetings since he was the one running them. Within six months, he was back to using his car.
And while we're on that subject, a half mile is a hefty hike, especially if the terrain is hilly and you're lugging groceries and/or toddlers. One of the reasons Stockholm s transit system works so well is that you're rarely more than two blocks from some kind of transit. We just aren't ever going to have that here. But making it yet harder to use public transit seems like a huge step in the wrong direction.
Moving on, given how many pot holes need to be filled and streetlights repaired, I am still trying to get my head around $4,232,339 for the roundabout on Loring Street and Foothill Boulevard. OK, it does include some storm drains too but this project seems to have gone on for years. And I hope someone can explain to me why it was ever a priority in the first place? (I am willing to concede that there is some pressing issue there that I, and pretty much everyone on Next Door, are unaware of.) You could do a lot of city repairs for that kind of money. Maybe even add some bus routes!
And then there s the new trash fees Personally, I never buy anything that I don t know the cost of ahead of time. Well, medical care, but you don t have a choice. The projected $23-$25 a month was just that: a projection. Now that it has passed, the actual fee was bait-and-switched to $53 a month (more than double the estimate) and projected to go up to $65 in July of 2027. The outcry has been sufficient that it is most recently proposed to come down around $5 to $47.59 (then rising to $59.42 in 2027) but still waaaay higher than the public was suckered into believing.
Customers willing to use the smallest size (35 gallon) bins may get a reduced rate. A minor detail is that Environmental Services currently only has 35-gallon cans for green waste; they discontinued the 35-gallon black bins (for trash) and blue bins (for recycling) years ago. As one who needs the smallest size blue bin because of space limitations in my back walkway, I have had to buy them at Home Depot (you have to buy a specific brand to accommodate the Environmental Services trucks) for $132.49 (including tax) plus $55 delivery (unless you go pick it up there after it is delivered to the store.) Are they planning to start supplying the 35-gallon sizes in trash and recycle colors again? If so, can I get a refund?
But the most incomprehensible issue of all is how the proposed 23-story building on Turquoise Street was ever a possibility. Proposition D, passed in 1972 established a 30-foot maximum structure height in coastal areas of the City of San Diego known as the Coastal Height Limit Overlay Zone.
Prop D was passed largely in response to the construction of the 18-story condo complex at 939 Coast Boulevard and the realization that La Jolla s waterfront would soon look like Miami Beach. So, how why does this 23-story monstrosity that will only provide a few units of alleged affordable housing ever get considered for a nanosecond? Inquiring minds want to know. Lots and lots of inquiring minds. Would a family needing affordable housing even want to live in such a building? Would any of these units even be big enough? The list of reasons why this project is a ridiculously bad idea is long and has been covered extensively in the Light and on local news stations, but even a 5-story building is too high for this street. How did it even get this far? And how did our leaders even allow it to? Let me repeat: how did our local leaders even allow it to? Why are the locals even having to spend their energy fighting such a fundamentally insane project?
Ok, the short answer is that the state (unbelievably) allows it to. The state Department of Housing and Community Development has said the state density bonus law can supersede local restrictions, including voter-approved initiatives such as the 30-foot coastal height limit.
California s 1979 and since much-amended density bonus law provides incentives and waivers for developers to build residential units considered affordable for lower-income households.
However, in the Turquoise case, HCD sent a technical assistance letter in December stating that San Diego could deny the project by proving that some or all of the developer s requested bonuses, waivers and incentives are not necessary to create the 10 affordable housing units.
So, why doesn't the city go ahead and deny it already?
Signed,
Waiting to hear from you in La Jolla
No comments:
Post a Comment