By Barbara Zaragoza / South Bay Compass
Americans Flee Across the Border
Is there an onslaught of American immigrants coming to Mexico? The story isn’t new. For decades Americans have been moving to Tijuana where the rent is cheaper. For local Tijuanese, this means Americans drive up their housing prices and create housing shortages.
How many Americans live in Tijuana, and in Mexico at large? The number is unknown. Guesstimates run the gamut from 5,000 to 500,000 Americans (in Tijuana alone). That’s a pretty big spread. Why don’t we know?
The U.S. keeps track of how many immigrants live in America, but it doesn’t keep track of American emigrés to other countries. We can assume that the largest number of émigres from America go to live in Mexico, but nobody has an actual head count.
The new border reporter, Enrique Limon, at Voice of San Diego brought this up in reference to the high cost of housing in San Diego. As a consequence, San Diego developers are trying to break into the TJ market. Back in November, Maya Srikrishnan wrote that although Mexico’s Constitution forbids foreigners from owning property within 100 kilometers of the border and 50 kilometers from any sea, American immigrants can either create a Mexican corporation to purchase the land or set up a trust through a Mexican bank.
The Pope Is … Not Coming Here
Otay Mesa
- The Lower Otay Reservoir just got dumped with an over abundance of water. Yes, that’s in our neck of the woods and I’m telling you under the “Otay Mesa” heading because that’s the name of the reservoir, although it’s located in eastern Chula Vista. The reservoir is where locals come to hike, bike and fish. This week, however, Ry Rivard discovered that the Carlsbad desalination plant has come on-line, plus we continue to receive imported water from elsewhere. That means, we’ve suddenly got too much water and, guess what? We have to pay. Doug Porter covered this thoroughly yesterday.
- About fifty firearms were turned in to the Southern Division of the SDPD on Saturday at the Otay Mesa Southwestern College location in exchange for gift cards during a Gun Buy Back Operation.
Tijuana River Valley/Imperial Beach
National City
- The Mariachis are back! Mark your calendars for National City’s 4th annual Mariachi Festivalon March 13, 2016. It will take place in Pepper Park (3299 Tidelands Avenue). Students will compete and vendors will delight with food. See more about last year’s festivities.
- The 12th & D roundabout opened in National City on Thursday, February 4th. Roundabouts slow traffic, reduce carbon emissions and provide aesthetically pleasing streets.
- Mayor Ron Morrison also noted on his Facebook page that new bathrooms are under construction for Kimball & El Toyon Park. There’s also a new Skate Park being built.
Chula Vista Council Seats Up For Elections in June 2016
You may remember my feature on Jason Paguio back in July 2015. He’s now running for Chula Vista City Council, District 3. His newsletter this week announced he had outraised all of his opponents at $12,600.The campaigns for seats in District 3 and District 4 mark a historic moment for Chula Vista, which last year created four districts. Council members used to be elected at large. Now, only the Mayor will be elected at large. The Districting Commission held rather contentious meetings, with the eastern portion grappling over which district would get the future university. In the end, residents of the now-District 3 showed up at City Council chambers and made impressive arguments.
In June 2016 two new council members will replace Steve Miesen (who filled the spot left vacant when Mary Salas became Mayor) and Pamela Bensousson (who will be termed out).
So far candidates for District 3 include: Jason Paguio, Steve Padilla, Mark Gardener and Carmelita Larrabaster Vinson. District 4 candidates include: Rudy Ramirez, Eduardo Reyes, Michael Diaz and Emmanuel Soto. (More on each of the candidates as the election nears, but the UT carried a nice summary of what’s to come.)
- ECHO (Eastlake II Concerned Home Owners) continue to update community members about their HOA board problems on Facebook. The issue concerns the election of board members, which has been so contentious that this week an attorney needed to explain the new procedures. The upshot: elections will be postponed to a date as yet unknown. Walters Management then terminated the meeting and cancelled the board meeting which had been scheduled to follow. What is ECHO’s main beef? Current board members have spent more than $50,000 in attorney’s fees in less than six months. Previous boards spent less than $5,000 per year.
- The Chula Vista community based Crossroads II continues to report that Chula Vista is too “residential” heavy. That means, most residents must leave Chula Vista in order to go to work or to shop at retail stores. The good news: Crossroads linked to San Diego Business Journal, which says San Diego-based property owner Brixton Capital will convert a CV Target store into a multi-tenant retail building.
- Robert Moreno at the Chula Vista Star News reported that Councilman John McCann was cleared of any wrongdoing in an investigation stemming from an email sent by former McCann aide Derrick Roach. Roach apparently alleged that McCann assigned him “special projects” that included conducting political business while working on city time, a violation of state law.
- Chula Vista’s City Council maintained the current zoning laws that ban the cultivation of medical marijuana. National City had done the same on January 15th.
