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How to Make Housing More Affordable in San Diego

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By Murtaza Baxamusa / SanDiegoUrbDeZine

There isn’t enough affordable housing being built in the city of San Diego. Lenders and banks aren’t lending as much, apartment owners aren’t caring, and builders aren’t building as much since it’s not as remunerative to build for income-constrained households.

This worsens the disconnect between the economics of the housing stock and the demographics of the families it’s meant to serve, as shown by a recent Harvard University study on apartments. In San Diego, less than 10 percent of the rental housing stock is affordable*. With new federal tax policies, things could get worse.

A home isn’t just a luxury that anyone can live without. It’s a social necessity. Yet cities and states don’t build housing, they plan for it and permit it, and then are dependent on private developers to build it at the rents or prices that yield them the highest returns. This is where inclusionary housing comes into play: By allowing the private sector to competitively perform at its optimal level within a uniform regulatory framework that achieves societal goals.   [Read more…]

Puerto Rico’s Power Authority to Be Privatized | Video Worth Watching

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Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló recently announced that he is taking steps to privatize the island’s Power Authority (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA). Anyone else thinking of Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine”? Petra Bartosiewicz has a piece in Harper’s Magazine detailing the situation leading up to the bankrupt condition of the agency and the current issues with which it must contend, and was recently interviewed on The Real News network. If Puerto Rico were a state rather a commonwealth, more opportunities would exist for dealing with the kinds of crises that the island is facing. But Vox’s Christina Thornell reminds us that the decision on statehood status for Puerto Rico is not up to the residents of Puerto Rico.   [Read more…]

To Protest Racist Comments and Policies, Walkout Planned for Trump’s Davos Speech

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By Julia Conley / Common Dreams

Several attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland are planning to walk out of President Donald Trump’s speech at the summit on Friday afternoon, in protest of his recent reported remarks about countries whose citizens he deems undesirable immigrants.

In an open letter, Business Leadership South Africa CEO Bonang Mohale denounced Trump’s alleged statement, confirmed by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, that more immigrants from “countries like Norway” should come to the U.S. instead of people from “shithole countries” such as Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations.

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Sen. Tammy Duckworth to Trump: I won’t be lectured by a draft dodger | Video Worth Watching

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Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel who lost both of her legs in the Iraq War, addresses the Senate regarding a recent tweet by Trump (Cadet Bonespurs) impugning the Democrats’ concern for the Military. This, despite Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) having introduced a resolution that would have secured pay for service members during a shutdown, and having the resolution blocked by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). As Shareblue notes, this is in contrast to how in 2013, President Barack Obama signed legislation that ensured military pay would continue, uninterrupted by that year’s shutdown — which was also engineered by Republicans in Congress.   [Read more…]

El Cajon Marks MLK Weekend by Busting People for Feeding Homeless Humans

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Nine people were busted at Wells Park in the city of El Cajon on Sunday for distributing food to homeless people. Those handing out food were arrested, given a misdemeanor citation with a date to appear in court and released. Nobody went to jail.

Activists calling themselves Break the Ban began Sunday food distribution after the City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance in October prohibiting the distribution of food on any city-owned property.

Homeless advocates have called the law a punitive attempt at dehumanizing and criminalizing people in unfortunate circumstances, largely the result of every increasing economic inequality.   [Read more…]

Readers Write: City of a San Diego Needs Dept of Public Health and Housing

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By John Stump

I am submitting a proposal, for the next appropriate ballot, on behalf of poor, homeless, and displaced San Diegans and their families. The proposal, in summary, would require that the City of San Diego annually budget for Public Health and Housing, as part of its regular and routine “Department” level budgeting. The proposal would require the addition of a “Public Health and Housing Department” to the regular city budget.   [Read more…]

D2 City Council Candidate Campbell Apologizes for ‘Fake Homeless’ Remarks Caught on Video

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Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your article in the San Diego Free Press.

My comments referenced were regrettable and off-the-cuff and I apologize. They do not reflect my values or my beliefs of what we must do to responsibly and effectively address homelessness. This is a multi-faceted, difficult issue and I must stay focused on the right paths forward. Our latest movement toward Housing First and Wrap Around Services through the work of the Regional Task Force on the Homeless must be held sacrosanct.

As a new candidate, I have learned that I need to choose my words more carefully. I vow to use this opportunity as a candidate to contribute to a better civic dialogue, focused on the right approaches.   [Read more…]

Does Trump Really Have a Nuclear Button On His Desk? | Video Worth Watching

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Of course not. That’s just another Trump absurdist tweetism. But does he have the ability to launch nuclear weapons? Ah, that’s another story. And here’s the story, courtesy of Vox’s Danush Parvaneh.   [Read more…]

Will San Diego’s ‘Fake Homeless’ Issue Be a Winner for a 2018 City Council Campaign?

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The weather has turned angry. It’s raining and blustery outside as I’m writing this. It’s a bad time to be a human living without a roof over their head.  

I’m also angry. I’ve just seen a video of a supposedly leading Democratic candidate for City Council who seems to think she can win by fanning the flames of hate towards our city’s homeless.

Here’s the money quote from District 2 candidate Dr. Jen Campbell, speaking to a group on Thursday, January 4:

“You see all those panhandlers on the corners? They’re probably not even homeless! They’re just pretending they are. They’re begging. Do they have a license? I doubt it. In the city they have to have a license. Is anyone checking that? No. We don’t have enough police!”

UPDATE: Dr. Campbell has issued a statement apologizing for her remarks. I’ve posted her remarks as a standalone story.   [Read more…]

Ticking Time Bomb at San Onofre Nuclear Plant

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The seaside nuclear reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente were permanently shut down in 2013 following steam generator malfunction. What to do with the 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive waste remains an epic problem, however, pitting concerned citizens against Southern California Edison, the California Coastal Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Edison operates San Onofre, the Coastal Commission is charged with protecting the coastline, and the NRC is responsible for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel and protecting the public.

The Problem
A reactor’s spent nuclear fuel must be stored safely for 250,000 years to allow the radioactivity to dissipate. San Onofre’s nuclear waste has been stored in containers 20 feet under water in cooling pools for at least five years, the standard procedure for on-site temporary storage. Long-term storage necessitates transfer to fortified dry-storage canisters for eventual transportation to a permanent national storage site which, under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, the federal government is under obligation to construct.   [Read more…]

Will You Spare a Few Seconds to Help Homeless People in San Diego?

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Editor Note: This Starting Line originally published on December 15, 2016 details the plight of homeless people and steps to solve the problem of homelessness as well as some thoughts on national issues.

Today I’m giving over most of my column to Women Occupy, who have crafted a petition to Mayor Kevin Faulconer to actually do something ‘not mean’ for our rapidly growing homeless population.

Yesterday I sat in on a meeting with homeless advocates and heard a litany of horror stories about how the growth of the population of unhoused humans in San Diego is directly related to policy decisions made at city hall. I’ll report more on what I learned at a later date.

Will this petition end homelessness? Nope. But it could well be –if enough people sign it and YOU tell your friends about it– a step in the right direction. Only in movies has a single action ever righted a wrong. Change occurs because of thousands of little actions. Make signing this petition your contribution to a better San Diego. It only takes a few seconds.

CLICK TO SIGN HERE

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Lennon and Ono – Happy Xmas (War Is Over) | Video Worth Watching

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On this third day of Christmas, here’s John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Christmas Classic: Happy Xmas (War Is Over). We can dream, can’t we? And we need dreams in order to make them real.   [Read more…]

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