Abuse of Power by Elected Officials
In the March issue, I shared serious concerns from San Diegans about the abuse of power of our elected officials and that their constituents are “fed up” with being the victims.
As I expressed, we have a major dilemma on our hands. As taxpaying members of the City of San Diego and State of California, it should be obvious that the people currently in office have closed their eyes and ears to their constituents. Their actions prove they have no concept of cause and effect.
San Diegans are saying, “We are done with this abusive control and power trip of our elected officials, and we’re going to push back.”
In my entire life I have not experienced these levels of distrust and disrespect that San Diegans are expressing about these politicians, starting with the ones in Sacramento.
Reality is that our elected officials in Sacramento, Senator Toni Atkins, and the legislators, including Assemblyman Chris Ward, started this by making “density at all costs” their mantra and campaign.
And now, at the local level, we have the same happening at an even more extreme rate, which is driven by Mayor Gloria, who would gladly have all neighborhoods be demolished and redeveloped with 20-story high rises that resemble New York or Chicago, even worse, Miami.
At the same time, our elected officials (from Sacramento to San Diego) are doing everything they can to stop home ownership and create a culture that promotes landlord-controlled rents and living standards. Based on the perceived intentions, San Diego will be the largest corporate owned landlord city in the country, if they have their way.
In the issue, on page 3, an article refers to a lawsuit that was filed this past month to challenge the San Diego City Council’s recent approval of so-called “Sustainable Development Areas” (SDAs). According to the lawsuit, these new boundaries would incentivize construction of multi-unit backyard apartments on more than 4,600 additional acres in predominantly single-family neighborhoods.
As I mentioned in the March issue, recent research shows that in the past few years, speculators — big and small all over the country — have bought properties in lower-income, usually minority, neighborhoods, because they were cheap. They rent or leave them vacant and wait for the neighborhood to change and for prices to go up — or redevelop them.
With only minimal affordability and length of affordability requirements, this expansion is likely to lead to gentrification, displacement, and higher housing costs in these relatively affordable neighborhoods.
And we wonder why people are being displaced and there are more homeless on the streets?
Can there be a “cause and effect” taking place, thanks to our elected officials?
Add to that, crime is happening daily and there’s nothing that can be done to stop the offenders, including shoplifting and assaults on local businesses.
That’s because the folks in Sacramento, same as the above, don’t want to deal with the offenders, including those creating the fentanyl crisis. I am referring to drug dealers. Certain elected officials are concerned that dealers aren’t aware that they may be selling methamphetamines or cocaine containing fentanyl.
Fact is that fentanyl poisoning is now the leading cause of death for young adults in the United States. So, our elected officials in Sacramento are defending deadly drug dealers rather than protecting the victims of fentanyl poisoning and their grieving families. Drug dealers are winning this effort, and lives are being lost daily.
If we don’t get tough on crime, it will destroy families and communities. Look at San Francisco!
Back to the subject of housing, as San Diegans continue to push back against Mayor Todd Gloria’s effort to vastly increase housing density in our older, single-family neighborhoods, he offers no provision for desperately needed parks, libraries, schools, street and sidewalk repairs and upgrades, and other basic infrastructure.
As part of his so-called “Housing Action Plan 2.0” package of “reforms,” Mayor Gloria is now attempting to implement a state policy (SB10) that encourages developers and outside, for-profit investors to buy up single-family homes in residential zones and replace them with up to 10 units of rental housing. But the mayor has not offered a credible, comprehensive plan or funding mechanism to provide adequate infrastructure to handle this huge increase in density. In fact, the city of San Diego now has a $5.3 Billion infrastructure deficit, which continues to increase daily.
This statement is also worth repeating…for everyone who has been dealing with the mayor’s density driven agenda, let’s not mince words, this is a scraping of single-family neighborhoods for profit and at the expense of homeowners, future homeowners, and renters, with NO environmental impact reports, NO public review, NO parking, and NO common sense!
Category: feature, Government, Homeless, Housing, Local News, Real Estate, Transportation
