Morning Report: A Safe Parking Lot’s Hours Explained
EM - News Moderator 
San Diego police began ticketing vehicles and RVs camping in Mission Bay, following the opening of a safe parking lot last year.
A lawsuit had previously prevented enforcement. Our City Hall reporter Mariana Martínez Barba has been writing about the lot, known as H Barracks, and ongoing legal disputes.
One Voice of San Diego podcast listener asked us why the hours of operation are limited to the night time—the lot is only open between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The question: “Why do safe parking lots require users to leave each morning? Why can’t they stay there, instead of having to look for a place each day?”
Martínez Barba learned the answer is two-fold: permitting and the program’s goals.
A permit for the program only allows the safe parking lot to operate during specific hours. And, according to a city spokesperson, the program is designed to only allow overnight use because the ultimate goal of H Barracks is to connect clients with services, employment and housing.
“Simply staying onsite 24/7 is not the goal of the program,” the spokesperson said.
Environment Report: For a Rainy Day
San Diego Community Power, the region’s government-run electricity buyer, has over half a billion dollars sitting in its reserve accounts, but the agency hasn’t used any of it to lower rates for customers.
The agency took over the business of buying and selling electricity from its competitor, San Diego Gas and Electric, or SDG&E. And like other government agencies, it has rainy-day funds for emergencies or to show good financial standing to crediting agencies. It can also use some of those funds to lower prices of electricity for its customers.
That would be in line with its bylaws, which aim to provide electricity that’s cheaper, or at least competitive to SDG&E’s prices. But so far, San Diego Community Power hasn’t used reserves to bring them down.
Why? The agency says it needs to hit its reserve target first. And they’re banking money in case they must help their customers pay-back its competitor, San Diego Gas and Electric, for energy deals SDG&E made.
Read the Environment Report here.
Chula Vista Condemns Immigration Deaths
Chula Vista on Monday became the first city in San Diego County to put its government on record condemning immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota.
The City Council voted 4-0 to condemn “certain immigration enforcement activities” in Minneapolis, where a recent surge of federal immigration officers resulted in the deaths of two American citizens.
Mayor John McCann was not present to vote on the resolution because he had been called to duty as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserves.
The council also voted to lower city flags to half staff for two weeks “in remembrance of lives lost due to federal immigration enforcement actions and in solidarity with communities nationwide seeking justice and reform.”
The vote drew heated debate from roughly two dozen public speakers, along with more than 50 online commenters. Among supporters were South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre, National City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez and representatives from local state legislators.
“You can’t arrest your way to safety and basic trust,” said Deputy Mayor Cesar Fernandez, who authored Monday’s resolution. “This resolution affirms Chula Vista’s values as a working-class, bi-national community.”
In Other News
- Correction: Last week’s North County Report incorrectly stated the years in which a developer filed a lawsuit against the city of Del Mar and the Del Mar City Council considered an appeal from that developer.
- The San Diego City Council on Monday approved a resolution to oppose “unnecessarily aggressive and excessive tactics” by federal immigration agents. The resolution also allows the City Attorney to join lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by Minnesota and Illinois on the city’s behalf. (San Diego City Council)
- Around $25 million in funds recovered from the prosecution of the A3 Charter Schools, a fraud scheme that took millions in public school money, will be used to support K-12 schools countywide. (KPBS) Related: We wrote a definitive account of the scandal in 2019. The scheme exposed loopholes in how the state funds schools and the auditing process all public schools undergo.
- New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that more than half of San Diego County renters’ households are cost-burdened and spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Tigist Layne. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
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