Morning Report: Another Embarrassing Court Ruling for City
EM - News Moderator 
Twice, in five years, the city of San Diego has put on the ballot a measure to lift the height limit in Midway. Twice, voters approved it. And, now twice, a state Court of Appeal has thrown it all out because the city didn’t properly or fully study its impact to the environment.
Friday the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the city’s attempt to fix what it did wrong the first time came up short.
I went through the ruling in this Politics Report (open to public).
The direct impacts: The 30-foot height limit is reinstated in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Planning Area.
The unknown impacts: What’s this mean for the project — Midway Rising — that promised a new arena and many higher-than-30-foot structures in Midway, including a new arena? The city did these ballot measures that the judges have now thrown out explicitly to facilitate Midway Rising and the similar project envisioned before it. Now that the height limit is law, and not changing anytime soon, surely the project is in trouble?
No, the development team behind Midway Rising is sending the message they can use other means to get permits for higher buildings. It’s unclear how.
The mayor didn’t want to commit.
“We are working with the City Attorney’s Office to evaluate this ruling and determine our next steps,” said Rachel Laing, the mayor’s spokesperson.
Why it matters: The area affected is bigger than Midway Rising in the Sports Arena land. Hundreds of owners of lots in the area could have considered much different development opportunities with the height limit no longer a consideration.
But Midway Rising is big just last month got a thumbs up from the Planning Commission. It is an estimated $3.9 billion project. If it somehow collapses, it would be yet another transformational project the city has been unable to successfully pull off because of its sloppy legal efforts.
— Scott Lewis
Cops Release Federal Task Force Participation List
The San Diego Police Department provided us a list of 13 federal task forces they’re a part of. They shared the list with Voice Friday afternoon following our story.
We had wanted to evaluate the impact of this: Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera will present an ordinance to City Council today that would bar local officers from participating on some federal task forces. The ordinance would prohibit local cops from participating in task forces that involve any kind of immigration enforcement, or other enforcement activity that investigates a protected personal characteristic, such as someone’s political affiliations.
An SDPD spokesperson provided a response to the article we published Friday morning.
“As the article was originally portrayed, SDPD did not provide comment because we did not want to get ahead of the discussion on the proposed ordinance at City Council,” said spokesperson Ashley Nicholes.
The list details 13 federal task forces SDPD was a part of including a fentanyl abatement strike team, narcotics task force, joint terrorism task force and more.
The Weird Story of the I-5 Closure
A quick timeline: The U.S. Marine Corps assured people Friday it was not going to close Interstate 5 Saturday for a demonstration and celebration of its 250th birthday that would feature live ammunition. Vice President J.D. Vance was attending.
But Gov. Gavin Newsom had objected, claiming it could be dangerous — especially if ordnance was launched over the freeway — but that his team didn’t know what was planned because of poor coordination with local agencies. The Marines called it “a live-fire Amphibious Capabilities Demonstration.”
Newsom and local authorities ended up closing I-5 for four hours. It’s not an insignificant decision — it surely disrupted thousands of people and businesses. It drew harsh backlash from the right that he was pulling a political stunt.
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said we should be celebrating the Marines.
“But Gavin Newsom – who never served a day in the military – is overruling the best-trained and most-experienced leaders of our Marine Corps and shutting down the main interstate highway in the San Diego region for no other reason than a spiteful publicity stunt and to ruin the occasion,” he wrote.
Then there was this, er, bombshell: “A 155-millimeter shell fired during a live-fire demonstration for the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Saturday prematurely detonated, dropping fragments of the shell on a California Highway Patrol vehicle and motorcycle that were part of Vice President JD Vance’s protective detail, according to a patrol report,” wrote The New York Times. Nobody was injured.
One Marine not celebrating: The deportation of a U.S. Marine’s parents from San Diego County raises questions around a Biden era policy that allowed for deference in family members’ immigration cases. A report by NBC San Diego shows the Trump administration “will no longer exempt” these categories of people.
Sacramento Report: Prop. 50 Amasses Starpower and Money
Proposition 50, the ballot measure trying to get Democrats more seats in the Congress, is raking in the money. Our Sacramento reporter, Nadia Lathan, reports that the “yes” side has raised $97 million to get voters to turn in their ballots for a special election.
Part of that boost is thanks in large part to the Democratic-led House Majority PAC, which has contributed $11 million. Currently, Democrats hold 43 of the state’s 52 congressional seats. They could scoop up to 48 seats with the newly proposed districts.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed Chula Vista Democratic Sen. Steve Padilla’s bill to regulate AI chatbots and the anxiety starts to set in for San Diego’s military service members and federal workers amid the federal government shutdown.
Read the Sacramento Report here.
Photo essay: How San Diegans Are Thinking About Prop. 50
Speaking of Proposition 50, Voice contributing photojournalist Zoë Meyers spent weeks exploring the communities that could be redistricted by the ballot measure. From ranches along the border to small mountain towns, she learned from residents how their priorities and perspectives in the upcoming election.
Check out the photo essay here.
Podcast: They Said What?
Our co-host and education reporter, Jakob McWhinney, digs into San Diego Unified School District’s enrollment decline, and how the district does not know or won’t say exactly how many students each school can fit.
CEO and editor-in-chief Scott Lewis also breaks down the latest change from the Registrar of Voters to make it easier to qualify ballot measures with signatures from registered voters. The change allows more wiggle room for misspelled names or abbreviated addresses.
North County Mayors Talk Housing
Want to learn more about how North County cities are navigating housing affordability and state housing mandates?
Join our North County Reporter, Tigist Layne, and local mayors from Oceanside, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Solana Beach and San Marcos this Thursday, Oct. 23 at Pacific Ridge School in Carlsbad for a conversation about housing affordability, state rules, and how cities are navigating it all. RSVP here.
Brews & News Live Podcast Is Back!
Bring a friend, have a pint and embrace your inner news nerd with Voice of San Diego.
Meet our team of journalists and get the inside scoop on the latest local investigations by joining CEO and Editor-in-Chief Scott Lewis, Managing Editor Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña, and Education Reporter Jakob McWhinney for this special recording.
While you’re there, you can enjoy our special 20th Anniversary beer, created by Three Punk Ales, and connect with journalists and public affairs enthusiasts alike.
Get your tickets before they sell out. See you there!
In Other News
- UC San Diego joins a number of schools to offer bachelor degrees in AI, reports the Union Tribune.
- A CalMatters investigation digs into “ghost networks” that California patients encounter when they try to set up appointments with medical experts. They discover the lists of in-network providers published by insurance companies are frequently inaccurate or outdated.
- A veteran San Diego police officer was forced to turn in her firearms and go on unpaid leave from the force after she was accused of stalking her ex-husband, reports ABC 10.
The Morning Report was written by Mariana Martínez Barba. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
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