Morning Report: Cities Furthest from Housing Goals
The cities furthest away from hitting their housing goals aren’t, as you might guess, those that fight the hardest against new housing. Instead, the cities furthest away from hitting their […] The post Morning Report: Cities Furthest from Housing Goals appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
EM - News Moderator 
The cities furthest away from hitting their housing goals aren’t, as you might guess, those that fight the hardest against new housing.
Instead, the cities furthest away from hitting their housing goals tend to have blue-collar roots, our Will Huntsberry found in a new analysis of housing data.
Imperial Beach — where newly-elected Supervisor Paloma Aguirre was mayor until very recently — is the furthest off the mark.
Only five cities countywide are on track to hit their marks.
Three of the five cities most off track are relatively small, densely-populated and have median incomes below other places in the county. But two stuck out for other reasons.
Escondido’s Mayor Dane White said that a voter approved initiative called Proposition S is holding his city back from building more housing. Proposition S makes it so that any amendment to the city’s land-use plan must be approved by citywide ballot. Developers don’t want to risk trying that, White said.
Solana Beach’s Mayor Lesa Heebner said her city is behind for another reason: County officials did a really bad job of distributing how many homes each city should produce.
How Much California Energy Companies Will Spend to Avoid a Death
There’s a strange and morbid calculation you might not have heard of called the “value of a statistical life.”
It is the amount of money that companies spend creating safety measures in order to avoid a single person’s death.
In California, that number has been quite high. Until recently, San Diego Gas & Electric had placed the value of preventing a single death at $100 million. That was out of line with other agencies that have placed the figure as low as $7.4 million
Here’s why it matters: This computation can affect your energy bill — and it can also affect how much money utility companies make.
If You Want Cops to Back Up County Crisis Teams, Pay Up, Official Says
A few months after El Cajon’s police chief directed officers to stop automatically responding to certain crisis calls, the City Council got a briefing on the policy shift.
Questions quickly turned to the county, which has raised concerns about what that has meant for county-contracted civilian teams that respond to crisis calls.
Among councilmembers’ questions: Why can’t the county pay for security or police officers who must respond to mental health crisis calls with county contractors?
Our Lisa Halverstadt provided a rundown of Tuesday night’s discussion, including comments from Heartland Fire & Rescue Chief Bent Koch on how his department is responding to the police department policy that also has ramifications for firefighters.
ICYMI: Halverstadt reported earlier this week on two incidents where fire crews felt forced to take steps that fall outside their usual duties, including one instance where a firefighter was injured.
North County Report: No More Sharing Homeless Resources
Our Tigist Layne has been tracking a growing trend among North County cities: They no longer want to share homelessness resources like shelters. They want their own, for their residents only.
Oceanside recently switched the operator of its homeless shelter for that very reason, Layne reports.
The San Diego Rescue Mission had been pushing Oceanside to make its facility more of a regional facility, but Oceanside didn’t like the idea of that arrangement.
Read the North County Report here.
In Other News
- Chula Vista Mayor John McCann announced the city is following San Diego’s lead, working with Caltrans to speed up clearing homeless encampments on the agency’s land. (KPBS)
- A teacher at St. Augustine High School, a private school near North Park, has been arrested on federal charges of distributing child porn. The school told ABC 10 it is cooperating with the FBI.
- If you aren’t the strongest swimmer and could see yourself getting swept up in a rip current maybe stay away from San Diego beaches this week. But, if you get caught, remember: swim parallel! (Union-Tribune)
- Officials at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park announced that a new Elephant habitat – the largest project the zoo has undertaken – that has been under construction since 2022 will open early 2026. (Union-Tribune)
The Morning Report was written by Will Huntsberry, Lisa Halverstadt and Tessa Balc. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.
The post Morning Report: Cities Furthest from Housing Goals appeared first on Voice of San Diego.
