Morning Report: San Marcos Is Crushing Its Housing Goals

Building housing in some North San Diego County cities is like pulling teeth.

Then there’s San Marcos. Not only is the city building a new downtown from scratch, it’s on track to meet almost all of its state-mandated housing targets – including for low- and moderate-income residents.

What’s the secret? Mayor Rebecca Jones, a Republican now running for County Supervisor, tells our Tigist Layne the city has succeeded with a combination of good planning and hard-nosed negotiating with developers.

While some cities gripe about state mandates and shoehorn high-density projects into low-rise neighborhoods, San Marcos embraced the need to build but made sure projects met the city’s standards.

“My job is to figure out how to get the best development possible,” Jones said.

Layne reports San Marcos’ approach is catching on. Oceanside recently negotiated with a developer to scale down the number of units and increase built-out public space in one development.

“There are definitely going to be some examples where cities are not doing the right thing,” Jones said. “But for the most part, cities do want to do the right thing.”

Read the full story here.

The Learning Curve: Free Child Care for All?

San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabiola Bagula wants America’s Finest City to live up to its name by offering free universal child care.

It’s an idea catching on in other U.S. cities, including New York and San Francisco.

It’s also expensive. How expensive? Two billion dollars expensive.

Nevertheless, Bagula is taking steps toward making the child care vision a reality. Our education reporter Jakob McWhinney reports Bagula in recent months has been talking to local political leaders, non-profits and childcare providers about how to implement – and pay for – a free citywide child care program.

“I’m going to need everyone in San Diego’s help to pull this off,” Bagula said.

Bagula said she’s eyeing underutilized school campuses as potential child care locations and talking to providers who can help get the ball rolling.

“I see it as an investment in San Diego,” Bagula said, citing high child care costs as one of the forces driving families out of San Diego and contributing to shrinking school enrollment. “I think it’s a beautiful way to invest in young families.” 

Also in the Learning Curve: The latest in San Diego Unified’s ongoing union battles.

Read the Learning Curve here. 

In Other News

• Correction, Correction: We need to correct a correction. (Ugh!) In yesterday’s Morning Report, we misstated the day of a San Diego Community College District meeting. The meeting to rename the Cesar Chavez campus will be Monday at 4 p.m. 

• At least one San Diego County police agency – El Cajon PD – is piloting new AI software that combs through investigative evidence to speed detectives’ work. Critics say the software poses privacy risks and isn’t always accurate. (Union-Tribune)

• San Diego Catholics, led by Bishop Michael Pham, gathered at downtown’s federal courthouse Wednesday to reaffirm their commitment to accompanying migrants to immigration court hearings following a new courthouse policy that classified observers’ activities as loitering. (KPBS)

• Oceanside leaders asked for additional planning materials, including construction plans and cost estimates, for a proposed police shooting range earmarked for the city’s fleet operations center on Oceanside Boulevard. (Union-Tribune)

• A produce quarantine in La Mesa due to Mexican fruit flies is disrupting food access and local nonprofits that serve food-insecure residents. (La Mesa Courier)  

• The owner of Bird’s Surf Shed on Morena Boulevard recently filed a $25,000 claim against the city of San Diego for lost income due to prolonged construction on the city’s Pure Water infrastructure project. “Christmas loss of sales was kind of like the final straw,” said owner “Bird” Huffman. “It’s been a tough couple of years.” (NBC San Diego)

• The San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians is calling for a halt to construction on the Hidden Valley Ranch housing development in Poway, because tribal leaders say they recently found human remains and evidence of a burial site at the project. (inewsource)

The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch. It was edited by Will Huntsberry. 

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