South County Report: Democracy Is Dying? Not in National City 

There’s lots of talk these days about the death of democracy. 

In National City this week, a small but determined group of local residents showed it’s still possible for ordinary people to bring about political change. 

On Monday, dozens of residents, community leaders and environmental advocates packed City Hall to plead with city planning commissioners to block a proposed fuel depot that would have brought a steady stream of rail cars and big rig trucks to an industrial neighborhood already burdened by pollution. 

Commissioners listened and voted 4-1 to reject the depot. 

Representatives of Texas-based USD Clean Fuels argued that their proposal to build a 7.5-acre biofuels transfer station on vacant railroad property near Interstate 5 was an economic win for the city. 

They said the project would generate jobs, clean up a blighted area and actually lower overall pollution by making it possible to bring biologically derived fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to the San Diego area by rail instead of long-haul trucks. 

Planning Commissioners were unconvinced. They sided with residents, who said National City needs to break what they called a “cycle” of short-sighted development decisions that have filled the city with polluting industries and unpalatable businesses no other city would want. 

“National City is not a dumping ground,” said Planning Commissioner Randi Castle-Salgado. “We can’t stand for this anymore.” 

Castle-Salgado gave a vivid reason for her no vote. 

“I know all of you in here,” she said to audience members at the Planning Commission meeting. “And I would not want to…see you in the grocery store without having a good conscience and saying that I stood up for not only my child but everybody else’s child in here too.” 

In other words: Democracy may be dying. But in local politics, where politicians can’t redistrict themselves out of face-to-face accountability, there remain occasional signs of life. 

National City is a small, industrial, mostly lower-income city with a high proportion of foreign-born residents and persistent problems with crime. 

It also has a fierce sense of local pride, a strong sense of its own history, a dedicated group of community leaders (many of whom have never held elected office) and a robust level of political engagement. 

In the year I’ve covered South San Diego County, I have seen the National City Council chambers packed to overflowing far more often than in neighboring Chula Vista. 

Monday’s Planning Commission meeting was no exception. Company executives pitching the fuel depot were outnumbered and outargued. 

They had some supporters in the audience, a group of roughly a dozen unionized construction workers, who said they supported the project because the company had promised to hire only construction companies that use unionized labor. 

Their voices were drowned out by nearly two hours of public comments from residents opposed to the project. 

I happened to sit next to 54-year-old Carmen Arroyo, who said she lives minutes away from the proposed project site. She held a sign saying, “Neighbors Say NO to USDG.” 

I asked her why she had taken time out of her busy life (she cares for an ailing husband and works as a playground supervisor at a local elementary school) to attend the meeting. 

“My husband has a heart condition and I’m worried because my husband’s health is not good,” she said, toggling between English and Spanish. “They say the air won’t be bad, but I think it will be bad. It’s gasoline and the trucks will be 24 hours.” 

Organizers with the Environmental Health Coalition, a National City-based environmental group that has worked for years to reduce pollution in port-adjacent communities in San Diego County, had spent months educating residents about the project and rallying them to oppose it. 

The Coalition staged a small rally before the Planning Commission meeting at a park adjacent to City Hall. Speakers included a Catholic priest who formerly pastored a Spanish-speaking parish near the project site and the executive director of Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center, a local environmental nonprofit that runs a community garden and educational programs at a historic home in National City. 

Debate over the project likely will continue. A USD Clean Fuels spokesperson on Tuesday said the company is weighing whether to appeal the Planning Commission’s rejection to the City Council, which could overrule the commission and greenlight the project. 

Minutes after the Planning Commission meeting ended, Amy Castañeda, policy director for the Environmental Health Coalition, was speaking in Spanish to ebullient residents in a hallway outside the meeting chamber. 

She explained that the fight would not end until the City Council rendered its own verdict at an upcoming meeting. 

“We need even more people to attend the City Council meeting,” she said. “Bring your kids.” 

Related: There’s an active debate right now among California Democrats and environmentalists about how to engage with working-class (especially Latino) voters frustrated by California’s rising cost of living and lack of economic mobility. 

I’ve written about that debate. And I’m currently reporting another story about how the Sierra Club, one of California’s oldest and most storied environmental organizations, is making a serious effort to boost its profile and membership in South San Diego County. 

One question raised by Democrats’ debate is whether it’s still possible to rally working-class and Latino voters to environmental causes at a time when they’re more focused on finding work, paying bills and caring for their families. 

Environmentalists’ victory on Monday shows the answer to that question is yes. You just have to find the right issues. And you have to do the kind of grinding, face-to-face organizing opponents of the fuel depot did in advance of Monday’s meeting. 

Want to Learn How to Make San Diego Better?

Come to Politifest! Voice of San Diego’s annual public affairs forum takes place Saturday, Oct. 4 – with a new twist. 

We sensed San Diego residents are hungry for solutions to their region’s seemingly intractable problems. We’re staging what we’re calling a Solutions Showdown. Leaders and experts will debate concrete, workable solutions to problems ranging from the Tijuana sewage crisis, to homelessness, to those maddeningly high utility bills. 

Best of all: At the end of each session, you, the audience, gets to vote on the best solution. We’ll post winners on a leaderboard. Voila, San Diego’s problems solved! 

I’ll be hosting a panel on what to do for people who refuse treatment for mental illness and addiction. Please come! 

Click here for more information and tickets. 

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