South County Report: Tackling Tough Problems – Or Not 

Local leaders tackled a series of tough problems in South County this week. 

At least, some did. 

Among those wrestling with stark challenges confronting the San Diego region, the National City Council stands out. 

National City leaders have starred in plenty of petty drama recently. They got serious at Tuesday evening’s Council meeting, voting on two proposals that crystalized a regionwide debate over how to boost economic opportunity without trampling on people in the path of progress. 

To Build or Not to Build? 

The first proposal was small but symbolic – a request to rezone part of a residential neighborhood to allow denser housing. 

The applicant for that project was a multi-generational family seeking to build a five-unit apartment complex for a young woman, her parents and two renters on land currently zoned for single-family housing. 

Neighbors objected that rezoning the area would add more cars to streets already plagued by traffic. One resident even sent photos of parked cars packed so tightly on a nearby street, they projected into an intersection. 

Councilmembers launched into a spirited but substantive debate. Mayor Ron Morrison said National City, once marred by over-densification, now needs to build more amid a housing shortage. 

Councilmembers Jose Rodriguez and Ditas Yamane agreed with the need for more housing. But they objected to a piecemeal approach. “We need to think this through clearly,” Rodriguez said. 

The need for housing won. Councilmembers voted 3-2 in favor of the rezoning request. 

“We have a housing crisis,” Councilmember Marcus Bush said. “The more units, the better.” 

Jobs Versus the Environment 

The next item on the Council’s agenda was even thornier. 

At issue was one of the most controversial proposals to come before the city this year. A Texas-based energy company proposed to build a biofuels depot that would transfer ethanol and other sustainable fuels from rail cars to tanker trucks for local delivery. 

The project would bring jobs and a small amount of revenue to the city. It also would bring increased rail traffic and more than 70 diesel-burning trucks per day to a neighborhood already breathing some of the worst air in San Diego County. 

The city’s Planning Commission rejected the project last month, saying National City was done being a dumping ground for polluting industries. The energy company appealed to the City Council in an effort to overturn the Planning Commission’s decision. 

Unionized construction workers spoke in favor of the project. Dozens of city residents and environmental activists spoke against it. They said no amount of money or jobs was worth residents’ health. 

It was a tough decision and councilmembers came to the meeting prepared. Rodriguez grilled company executives, forcing them to acknowledge they might sell the transfer station to a new, unvetted owner after building it. 

Councilmember Luz Molina, who represents the neighborhood surrounding the project, peppered executives with questions about diesel locomotive pollution. 

The Council appeared deadlocked until Bush ventured a compromise. What if the developer agreed to phase in zero-emissions trucks and locomotives powered by sustainable diesel, he asked? 

The energy company said they would consider the idea. The Council postponed a final vote to give city staff and company representatives time to consider Bush’s proposal. 

“It’s not a perfect project,” said Yamane. “We must make the best of it and compromise.” 

The Unanticipated Cost of Activism 

That same night, yet another South County leader dove head-first into a different but no less challenging issue. 

County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre met with anxious community gardeners, along with dozens of other South County residents, at a town hall meeting at the San Ysidro Public Library. 

The gardeners were there because they’d just received eviction notices from the agency that manages the Tijuana River Valley Community Garden, a 20-acre complex of individual garden plots and small-scale farming operations near the Tijuana River. 

Some of the gardeners blamed Aguirre, saying her efforts to raise awareness of sewage pollution in the river had spooked garden managers and prompted them to shut down the garden. 

Aguirre did not shy from the issue. She assured gardeners she was exploring ways to find new management for the garden and said she hoped air quality regulators could install sensors to warn gardeners when sewage emissions made the air unsafe. 

It was an artful pivot on an issue that, the day before, had appeared to catch Aguirre and her staff off guard. The gardeners seemed satisfied. 

“I’m happy she really heard us,” said Nanzi Muro, a community gardener who has been leading efforts to stop the evictions. “I’m really, really hopeful.” 

A Big Debate About…What? 

Given all the substantive South County issues addressed throughout the region Tuesday, it was jarring to tune into the Chula Vista City Council meeting that same evening and witness a very different kind of debate. 

I watched a livestream of the debate while sitting on the floor of the National City Council chamber until nearly 1 a.m. reporting on the biofuels issue. All seats in the National City chamber were taken and the crowd of mostly lower income, Spanish-speaking residents spilled into an overflow room. 

The Chula Vista Council chamber appeared equally full but with a very different crowd. 

The top brass of the San Diego County Democratic Party, including recently elected Chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy and a cross-section of Democratic elected officials and party activists, filled seats and schmoozed with each other. It was a polished, mostly well-heeled group. 

When the time came for public comment, the politicos and a mix of city residents paraded to the podium and lectured councilmembers for more than an hour not about any of the pressing problems facing Chula Vista or San Diego County, but about their outrage over recently slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. 

Specifically, they debated Republican Mayor John McCann’s recent adjournment of a previous City Council meeting in honor of Kirk. 

McCann’s Sept. 23 adjournment in Kirk’s memory lasted less than a minute. “Whether people supported or opposed his view, one thing is clear: No one’s beliefs or opinions should ever warrant an assassination,” McCann said in the tribute. “[Kirk’s] tragic death is a reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of treating one another with dignity.” 

In the middle of the tribute, three of the Council’s four Democrats – Carolina Chavez, Cesar Fernandez and Michael Inzunza – stood up and walked out. Only Councilmember Jose Preciado remained. 

According to a call to arms sent to party faithful following the meeting, the three Democratic councilmembers received thousands of “hostile messages…for the silent and dignified walk-out protest during Mayor John McCann’s effort to glorify and politicize the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” 

The party urged activists to turn out in force Tuesday to support the Democratic councilmembers and denounce McCann. They did. 

Debate ricocheted back and forth. Republicans showed up to counter the Democrats. At one point, after repeatedly urging councilmembers to respect free speech, Democrats heckled Republican Party Chair Paula Whitsell during her remarks. 

Inzunza and McCann got into a spat about whether the Council should extend the time allotted for public comment to accommodate all the speakers. One speaker lectured councilmembers about transparency while covering his face with a mask emblazoned with an American flag.

The most remarkable fact about the whole spectacle was that, if the three Democrats hadn’t walked out on McCann’s Sept. 23 tribute in the first place, few people would have heard it. 

By the time McCann delivered his remarks, the Council chamber was mostly empty. It’s a good bet most Chula Vista residents were not tuned into the livestream when the meeting ended at 9:40 p.m. 

The debate over the tribute, which consumed more than an hour of Tuesday’s meeting and has ricocheted around social media with breathless outrage, was over an issue that lived mostly online. Still, it rocketed to the top of the city’s political agenda. 

Is it any wonder San Diego’s problems remain so seemingly intractable? 

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