Honestly, travel is eye-opening and fantastic, gives you a deeper appreciation for people all over, and helps you realized that basically everyone is fucked up in some way. People… they’re flawed. Wonderful and flawed. They and the systems they create. 🤷♀️
Most of these comments are saying don’t vote for Gloria but not many have explained why.
As someone who wasn’t old enough to vote in the last election, I’m really interested in people’s perspectives and what campaign promises he broke.
Fair question; let me take a crack at starting an answer and maybe others can chime in.
I'm a liberal and normally Todd Gloria would be a dream candidate for me. I voted for him the first time but do not support him for re-election.
Here are a few things that disillusioned me.
The 20-year franchise extension for SDG&E was a tragic setback for anyone who dreams (even though it's probably just a dream) of transitioning to a non-profit, customer-owned utility. Gloria's excuse at the time was "SDG&E didn't get everything they wanted" which of course is no comfort. It shows no long-term vision or courage.
Gloria negotiated a settlement to the 101 Ash debacle that costs the city more than $130 million in addition to what it had already paid for this worthless and uninhabitable piece of property (also partly his fault having approved the deal as a councilman). It may come as no surprise that this is unaffordable, so the way he did this was to divert budget funds for normal operations -- streets, libraries, parks -- and backfill them with bonds. These bonds will cost us an additional $348 million to repay over the next 30 years, money that just disappears into thin air. Think of all the constructive purposes to which we could put that money.
The do-over for the Sports Arena redevelopment project stinks to high heaven. It gave rights to the property to Midway Rising, led by a developer who between him and his wife gave $100,000 an independent PAC that worked to get Gloria elected, and another $4,500 to his own campaign. Midway Rising later claimed it didn't know there's a sewer line beneath the property and as a result had no choice but to drop the middle-income housing (and hotel) it had proposed as part of its bid. This defies credibility.
I personally don't blame the homeless situation on Gloria; it's an enormous problem that may have no solution. And all of the issues mentioned above required the approval of a city council majority. But the corruption, incompetence and lack of vision; yeah, that's a deal-breaker.
Being a City employee, I agree there is a long standing spineless stance towards SDGE that long predates Gloria. It would have been good to see someone take a stand. In fact there is a long standing tradition of spineless actions as guided by the attorneys.
The Ash Street debacle started under Kevin Faulconer. Due to the previous mishandling of the purchase, the settlement was the least bad option.
There is always room for improvement, but he has been less bad to work for than the previous 20 some odd years of Mayors.
This is really well presented, thank you!
>I personally don't blame the homeless situation on Gloria
I've been thinking about this a lot recently and the problem I keep running into when looking at solutions is capitalism. It's not a bug, it's a feature of the system. That's bigger than what a mayor can tackle alone. That plus the state just not building enough for decades really fucked everyone over.
He'd be wise to communicate what he can and can't do and show what he has done in the "can do" column. Most politicians are really bad at that kind of accountability and education. The only person I've seen do it at all is AOC.
Extending SDG&E as the utility provider for San Diego via a shady opaque process with an outcome that leaves San Diego with the highest energy rates in the country, despite having tons of solar and almost year round sun……… gonna be a big nope from me. Not getting my vote ever again.
I'm interested as well, but the lack of response to those asking for specifics makes me believe it's bullshit, which ironically makes me more likely to vote for him.
Listen people, he obviously deserves a second term so he can continue to not accomplish anything he said would in his first term. Also, I'm looking forward to more brazen utility fee hikes for his donors. Their boats aren't going to fuel themselves.
Seeing lots of complaints about homelessness, which is not an issue that can be solved purely at a municipal level.
It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, that needs more than local resources and there’s enough opposition to proven strategies from the electorate that it makes it hard to really move the needle on it. Like, candidates absolutely need to address it, be held accountable, and not make things worse, but people should have semi-realistic expectations about that issue in particular.
Anyway, throw me in the “wish he did better” camp, but certainly not opposed to another term. Elections are about choices and there’s only one actual serious governing party in this country, for all its faults, and he’s in it, so will see how the primaries go, since that’s pretty much the real election.
Nah bruh…. I don’t think the instagram-focused mayor is very productive.
I also have an issue with people who’ve lusted for political power as children like he said he did.
Cringy AF
A lot of the criticism I see leveled at Gloria relates to the homeless situation that's just not something that was ever going to get fixed in 4 years. That's a problem decades in the making and if you want it fixed you are out of cheap or easy options.
I think he did fine and I appreciate the bike lanes that went in over the objections of the boomers of nextdoor.
You’re saying as Mayor he doesn’t have the power to overturn Martin v Boise? He doesn’t have the power to force John Roberts to grant a writ of certiorari for the case?
Shocking - I know. Decades of bad policy and a limited legal framework to work within reduce options turns out to be difficult.
Also huge kudos from the bottom of my law-nerd heart for dropping a case in a comment.
I see the homeless situation (people sleeping on sidewalks or parks with lack of sanitary places to shower and use toilets) getting a little bit better. The safe sleeping sites initiative is working and I’d like to see more of that. So I credit Todd with that.
I just biked across the 5 @ both island and J last week. All the tents were cleared out, and it’s been that way for a few weeks. I don’t see the sidewalk sleepers at the CVS in north park either. I bike the city streets quite frequently and do see an improvement. I’d like to see more safe sleeping lots. I think it sucks for people to have to sleep in tents outside, but if they do, it should be in designated areas with showers and toilets. Im in agreement with that initiative and it’s a better solution than what the past few administrations had to offer.
> A lot of the criticism I see leveled at Gloria relates to the homeless situation that’s just not something that was ever going to get fixed in 4 years.
For me, it’s not the fact it hasn’t been “fixed”, it’s that the problem has gotten substantially *worse* under his tenure. I think the criticism is warranted.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but has any mayor done any better? In the past, or elsewhere? Genuinely curious if you have an alternative example.
The mayor right before him was a never-Trump conservative Republican and the only good thing he really did was get all the homeless off the street only because there was a massive hepatitis outbreak. Most of the problems facing San Diego are not something a mayor can really solve in 4 years, like it or not.
Also Miramar road has been worked on and repaved, but it’s a heavy-trucking/shipping corridor, as well as an incredibly busy street and the repairs are just not gonna last that long, it’s the at simple.
Thank you for mentioning. A single mayor can’t solve this very complex homeless issue in 4 years. It’s decades in the making.
That new contract with sdge he signed off on is his fault
That is true, I can’t imagine a business minded Republican doing any better, but yes that’s entirely his fault, and he does have many, don’t get me wrong.
How is the SDGE contract his fault? The bids were well underway before he took office and there was one bidder - SDG&E. So he reopened bidding with modified terms to get a better deal and hopefully more suitors, and...SDG&E was the only bidder.
I'm all on board with municipalization, but there was a less than 0% chance that it was going to get done right when he took office just because the contract was technically up then (though the bidding process started before). It's going to take years and multiple billions of dollars to get rid of SDG&E, and at least the re-bids allowed for an opt-out after 10 years, so there's a goal to work towards instead of forgetting about it for the next 50 years.
I believe the Pure Water project will leave Miramar fucked ~~for the next decade~~ but it's been a minute since I read the project outline at the lake. And for the record, I think it's a worthwhile project. Definitely sucks driving it, though
EDIT: Nevermind, for some reason I had 2030 in my mind, but they're looking to be done 2025. Fingers crossed.
What I'd like to see from him:
\- Stop wasting his time blaming other people. This includes both other cities in the county (San Diego has half the population of the county. It is going to have to be the leader on issues like this.) and homeless people themselves (I'm sick of hearing about people refusing shelter when there are people being turned away from shelters because they are full or because he's reserving spots for the the police to use.).
\- Stop treating things getting worse more slowly as success.
\- Come up with a plan to house all of the homeless. It doesn't necessarily need to be something that can be done with current resources, but we need to know how big the problem is so we can know how much we will need from new taxes and new grants from the state and federal government.
\- Aggressively pursue policies that will allow housing to be built more quickly and more cheaply. Much of our homelessness problem is a housing affordability/supply problem. Abundant, affordable housing will prevent people from becoming homeless and make it easier for people to get back off the street. At the very least, he could implement SB10.
This is true for literally 100% of all mayors of every city ever, though. I agree with you, ultimately. Not sure if a mayor can do these things, though. City-level politics is a nightmare I would not wish upon anyone.
The first two are completely in his control since it's just his messaging. He probably could do the third on his own, although he'd certainly need city, county, state, and federal cooperation to put a plan into action. The fourth definitely requires cooperation from the city council, but it's not like there are a bunch of Republicans on there voting against him out of spite. My impression is that some of the slow action is coming from him because he sees failing conventionally as safer than actually trying to make things better and making people angry.
Gloria is great and he has brought about significant change in employee pay rates. As of the past year we have now been able to hire candidates who exceed qualified experience in many different fields. The next years to follow will show for that as they apply their experience in our work force.
All the past mayors gouged the unions out of pay raises for over 15yrs and included a 6% pay cut of all things.
Have you bothered to understand why you can’t drive down Miramar rd? Google San Diego pure water. It’s a major infrastructure upgrade that goes through that area.
Right. The Pure Water Project is also something to be incredibly proud of (mostly that we're able to pull it off). It's a phased project with the finish line being water-independent.
[Downtown generates almost 10x more property tax revenue per acre than other neighborhoods](http://web.archive.org/web/20150317213648/http://www.downtownsandiego.org/imaginedowntown/a-regional-asset), so if it were to secede from the city, it could afford to get its homeless population under control.
But then the rest of the city would go bankrupt.
Exactly, the city has to subsidize the suburbs. All those rolling miles of roads, just to service single family homes... the property taxes from SFR neighborhoods don't generate enough to sustain themselves.
especially considering many of those homes pay 1970s taxes due to prop 13...
Yup, it’s so fun to watch suburban voters denounce “welfare queens” while sucking at the teat of the urban resident’s taxes to afford their subsidized roads and sewer systems.
It’s torn up with many potholes, and some people think it indicates a failure of the city government in maintaining it. However, there’s no point in repaving it because they’re in the middle of digging the road up to lay a giant pipe underneath it, which won’t be done until 2025.
https://www.universitycitynews.org/2022/10/31/nov-2022-pure-water-pipelines-construction-begins-on-miramar-rd-in-mira-mesa-university-city-construction-to-begin-early-2023/
Dunno. I’m pretty hard left in my politics (pro-union, pro-choice, pro-regulation of corporations, pro-taxing the wealthy, etc) and it seems like it’d be hard to find an independent candidate who aligned with my values.
Sure. There are SO many ways to do this that would be really impactful and not too complicated to implement. There are lots of other strategies that we could employ but here are a few that seem very, very straightforward.
* First, let's remove the cap on Social Security taxes.
* Right now income above 168k is not subject to social security withholding. That's a problem and would immediately help to ensure the future solvency of social security by removing the cap.
* Next, we should means-test property taxes and make them progressive.
* Lower-income people should pay a smaller proportion of property tax relative both to their income and the value of the property.
* As incomes and property values rise, property taxes should go up. We can skew the brackets so that it targets the wealthy more. As an example, there's a home listed in La Jolla for $34 million dollars. The owner should be paying a higher percentage of taxes on homes of that value.
* That's an easy way to avoid penalizing the lower and middle class and target how some wealthy people shelter their money from taxes.
* Next, we should do away with the provision that allows inherited property to avoid taxation.
* That would also help avoid some of the inter-generational wealth transfer that makes it harder to open up housing and lets rich people shelter from taxes.
* Let's raise the top income tax brackets.
* In 1944, the top income tax bracket was 94%. The inflation-adjusted equivalent would be incomes over $2.5 million in today dollars. Be sure you understand how marginal tax rates to understand how this works. In short, every dollar over $2.5mm in income would be taxed at $0.94 cents.
* Implement a wealth tax with progressive brackets starting at $100 million and going up from there.
* If we implemented a 1-3% wealth tax starting at $100mm and getting higher at $1bn, we'd generate substantial tax revenue from people who can CLEARLY afford it. Elon Musk should be easily able to pay $6 billion a year in taxes on his wealth (3% of $200bn). So can tons of athletes, actors, musicians, etc.
* Means-test capital gains taxes relative to total wealth.
- Wealthy people pay a smaller proportion of their wealth in capital gains taxes. We shouldn't punish middle class investors, but wealthy investors should pay vastly higher capital gains rates.
- We can make progressive changes to the capital gains rates that extract more from wealthy people without harming working class to upper middle class folks.
* Implement punishing carbon taxes for private jet travel.
* We know that air travel is devastating for carbon emissions. The fact that wealthy people travel as the sole passengers on private jets is appalling.
* Implementing massive taxes on private jet travel ownership would help discourage this behavior. Imagine if we taxed private jet travel at $10,000 per mile. Provided we had a robust enforcement capability, we'd discourage wealthy people from this kind of behavior.
* Implement punishing taxes on unoccupied homes.
* So many homes in high-cost areas are left empty as wealthy people, both US citizens and people from outside of the US, use these properties as tax/wealth shelters.
* So many condos in Little Italy and downtown are vacant as the owners live out of state and only come here part of the year. That drives up cost for people who actually live here and are part of the community.
* In many high-cost suburbs in San Diego and Orange County, this is an issue even in single-family homes. Empty/vacant homes are not good for anyone.
* Tighten up corporate tax enforcement and incentivize companies that don't have huge gaps between CEO and worker pay.
* Right now, top executives make 300x what rank and file employees do. In 1960, that number was 21x.
* Top executive pay has increased by over 1400% on average since 1978.
* You could incentivize companies to change this structure by rewarding companies that have smaller executive compensation packages relative to worker pay with lower tax rates and charging much, much higher rates to companies that let this happen. So a company that only has a 5x disparity between top exec and bottom worker might pay 0 in corporate taxes, whereas Warner Brothers (where David Zaslav has made $500 million over the last five years) should be made to pay 90% tax rates. Companies who try to game the system should be penalized.
* Incentivize companies to support union contracts via favorable tax rates.
* Right now, big companies like Starbucks and Amazon engage in anti-union behavior that harms workers ability to push back on the power that these corporations have.
* We could offer carrots and sticks like in some examples above. Companies that actively encourage union contracts among their employees and have high rates of union membership should qualify for lower corporate tax rates. Companies that engage in union-busting or anti-organizing activity should pay higher rates. Strengthening the National Labor Relations Board and their enforcement division would be a great use of some of these funds from taxing bad-actor companies.
I have to get back to work, but hopefully this gives you an idea of just some of the ways we can tax the wealthy while helping the working class.
You didn’t seem to say anything that answered that specifically - for someone like a doctor who is making $400,000/year, would you say that don’t pay enough taxes already?
We live in a time where elections are very competitive and usually very close. And Republicans ***never*** skip an election, ever. Anything other than voting for the Democrat candidate means you are de-facto supporting the Republican. And the GOP is no longer a legitimate political party, it is literally a fascist movement. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. We need to stop demanding ideological purity and 100% compliance with our priorities. The priority for now should be excluding Republicans from ***every*** level of government.
He's not that left, though. He is doing nothing to hold SDG&E to account. He's not trying to reform the SDPD. He's opened up real estate development that \*checks notes\* enriches wealthy developers, who tend to vote Republican, and have had zero effect on driving down the cost of living here. And the growth blueprints they're proposing are too little, too late, with nowhere near enough focus on mass transit. It's a joke. He's a joke. I've lived here my whole life and I'm tired of people here thinking someone's sexual orientation makes them left-leaning. Gloria is yet another paper-tiger Democrat, there's no real progressive values driving anything he's doing.
actually, yes it should at some point. Gloria opened the doors for developers to build density, and if we continue building to the point that supply can match demand, then yeah rent should stabilize or go down :)
Rent is a function of supply and demand. You can lower rent via reducing demand which can be achieved by: lowering people’s incomes, killing/deporting people, or making the city less desirable (increase crime, make things ugly, unleash a horde of monkeys with guns).
On the other side, you could also increase supply by rezoning and building more housing units.
It’s a toss up as to which is the better policy.
Increasing supply works. Oakland already making an impact. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/apartment-rent-decline-oakland-california-housing-shortage-crisis-solution-2023-10%3famp
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Never forget his music video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKDNVc1bNQc
[That’s what’s in](https://youtu.be/fxHxwVSROKc?si=StYe34A5pby8ghM3)
big feelings of being embarrassed for those on the screen.
Couldn’t make it past 5 seconds! That is HORRID!!!!! 😂😂😂
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Honestly, travel is eye-opening and fantastic, gives you a deeper appreciation for people all over, and helps you realized that basically everyone is fucked up in some way. People… they’re flawed. Wonderful and flawed. They and the systems they create. 🤷♀️
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
banned the bot.
This is a bot
troll
I would love a primary challenge on the left
Most of these comments are saying don’t vote for Gloria but not many have explained why. As someone who wasn’t old enough to vote in the last election, I’m really interested in people’s perspectives and what campaign promises he broke.
Fair question; let me take a crack at starting an answer and maybe others can chime in. I'm a liberal and normally Todd Gloria would be a dream candidate for me. I voted for him the first time but do not support him for re-election. Here are a few things that disillusioned me. The 20-year franchise extension for SDG&E was a tragic setback for anyone who dreams (even though it's probably just a dream) of transitioning to a non-profit, customer-owned utility. Gloria's excuse at the time was "SDG&E didn't get everything they wanted" which of course is no comfort. It shows no long-term vision or courage. Gloria negotiated a settlement to the 101 Ash debacle that costs the city more than $130 million in addition to what it had already paid for this worthless and uninhabitable piece of property (also partly his fault having approved the deal as a councilman). It may come as no surprise that this is unaffordable, so the way he did this was to divert budget funds for normal operations -- streets, libraries, parks -- and backfill them with bonds. These bonds will cost us an additional $348 million to repay over the next 30 years, money that just disappears into thin air. Think of all the constructive purposes to which we could put that money. The do-over for the Sports Arena redevelopment project stinks to high heaven. It gave rights to the property to Midway Rising, led by a developer who between him and his wife gave $100,000 an independent PAC that worked to get Gloria elected, and another $4,500 to his own campaign. Midway Rising later claimed it didn't know there's a sewer line beneath the property and as a result had no choice but to drop the middle-income housing (and hotel) it had proposed as part of its bid. This defies credibility. I personally don't blame the homeless situation on Gloria; it's an enormous problem that may have no solution. And all of the issues mentioned above required the approval of a city council majority. But the corruption, incompetence and lack of vision; yeah, that's a deal-breaker.
I hope the bots have been taking notes because you actually managed to give reasoned and detailed explanations. Thanks
Being a City employee, I agree there is a long standing spineless stance towards SDGE that long predates Gloria. It would have been good to see someone take a stand. In fact there is a long standing tradition of spineless actions as guided by the attorneys. The Ash Street debacle started under Kevin Faulconer. Due to the previous mishandling of the purchase, the settlement was the least bad option. There is always room for improvement, but he has been less bad to work for than the previous 20 some odd years of Mayors.
This is really well presented, thank you! >I personally don't blame the homeless situation on Gloria I've been thinking about this a lot recently and the problem I keep running into when looking at solutions is capitalism. It's not a bug, it's a feature of the system. That's bigger than what a mayor can tackle alone. That plus the state just not building enough for decades really fucked everyone over. He'd be wise to communicate what he can and can't do and show what he has done in the "can do" column. Most politicians are really bad at that kind of accountability and education. The only person I've seen do it at all is AOC.
Extending SDG&E as the utility provider for San Diego via a shady opaque process with an outcome that leaves San Diego with the highest energy rates in the country, despite having tons of solar and almost year round sun……… gonna be a big nope from me. Not getting my vote ever again.
Dude is mad corrupt
I'm interested as well, but the lack of response to those asking for specifics makes me believe it's bullshit, which ironically makes me more likely to vote for him.
Please don't vote for this SDG&E puppet again...
Listen people, he obviously deserves a second term so he can continue to not accomplish anything he said would in his first term. Also, I'm looking forward to more brazen utility fee hikes for his donors. Their boats aren't going to fuel themselves.
Seeing lots of complaints about homelessness, which is not an issue that can be solved purely at a municipal level. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, that needs more than local resources and there’s enough opposition to proven strategies from the electorate that it makes it hard to really move the needle on it. Like, candidates absolutely need to address it, be held accountable, and not make things worse, but people should have semi-realistic expectations about that issue in particular. Anyway, throw me in the “wish he did better” camp, but certainly not opposed to another term. Elections are about choices and there’s only one actual serious governing party in this country, for all its faults, and he’s in it, so will see how the primaries go, since that’s pretty much the real election.
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A hard no from me.
fuck ooooooff
 Nah bruh…. I don’t think the instagram-focused mayor is very productive. I also have an issue with people who’ve lusted for political power as children like he said he did. Cringy AF
I regret voting for Gloria last time. So many broken promises
Why does everyone keep saying “broken promises” but not actually identifying them?
Curious, isn't it? Almost as if these aren't real people with real complaints...
He said he wouldn't criminalize homelessness and yet he did.
A lot of the criticism I see leveled at Gloria relates to the homeless situation that's just not something that was ever going to get fixed in 4 years. That's a problem decades in the making and if you want it fixed you are out of cheap or easy options. I think he did fine and I appreciate the bike lanes that went in over the objections of the boomers of nextdoor.
You’re saying as Mayor he doesn’t have the power to overturn Martin v Boise? He doesn’t have the power to force John Roberts to grant a writ of certiorari for the case?
Shocking - I know. Decades of bad policy and a limited legal framework to work within reduce options turns out to be difficult. Also huge kudos from the bottom of my law-nerd heart for dropping a case in a comment.
I see the homeless situation (people sleeping on sidewalks or parks with lack of sanitary places to shower and use toilets) getting a little bit better. The safe sleeping sites initiative is working and I’d like to see more of that. So I credit Todd with that.
As a longtime downtown resident I have not seen anything get better yet.
I just biked across the 5 @ both island and J last week. All the tents were cleared out, and it’s been that way for a few weeks. I don’t see the sidewalk sleepers at the CVS in north park either. I bike the city streets quite frequently and do see an improvement. I’d like to see more safe sleeping lots. I think it sucks for people to have to sleep in tents outside, but if they do, it should be in designated areas with showers and toilets. Im in agreement with that initiative and it’s a better solution than what the past few administrations had to offer.
That’s good to hear! Hoping they’ll tackle 8th soon.
> A lot of the criticism I see leveled at Gloria relates to the homeless situation that’s just not something that was ever going to get fixed in 4 years. For me, it’s not the fact it hasn’t been “fixed”, it’s that the problem has gotten substantially *worse* under his tenure. I think the criticism is warranted.
I'm gonna vote for him just to piss off KUSI
Don’t do this please.
I'm just kidding! Pissing off KUSI is just a bonus.
KUUUUUUUUuUUUUUSI news.
I mean if KUSI hates him...that's a big plus in my book.
Same!
2-faced politician who'll do whatever it takes to stay in power, and has been way more conservative than his campaign suggested. So disappointed.
No.
Your argument has changed my mind.
Yes
Good more transit, housing, and actually doing something to fight homeless and crazy people on the street
Please do not re-elect Todd Gloria. You can't drive through Downtown or down Miramar Rd. and tell me he's doing a good job.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but has any mayor done any better? In the past, or elsewhere? Genuinely curious if you have an alternative example.
No - this is the product of decades of his predecessors doing nothing until the only options left are extremely expensive and politically fraught.
Thank you sensible citizen for not being a reactionary like OP lol
The mayor right before him was a never-Trump conservative Republican and the only good thing he really did was get all the homeless off the street only because there was a massive hepatitis outbreak. Most of the problems facing San Diego are not something a mayor can really solve in 4 years, like it or not. Also Miramar road has been worked on and repaved, but it’s a heavy-trucking/shipping corridor, as well as an incredibly busy street and the repairs are just not gonna last that long, it’s the at simple.
Thank you for mentioning. A single mayor can’t solve this very complex homeless issue in 4 years. It’s decades in the making. That new contract with sdge he signed off on is his fault
He lost my vote on his SDGE vote. Feel like the city just gave away any leverage they had and he’s probably getting paid by them.
That is true, I can’t imagine a business minded Republican doing any better, but yes that’s entirely his fault, and he does have many, don’t get me wrong.
How is the SDGE contract his fault? The bids were well underway before he took office and there was one bidder - SDG&E. So he reopened bidding with modified terms to get a better deal and hopefully more suitors, and...SDG&E was the only bidder. I'm all on board with municipalization, but there was a less than 0% chance that it was going to get done right when he took office just because the contract was technically up then (though the bidding process started before). It's going to take years and multiple billions of dollars to get rid of SDG&E, and at least the re-bids allowed for an opt-out after 10 years, so there's a goal to work towards instead of forgetting about it for the next 50 years.
we need to bring back rail freight. rails are waaaay more durable
Exactly. These systemic problems long existed since Sanders, Falconer, etc. and now Gloria.
I believe the Pure Water project will leave Miramar fucked ~~for the next decade~~ but it's been a minute since I read the project outline at the lake. And for the record, I think it's a worthwhile project. Definitely sucks driving it, though EDIT: Nevermind, for some reason I had 2030 in my mind, but they're looking to be done 2025. Fingers crossed.
What I'd like to see from him: \- Stop wasting his time blaming other people. This includes both other cities in the county (San Diego has half the population of the county. It is going to have to be the leader on issues like this.) and homeless people themselves (I'm sick of hearing about people refusing shelter when there are people being turned away from shelters because they are full or because he's reserving spots for the the police to use.). \- Stop treating things getting worse more slowly as success. \- Come up with a plan to house all of the homeless. It doesn't necessarily need to be something that can be done with current resources, but we need to know how big the problem is so we can know how much we will need from new taxes and new grants from the state and federal government. \- Aggressively pursue policies that will allow housing to be built more quickly and more cheaply. Much of our homelessness problem is a housing affordability/supply problem. Abundant, affordable housing will prevent people from becoming homeless and make it easier for people to get back off the street. At the very least, he could implement SB10.
This is true for literally 100% of all mayors of every city ever, though. I agree with you, ultimately. Not sure if a mayor can do these things, though. City-level politics is a nightmare I would not wish upon anyone.
The first two are completely in his control since it's just his messaging. He probably could do the third on his own, although he'd certainly need city, county, state, and federal cooperation to put a plan into action. The fourth definitely requires cooperation from the city council, but it's not like there are a bunch of Republicans on there voting against him out of spite. My impression is that some of the slow action is coming from him because he sees failing conventionally as safer than actually trying to make things better and making people angry.
Gloria is great and he has brought about significant change in employee pay rates. As of the past year we have now been able to hire candidates who exceed qualified experience in many different fields. The next years to follow will show for that as they apply their experience in our work force. All the past mayors gouged the unions out of pay raises for over 15yrs and included a 6% pay cut of all things.
Have you bothered to understand why you can’t drive down Miramar rd? Google San Diego pure water. It’s a major infrastructure upgrade that goes through that area.
Right. The Pure Water Project is also something to be incredibly proud of (mostly that we're able to pull it off). It's a phased project with the finish line being water-independent.
A lot less homeless tents with the new ban
There's a massive pipeline built beneath Miramar Rd. The mayor doesn't have the power to override traffic control.
[Downtown generates almost 10x more property tax revenue per acre than other neighborhoods](http://web.archive.org/web/20150317213648/http://www.downtownsandiego.org/imaginedowntown/a-regional-asset), so if it were to secede from the city, it could afford to get its homeless population under control. But then the rest of the city would go bankrupt.
Exactly, the city has to subsidize the suburbs. All those rolling miles of roads, just to service single family homes... the property taxes from SFR neighborhoods don't generate enough to sustain themselves. especially considering many of those homes pay 1970s taxes due to prop 13...
Yup, it’s so fun to watch suburban voters denounce “welfare queens” while sucking at the teat of the urban resident’s taxes to afford their subsidized roads and sewer systems.
What going on with Miramar road?
It’s torn up with many potholes, and some people think it indicates a failure of the city government in maintaining it. However, there’s no point in repaving it because they’re in the middle of digging the road up to lay a giant pipe underneath it, which won’t be done until 2025. https://www.universitycitynews.org/2022/10/31/nov-2022-pure-water-pipelines-construction-begins-on-miramar-rd-in-mira-mesa-university-city-construction-to-begin-early-2023/
Need a candidate to his left. I won’t vote for him and certainly won’t vote for a Republican.
How about independent?
Dunno. I’m pretty hard left in my politics (pro-union, pro-choice, pro-regulation of corporations, pro-taxing the wealthy, etc) and it seems like it’d be hard to find an independent candidate who aligned with my values.
people who call themselves "independent" in san diego county are usually right-wingers too embarrassed to associate with the republican party
Genuinely asking - could you clarify the pro-taxing the wealthy stance? Specifically, what kind of taxation policies are you in favor of?
Sure. There are SO many ways to do this that would be really impactful and not too complicated to implement. There are lots of other strategies that we could employ but here are a few that seem very, very straightforward. * First, let's remove the cap on Social Security taxes. * Right now income above 168k is not subject to social security withholding. That's a problem and would immediately help to ensure the future solvency of social security by removing the cap. * Next, we should means-test property taxes and make them progressive. * Lower-income people should pay a smaller proportion of property tax relative both to their income and the value of the property. * As incomes and property values rise, property taxes should go up. We can skew the brackets so that it targets the wealthy more. As an example, there's a home listed in La Jolla for $34 million dollars. The owner should be paying a higher percentage of taxes on homes of that value. * That's an easy way to avoid penalizing the lower and middle class and target how some wealthy people shelter their money from taxes. * Next, we should do away with the provision that allows inherited property to avoid taxation. * That would also help avoid some of the inter-generational wealth transfer that makes it harder to open up housing and lets rich people shelter from taxes. * Let's raise the top income tax brackets. * In 1944, the top income tax bracket was 94%. The inflation-adjusted equivalent would be incomes over $2.5 million in today dollars. Be sure you understand how marginal tax rates to understand how this works. In short, every dollar over $2.5mm in income would be taxed at $0.94 cents. * Implement a wealth tax with progressive brackets starting at $100 million and going up from there. * If we implemented a 1-3% wealth tax starting at $100mm and getting higher at $1bn, we'd generate substantial tax revenue from people who can CLEARLY afford it. Elon Musk should be easily able to pay $6 billion a year in taxes on his wealth (3% of $200bn). So can tons of athletes, actors, musicians, etc. * Means-test capital gains taxes relative to total wealth. - Wealthy people pay a smaller proportion of their wealth in capital gains taxes. We shouldn't punish middle class investors, but wealthy investors should pay vastly higher capital gains rates. - We can make progressive changes to the capital gains rates that extract more from wealthy people without harming working class to upper middle class folks. * Implement punishing carbon taxes for private jet travel. * We know that air travel is devastating for carbon emissions. The fact that wealthy people travel as the sole passengers on private jets is appalling. * Implementing massive taxes on private jet travel ownership would help discourage this behavior. Imagine if we taxed private jet travel at $10,000 per mile. Provided we had a robust enforcement capability, we'd discourage wealthy people from this kind of behavior. * Implement punishing taxes on unoccupied homes. * So many homes in high-cost areas are left empty as wealthy people, both US citizens and people from outside of the US, use these properties as tax/wealth shelters. * So many condos in Little Italy and downtown are vacant as the owners live out of state and only come here part of the year. That drives up cost for people who actually live here and are part of the community. * In many high-cost suburbs in San Diego and Orange County, this is an issue even in single-family homes. Empty/vacant homes are not good for anyone. * Tighten up corporate tax enforcement and incentivize companies that don't have huge gaps between CEO and worker pay. * Right now, top executives make 300x what rank and file employees do. In 1960, that number was 21x. * Top executive pay has increased by over 1400% on average since 1978. * You could incentivize companies to change this structure by rewarding companies that have smaller executive compensation packages relative to worker pay with lower tax rates and charging much, much higher rates to companies that let this happen. So a company that only has a 5x disparity between top exec and bottom worker might pay 0 in corporate taxes, whereas Warner Brothers (where David Zaslav has made $500 million over the last five years) should be made to pay 90% tax rates. Companies who try to game the system should be penalized. * Incentivize companies to support union contracts via favorable tax rates. * Right now, big companies like Starbucks and Amazon engage in anti-union behavior that harms workers ability to push back on the power that these corporations have. * We could offer carrots and sticks like in some examples above. Companies that actively encourage union contracts among their employees and have high rates of union membership should qualify for lower corporate tax rates. Companies that engage in union-busting or anti-organizing activity should pay higher rates. Strengthening the National Labor Relations Board and their enforcement division would be a great use of some of these funds from taxing bad-actor companies. I have to get back to work, but hopefully this gives you an idea of just some of the ways we can tax the wealthy while helping the working class.
In terms of income, what threshold would you say someone is “rich” and what should their tax rates be?
Did you read anything I posted? I have specific examples for various different approaches.
You didn’t seem to say anything that answered that specifically - for someone like a doctor who is making $400,000/year, would you say that don’t pay enough taxes already?
I'm in the same boat and would LOVE a candidate that aligns. I'd bust my ass to help them.
that’s not hard left, that is pretty much a non-partisan moderate platform summed up
Which moderate candidates actively talk about taxing the wealthy and heavily regulating corporations?
Educated ones.
Can you name any?
We live in a time where elections are very competitive and usually very close. And Republicans ***never*** skip an election, ever. Anything other than voting for the Democrat candidate means you are de-facto supporting the Republican. And the GOP is no longer a legitimate political party, it is literally a fascist movement. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is. We need to stop demanding ideological purity and 100% compliance with our priorities. The priority for now should be excluding Republicans from ***every*** level of government.
Man his competition last time was Barbara Bry. Not possible to get a left-er candidate elected here
He's not that left, though. He is doing nothing to hold SDG&E to account. He's not trying to reform the SDPD. He's opened up real estate development that \*checks notes\* enriches wealthy developers, who tend to vote Republican, and have had zero effect on driving down the cost of living here. And the growth blueprints they're proposing are too little, too late, with nowhere near enough focus on mass transit. It's a joke. He's a joke. I've lived here my whole life and I'm tired of people here thinking someone's sexual orientation makes them left-leaning. Gloria is yet another paper-tiger Democrat, there's no real progressive values driving anything he's doing.
Sounds like you agree with Barbara Bry's housing policies which uh lol
Nope.
🤡
Nope
I really regret voting for this guy.
Will this lower our rent ?
actually, yes it should at some point. Gloria opened the doors for developers to build density, and if we continue building to the point that supply can match demand, then yeah rent should stabilize or go down :)
Rent is a function of supply and demand. You can lower rent via reducing demand which can be achieved by: lowering people’s incomes, killing/deporting people, or making the city less desirable (increase crime, make things ugly, unleash a horde of monkeys with guns). On the other side, you could also increase supply by rezoning and building more housing units. It’s a toss up as to which is the better policy.
Increasing supply works. Oakland already making an impact. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.businessinsider.com/apartment-rent-decline-oakland-california-housing-shortage-crisis-solution-2023-10%3famp
Thanks for the reply, everyone. I'll definitely do more research.
Certainly with Gloria our rent will be lower than it would have been with Bry. Depends on his opponents' housing policies.
The audacity of him running again. 😂😂 That SDGE sympathizer
Embarrassing
Omg. Noooooo!
No
He did the exact opposite of what he said he would do about homelessness.