By Macy Meinhardt, Voice & Viewpoint Staff Writer
Mayor Todd Gloria presented his fourth State of the City speech Wednesday night, honing in on homeless shelter increases, fast-track housing permits, “sexy streets” and notably, a repeal of a prior criminal justice reform, Proposition 47.
To kick off the 37th annual address at Balboa Theatre, Gloria, who is up for re-election this year, highlighted the commitment of the 12,000 city employees who helped make his administration’s goals a reality. Spotlighted improvements included a 60% decrease in the homeless rates downtown, a 7.5% decrease in annual crime rates, a 50% increase in housing permit issuing, and 627 miles worth of street repairs around the city.
“When you value the work of your employees, you show it to them by compensating their wages and benefits,” Gloria said, in regards to restoring retirement security and expanding parental leave benefits for employees–critical for public service employee retention.
Homelessness
For homelessness, the 2023 point-in-time count registered an estimated 10,000 individuals, mostly concentrated in the City of San Diego. To combat this, Mayor Gloria announced that 2024 would oversee the largest homeless service initiative the city has ever seen. These plans include adding over 1,000 shelter beds on city land, known as the H-Barracks near the airport, and expanding the location of the old downtown central library on E street into a shelter.
In addition, Gloria also announced the launching of a city philanthropic campaign called “San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness” which allegedly already has a commitment of $250,000 from donors.
Affordable Housing
Recognizing that the key to solving homelessness is housing, a large part of the Democratic Mayor’s 38-minute speech went toward affordable housing.
Amid a severe housing shortage, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the city in 2023 hovered around $2,600, the Mayor lamented. To add more affordable options, a $63 million investment went towards the development of 1,337 low-cost housing, with 368 units reserved for homeless individuals.
Furthermore, to expedite the rate at which low-cost homes are built, Gloria touted an executive order he passed that reduced the time it takes to get affordable units built.
“What typically has taken up to 12 months to review, I am now ordering to be done in just 1 [month]” The expedited process yielded 8,000 new housing permits issued in the last year, a 50% increase from the 5,300 homes permitted in 2022.
Gloria emphasized the necessity of policy changes as San Diegans continue to “bear the brunt from decades of underbuilding, decades of housing production not keeping up with population growth, and from decades of politicians surrendering to the mistaken notion that new housing destroys communities.”
What is the city doing about street repair?
During his speech, Gloria also addressed the “massive infrastructure” deficit communities have borne, particularly along streets and sidewalks. To combat this, Gloria praised his offices’ “sexy street” initiative—dedicated to adding $40 million towards fixing heavily used thoroughfares in each district.
“However constrained the budget may be, we will continue to prioritize our limited resources to clear this backlog of deferred maintenance” the Mayor promised.
Meanwhile, not everyone in the audience was buying Gloria’s covenants, especially given today’s global political climate. Outside spectators held up a banner, denouncing Gloria for his homeless encampment sweeps and public safety funding.
In addition, halfway through his presentation, a group of Pro-Palestian protesters interrupted the Mayor mid-sentence, shouting out for a ceasefire and condemning genocide.
The event was live-streamed to the public, but only RSVP’d guests were allowed to attend in person. The identities of the protesters are unknown at this time.
Overturning Prop. 47
Another highlight of his address was his announcement to endorse the amendment of Proposition 47, which reclassified certain drug and retail theft crimes as misdemeanors. The original idea was to reduce costly state prison populations and divert low-level offenders into treatment programs. However, Gloria remarked, the state has increasingly seen criminals exploit these reforms “leading to organized networks and career thieves ransacking stores with little to no consequences”.
“We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent” Gloria expressed, in regards to stores having to counter thieves by locking products behind plexiglass.
In regards to fentanyl, Gloria also expressed his intent to strengthen and prioritize enforcement around illicit fentanyl and called on state legislators to act and pass his sponsored bills to hold dealers accountable—“Enough is enough” Gloria declared.
In addition, the Mayor also announced Wednesday night an agreement with the San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council on a citywide project labor agreement, which could potentially raise the cost of large projects via taxpayer dollars.
However, Gloria contended that the agreement will provide the city with highly skilled workers, and ensure projects get done on time and on budget.
Other items mentioned were the national search for a new Fire Chief as well as a Police Chief, and the naming of a street leading to Petco Park in honor of the late Peter Seidler, former Padres owner and dedicated advocate against homelessness.
All in all, the Mayor expressed his exuberant commitment to his effort to hold up the title of “America’s Finest City”.
“I have never had more faith in the ability of this city to reverse decades of neglect to take its rightful place to take its place as not just a fine city, but one of the greatest.”
“We will keep getting things done until the job is done. My fellow San Diegans thank you so much. I appreciate you being here tonight. May God bless you and may God bless our great City.”, Gloria said in his closing remarks.
