But Gloria says city is ‘fragile’ because of pandemic, financial problems that won’t end any time soon
New San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria plans to take bold steps on homelessness, climate change and social equity during his first year in office, but he says the city is in a “fragile” state because of the COVID-19 pandemic and financial problems.
Gloria used his State of the City address Wednesday to make San Diegans aware of the challenges they face and his plans to address them with what he described as more substantive and proven solutions than predecessor Kevin Faulconer.
The new mayor also laid out several other priorities, including law enforcement reform, shrinking the city’s digital divide, boosting housing affordability and providing aid to businesses and residents most affected by the pandemic.
Gloria also promised to transform the look of the city in many places, by creating new pedestrian promenades in downtown and Hillcrest, and helping guide “across the finish line” big projects like a Mission Valley river park, connecting the trolley to the airport and redeveloping the sports arena area.
On homelessness, Gloria is hiring former Obama administration expert Matthew Doherty to make sure San Diego is spending its resources on proven solutions that get people off the streets and help the city move toward ending the chronic problem.
The new mayor also plans to seek help from the county to shift the “first point of contact” for homeless people from police officers to mental health counselors.
“We need medical professionals out on our streets, in our canyons and on our beaches to provide on-the-spot assistance,” he said. “Let me be clear, we must change the status quo on homelessness.”
But Gloria conceded the problem can’t be quickly or easily solved.
“There are no shortcuts to ending homelessness,” he said. “Instead, it will take steadfast, unrelenting tenacity. We will stick to proven strategies and deliberately carry them out.”
On San Diego’s climate action plan, which he helped write seven years ago while serving as interim mayor, Gloria said the outdated document must be significantly revised because of what the city has learned since then.
“We will use these lessons to set aggressive new goals and implement strategies to achieve them,” he said. “We are going to have to take bold steps if we are going to meet our targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Gloria is also proposing a new “climate equity fund,” which will pay for environmentally friendly projects in historically underserved neighborhood to create jobs and boost health there.
That’s just one of the mayor’s proposals related to equity, which emerged as a high priority for the city last spring in the wake of racial justice protests.
He has launched a national search for the first director of the city’s new Office of Race and Equity.
“This office is positioned to ensure that everything we do at the city is viewed through the lens of equity,” Gloria said.
Law enforcement will be a key part of that, he said.
“Police Chief David Nisleit and I agree that to create and maintain trusting relationships, we need clear expectations and strict accountability for those we rely upon to serve our communities,” Gloria said. “Those expectations include ensuring SDPD is committed to a policing culture that seeks to improve community interactions through fairness, transparency, impartiality and giving a voice to the voiceless.”
Gloria also promised to help the City Council create a new commission focused on police misconduct that city voters approved in November.
Another of the mayor’s equity initiatives will be shrinking the city’s digital divide, which has left many low-income San Diegans without broadband internet at a time when more people are working from home on computers.
“Within my first six months, I will be expanding internet access at more recreation centers and increasing opportunities for San Diegans to check out items like computers and WiFi hotspots from our libraries,” Gloria said.
But solving San Diego’s inequities will cost money, and Gloria said the tourism-reliant city is facing major financial problems because of the pandemic.
“I’ve inherited a budget deficit that exceeds $150 million and will require difficult decisions to preserve neighborhood services,” said Gloria, declining to provide any details on the emergency budget cuts he is expected to propose this winter.
“This means that we are left with even fewer resources to fix our crumbling streets, city facilities and storm water systems,” he said, estimating the city has a $5.7 billion backlog of infrastructure projects.
“Honestly, the state of our city is fragile right now,” Gloria said. “But I have faith it won’t be for much longer. Together, I believe that we can and will solve the biggest problems of our time.”
The process won’t be quick because of the ongoing pandemic, which continues to set new records for cases and deaths, he said.
“It is tempting to roll back caution with the arrival of vaccines,” he said. “But the reality is that it’s going to be months before we can possibly let our guards down.”
Until then, Gloria said, the city will provide aid.
“Next month, we will bring a proposal to the City Council that will extend our eviction moratorium to keep families in their homes, help folks pay their back rents and stop small businesses from being evicted,” he said. “We must do everything we can to ensure that all that we love about San Diego is still here when we get through these awful days.”
Gloria, a Democrat, said he also will continue the focus on housing reforms launched by Faulconer, a Republican.
The new mayor said he will build on Faulconer’s efforts to update growth blueprints for neighborhoods and provide new incentives for construction of low-income and moderate-income housing.
But Gloria also criticized Faulconer for focusing too much on ribbon cuttings, news conferences and solutions that sounded good but didn’t really work.
“We need to move beyond talk and into action,” he said.
Instead of the usual practice of delivering the speech inside a crowded theater, Gloria spoke inside the mostly empty San Ysidro library branch because of the pandemic. The speech was shown live on the internet and the city’s public access channel.
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