The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board interviewed four candidates in the San Diego City Council District 3 race ahead of the March 3, 2020, primary election in which the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff election in November. Below is the transcript of our Oct. 16, 2019, interview with Toni Duran, who is running to succeed Chris Ward in a district that represents residents in Normal Heights, North Park, Old Town, Balboa Park, Golden Hill, Downtown and other communities. This interview was transcribed using the digital transcription service Temi and checked for accuracy by a staffer. To call any errors to our attention or to ask any questions about our interviews, please email matthew.hall@sduniontribune.com with the subject line “election interviews.”
Union-Tribune: All right, thanks for joining us. Toni tell us why run this year for Council?
Duran: So, my name is Toni Duran. I am a public servant at heart. I’ve volunteered as much of my time as I can, whether it be in St. Louis, where I grew up or here in San Diego. Whether it’s, you know, doing a community cleanup or a helping to serve seniors lunch downtown. But, uh, District 3 is not just, it’s not just where I work, it’s not just where I live, but it, it’s my home. I’ve made a home there. A lot of my friends are there. And then I’ve had the great privilege that for the past six years I’ve worked in the state assembly and Senate offices locally, under the leadership of Senator Toni Atkins.
And in that time I’ve been the representative for District 3. So I go to the community groups, the planning groups, the residents groups, town halls, uh, all of our, all of our street fairs. But I’ve made these connections. I’ve grown my relationship with folks in every neighborhood of District 3. And I’m the person that’s on the other end of the line when they call our office needing help, whether it’s something that we can do or something that another organization or another office can deal with... I’m the one that gets to help connect them. And that means a lot to me. And you know, right now residents... they’re frustrated and they’re scared. We have a, an affordable housing crisis.
“I just want to make sure that people see folks that look like them at City Hall.”
— Toni Duran
Q: You work for Senator Atkins, obviously. Um, a lot of the hot problems with housing can be traced back or have not been solved since she was a council member. And obviously she’s made some changes. Your office has made some changes in the last few years, but the problem still persists. Um, why hasn’t it gotten better and are the wrong levers being pulled? Is there too much focus on affordable housing rather than housing affordability?
Meet other candidates in the race below.
All four candidates from the San Diego City Council District 3 race met with The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board ahead of the 2020 primary election.
A: Just like you said, this is not a problem that that’s gone away. And we have some of the smartest folks working on this. They’ve been working on this for, for decades. Um, we’re not gonna end homelessness. We’re probably not gonna end our, our housing crisis, but we need to do better to get better, to come closer to making fixes, having solutions for folks. You know, we’ve got, uh, my friend Carolina in Normal Heights. See they have a home, they were able to buy a home early on when they first moved to San Diego, but she talks about how she worries if... Whether or not her kids are going to be able to afford a home in San Diego when they grow up. You know, these are not small problems and it’s gonna take, it’s gonna take a lot of years to, to get to where we need to be, but we need to keep at it and we need to keep going and not feel defeated. Just keep pressing forward.
Q: So you said there are a lot of smart people working on those. They’ve been working on it for years. So what is it that you would bring to the table that would, that would help? What kind of solutions would you have to offer? You think it needs to be done differently?
A: Well, part of it is, is my own personal experience because like I said, I’ve had that housing insecurity I had when I lived in St. Louis, I lived in two homes. I lived in my parents’ house and I lived in my apartment and I was in that apartment for 10 years before I moved to come to San Diego. Fast forward 2007, uh, I was in my early thirties and I had to start getting roommates, but that wasn’t something I was used to. So there are voices of people with the experience of this is what I’ve had to face, this is what housing insecurity looks like. This is what it feels like to know that you’re just one paycheck away from being out of a home and in your car or possibly just on the street. So that is something that I can bring to the table is that I’ve had those experiences. Um, I’m lucky now where I do have my own home. It’s a very tiny condo, very tiny studio in North Park. But I was lucky enough to have that opportunity and it’s our own personal experiences that help move that conversation forward.
Q: But again, what actual solutions do you see as ones that would work...
A: So right now we have uh, the Housing Federation, they’ve got a housing bond that they’re putting on the ballot in 2020 because a part of our job as, as public servants is to make sure that folks in the neighborhoods know what the housing bond is. What, what does that mean? What is it going to do for us and help get people to vote to support these measures. We need to have those conversations with our, with our neighbors about... You keep saying you want us to do something about our housing crisis, about homelessness, we’re bringing you ideas, we’re bringing you, um, real solutions. And it’s time for you to step back and say, okay, let’s move forward rather than trying to stop us from moving forward.
Q: But the idea that the real solutions is completely belied by history. In 2004 the Public Policy Institute of California put out a report on affordable housing programs that said they amount to lotteries that help a tiny fraction of people often at extreme costs and they don’t address the root problem, which is the lack of supply of housing. 15 years later, the problem is worse than ever and yet we see Democrats not doubling down, quadrupling down on affordable housing. And that once again only helps the lucky people who are in the housing lotteries. It doesn’t help for well more than 90% so if to call that a solution, to me it’s part of the problem because Democrats won’t take on the labor unions who add to costs of housing construction, whether their demands for PLAs [Project Labor Agreements], they won’t take all the environmentalists who have the CEQA law that provides greenmail opportunities and it makes cowards and so much more... So what did Democrats do to signify a message “we care,” they approve affordable housing programs that help on the margins. It’s a vicious circle. To me, until there’s a democratic Gorbachev who stands up to it’s party’s own interests and says, you are making this a problem for poor people in California. We never get anywhere. So why have faith in affordable housing when it helps on the margins and doesn’t help the great majority of people?
A: That’s it. That, that’s a good point you’re making. This is, this is something that we’re facing or that we’ve been facing for years. I don’t think it’s a us versus them. I think this is a us working together and that’s very important to me is to work together and not just sit on those party lines. We need to make those tough decisions and if it means relooking at it ... see what’s important. But if it means really looking at what it does and how we can, if there are any adjustments we can make to it to help the problems, then let’s, let’s do that.
“We need to ... look at things, say, okay, this is what our reality is. Let’s make it work.”
— Toni Duran
Q: On best practices... Sorry to everyone who’s heard me say the same things over and over again. In Japan they have dormitory style housing and it worked great in the 1980s and 1990s when they had a housing shortage and people get used to it quickly, you know, and the idea that we can’t have people need their independence, well people can cut half their rent off by sharing a bathroom and sharing the kitchen. They’re all for it in Japan and also in the United Kingdom, prefab housing, which is... much better than it used to be, is now capturing at least 14% of the market. You just build it and you drop it in there and it’s just so much easier. Yet here in California, I see no evidence of ... outside of a couple of cities in the Central Valley of this embrace of dormitory style housing. So it seems to me like if we follow the best practices, then there will be things that we’re doing but we’re not doing. So what do you, what do you say about the dormitory style housing thing or the idea that we need to start using shipping containers and prefab housing as a way to quickly add stock?
A: I’ve heard of of the, of both of these, the dormitory style, the boxes. What we need to do now we have to relook at how.. at housing. Growing up I thought I was going to have a house with a yard in the front and the back. The white picket fence... what is it? 2.5 kids. Our dreams and how we grew up in thinking isn’t always going to be our reality and we need to make adjustments along the way. Like I said, I’m, I’m now in my own studio. It’s a 422 square feet. I have neighbors a couple doors down, they have the same, the same unit and it’s two of them in there and it’s just... maybe that’s not what I always thought I was going to have, but I have a home and I’m reinvesting in my own community and I can walk everywhere I want to go. I can walk to the farmer’s market in Hillcrest. I can walk to the farmer’s market in North Park. I can walk to the grocery store, to different restaurants, but it’s a matter of we need to put a mirror in front of ourselves. Re look at things, say, okay, this is what our reality is. Let’s make it work.
Q: Scooters... a good thing or the devil?
A: Scooters? I’ve never heard of these things.... these scooters... sorry. That’s me trying to be funny. Now people are talking about scooters all the time. You know, we just showed up to work one day and here they were. They were everywhere. And part of that is, okay, what does this new thing, we start looking at it. Um, but also we look at this new thing and we need to, we as a city needed to make plans quicker and on how do we regulate the scooters? How do we regulate these companies? Um, you’ve got them laying all over the sidewalks because first, because there are so many. And then second, because I mean, we’ve got to be proactive ourselves, be better citizens and pick up after ourselves. You know, let’s think about that. We’ve got folks are that are in wheelchairs, that have their walkers, and here you’ve got scooters laying around or people that aren’t paying attention and they’re just, you know, having fun riding down the sidewalks, which we’re not supposed to be riding on the sidewalks. Also, people aren’t riding on the street where they’re supposed to because it’s a scary thing to do. So scooters... We need to, we were behind there. We should have come up with plans for that long ago. You can’t plan for what you don’t know, but once it’s there, you need to come up with solutions a lot quicker. Otherwise things just get away from you. Uh, they can be a really good thing. I know that there’s plenty of people that will use the scooter to, to hop around to different meetings downtown rather than driving a car. Uh, that’ll do the same if they wanna go from home, go down to the park. There are positive things about, about the scooters, but we also need to make sure that they’re environmentally friendly. You know, you, you hear people talk all the time, well you’ve got to have your trucks to... that are emitting with all their emissions and they’re picking up all these scooters and they’re dropping them. We’re going to drop them here. What if, when they’re breaking down, what do you do with them? Do you just throw them away? There’s so many things we need to look at. They can be a good thing and we just have to make sure that we follow through there.
Q: Short-term vacation rentals is another issue where the city reacted slowly and then didn’t react at all. It’s kind of where we’re at now. City attorney says they’re illegal. Do you think they’re illegal? Do you think there’s a use for them? And then how would you try to move the ball forward on that issue?
A: Personally, I feel that if you have your own home and you would like to rent out a room in your home or this is where you live, but you’re using it part time, um, just that room for someone to come and stay or someone to come and visit or for visitors to come around, I don’t think we should tell residents, you cannot use your personal home for that space. I also don’t think that we need to have all these people coming in and buying up our homes that um, a family wants to buy or a first time buyer wants to buy and only use them as their first, second, third source of income. Uh, my brother actually experienced this. He was trying to buy his first home and every time he found a place, somebody would come in with cash and buy out from under him and they would use it to, to rent out. That was their... that was a piece of their business, which I get it, you know, people need to make money, we need, we need to do that, but we also need to to make sure that our residents that want to buy a home, they want to invest in community, that they are able to do that. It almost happened to me when I was looking at my condo, that there was a guy that was there and I kept hearing them talk to the, to the realtor saying, um, I’m gonna move , I’m gonna buy this, but I’m gonna, I’m gonna rent it out. And that’s all I plan to do. This is going to be my source of income. And I looked at the realtor later and I said, I want this to be my home. So short term rentals, I know people use them. I know plenty of folks, you know, you go out of town and sometimes that’s the first thing you look at. Look at the Airbnb to see what you can get. But we need to be smart about it to make sure that it’s not taking over our housing market.
Q: Did your brother also give up on St. Louis for San Diego?
A: He... So I’m going to make this very long story short. I was born in East L.A., my mom met my stepdad. ... they moved to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is where they got married. Uh, we were there for a year. So my stepfather is a stainless steel salesman, Pittsburgh.... We stay there for a year and we moved to Seattle, Washington, Seattle, Washington is where my brother was born. We’re there for a year and a half. Seattle, Washington, St. Louis. So from nine to 32, I was in St. Louis, but when I was 22, they all got transferred to Plano, Texas. And I was not going to move to Plano, Texas. So I stayed in St. Louis . Two years after they moved to Plano, they got moved to Oceanside. That’s how my family got back to California. My brother went back to Texas to go to school, but he, he now he has a home with his partner. They bought a home in Encinitas, so he had a place in Mira Mesa. They bought this place in Encinitas. So, um, Heather and Russell, they’re living, living the good life. Uh, he’s got two daughters that’ll, that’ll come and visit and they’re thinking about having a family of their own since they have a home. But it took them a long time to find it. But it’s because of him that I’m actually in my home.
‘We need to be smart about it (Airbnb) to make sure that it’s not taking over our housing market.”
— Toni Duran
Q: I read in one of the forums that y’all are having, that yours was the only opening statement that included the police department.
A: Oh, that was the... so I know which one you’re talking about. That... Kendra from Uptown News who was writing about that... That was the Uptown Democratic Club.
Q: Is that true? And then what are your thoughts on the police department and the police chief who’s relatively new to the position?
A: Right. So the police department itself, these are the folks that are supposed to be taking care of us, looking out for us, making sure that we’re safe. We need to make sure that they are the best paid , the best paid in the region, that we’re not losing them. Once they go through training, we’re not losing them to other cities. Um, but it’s not lost to me also that we need to make sure that we’re repairing relationships with, with neighborhoods and folks that feel that they’re overpoliced. And I have friends that are police officers. I work with police officers and it’s hard because we still know that there is a bias. We all have some sort of bias whether we say it out loud or not, but it’s there and there’s a lot of repairing that needs to be done. Now. Chief Nisleit ... I’ve met him before. I know he, he’d worked with my boss for some time. He knew her I think from city council times possibly. But, um, we’re not, I don’t feel like we’re doing what we need to do to repair those relationships when you didn’t, we need to make sure that... that neighborhoods feel safe and they can call the police and they’re going to be taken care of. But also we need it ... again with their pay, with, uh, their pay and with pensions. We need to make sure that they can live in the neighborhoods where they’re policing. Because when you live in your neighborhood, you know those folks, you know the neighbors, they know you. And that’s how you build those relationships. That’s how you build trust.
Q: How would you do it.. they just got a got a 25% bump not too long ago, or are you talking more money? Or what solutions would you propose to restore trust in neighborhoods?
A: From what I understand, that 25%... it still isn’t enough. It’s still behind from Chula Vista. Carlsbad ... wherever you’re looking. Um, that is, uh, that’s a hard conversation because every day in the news we’re seeing how somebody else has been shot. There’s a, there was a woman that was shot and killed. Um, she was in her own home and a police officer was around the back and shot her through her own bedroom window.... But this is what people see and it’s not, and it’s not all of our police. And that’s the thing is so often we have this, this vision of that one bad apple... that means that’s what everybody is. And we need to rethink that ourselves. We need to see... Um, I know we have a like national night out to make sure that neighborhoods can come out and, and speak with with the police... fire. Uh, we have our, our neighborhood police groups that they come to community group meetings, they come to planning group meetings. Uh, it really is a matter of we need to have our officers out there more often and maybe out of their uniforms. Cause I know some people... that that scares them, that triggers them for who that’s, that’s like a bad word to say that when you’re saying talking about police, but if it has, if it makes them feel in such a way, so maybe we have some of these national nights out and, and other events where our police and our fire department, they’re out there and just regular clothes and you get to know them face to face. We’re people, you’re people. Let me go from there.
Q: Where are you on subpoena power for the citizens review board?
A: So I know our city attorney Mara Elliot and I know Council member Monica Montgomery. They’re both looking at these and Council member Montgomery. I just got to say, she’s kind of amazing. She...she is that council member that the community wanted her and the community needed her and just really made sure that they put her there and the community told her this is what we need. So yeah, if the community is saying this is what we need, we need to listen because they’re the ones being affected by, by all of this.
Q: What is the community telling you? What are their most important issues and what do they want to see or hear or have done?
A: Depends on the neighborhood you go to. If you’re in University Heights, you’re hearing about the education center there. Uh, what are we going to do with that building? Uh, I actually got to tour the building. I’d always heard about it, but I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie Silent Hill. It’s a kind of a creepy, scary movie ... it’s a video game. But going in that building I felt like I was getting Silent Hill cause it’s, it’s um, it’s definitely a little scary in there. There’s a lot of work to be done, so whether or not we can actually save that building, if we do, it’s going to take a lot of money. Like conversations in University Heights were around... This is a part of University Heights. This is, this is where our kids go to school. This is where we have our meetings and they’re talking about things like turning the area into housing for teachers, which is exactly what we need. The other more we’re talking about that with, with residents and like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Can you also give me a dog park? One of the gentlemen I talked to you, he says, you know, my son I’ve got, he’s got two sons in high school. He said they just want a place to play basketball, but there’s no place around to do that. It sometimes it’s little things that we’re, we’re, we’re thinking so much on a grand scale all the time. We forget about, I just want to go to the park. I just want to play basketball. Uh, when I’m in Normal Heights they’re talking about the dog park there... about, you know, this was supposed to be a temporary thing. Something about the wrong kind of bark was there, which is funny cause it’s a dog park. Uh, but it’s, it’s these, it’s these little things. People just want to know that they can enjoy their neighborhood. That uh, one gentleman I talked to. His name is Randall. He also lives in University Heights. Um, it was a hot day, so he answered the door. He was just in his shorts... an older gentleman. He was like, well let me put a shirt on, come on in. And he, and one of the first things he said what he said... two things that stuck out to me. I love the brush abatement that the city has done here in University Heights. Because people are afraid of fires. And there was just one in Talmadge. I mean, yes, that’s not in district three, but it used to be, but it’s our neighbor. And he said, I also want humane, thoughtful solutions for homelessness. Now you go to Mission Hills and depending on what neighborhood, what part of the Hill you’re at, they also want homelessness solutions, but they don’t want it in their neighborhood. Which those are hard conversations to have because every neighborhood needs to have these discussions. When you’re in Hillcrest, they’re talking about the businesses that up and down University. There are certain areas on University where if a business goes in, you cross your fingers that they’re going to stay. You know there’s, like I said, it just depends on what neighborhood you’re in, but really people are trying to look out for each other.
Q: More parking by El Zarape.
A: (Laughter) More delivery.
Q: Okay, so the 30th Street plan has a lot of the neighbors upset?
A: Yes.
Q: Where do you come down on that?
A: So I was actually at the North Park community planning group meeting where the board was making that decision on how they were going to vote. And you had your bike advocates and you had your residents. Sometimes that intermingled, sometimes it didn’t. I completely understand how bike advocates, they want to be able to bike safely. I get that. I’ve seen how people drive. I mean, I’ve seen how people drive when I’m just walking down the street. Once we’re in a car, we’re not always paying attention to what’s going on around us. So yeah, let’s... We need safer bike paths. Uh, removing 400, 420 parking spaces, uh, for businesses and residents. Maybe that’s not the best thing to do right now. I know it’s, we need to try to get away from our reliability on cars, which that opens up a whole other conversation, but people weren’t talking to residents. And these are people that have lived in North Park. They’ve lived along 30th Street or, or cross side streets from there for decades. They’re older folks. Some of them have disabilities. And when the conversation came up... well there’s a parking garage, you can just go there. Some people could do that, but there are folks that they’re not gonna be able to walk from the parking garage, however many blocks, half a mile to their home in the middle of the night with their groceries... whatever it is. We need better ideas for that. When people say, well, I don’t even see people riding bikes down the street. So why do we need a bike lane? And then you have folks who ride bikes with their children. They say, we don’t do it because it’s not safe. Safety is the number one issue in North Park. Both sides, residents and bike enthusiasts. We’re both talking about how they needed things to be safe. There aren’t... they’re talking about the same thing, but it affects each one of them differently. So the plan now I believe Council member Ward wrote it, wrote a letter to the mayor saying, well, I’m going to, I’m going to change my mind, change my view instead of taking out all the parking on section A, let’s do it where we have the parking, the bike lane and then the sidewalk. But that second section that that hits up into South Park... it’s still the only option there was to remove all the parking. Those are hard conversations to have because we have this climate action plan that we have to um, live up to. It’s very aggressive. It’s very, um, I don’t know how else to say it. It’s something we need to do. But as a city, we haven’t done everything we needed to to make sure that we aren’t so reliant on our cars. So we need to make sure that I know, uh, MTS is talking about... Councilmember Gomez is talking about how to work with MTS to make sure that we have more buses, more bus routes, that they go there more often, that they’re not shutting off too early in the evening and that they’re not stopping on the weekends. You know, we need to, there’s a lot that we’re not doing at the city level to do the other things that we’re supposed to be doing at the city level, it’s like we’re, we’re fighting ourselves.
Q: The multimodal transportation model that everybody talks about and that the state of California formally adopted years ago and nobody seems to know this emphasizes putting bike lanes in residential areas as opposed to business areas if at all possible because it’s just not as much of an inconvenience. So why not stick to the plan and have it two blocks away at Utah Street. Why do they have to pick 30th I just, as a matter of common sense, I don’t get why they picked the single most disruptive part of that community to disrupt or this is the single most to come to being disrupted. Why not just use Utah?
A: And I... and there were residents that at that meeting there were talking about the same thing. Why does it have to be on 30th street. I haven’t heard... well, people that are able to bike more often than that are able to bike to work, to their meetings, wherever they’re biking to. They say that it’s easier for them along that route because you don’t have all the stop signs. I’d rather hit some stop signs and be safer then maybe go a little faster. That’s just me. That’s my opinion. You know, I’m, I’m not a bike enthusiast. I... it, it is a little scary. There needs to be compromise. There are times we need to make a hard stand but there are times when we need to compromise and say, I’m not going to maybe get everything I want. You’re maybe not gonna get everything you want, but we could at least work together to move forward.
Q: So what would you have done or what would you do to bring about that compromise?
A: I want... I would definitely want to sit down with, with the groups that are advocating more for the bike lanes on 30th Street and find out why can’t we do it in the, in the residential. Why can’t we do it a block over, two blocks over? What can we do to help you get there so we can do that. It... I know I talk a lot about conversations we need to have and that open communication, but that’s, that’s a big part of it. It’s through that communication that we can make those decisions and move forward.
Q: But you sat in that meeting, you know, that some of those feelings are very strongly held. How would you be persuasive or what would you, you know, how would you get those sides to come to an agreement? Because it doesn’t sound like... You would think that if there was agreement to be had, if we would have reached a months ago,
A: Right. Uh, what is it they say that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. There were a lot of very loud voices there. Were you there? Did you see the tweets? What we have to remember is the people that are all at the loudest maybe are not the ones that have, I don’t want to say they don’t have the best interest of people cause I don’t think that’s true, but I know there’s a lot of other ideas out there. There were a couple of board members that said, you know, I was going to vote this particular way, but after listening to residents, after putting myself there, after really thinking about it, I agree we need to, we need to listen. In those conversations need to need to happen more we need to make sure that people are aware much earlier in the process that these things are coming down the road so we can make sure that we’re talking to both sides and we’re bringing them together.
Q: Do you think it’s possible that 18% of commuters in large parts of the city will use bicycles to get to work in 15 years as the city has somehow convinced itself is possible.
A: I honestly don’t know. I, it depends on what we do ahead of time. I know that... that percentage is much smaller in cities that bike a lot more so... I know we have lofty goals and sometimes you need to have those lofty goals to try to push to get there, but also know that maybe we’re not going to get there, but we are going to get further than if we had smaller goals.
Q: But the thing about goals is I’ve had this debate with people over and over again about homelessness. When they say you’re going to solve homelessness, how is that helpful? And so when you say you’re going to have an unrealistic goal, how was that helpful. It isn’t ultimately the idea to have achievable goals because then you can know whether you made real progress. Because if the city of San Diego, somehow did what no where else in American did and had 9% of bike riders, which is more than any city now has. That would be a fantastic accomplishment. Yet by our own metric, we would be a complete failure. We hadn’t got to halfway there. So that speaks to the principle of setting goals that are achievable because then you can have rational measures of progress... Setting a goal that can’t be met. How does that help?
A: Yeah, that’s a very good point. You’re, you’re right. You know, like I said, I, you know, I just talked about how yes, we set some lofty goals and sometimes we need to do that. But no, you’re completely right. If we, if we set [inaudible], if, yeah. If we set the lofty goals and we don’t hit them and we’re, we’re complacent not doing that. Yeah. Right. We, I, I know. Uh, so it was when Todd Gloria was the I-mayor [interim mayor], that’s when those climate action plan got put together. Nicole Capretz was up there. She got brought into to do that. That’s when I first met her. Uh, I was in Todd’s [interim mayor] office for like a hot second before I went to Toni’s office. Um, and Nicole is a beast. Like she rides her bike everywhere, you know, she is, she’s that person we all want to be. But I, I can’t ride a bike in a skirt. There are lofty goals and I think if it was up to her, she could get it there. The rest of us, I don’t know that we can. So Nicole Capretz has big ideas and I applaud her for it. She had, she has done so much and there’s so many cities that are, that are trying to fall, fall in suit. But sometimes reality slaps us in the face and we do everything we can to, to get back up and keep going and do better.
Q: What do you think of the goals in the homeless plan that the council’s kicking around this starting this week? Are those lofty, are those not lofty enough?
A: So I know they were just talking about like I think Monday in Council and honestly I only got to hear a little bit of that. Uh, I listen when I’m at work, but with all the calls that are coming in, you know... But it’s something that I’m, that I’m going to keep an eye on. Uh, I need to know more.
Q: Are you generally philosophically to approaches to homelessness? Housing First or bridge shelters or then there’s a third path, which is kind of where this plan settled on, which is both. So the plan is to have 500 shelter beds and then thousands... 2 or 3000 permanent housing um, units. Are those the right numbers in your opinion? Or does...
A: I don’t know if they’re the right numbers. I, I know people at City Council. They, they’ve been there a lot longer than I have because I’m not there. But they’re in these conversations there. I’ve had conversations with folks that are, that are working with, with, with the homeless and it’s so, I always hate saying the homeless because it’s the, it, it, it makes it so it’s a thing and they’re not people. These are people and they don’t want to be homeless. It was, it was one, one paycheck that they are away. It was, it was, you know, one job that they got closed down. It was, uh, some medical bills that they couldn’t pay... These are, these are people that came on hard times. It could happen to so many of us, but... It can’t be a one size fits all, cause we’re not all, we’re not all the same. There are folks that, that have health issues that had mental health issues that have um, alcohol and drug abuse issues that their path is going to be different from the family that, that lost their home. So yeah, we need to have more than one solution, more than one option.
“We need to have more than one [homelessness] solution, more than one option.”
— Toni Duran
Q: What do you think of conservatorship as an option to help the homelessness? I think it... Was Toni involved in that?
A: I honestly don’t know.
Q: The concept. Lorena [Gonzalez] said, well, I was told by the staff that Lorena and Toni both asked for San Diego to be included in the pilot program... San Diego County.
A: So chances are Sacramento was a big part of those conversations... Which sometimes the Sacramento conversation doesn’t trickle down to the, to the district [office] where we’re doing the constituent calls. Um, but that’s something I want to learn about, so I will probably get back to the office later. I’ll, I’ll find out, I’ll ask those questions.
Q: One of your specific proposals is these neighborhood leadership groups where you have two randomly chosen residents and a small business rep from each of the neighborhoods. Tell me a little more about that.
A: So that idea came out of 30th Street. So many residents were coming and saying, I didn’t know. I didn’t know this was happening. How come nobody told me? How come I didn’t know this? We have this thing where we tell people, this is how I’m available. You figure out how to get to me. We have community planning groups that are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night, depending on what neighborhood you’re in. Depending on if it’s a planning group, a residence group, a Town Hall... This is only when we do this. We have City Council. We only meet on a weekday. It’s either 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM or both. If you want to talk to us, you’ve got to come here. You’ve got to come downtown in the middle of the day. There are people that can’t do that. And I, and I’ve heard people try to fault others, say, I go to city council all the time. I make sure my, my voice is heard. That’s great for you, that you have that opportunity where you have a job that allows you to go to city council, that allows you to, to get to downtown. That is not everybody’s reality. Excuse me. That’s not everybody’s reality. And so these neighborhood leadership groups, it puts, I don’t want to say it’s a burden, but it puts it on us as city council members to say, I’m going to come to you when it’s convenient for you. So we get these groups, we invite people in... and it’s just random. We... cause we’ll have voter files. We say, this is what I want. I’m your council member. This is what I want to do. Do you want to be a part of this group? They say yes or no. But this also helps open up conversations with your neighbors. So we have these meetings we tell you... So we’re about to have these conversations about your neighborhood. This is what we’re going to do. We’re about to have conversations in this neighborhood, but it could affect you. This is what’s happening in our district, we have those conversations. We get that feedback. We make sure we have that before we make the decision as city council before we say, well we’ve, I mean, yeah, you’ve got two minutes to make your comments, but we’ve already made our decision. We open that up and like I said, it, it opens up to, so you’re talking to your neighbors again, you know, how often was it ... like parents and grandparents growing up, they knew who their neighbors were. They were talking to them. You know, you were having parties, you, I would go down to my grandparents neighbors a couple doors down and they would have spaghetti or mashed potatoes ready for me depending on what I was wanting that day. But we don’t talk to our neighbors anymore. So this helps do that. We’re talking to our neighbors with this person, that information, we’re getting that feedback and we’re actually doing for the people, not just trying to do what’s best for, for the government. That’s why we’re, that’s why we’re in city council. That’s, that’s why I want to be in city council. I always thought this is, this is your local, this is your everyday. This is what touches you every single day. This is... you’re going to literally help your neighbor. It’s about residents. It’s not about making sure that we get with me one on one in city hall.
Q: Yeah, it was the random selection that kind of caught my eye mostly. Has anyone done that before? [inaudible] I imagine going down a long list and people saying... no, sorry... can’t help.
A: It might be a lot to go... but you know what, going door to door. So we’ve been knocking doors for that for the last couple of months. People are not used to someone coming to their door and wanting to hear from them. We go to doors and we talk at them so many times. So we’re going, we’re knocking on the door. It’s like, this is who I am. A quick little bit about me. I’m here to find out because I go to these meetings, but I know not everybody can. So I want to find out from you... What’s the city doing right? What does the city need to do better for your neighborhood? What do you need here? What’s going to help you? What are these, what are the issues that you’re seeing? Because I know what I hear, but that’s from the same couple of people that are able to come to these meetings. I want to hear from more folks and that’s how I hear about basketball courts. Nobody’s talking about basketball courts with the planning commissions.
Q: One of the issues in your community specifically, uh, bounces up against the challenge of affordable housing is the parking. Uh, there was a time that you could actually park in North Park, University Heights and now these neighborhoods, 30th street... Kind of notorious for having no parking. So again, how do you balance the discussions you’re having when you’re going door to door with people when they say, yes, I want a place for my kids to live, but I also want to be able to have a parking spot.
A: We’re not solving it. It’s the transit. It’s the, um, the shared rides. It’s the thinking outside of the box. How do you, you get around. I mean, I’m not going to lie. I am completely reliant on my car. Uh, the work that I do, I need to be able to get around places really quick and I can’t, when I was in living in Normal Heights, I was on Holly. I would, uh, go to El Cajon to hop on the bus to come downtown. That’s when I was working with the mayor’s office. It would take me an hour to get from Normal Heights to downtown. That’s crazy. And if I missed that bus... I hope I don’t get in trouble for coming to work late because there’s not another bus coming anytime quick.
Q: So, does your studio have a parking lot?
A: I got very lucky... it does. There’s a, there’s an underground parking spot. Yeah. Uh, and it’s hard to have friends over sometimes because they say, I’m not coming over here. There’s no parking. Some of my friends live close though. So they...
Q: There’s parking at Vons...
A: No... the one close. The one closest to me is the, it’s the Smart and Final. Yeah.
Q: And you’re, uh, as you talk to constituents, are they talking about the surveillance cameras? Does that issue come up quite a bit? And what are your thoughts on this issue?
A: They’re not talking about it in my district. Sorry. I totally just cut you off... I’m like, I know exactly what you’re saying. No, they’re not talking about it in District Three, that conversation did come up at that same uptown planners meeting, I’m sorry, Uptown Democrat in Uptown Democratic club. It’s hard to say. That conversation came up and here we’re, we’re bringing in street lights because we need street lights. It gets dark out. There... you know, there have been different, um,, neighborhoods that I’ve gone to my friend’s houses or we’re walking down the street to go to uh, one of the restaurants or one of the bars for trivia night and it’s, it’s dark and you can’t see your feet in front of you. And with our, with our issues with sidewalks, that’s an easy trip and fall. So like, this is great. We have all these streetlights. How come nobody told anybody that there were cameras in them? You know, we, we talk about how big brother’s watching, but it’s, I mean it’s got... Yes, I mean every one of our phones is listening right now, that’s the thing that we know it’s, we’ve kind of sorta come to accept it. That’s just one of the things... But we don’t...we need actual people out there watching out for us. Not a camera that’s watching everything that we do. That’s, you know, our privacy has gone. We don’t need people... Cause I know the police have said that they wanted to access the, the camera footage for this that or the other... yeah, we talk about neighborhood security, but also the invasion of privacy is, is ridiculous. And that’s goes to the whole point of we have communities that are lower income that are people of color and they say this is surveillance. Why are you, why are you looking at us like that? I miss privacy. We still need to have....
Q: Do you support the moratorium then that some of the council members have... Chris, Monica and Georgette are asking for.
A: Yes. That shouldn’t have been able to, to be sneaked in without conversations happening.
Q: Do you think it was sneaked in... I mean the council voted on it. They should have read the contract, no? That’s what’s confusing to me.
A: I know from what I had heard, Council said, we didn’t even know that was there. So how do we not know that that’s there? Did we miss something? Did, did we not read something in a contract or was it omitted?
Q: Balboa Park?
A: Yes, I love it .
Q: It needs tons and tons and tons of work. How’s it going to get it?
A: So I know in the, in the state budget we were able to get $8 million, but that’s just for the um, the botanical building to help fix that. And then the federal government came in with another 260 grand or something like that to help with that also. And part of the money from, from the state was to go towards the cottages. It’s not enough. And it only addresses two little things. We have all these organizations and I still cannot get a list of all of the organizations are that are out there for Balboa Park. Um, I’ve talked to quite a few people cause I keep hearing of new new groups, new organizations. Um, everybody seems to be raising money, but where’s it, where’s it going to? Shouldn’t that be going towards helping the maintenance. But as a city, you know, this is our city park, this is our crown jewel. We as a city now need to also be finding ways to fix that infrastructure. Um, and not by bringing in and commercializing Balboa Park. That’s not the way to do it.
Q: How would you generate the money?
A: I honestly don’t know. We’ve... This is another thing we’ve been looking at for years. We need so much money as for so many different things in so many different places and it’s getting to the point we’re going to start leaving some citizens dry. You know, we, we have in March, that’s the convention center on the ballot ...in November... so this is all 2020.. in November, we have our housing bond. We also have the MTS bond. We have uh, what was it, San Diego Unified. They had a bond last go round. We keep grasping for pennies everywhere we can, but all those pennies keep adding up when it’s us citizens that are paying that out. So we need to make sure we’re getting our fair share from the, from the state, from the federal government. Census is coming up 2020. Uh, we need to make sure that residents know to do the census and not be afraid of it because that helps us get federal dollars in that’s owed to our city and our state. We just need to look everywhere we can to make sure that we’re taking advantage of every opportunity that we can.
Q: Would you oppose a bond for Balboa Park at this point?
A: I wouldn’t say that I oppose it. I don’t know when we would do it because I feel like the more bonds we have on the ballot... cause I mean our November... actually our March 2020 ballot is going to be huge. And the more things we have on our ballot asking for, we want this money from you.... The more we have on a, on a ballot, the more people are gonna want to say no. So we need to make sure we’re strategic and when we ask to do that,
Q: How are you going to vote on those three measures that you’ve mentioned? The housing bond, MTS and the convention center.
A: Housing bond, voting yes. That’s going to help veterans, families and folks that have been, um, that have been chronically homeless. MTS, yes. Councilmember Gomez is, she, it’s going to be hard to lose her from City Council. You know, she’s, made so many great strides and has had so many plans. Uh, but this is, she worked hard on that. You know, she really, she, she doesn’t do things halfway and she makes sure that she’s really doing her homework. Convention center... I have been supporting it. I have people that have come to me and said that there’s something missing in the language where it doesn’t say that money will go towards homelessness. It said that it might go. So I need to look further into that to make sure that what they are, what we’re being told, that this convention center expansion, that some of that money is going to, to help our homelessness crisis, to make sure that that actually is what’s happening.
Q: Thank you. Anything else?
Q: Real quick, what’s your position on the San Diego high school?
A: So I know that’s come up recently and there are, I’ve heard a lot of different things. So you have folks saying, you know, this is part of Balboa Park. We... this is Balboa Park land... that we’ve basically given away. But then you have also folks saying, where would we put a school? Where are we gonna do? Where are we gonna have these kids go? And we have the San Diego Unified that wants to help put money into it, but they don’t want to put money into it if it’s, if that’s just gonna be taken away. So, you know, these are, these are new conversations that I’m hearing.
Q: But how can the city council drive a hard bargain with San Diego State bon city property but not drive a hard bargain with San Diego Unified on city property. I’m amazed no one ever brings that up.
A: Yeah. We were having those conversations right now. That was, that would, that was coming up. What is today?
Q: Oh, there’s a council meeting, but nobody ever notices the parallels here. It’s city land yet on one case we’re willing to give it away on the other case we’re not...
A: Right. And I think... I think it speaks... and I think part of it is because those are our kids that are there.
Q: They made an explicit promise to build a new school and then they had 50 years to build the new school and then they didn’t so it doesn’t seem like it’s a good faith thing.
A: And this is another reason. This is another, uh, conversation about how the city just kind of lets things go. We’re just gonna we’re going to forget about the, if you, if you don’t look at it, if you don’t talk about it, if you don’t, uh, do anything with it, then maybe it’ll go away. We’ve, I hear this all the time. This is like the big phrase that everybody uses, but the whole kicking the can down the road, we need to stop. We need to stop doing that and we need to be proactive. Do what we’re supposed to deal. Make those hard decisions and move forward.
Q: And how would you, how would you vote on the lease? Would you vote to give the district the 99-year lease or would your vote not to...
A: At this at this point, without being in those conversations and knowing more about it... I wouldn’t be able to tell you I would go this way or that way. Uh, I know it’s a, it’s a concern with people that are, that, um, have organizations through at Balboa Park and we we’re talking about... this is our crown jewel.... this is... We keep trying to build up the park, but those are conversations I haven’t been a part of. So I need to be more educated.... It’s a school... Sorry. I do that. I try to make those little corny jokes, but no... it’s, it’s more, it’s more information I need that I don’t have.
“I’m a true reflection of this district. I had times where I didn’t know if I was going to be homeless myself.”
— Toni Duran
Q: Well, thank you for coming in. Uh, give us your 30-second final remarks.
A: My non-30 seconds. Okay. My name’s Toni Duran. It’s been great sitting here with you all and having big conversations. Um, like I said, I’m a, I’m a true reflection of this district. I had times where I didn’t know if I was going to be homeless myself. I was making sure that I was doing everything I could to keep a roof over my head... Selling fitness equipment at night, uh, at, uh, at Sears and then sleeping in my car for a couple hours before I was, uh, back on a phone calls overnight at Pro Flowers. Having a, a spreadsheet of when I worked at each job and then seeing where the blocks were to see if I could sleep, if I could eat or if I could shower. And those things didn’t always happen every day. But these are these the things that people in San Diego are facing and we need more of those voices and sit in, in city hall to remind us that this is about people. It’s about people that are struggling. It’s about people that want to work, they want to live here, they want to stay here, they want their kids to be here. And not everybody has those same experiences. You know, I’m not the candidate that’s gonna be able to put six figures into my own campaign. It’s just not, I am not that, uh, that person. I’m just a regular person wanting to do something bigger and better and be a part of conversations and solutions that do good for our city and our residents because it’s about people.
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